Moral dilemma creates suspenseful, coming-of-age story.
Queensland author Ghis Gallo’s innate knowledge of outback Queensland and life on a cattle station provides the redolent backdrop to a suspenseful drama in her debut, coming of age novel, The JUMP released in April 2022.
For 17-year-olds Jamie and Melissa, growing up in a small outback community is the epitome of a simple life that revolves around friendships, fishing, and the annual cattle muster. That is until one fateful day, when the teenagers, witnessing the horrific death of a backpacker, dive headfirst into a moral dilemma interlaced with guilt, fear, and conflicting agendas.
According to Ms Gallo, The JUMP springs from a strong sense of place and the intrinsic familiarity of time spent camping, exploring, and seeking adventure on some of northern Queensland’s most remote cattle stations.
“The book is set in a landscape and lifestyle that I know intimately, which from first appearances may seem romantic, but have their own fair share of ‘warts and all’. It is a setting that inspired what I believe is a page turning story full of dramatic twists and turns and an inconvenient truth.
For characters Melissa and Jamie, their once carefree existence is destroyed simply through being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But it is how they and others respond that keeps readers searching for answers and enthralled to the very end, Ms Gallo said.
- Author: Ghis Gallo, 2022
- Title of the work: The Jump
- Publisher/distribution: Nightstand Press
- Release Date: 6 April 2022
- ISBN Number: 978-0-6452762-6-8
- Number of Pages: 236
- Format: eBook & Paperback
Ghis Gallo 