Spellbound
Catherine Robertson
Black Swan, $36
Spellbound is the third in the Gabriel's Bay trilogy, with a helpful cast list at the beginning for those new to the series. The novel includes Robertson's characteristic humour and insight, and also the darker subject matter she's unafraid to embrace. Spellbound explores the use, misuse and impact of power, both political and personal.
At first the fight seems obvious: a battle to save the small town from a Tolkienian dragon, Elaine Pardew, a councillor from nearby town Hampton. She's determined to squash the planned Littleville tourist development in favour of a fancy aquarium, working hard behind the scenes to win over the wealthier residents of the area "who think the poor bring it on themselves and that brown-skinned folk should shut up or find somewhere else to live." Elaine is a terrific "scam artist", feeding 'people's worst instincts—greed, revenge, and FOMO."
Gabriel's Bay is rife with small mysteries. There's a naturalist recluse with possible Nazi connections and his feared Russian partner Oksana, "the kind of woman who'd faced down a Siberian tiger at a bus stop." Barrett Tahana keeps his te reo lessons—and his sexual identity — a secret. Even the trusted Dr Ashwin Ghadavi is a "champion worrier," an immigrant outsider, searching daily for clues that his partner is about to leave him.
But there are much darker secrets, and forces, in the town. There's bullying—"Beat others down to pump yourself up" — and abuse in many different forms: physical, psychological, emotional, verbal, and neglect. Even in an idyllic small town with only one police officer, the corruptions of the outside world threaten, from toxic Tinder responders to a misogynist teacher in thrall to the "twisted" Incel doctrine spread online.
Barrett's mate Travis "Tubs" Hanrahan, is the son of a "bigwig" local property developer and a woman who "liked to tidy a lot", for whom "every little disruption was a threat". Tubs' parents, he tells his friends, "have a traditional marriage. You know, honour and obey?" He's blind to the abuse going on at home, and his mother doesn't dare imagine an alternative to life as a glamorous accessory. But when he returns to Gabriel's Bay from his car sales job in the city, Tubs realises that family violence doesn't have to be physical, and that it can take place in the wealthiest of homes. (Jackie Clark of The Aunties was one of Robertson's consultants for this novel and the book ends with numbers for various sources of help.)
Spellbound manages to be a warm, funny book that also dares to cross social, racial, and political lines, exploring various forms of abuse of power. Patricia Weston, who fancies herself the town's Miss Marple, observes that families in town — as in the rest of New Zealand — "could conceal a mass of destructive secrets and lies."
In Gabriel's Bay, it's only "the small acts of kindness and love that keep the darkness at bay."
- Reviewed by Rosetta Allan
Rosetta Allan is the author of two bestselling historical novels, Purgatory and The Unreliable People. She lives in Auckland. A longer version of this review appears on anzliterature.com