The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta

The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta

5 stars
Thomas Mackee has been handed a rough life the last few years. He’s lost his uncle and watched his family slowly fall apart. Tom quit school, stopped playing music, and left behind everyone that mattered to him. Tom has hit rock bottom and his pregnant aunt comes in to pick up Tom and force him to get back on his feet. I’m not really sure how to describe The Piper’s Son. I loved it so much more than Jellicoe Road. This is probably blasphemous in the book community, but The Piper’s Son stole my heart. I haven’t read Saving Francesca and didn’t realize that it was a spin-off of sorts. As I got to know the workers of the Union pub, I realized how I definitely need to pick it up. Too bad I came to that conclusion in July and haven’t picked up a Marchetta book since. Oops! I love the alternating points of view in The Piper’s Son. Tom and his aunt Tara were brilliant characters with both equally heartbreaking stories. I enjoyed every minute of the ride. I’m a slow Marchetta reader, but while it took me forever to read Jellicoe Road because I didn’t love it to bits, my slow progression of The Piper’s Son was due to me not want it end.


The main male character is Tom. Tom is an ass. It’s that simple. I hated him with a passion at times, but I loved him as well. Tom is a complex character who had me laughing at his comments of internal dialogue and giggling at his external comebacks. I cried for Tom, too. Tom is a very broken character. He went from being a normal happy teenager to watching his family apart at the death of his beloved uncle. It was truly heartbreaking and I shed a few tears.


Swoon Worthy Scale: 8.5

The main female character is Georgie or Aunt Georgie. I really enjoyed Georgie’s story. Not only does she face the heartbreak and loss of a brother, but the destruction of her own marriage. She finds herself pregnant with her ex’s child. This creates quite a bit of tension between Georgie’s friends and herself. Georgie also must find a way to cope with the hurt her ex inflicted upon her. Georgie was my POV of the story. I’m not sure why, but something about her spoke to me and I sympathized greatly for her.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 9

The Villain- I’ve said this before in a previous review of a contemporary novel, contemporaries rarely have an actual villain. The real villains in most contemporaries are internal and must be faced with looking inside one ’s self. I think it's one of my favorite things about contemporaries, especially The Piper's Son.


Villain Scale: 8

There is such a large array of characters. Each and everyone stole my heart in some way. It was quite easy to feel a part of Tom’s family or a member of the Union bar. I loved that feeling. Not very many books can create that atmosphere for me, but Marchetta did. I loved all the characters. No matter how brief their role was.


Character Scale: 10

This book is truly beautiful. It’s not an intense read, but a read about forgiveness. That seemed to be the biggest role in The Piper’s Son. Tom and Georgie both had to forgive somebody. They both make amends differently, but they do forgive and the Mackees come together. This book made me happy cry for a good while. I truly enjoyed The Piper’s Son and I can’t recommend it enough.


Cover Thoughts: I don’t really the cover I had. It was just… unfitting. The black-and-white cover is my favorite and I wish I had read that one.

See, it’s perfect.



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