“Set in 1980s Newfoundland, The Agony of Bun O’Keefe is the story of a 14-year-old girl who runs away to the city and is taken in by a street musician who lives with an eclectic cast of characters: a pot smoking dishwasher with culinary dreams; a drag queen with a tragic past; a Catholic school girl desperately trying to reinvent herself; and a man who Bun is told to avoid at all cost.”

Bun is fourteen and it’s 1986. She has lived almost her entire life in a junk filled house with her hoarder mother. Bun is kicked out of her home with no money and nowhere to go. She finds a place to stay with a motley group of twenty-somethings. Now maybe she can finally learn how to find her own way in life.

The Agony of Bun O’Keefe is a well written and interesting read. Smith has a unique style and Bun is a quirky and interesting character. All the characters are real and engaging.

The plot is fascinating. Bun deals with love, loss, numbness all while trying to find her way in life. She has some interesting coping mechanisms, which you will read about in this story.

Smith deals with difficult subjects like abuse, AIDs, and prostitution in an appropriate way. The ultimate message here is about how to deal with real family and what it means to choose your own family. This leaves you feeling a little sad, yet uplifted at the same time.

I think that this book will be enjoyed by teens and adults alike. The Agony of Bun O’Keefe is a fresh and fascinating story. I’m sure that you will enjoy it as much as I have.

Thank you very much for allowing me to read this title; I am trying to read as widely as possible ahead of the Carnegie/Greenaway nominations and awards for 2018 and your help is much appreciated.
As a Carnegie/Greenaway judge, I'm not allowed to comment about my opinions on specific titles so I can't offer an individual review on any title as I stated on my profile.

The Agony of Bun O’Keefe is so much more than I thought it would be. And don’t get me wrong, I hoped that it would be pretty good from the moment I picked it up but what I didn’t expect was the vast amount of issues that this book tackles.
From the get go I realised that it would be quite a diverse read because I knew that it involved a 14-year-old runaway in 1980s Canada who moves in with a busker and a drag queen, amongst others. However, I was quite weary of the portrayal that these characters would get due to the time period that this book is set in. I am the kind of reader who would rather get the truth than a “protective bubble” book. And it’s exactly what I got- in the most beautiful way possible.
Heather Smith definitely made the right choice by telling this story from Bun’s perspective. Not only is she a very intelligent and imaginative character, but she is also very straight forward and tends to take things very literally. Which leads to some very heavy topics being dealt with really well! There is no avoiding of subjects, questions are answered properly and most of the time all that needs to be said is said. It’s not just Bun who says exactly what is on her mind, but all the characters surrounding her need to be straight forward if they want to be understood by her.
As an adult reader I was truly moved by Bun’s story and the circumstances through which each of the characters ended up in the house where they all live. Bun was a neglected child and leaving her house, even though it wasn’t a thought through decision, was the right move for Bun. I was happy to overlook the fact that a child in such a situation could have easily ended up in the wrong hands, as many people would want to take advantage of her because I adored the cast of characters. Apart from the Dragon Man, that is. He proved that nowhere is entirely safe and how easy it is to manipulate children and victims in general. It was also very important that the author decided to show how hard it is to escape such situations, for children and adults alike. “He moved his hand from Wonder Woman’s blue and white-starred bottoms to her eagle crest top, and I thought, why doesn’t she stop him? She’s Wonder Woman.” This line is one that I cannot forget. It made me think of the innocence and vulnerability of child victims. Through Bun’s thoughts I could now understand how it is so easy for victims to blame themselves for what they go through.
The next character that I would like to talk about is Chef, who had such big dreams and it was beautiful to see Bun’s appreciation of the small gestures that he thought of doing, such as putting a swirl of jam on her porridge. His suicide definitely took me by surprise, but the way it was dealt with worked really well. Every other character took it in a different way and they were all plausible reactions.
Chris by day and Cher by night was, by far, my favourite character in this book. Followed closely by Busker Boy. The portrayal of a gay character in the 80s was amazing and it showed how, even though the LGBTQIAP+ community had become more accepted, there was still a long way to go. It was heart breaking to read about an individual who could not follow his dreams of becoming a doctor and who did not have a good relationship with his father. And most of all it was so hard to read about how he truly believed that his mother would never have accepted him, had she not died so abruptly after his coming out. I was not disappointed at all to see that the author did include a section about Chris’ boyfriend who died of AIDS, as we know that it was a huge problem at the time and medicine was not advanced enough when it comes to the HIV virus to even offer a patient a good quality of life.
Busker Boy’s story was also moving and it showed how much society has advanced in such a short amount of time. It portrayed prejudice and the stereotypes that are so closely tied to racism in such a candid manner. The story is actually very relevant to present times and the Black Lives Matter movement. In this book (and in reality at the time) the police would turn a blind eye when an Inuit individual was attacked. I believe that this should be an eye opener and show that if we see this story as brutal we should stop what is happening in the present. This shows how an author can bring the past to the present and send a very powerful message to anyone reading, young or old.
Big Eyes is also a really beautiful character who I really enjoyed reading about and who actually had much more depth to her than meets the eye at first. I enjoyed how protective she became of Bun and how, alongside the other characters she made sure that Bun was taken care of.
This is already a really long review and I am finding it very hard to stop writing. I would recommend this book with all of my heart to anyone who wants to read it. It is written beautifully and it tackles some really important topics while still remaining funny and heart warming. Thank you for sending me this amazing piece of work! It is my favourite book of the year so far and one of my favourite books of all time.

This was a great read; I couldn't put it down. Bun is a very lovable character, and the time period was fun to visit. The writing is so good that you become immersed in the story, hence it's un-put-down-able quality. It did deal with some really hard circumstances, which was tough going at parts. However, there was enough lightheartedness that it didn't weigh you down.

Summary: For a fourteen year old like Bun O'Keefe, "get out" literally means just that: GET. OUT. After Bun's hoarder mother yells these very words to her, Bun sets out on her own. With her luck, she encounters a friend in Busker Boy who, essentially, adopts her into the home that he shares with Chef, Big Eyes, and Chris/Cher. With the help of these newfound friends, Bun learns a thing or two about life and that not everything can be taken so literally.

To be honest, I struggled through the first two chapters of this book because it took some time to get used to the voice that Smith creates for Bun. But, I am SO very glad that I stuck through because I ended up loving this book. I think I struggled in the beginning because I found it hard to relate to Bun, which isn't a shocker, since I'm 15 years older than her and, honestly, she annoyed me. But, I think that was the point. She started out as a naive, innocent young girl who was venturing into the world on her own, even though she was, basically, on her own while living with her mom.

I especially like that Smith shows that families come in all shapes and sizes and friends can be just as (or even more so) important than related, blood family.

**Spoiler alert**

Along these lines, Smith tackles topics that are generally nonexistent in young adult literature today. Smith accomplished her job of making my insides crawl and sirens go off whenever the landlord asked Bun to "see him upstairs." All along, the adult reader can understand that this is a despicable man who should NEVER be left along with a child. Then, when Bun does visit him, I thought Smith appropriately captured what an abuse victim goes through after being victimized. I was thoroughly satisfied when Busker Boy attacked the landlord and that he received his due justice in the end because we all know that this isn't always the case.

The ending felt appropriate and it made sense, though there was one storyline I would have liked to read more about. I like that not every single string was "tied" and left in a perfect bow for the reader. We can infer that Bun will live with Busker Boy while her dad pays for the house and checks in on her. I am left wondering about Chris and Big Eyes and what will come of them. But, I wanted to know more about Chef. As a victim of a suicide in my own family, I know that not every suicide is explained. We don't always get an answer to our "why." Yet, it doesn't make us wonder any less. So, I scream for answers about Chef's past and why he suddenly felt like everything was just "too much."

I think this is a book that my students will love because of the voice that Smith creates for Bun. Bun is a highly relatable character who looks at the world in such a different way than most. Also, I like that Smith incorporates topics such as suicide, sexual abuse, grief, estranged families, and the fact that families come in all shapes and sizes.

Job well done, Heather T. Smith. I look forward to reading more of your work in the future.

THE AGONY OF BUN O’KEEFE by Heather Smith follows Bun O’Keefe, a 14 year old girl who has had limited contact with the outside world, immediately after her hoarder mother tells her to their home. Within the first few pages, Bun meets Busker Boy, an Inuit musician who takes her to his boarding house when he realizes Bun has nowhere else to go. At the boarding house, Bun finally finds a family in the interesting cast of roomates- Chris/Cher (a drag queen), Big Eyes (a Catholic school girl who ran away from her mother to avoid becoming a nun), and Chef (a pot-smoking gourmet chef).

This is a short book and the beginning of it felt very off to me. In order to really enjoy this book, you have to suspend disbelief. Is it logical that a 20-something year old man would randomly take a girl off the streets and have it be totally innocent? In the greater scheme of things, it would be nice to believe that’s what would happen… but the real world news tells us otherwise.

While there are a few light-hearted moments in this book, the title doesn’t include the words ‘the agony’ for no reason. Bun has lived with her hoarder mom alone since her dad walked out on the family. The mother is described as a slovenly woman who weighs 300 pounds and roosts in a pile of garbage bags. In all honesty, this made me roll my eyes. Will there ever come a time when authors don’t make their villains out to be fat and lazy?

Without ruining the story, do be aware that when Bun goes to the boarding house, she is severely underweight (to the point that she does not have a period), has untreated asthma, and still wears the glasses she got when she was five. This girl has clearly been neglected and abused.

Other trigger warnings include: the suicide of one of the roommates, sexual abuse of a minor at the hands of a much older adult, queerphobic language (f*gg*t), and a fight between two characters that includes queerphobic language (this is challenged in text and the offending character admits their wrong and apologizes).

This isn’t an easy story to stomach. It is, however, a wonderful story about wounded people sticking together.

It’s 1986, Bun is fourteen and has lived almost her entire life in a house filled with junk. When her hoarder mother tells her to “Go on, get out,” she does. With no money and nowhere to go Bun is taken in by a ragtag group of twenty-somethings. Maybe she can finally learn how to be a real person.

As a Canadian blogger I cherish any book set in Canada, and I have plenty of trouble finding ones I enjoy. The Agony of Bun O’Keefe is brilliant. Smith has a unique style, Bun is quirky, interesting and real. The character cast has depth and, despite several not having real names, are incredibly easy to connect with.Smith has an uncanny ability to write the world through an underdeveloped child’s eyes.

Although it’s a short read, and I would have loved to read it much longer, the plot is fascinating. Bun deals with love, loss, numbness all while finding herself. Her coping methods of spouting off interesting facts and quoting a specific documentary about drunks in Montreal are weird but also charming.

Smith deals with heavy subject matter like abuse, AIDs, and prostitution in a clear and clean way. It never delves into anything that would be too inappropriate for younger children. Smith explains the topics but never glamorizes them. Perhaps most importantly the author briefly touches on the epidemic of missing native women in Canada. The ultimate message is about real family and choosing your family. It’s sad and heartwarming all at once.

This is a book that will fascinate teens, and still hold interest for adult readers. Smith has written her young adults like young adults and her children like children, something that many authors don’t quite manage. I wanted more of Bun, Big Eyes, Chris and Cher, and Busker Boy. The relationships between the characters felt real. I miss them already.

The Agony of Bun O’Keefe is a fresh and fascinating story, and I highly recommend it.

This is one of those books it is best to just start reading, and not know a lot about, so I won't spoil too much. The basic premise is that Bun is very literal, so when her horder of a mother tells her to leave, she does, and doesn't stop until she finds herself in the nearest town, in St. Johns Newfoundland, and meets a busker, and that is how the whole thing started.

Oh, and there is a drag queen, an Inuit, an evil landlord, an amazing chef, and a young woman who didn't want to be a nun.

I love, that those this is set in the 1980s, and this is told by Bun, who is 14, she doesn't seem surprised by anything. Everything is just accepted, and how she talks is delightful. She has a dream that she offers to lend out, about sliding down a rainbow, and smelling it.

Here is an example of how she talks about the situation at hand:
<blockquote>We spent the morning together, him talking, me listening, icyu pellets pinging the bedroom window. OUtside it was winter, but inside it was summer, and his steady, quiet voice floated through the room like a warm breeze and his words swirled like dandelion seeds, and when they landed on me, it was alike a light touch.</blockquote>

This is probably closer to a 4.5, but not quite a five. Oh, just go read it, and enjoy the language, and the strange story that dragged me and begged me to finish it, throughout the day.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review