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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
In Tessa Kinsela’s An Unconscious Choice of Chaos, fourteen-year-old Ashley Kelly starts Year Nine certain that every small decision can set off a much bigger result. She trusts the routines of her Queensland home and expects Landon State High School to feel just as familiar. Then Tanner Vermont joins her history class, and all of a sudden, she has an exciting new connection that Ashley is eager to explore. Her friendship with Maddy soon begins to feel uncertain, and a devastating family loss changes how Ashley responds to everyone who loves her. Parties become a place to forget what hurts, and each impulsive decision carries Ashley further into reckless behavior. With her relationships shifting around her, Ashley must decide whether she can stop the chain of events she has started before one unconscious choice changes her life completely.
In An Unconscious Choice of Chaos, Tessa Kinsela makes Ashley such an easy character to understand, with her funny private logic appearing naturally in moments like when she lends Lacey the purple pillows while already planning how a spill might lead to new pillowcases. Kinsela is wonderful at showing family love through ordinary habits, such as Victoria waiting until Ashley reaches the house before assembling her tomato sandwich, so the bread stays fresh. Kinsela writes Ashley’s escalating behavior with painful realism, like when she snaps at Lacey over an innocent question and feels guilty almost before the words have left her mouth, and in quieter family moments, such as when Victoria calmly offers to arrange a doctor’s appointment after Ashley makes a genuinely difficult-to-swallow request. Readers who are looking for really thoughtful Australian coming of age fiction are in for a real treat. Very highly recommended.
