The Shadow Girl

 

The unnamed narrator escapes the dangerous imploding world of her parents and wider family in order to survive. Not wishing to be chewed up and spat out by the red light district she hides out in her local church, spends her weekends in the sand dunes on a Central Coast beach, andâ€"with the help of her aunt's credit cardâ€"has the occasional stay in a five-star hotel. Most of her time on the run, though, she spends on the trainsâ€"generally sleeping in the shunting yards. When the trains become too dangerous she manages to find a derelict house in a leafy suburb and moves in with the possums and resident ghosts, ready to prove once and for all that she can take care of herself.