Young adult debut highlights of 2023
There is nothing more exciting than discovering an author at the beginning of their career. We are extremely fortunate that this year has been really strong for debut authors in young adult fiction. Here are a selection of our favourite debut young adult titles for 2023, many of which come from very talented Australian authors.
Two Can Play That Game by Leanne Yong
Sam Khoo has one goal in life: create cool indie games. She's willing to do anything to make her dream come true – even throw away a scholarship to university. All she needs is a super-rare ticket to a game design workshop and she can kickstart her career. So when Jay Chua, aka Jerky McJerkface, sneakily grabs the last ticket, it's war. Knowing how their Australian-Malaysian community works, Sam issues him an ultimatum: put the ticket on the line in a 1v1 competition of classic video games, or she'll broadcast his duplicity to everyone. Thank you, Asian Gossip Network.
Meeting in neutral locations, away from the eyes and ears of nosy aunties and uncles, Sam and Jay connect despite themselves. It's a puzzle that Sam's not sure she wants to solve. But when her dream is under threat, will she discover that there is more than one way to win?
Spice Road by Maya Ibrahim
In the hidden desert city of Qalia, secret spice magic awakens affinities in those who drink the misra tea. With an affinity for iron, seventeen-year-old Imani wields a dagger like no other warrior, garnering her the reputation as the next greatest Shield for battling the dangerous djinn, ghouls, and other monsters that lurk in the sands beyond city limits. Her reputation has been overshadowed, however, by her brother who tarnished the family name after he was discovered stealing their nation’s coveted spice – a tell-tale sign of magical obsession.
He disappeared soon after, believed to have died beyond the Forbidden Wastes, and leaving Imani reeling with both betrayal and grief. But when Imani uncovers evidence her brother may be alive and spreading their nation’s magic beyond the desert, she strikes a deal with the Council to find him and bring him back to Qalia before he can reveal the city’s location.
The Spider and Her Demons by Sydney Khoo
Moving and funny by turns, this is a story about what it takes to make peace with your demons – literal or otherwise. An urban fantasy spin on growing up as a second-generation immigrant, struggling under the overwhelming pressure to make others proud, while feeling trapped inside your own body.
Between surviving high school and working at her aunt's dumpling shop, all Zhi wants is to find time for her friends ... and make sure no one finds out she's half spider-demon.
But when she accidentally kills and eats a man in front of the most popular girl in school, she discovers she might not be the scariest thing in the shadows.
Nightbirds by Kate J. Armstrong
Magic may be illegal in Simta, but you can find it if you know which whispers to heed. None as tantalising as the ones about the Nightbirds, Simta's best kept secret. These privileged girls have the ability to gift their magic to others with a kiss – something the church would have them killed for. But protected by the Great Houses, their identities safe behind masks, the Nightbirds are well-guarded treasures.
Matilde, Æsa, and Sayer spend their nights bestowing their unique brands of magic to well-paying clients. But this Season's Nightbirds find themselves at the heart of a political scheme that threatens their secrets and their safety. When they discover that their magic is far more than they were ever told, they see the carefully crafted Nightbird system for what it is: a gilded cage. Now they must make a choice – to remain kept birds or take control, remaking the city that dared to clip their wings.
Borderland by Graham Akhurst
Jono, a city-born Indigenous teenager is trying to figure out who he really is. Life in Brisbane hasn’t exactly made him feel connected to his Country or community. Luckily his best friend, Jenny, has been by his side through their hectic days at St Lucia Private. After graduating, Jono and Jenny score gigs at the Aboriginal Performing Arts Centre and an opportunity arises to intern with a documentary crew to promote a government mining project in the Queensland desert. The land is rumoured to be sacred, but who cares?
Life takes a turn when they land in Gambari, a tiny rural town far from the hustle and bustle of the city. Suddenly, Jono’s intuition becomes his best guide. He’s haunted by an eerie omen of death, battling suffocating panic attacks, and even experiencing visions of Wudun — a malevolent spirit from the Dreaming. What’s the real story behind the gas mining venture?
A Curse of Salt by Sarah Street
In a kingdom that fears the sea, Ria Lucroy longs to be brave. Bodies are washing ashore and everyone knows who’s to blame. Legends of the Heartless King shroud the continent in fear; they call him a pirate, a monster, a god. When his mercenaries raid her father’s merchant ship, Ria’s family is faced with a horrifying demand. They will spare his life, in exchange for one of his daughters.
Determined to save her sisters Ria launches herself into the world of pirates. Face-to-face with the Heartless King, she finds he is far more than the stories told. He is a man, with a human name and blood-stained hands, bound to the seas by a centuries-old curse. As their chemistry blooms into something more, Ria finds herself caught in an ancient web of secrets. Battling creatures of the deep alongside those that reign its surface, she discovers how to love a heartless man ...
Grace Notes by Karen Comer
Grace Dalfinch is a talented violinist who longs to play contemporary music in bars but whose mother forbids her. James Crux is an aspiring street artist who promised his dad that he wouldn’t paint in public until he’s eighteen and legal.
When Crux witnesses Grace’s secret performance in a viral video, he’s inspired to paint her and her violin on a not-so-legal wall, and when Grace stumbles across her portrait in a Melbourne alley by an anonymous street artist, she sets out to find its creator.
Grace Notes is a debut contemporary young adult verse novel, set in the most locked-down city in the world - Melbourne, 2020. It’s a love story, at its heart, but it’s also a book about young people using art to make sense of the world around them, and to shape it too.
Saltwater Boy by Bradley Christmas
Heartfelt and poignant, this coming of age story explores father-son relationships, against a backdrop of small town rivalries, buried truths, with themes of sustainability, preserving the past and environmental care.
When Dad goes to jail, Matthew and his mum move to the coast, so mum – an artist – thinks she can renovate her late father’s old place to sell it to get them back on their feet. Matthew strikes up a friendship with Old Bill, an Indigenous man who becomes a father figure to him, and teaches him how to find and eat pippis, fish (and to make a few dollars from it). Dad gets out on parole and moves back in with the family, but his anger fractures the newfound peace and everything is once again at stake, and in peril.
I Am the Mau and Other Stories by Chemutai Glasheen
Two worlds collide in Chemutai Glasheen's debut short story collection, I Am the Mau and Other Stories.
This enticing collection of contemporary fiction is a celebration of our ubuntu – the invisible ties that bind us all together. From ancient forest guardians to modern cultural warriors, from grappling with ageold traditions to championing hair identity, these evocative stories explore the duality of Kenyan life and how to find a way between two cultures, both of which are yours.
Chemutai Glasheen's unforgettable characters are drawn from her early life in Africa, with all its richness, diversity and complexity.
Eleanor Jones Is Not a Murderer by Amy Doak
Eleanor Jones has just started at her ninth high school in less than five years. Since she and her mum are always moving on, Eleanor likes to stay on the outer, to stay invisible. So maybe it's just bad luck that the very first person she talks to at Cooinda Secondary College, Angus Marshall, is stabbed and left for dead the same day. The last message on Angus's phone is from Eleanor Jones.
After being interviewed by the police, Eleanor realises they don't have all the facts and decides to investigate. In trying to understand what happened to Angus, Eleanor inadvertently becomes involved with an eclectic group of fellow students – all of whom have their own reasons to want to solve the mystery. As they slowly unravel Angus's secrets, Eleanor discovers the true meaning of friendship – and uncovers a danger lurking at the heart of the town.
Blind Spot by Robyn Dennison
When Dale stumbles into a bedroom at a party and sees a drunk girl being undressed by a group of guys, he backs away and runs. He’s pretty drunk himself, but he knows what he saw. Why didn’t he stop them? Why did he run? These questions haunt him. He wants to make things right but he doesn’t know how.
There’s no way he can talk to his dad. His mum walked out months ago. And his best friend, Kieran, wouldn’t understand. Dale’s not even sure Kieran would see a problem with what happened. The opposite of Dale. Then Max arrives, Dale’s cousin. She’s older, smart, cool – with her own perspective on Dale’s problem, and her own problems. And there’s Brent. He’s a year older than Dale, and hot – everything Dale is looking for, but will he have the answers Dale is looking for?
Robert Runs by Mariah Sweetman
Robert 'Goupong' Anderson was once the fastest man in Australia and world-record holder. Goupong, his little sister Dot, and his best friend Jonathan belong to the Ugarapul people, the Green Tree Frog tribe, and live with their families and others within the harsh confines of the Deebing Creek Mission – a place run by the malevolent Boss Man.
Goupong and Jonathan are focused on winning the mission's biggest running race that year, but when mysterious noises, unexplained occurrences and biblical events begin to plague the local area they are forced to investigate. Will Goupong and Jonathan be strong enough to defeat the monster in the bush, or are the real monsters closer to home?
Based on the author's great-great grandfather Robert Runs is a poignant look into the Deebing Creek Massacre and the tough reality of mission life.
Lies We Sing to the Sea by Sarah Underwood
In the cursed kingdom of Ithaca, each spring brings the hanging of twelve maidens, a gift to the vengeful Poseidon. But when Leto awakens from her death on the shore of a long-forgotten island, its enigmatic keeper Melantho tells her that there’s only one way the curse can be broken. Leto must kill the last prince of Ithaca . . .
In Lies We Sing to the Sea, debut author Sarah Underwood delivers a thrilling and breathtaking tale that will enthral readers from the very first page as they are transported to the cursed shores of Ithaca.
Sing Me to Sleep by Gabi Burton
Saoirse Sorkova survives on secrets. As the last siren in her kingdom, she can sing any man to an early grave – but her very existence is illegal, and if her true identity were ever discovered, it would be her life on the line. By day, Saoirse disguises herself as a fae, pretending to be the perfect soldier-in-training. By night, she satisfies her darker urges working as an assassin for dangerous mercenaries. And all the while, she keeps the biggest secret of all: that she is not always in control of her Siren powers, or her desire to kill.
Then a blackmailer threatens her sister, and Saoirse's investigation takes her to the royal palace, and her most dangerous job yet: personal bodyguard to the Crown Prince. Saoirse expects to despise Prince Hayes. But he is kind, thoughtful, and charming, and she finds herself increasingly drawn to him ... until he tasks her with investigating a killer plaguing the kingdom. The problem: the killer is Saoirse.
Threads That Bind by Kika Hatzopoulou
Io is the youngest of three sisters, descended from the Fates. She is able to see threads – shimmering silver lines connecting every person. When a new relationship is formed, a new thread appears. When a person's life-thread is cut, it's their time to die. Io uses her gifts as a private investigator, trying to make ends meet in a world which treats other-born people like her with suspicion and prejudice.
Then Io is witness to a murder – but this is no ordinary murder. Io can clearly see that the killer's life-thread has already been severed. This woman should be long dead. More complicated still, there is another witness – Edei, a member of the Rossi mob – the gangsters who rule Alante. And what Io can see immediately, although Edei cannot, is that there is a bright silver fate-thread connecting them. This boy is her destiny...
Their Vicious Games by Joelle Wellington
Edgewater Academy is a school for the very rich and very powerful.
Adina Walker is neither of those things. Alone and outcast, when she gets into a fight with a fellow student (and former friend), her scholarship to a top college is revoked, and her world falls apart. Until she's invited to The Finish. Annual games for the brightest and the best, hosted by power-family The Remingtons, the winning prize for The Finish is everything Adina wants. This is her chance at the life she's dreamed of.
Then the contestants start to die. Love, revenge, pride – all are on the line. This isn't a game any more. Horrific and engrossing in equal measure, Their Vicious Games is also a thoughtful and clever commentary on race and class.
Thieves' Gambit by Kayvion Lewis
Challenge: Join the Thieves’ Gambit, a cut-throat competition to crown the world’s greatest thief. Rule 1: Never fall in love with your opponent. Rule 2: The only thief you can trust is yourself. Endgame: Win the heist to save your family – and yourself.
Seventeen-year-old Rosalyn Quest was raised by a legendary family of thieves with one rule: trust no one. When her mother is kidnapped, her only chance to save her is to win the Thieves’ Gambit – a deadly competition for the world’s best thieves, where the victor is granted one wish. To win, she must outwit all of her backstabbing competitors, including her childhood archnemesis. But can she take victory from the handsome, charming boy who makes a play for her heart and might be hiding the most dangerous secret of all?
Tonight I Burn by Katharine J. Adams
Thorns, Tides, Embers, Storms and Ores. All five covens are bound in servitude to the tyrant High Warden of Halstett. Penny Albright is a daughter of the thorn coven, forced to patrol the veil between the realms of Life and Death, keeping it safe and whole. Each night, one thorn witch must cross the veil by burning at the stake. Each morning, that witch returns with the help of their magical lifeline. Failure to follow the rules of Death risks them all.
When Penny's favourite sister doesn't return from Death, Penny breaks the rules. She burns in secret. Determined to find her sister, Penny makes a deal with the devastating Lord Malin who she meets in Death. Someone who shouldn't be there at all. This bargain leads her to Alice, a mysterious captive prophet, and to a rebellion against the High Warden brewing in the shadows of their city. Penny soon learns all is not as it seems in Life or Death.