Drift, steeped in mythological references, deals with the weighty emotional themes of death and the afterlife. Russon explores varying reactions towards grief and loss, particularly children’s responses on losing family members. At times, the supernatural tangents prevent this theme from being sensitively or fully realised.

Russon’s language is rich in imagery – the characters walk through ‘breathless summer heat’, touched with a ‘sweet relief of thin blue sky’. Sexuality, too, is evocatively described: ‘his mouth full of her mouth like it was a dark, exotic cake: red and velvety … he could still feel the kiss trickling through him … warm and sweet as honey.’ Such passages, and Russon’s elaborate language, make Drift more suitable for those aged twelve or more.

Drift is an engaging work, but the chronology of events is confusing, and the characters hard to identify with. Strong passages of writing are drowned in complex thematic concepts, making one character’s comment true of the narrative itself: ‘crossing from one world to another … with a shared time and space – moving between them … could in theory, undermine the integrity of things.’