![]() ![]() ![]() John Marsden has never been an author who speaks down to his readers and he's never been one to treat his female characters like stereotypes, so it is unsurprising that this book has such an enormous impact. Meanwhile, Mandy, whom Tracey comes to rely on heavily (often referring to her as Manna, which is interesting given the biblical connotations of Manna,) has terrible family problems of her own, mostly to do with her violent and gun obsessed brother, Steve. Cleverly, Marsden does not reveal the specifics of Tracey's crime, leaving readers to put the pieces together and to guess what actually happened. Eventually, it is revealed that Tracey is in the a maximum security area of juvenile detention centre and that she will be behind bars for a very long time. The pair start corresponding, but soon it becomes obvious that Tracey is not being entirely truthful about her idyllic life. Set in an unnamed part of Australia back in the days before email, it opens with fifteen year old Mandy answering an ad that she saw in a magazine from Tracey, asking for a pen pal. Twenty-five years after Letters From the Inside was first published this YA novel still makes a huge impact with its haunting cliffhanger ending. ![]()
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