A.F Harrold (text) & Levi Pinfold (illustrator), The Worlds We Leave Behind, Bloomsbury Children’s Books, August 2022, 272 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781526623881
Although neither of them would have said it, they loved one another, like brothers.
Have you ever met an acorn that could change your life?
For Tommo and Hex, it isn’t as magical as it sounds. Best friends since birth—they’re inseparable. Hex is there when Tommo’s Mum leaves, and his Dad becomes unrecognisable; Tommo understands Hex, even when Hex doesn’t understand himself. Until one day there’s an accident in the woods, and everything changes.
Reminiscent of Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane, and Max Porter’s Grief is the Thing With Feathers, The Worlds We Leave Behind is an eerie look at the nature of friendship, betrayal, and the chaos of revenge.
The narrative follows each of the boys in the aftermath of the accident that shakes their friendship. Hex is humiliated and looking for revenge. He finds it in the form of a cottage in the woods—housing an old woman and her dog, who promises to snip his problems out of existence. What seems like a painless solution sparks a series of events no one can come back from.
Hex and Tommo are beautifully complex characters for their age:
Lying in bed he’d felt like two people: one who did stuff and one who watched, and neither of them understood the other.
The book seamlessly navigates their internal struggles at the same time as the bigger catastrophes around them. The language is poetic yet accessible, and the days of the week structure helps to build suspense.
Pinfold’s dark and mysterious illustrations complement the magical realism of the book, always arriving at the perfect moment. They invite readers to be drawn into the horror and magic of the seemingly ordinary.
Overall, an engaging and spine-tingling exploration of the insidiousness of shame, and the power of friendship.
Recommended for ages 11 years and up.
Reviewed by Sarah Stivens
