Budgie Smugglers (Urban Hunters) Paperback – July 25, 2012

It was a very different book, but it was enjoyable and fun to read. A friend recommended it to me.

(Note: I read volumes 4-8 at the same time, making it more difficult to review each individual entry. This review is more about the series as a whole than any individual piece, but the strengths of one are the strengths of all of them.)The Urban Hunters is a serialized story by author Gary Taaffe telling the story of an aborigine named Billy, who's on his walkabout as part of his becoming a man. I thoroughly enjoyed the first three books in the series, which mainly focused on Billy's time in the tribe and his early days in the city; this part of the story mainly focuses on Billy's attempts to survive in the city, which mainly means he's hunting wild animals in the park, meeting a few new people, and trying his best to explain the way he sees the world to them while they do their best to help him understand technology. It all sounds simple, but one of the joys of the Urban Hunters series is that simplicity. This isn't a tale about modern prejudice, or about the tragedy of modern life, or the simplicity of the aborigine lifestyle; it's simply about a boy and his adventures, and Taaffe never forgets that, finding the hook for his story in Billy's day-to-day activities. It's an odd way to tell a serialized story, given that that type of tale usually draws its power from hooking the reader with cliffhangers. Instead, Taaffe draws us in by making us care about the characters, be it through Billy's relationship with a homeless girl, his encounters with a group of orphaned children, or simply through wondering where each meal will come from. (Answer to the last question: usually from killing and cooking feral animals, ranging from rats to cats and beyond. As a content note, anyone who doesn't want fairly graphic descriptions of animals being killed and eaten might want to look elsewhere; that being said, this isn't presented as cruelty, but rather a hunter who hunts to survive, not for fun.) Each book in the series is nicely self-contained, building on the previous entries while still essentially telling it's own arc in Billy's life (for instance, his meeting with the man who owned his dogs, or his encounter with the aforementioned orphans, or the backstory of the young girl he meets); that being said, it's hard to separate the books from each other, especially when you read them back to back - it's evident that they're a single work, broken into sections. And while Urban Hunters may never feel like a high-stakes story, it's still an engaging, fun one, one that tells an interesting story about a character we like and immerses us in his unique worldview, and that's enough to make this a great read. Combine that with its insights into aborigine culture and you have a series that I'd highly recommend for all sorts of reasons.

I loved the glossary in this book. I know that sounds weird, but let me explain. The author, Gary, talks about how there's a "rule" in writing that you shouldn't use colloquialisms and you should change the spelling to suit whatever country you're selling it in. Gary says the heck with that because he thinks readers are smart - give them a glossary so they can learn and be entertained. I agree 100% (why didn't Harry Potter do this!). The Australian flavor of this book is immensely entertaining. As a non-Australian, it's pretty easy to follow the slang throughout the story after briefly reading through the glossary. (And even if you don't read the glossary, the important words are explained in the story so you won't be lost.)We get to see more of Billy and Amber's adventures in Budgie Smugglers. Billy is a boy from the Australian bush and Amber is a city girl that Billy meets. This book was just as laugh out loud funny as the first three books in this series. It was charming yet brutally honest and raw at the same time. The contrast between the two is so interesting. Like Billy talking about eating kangaroo pups and Amber being horrified by it. Then Billy explained it was to keep his grandfather fat so he can stay warm in the extreme conditions of living in the bush. See! They ate baby kangaroos and it's disturbing and cute at the same time. And there were just enough gross-out scenes to make you squeal. Billy roasting a cat in a straight-forward way made me squirm. It was awesome. No way would I ever want to see Billy cook something, but I love reading about it in all it's gory detailed glory. Billy slowly learning about girls and falling in love for the first time in his innocent way was just plain adorable. I can't get enough of these characters and their adventures.

This is hilarious. I loved how you could click on to a characters name and read who they,which I already knew having bought all the other books in the series. There are some new characters like Norm the park ranger who comes across Billy and Amber one day and befriends them. I could just see Norm eating what Billy had cooked for him and pretending to enjoy it. It was so funny. No good telling you about it as you must read and see for yourself. I had heard about budgie smugglers before when I was in Australia,at first i thought it was going to be about someone who smuggled budgies.lol. I was sorry when I turned the page and it had finished. I might read it again tomorrow. At the end of the book there is a great glossary about words the Australians use. Please read it you can learn a lot of about the Australians and their use of words

This is hilarious. I loved how you could click on to a characters name and read who they,which I already knew having bought all the other books in the series. There are some new characters like Norm the park ranger who comes across Billy and Amber one day and befriends them. I could just see Norm eating what Billy had cooked for him and pretending to enjoy it. It was so funny. No good telling you about it as you must read and see for yourself. I had heard about budgie smugglers before when I was in Australia,at first i thought it was going to be about someone who smuggled budgies.lol. I was sorry when I turned the page and it had finished. I might read it again tomorrow