Free Lunch By Rex Ogle

‘Free Lunch’ is Rex Ogle’s debut novel.

Free Lunch is the story of Rex Ogle’s first term at High School. Rex and his baby brother often went hungry, wore second-hand clothes and were short of school supplies, and Ogle was on his school’s free lunch programme.

‘Free Lunch’ is a honest and insightful story about poverty, abuse and family relationships.

Based on his life, Rex talks about the struggles that he experienced as a child when his family had no money. He reflects on the shame and sadness that he felt having to be given the Free Lunch programme and how he difficult he found life at school for not only being poor but being judged by his peers and elders on his family’s financial situation. Rex’s relationship with his mother is an intense and abusive, she’s always angry and frustrated by their situation and she primarily takes her anger out on Rex, whether that’s physically or emotionally and it really does make for upsetting reading. Rex, himself is a character that I felt such empathy for, he’s kind and smart but sadly society judges him for his situation so we don’t always see the best of him but he’s always remorseful for his actions. There was one chink of light in the story and that was Rex’s baby brother Ford who added some humour to the story with his sweetness.

With strong characters and dialogues that doesn’t hold back on the punches, ‘Free Lunch is a honest and vivid account of life on the poverty line in America and is a captivating debut.

You can buy ‘Free Lunch’ from Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.