Caro and Danny are high-school sweethearts who spend their spare time lounging in the summer sun by the waterhole, the long days hot and sweaty amid a cacophony of croaking frogs. They quickly make plans for moving in together, university, and work after graduation. But when Danny’s mother passes away, a rift is silently torn between them. Caro wants to grieve with Danny. However, as the years go by, Danny becomes more reclusive, succumbing to drug addiction and mysteriously disappearing. When Danny goes missing with no sign of returning, Caro is left questioning how long she should hold onto their relationship and when to let go.

Melissa Manning’s Frogsong beautifully illustrates the internal conflict that goes with staying beside someone who is self-sabotaging and destroying the relationships around them; and the guilt at the thought of abandoning them that comes with the knowledge that trauma or grief has led to their decline. But knowing when to let go, when to understand that it isn’t your battle to fight anymore, and that nothing can be done, is something every person will interpret differently, and possibly never be able to shrug off.

Caro’s journey can be likened to a frog’s metamorphosis, a continuous theme that reveals itself throughout the novel. At first, like an egg full of promise, the relationship begins with hope and possibility. As time passes, she becomes like a tadpole living only in water, adapting to an environment that slowly confines her. Gradually, awareness grows, like the tadpole developing legs, as she begins to recognise her strength and worth. Letting go of fear and self-doubt is like shedding the tail that once helped her survive. In the end, will she emerge like a fully formed frog, able to breathe freely and move independently, realising she was never meant to remain confined in a place she had already outgrown?