Reviewed by Rod McLary As a genre, YA [or Young Adult] produces some of the most relevant and resonant writing in literature today. The genre has been around for decades – think The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger [1951] – but currently, it is more popular than ever. Generally, YA novels explore
Reviewed by Rod McLary Dead Happy is the sequel to HappyHead which told the tale of Sebastian Seaton [Seb] who, along with ninety-nine other teenagers, was sent to a new and radical program to solve ‘the national crisis of teenage unhappiness’. Through a course of gruelling challenges, Seb discovers that he has qualities which up
Reviewed by E.B. Heath Although an elaborate fantasy for children, Greenwild: The City Beyond the Sea, carries significance – a warning. One that in times of yore was communicated via an Aesop’s Fable – The Goose and The Golden Egg. A story of stupidity and greed. Apparently, that message has been long forgotten because, well,
Reviewed by Rod McLary Gus and the Missing Boy successfully blends the features of a detective story with the tropes of a YA novel. Through the course of this novel, the author canvasses the existential issues facing thirteen-year-old Gus as he struggles with caring for his seriously injured mother, the vicissitudes of being gay and
Reviewed by Rod McLary This new novel by Aboriginal writer and academic from the Kokomini of northern Queensland Graham Akhurst is a genre-bending tour-de-force which is certain to fully engage the demographic [older teenagers] for whom it is written and many others as well. The central protagonist is Jonathan Lane [usually called Jono] who is
Reviewed by Rod McLary The relevance of the title of this new book by Lazaros Zigomanis becomes clear in the last few paragraphs of this deeply personal and authentic tale of an un-named fifteen-year-old Greek boy. While essentially fiction, the author states in the Acknowledgements that he ‘grew up with mental health issues through the
Reviewed by Rod McLary Who doesn’t enjoy a romance – especially when it involves a brash American girl and an heir to the English throne? Sounds a little familiar, doesn’t it? But in this story, there is a further element – an impending apocalypse. Narrated in the first person by Wren Wheeler – eighteen years
Reviewed by Rod McLary Who doesn’t enjoy a good romance? Especially when the protagonists – at least initially – seem to dislike each other, but by the conclusion of the book or film, end up together. One only needs to think of Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen or Rex Harrison and
Reviewed by Rod McLary The great late crime novelist P. D. James once said ‘all fiction is largely autobiographical’ and this observation is borne out by Josh Silver’s debut novel HappyHead. The author says [in ‘Josh Silver – in his own words’ at the conclusion of the novel] that, like his protagonist Seb Seaton, he
Reviewed by Antonella Townsend Wow! The Iron Widow is a wild Young Adult read. Xiran Jay Zhao expands on concepts drawn from a range of pop culture and Chinese mythology to deliver an imaginative Sc Fi retelling of the only female emperor in Chinese history – Wu Zetian. In this, Zhao powerfully forwards the idea
Reviewed by Gerard Healy This is a Young Adult novel with dollops of darkness mixed in with some light. The story centres on fifteen-year-old Emily and her twin brother Alex, who live with their ailing father on a rural property outside Warrnambool, Victoria. Now the author of this fine little book is Paul Jennings and
Reviewed by Rod McLary There is something about Young Adult novels which immediately appeals to the discerning reader. Perhaps the appeal lies in the authenticity of the adolescent voice which hasn’t yet learned to dissemble and obfuscate. Perhaps it is the lived experience of navigating the no man’s land between childhood and adulthood which we
Reviewed by Rod McLary This engaging novel, The Rider on the Bridge, opens with the narrator re-telling a story told to him of a young boy riding his bike – for a fee – blindfolded across a bridge. The narrator informs the reader that ‘the absence of truth does not diminish the story’ [8]; the
Reviewed by Antonella Townsend Concepts planted in our psyche through music and other media unconsciously inform what we create. p. 278 A master class in presenting serious themes with a feather light touch. And so very funny! Allayne Webster’s That Thing I Did has all the elements of an intriguing young-adult novel – four young
Reviewed by Antonella Townsend A female protagonist who is half-English half-Chinese and half-monster half-human, a hoard of full-blood monsters, the protagonist’s human, monster-slaying love interest, and time travel! Such are the elements of Vanessa Len’s debut Young Adult novel, Only A Monster. Ambitious, to say the least! Vanessa Len writes that she was interested in