Killing Aurora

Killing Aurora is a novel by Helen Barnes about a girl with anorexia. It was published in 1999 by Penguin Books.^[1]

Killing Aurora

First edition cover
Author	Helen Barnes
Language	English
Genre	Youth novel
Publisher	Penguin Books
Publication date	1 May 1999
Publication place	Australia
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	240 pp (first edition, paperback)
ISBN	0-14-130532-0 (first edition, paperback)

Plot summary

The novel contains two central characters, both fourteen years of age: the first, Aurora Thorpe, has been forced by her overprotective mother and stepfather to attend the prestigious St Dymphna's Non-Denominational Ladies' College. The second, also attending St Dymphna's, is Web Richardson, an outcast from a single parent family. Aurora and Web share a prickly connection, despite Aurora's reluctance to be associated with the terribly unpopular Web.

In an abruptly unfamiliar environment, and under the pressure of family and social expectations, Aurora becomes increasingly concerned with losing weight as a means of achieving the acceptance of her peers and living up to her own rigorous standards. Meanwhile, Web endures life without a mother, having only the scant guidance of her timid father, overbearing aunt, bitter grandfather and volatile older sister to rely on. Web desperately tries to stop Aurora from "disappearing", at the same time struggling with her mother's absence and the need for a friend.

Release details

• 1999, UK, Puffin Books ISBN 0-14-130532-0, Pub date 1 May 1999, paperback
• 1999, UK, Penguin Books ISBN 0-14-028774-4, Pub date ? ? 1999, paperback

Awards

• 2000 winner Victorian Premier's Prize for Writing for Young Adults^[2]
• 2000 honour book Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers^[3]

Further reading

• De Villiers, Michelle (December 2000). "Perpetrators and princesses: transgression and subject formation in Killing Aurora and Queen Kat, Carmel and St. Jude Get a Life". Papers: Explorations into Children's Literature. 10 (3): 5–11. doi:10.21153/pecl2000vol10no3art1340.
• Hillel, Margot (2003). "Revisiting the Australian child: Nick Earl's 48 Shades of Brown, Anna Fienberg's Borrowed Light and Helen Barnes's Killing Aurora". In McKenzie, John; Darnell, Doreen; Smith, Anna (eds.). Cinderella Transformed: Multiple Voices and Diverse Dialogues in Children's Literature. Centre for Children's Literature, Christchurch College of Education. pp. 176–184.
• McInally, Kathryn (December 2006). "Starving Desire: New (Deleuzean) Readings of Anorexia in Australian Young Adult Fiction". Papers: Explorations into Children's Literature. 16 (2): 168–172.
• Kroll, Jeri; Webb, Jen (2018). "Disordered Eating: Food and Identity Formation". In Piatti-Farnell, Lorna; Brien, Donna Lee (eds.). The Routledge companion to literature and food. Routledge companions. New York, NY: Routledge. pp. 84–92. ISBN 978-1-351-21602-9.
• Stephens, John (April 2003). "Editor's Introduction: Always Facing the Issues--Preoccupations in Australian Children's Literature". The Lion and the Unicorn. 27 (2): v–xvii. doi:10.1353/uni.2003.0026. ISSN 1080-6563.

See also

• 1999 in Australian literature