Book Club - Catherine Jinks’ Panic

Final Draft - Great Conversations

Catherine Jinks is the award winning author of more than forty books. Her new novel is Panic.

Katoomba’s a small community. There’s not a lot of places to hide when people know your name and Bronte’s gone viral in the worst possible way. Getting social media drunk and angry is never a good idea and now Bronte’s been doxed by her YouTube famous ex and she needs to get out of town, fast.

Fortunately the gig economy is full of jobs for people desperate enough to take them…

Caring for an elderly woman on a farm sounds like the perfect job; low-key, private and the farm is a health retreat. Bronte’s on the first train and ready to wait out her notoriety in the countryside around Bathurst. It should be idyllic, unfortunately what wasn’t in the brochure was a group of sovereign citizens attempting to disconnect from mainstream society.

Bronte isn’t sure whether to be worried or bemused, all she knows is she’s got nowhere else to go.

Catherine Jinks’ stories have a ripped from the headlines quality and Panic is no exception. The narrative captures a bitter melange of our modern insecurities and then throws our protagonist Bronte headfirst into them.

Bronte is eminently sympathetic. She’s likeable, but not saccharine and when we meet her she’s already throwing hands with the internet douches, so we know she’s got the right idea. Bronte’s also capable but not well resourced and so we must follow her as she’s buffeted by fate's ill winds.

That Bronte lands on the doorstep of a group of sovereign citizens is an increasingly more likely plot twist. Once the curious province of current affairs programs, we now know these groups exist, trying to escape their problems by denying the authority of the government they don’t feel like following anymore.

In Panic the group are a mix of the extreme and the sympathetic as they try through bluster and hubris to talk themselves into reality. Veda and Troy want to escape their debts and live off the land, but they can’t even get to town and back in an unregistered car.

Bronte’s dilemma is to be both caring and vulnerable. She’s stuck caring for Veda’s mum Nell. Nell has her own secrets and when her health takes a turn they threaten to spill out and ruin the whole show. Now Bronte must battle to stay out of danger as the sov cits raise the stakes and the police answer in kind.

Panic is a engaging thriller, filled with pacy writing and larger than life characters that will have you guessing. The setting and structure bring clever elements of horror to the tale, even as we dive deep into the procedural dilemmas of trying to emancipate yourself from local government and authority.

If you’re finding the headlines a little too real lately, then Panic might be just the escape to help you work through the issues in an entertainingly hyperreal way.

Loved this review?

You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read!

Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading!

Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/