Young adult
There Will be Lies by Nick Lake
There are plot twists aplenty in Lake’s second novel. Shelby breaks her leg but is very quickly dragged out of hospital and along on a road trip by her normally reclusive mother. Can they drive faster than the lies threatening…
Evil Librarian by Michelle Knudsen
When the new librarian starts at Cyn’s school, he initially seems perfect. He’s young, hot, friendly, hot … It’s worth mentioning twice! There’s only one drawback: he’s evil. Literally.
Cyn is the only one who can see that the new…
Glory O'Brien’s History of the Future by A.S. King
A.S. King is practically a genius when it comes to writing YA fiction. Her characters are complicated,conflicted and faced with impossible situations – and yet they feel utterly real. Glory O’Brien is all this and more.
When Glory and her…
Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta
Growing up is hard. In Looking for Alibrandi, 17-year-old Josephine Alibrandi struggles to accept her culture, abandonment by her father and her social displacement at a wealthy girls’ high school. In her final year she begins to accept herself for…
Laurinda by Alice Pung
Let me first declare that this novel was like a time machine that shot me straight back to my own years in middle secondary school. On one level Laurinda is about a young girl’s struggle for identity and belonging, but…
The Museum of Intangible Things by Wendy Wunder
Zoe and Hannah are best friends who have grown up with little to lean on except each other. Fed up with their hopeless hometown and the hand they have been dealt by negligent parents, they embark on a hectic road…
Violet Ink by Rebecca Westcott
I came to read Violet Ink with high expectations because it was recommended to me by my 10-year-old. It wasn’t long before I understood exactly why she loved it so much.
With a story told from the point-of-view of a…
Monstrous Affections edited by Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant
A new anthology from Kelly Link is always a cause for celebration, even more so when the theme is monsters.
Anybody familiar with Link’s Steampunk! anthology will recognise the format of Monstrous Affections: the superstars of young adult –…
A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray
Marguerite Caine’s parents are physicists who have just finished creating a small device that allows travel into different dimensions: the firebird. They have discovered that other dimensions exist and events are happening in those dimensions at the same time as…
Cooper Bartholomew is Dead by Rebecca James
Australian author Rebecca James writes with the sort of sharp, unpretentious style that makes her books seem straightforward when actually this is a difficult story to pull off. In her third novel – part romance, part thriller – she gives…
Browse our reviews by category
