Review of 'The Year the Gypsies Came' by Linzi Glass

I'm in a big phase of trying to read books that have sat on my shelves for years because I've lost interest in reading them, and this is one of them. I thought from the title and because it's a teen book that this was going to be a fairly slow paced gentle read about a summer adventure, but it was far from that. The book comes with a big trigger warning for sexual assault and suicide. 
The Year the Gypsies Came is set in South Africa one summer where a gypsy family came to stay near the home of twelve year old Emily. The book is told from her perspective, and whilst at first she enjoys spending time with her sister and the two boys who come to stay, everything is tinged with a sense of foreboding. There's something off in the family dynamic, and when it extends to Emily's family, she doesn't know what to do.

It's very hard to talk about this book without giving away any spoilers. There's a very graphic rape scene in the book that darkens the entire plot. But, in the lead up to this happening, the book has very little plot and really drags. I found it a very sad book with very few glimpses of hope in it. In quite a short span of pages you cover violent child abuse, rape, suicide, grief and the loss of innocence in a myriad of ways. 

I gave this book two stars in part because I really think it's far too graphic and harrowing for a teen read (and definitely needed to be marketed at YA readers as a minimum), and because it was very predictable. 
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