Meet Holly Harper, our new online children’s and YA specialist! She sells books at our Carlton shop and writes them too, under the name H.J. Harper. She loves zombies and hauntings, quests and explosions, and would be totally okay if we all started wearing capes.

Describe your taste in books.

Lots of people have told me I read like a thirteen-year-old boy. I like books with zombies and hauntings, and quests and explosions – books that’ll have me perched on the edge of my seat while I read, which is why authors like Charlie Higson, Patrick Ness and Derek Landy are some of my favourites.

What made you decide you wanted to be an author?

I was working in a bookshop and getting asked all the time for exciting books for reluctant readers aged seven and up who loved video games and hated reading. I’m a keen gamer myself, but I still think you can’t get better than the thrill of reading a good book, so I set out to write a series that would convince kids how exciting reading can be, which eventually became my Star League series.

What’s an Australia YA novel that made you sit up and take notice?

A few years ago when I was returning to the world of YA, my housemate waved a copy of Sabriel by Garth Nix in my face and told me I had to read it. I’m really glad she did, because it became one of my all-time favourites; Nix’s crafting of the worlds of life and death is so masterful, and his characters are so well-rounded that at times they feel like old friends.

If you were going to be sucked inside a book to live, which one would you pick?

The Spook’s Apprentice series by Joseph Delaney. Life wouldn’t be easy with witches and monsters lying in wait for you around every corner, but training as a Spook and learning to deal with creatures of the dark would be pretty thrilling. Plus I’d have an excuse to wear a cloak.

Which book are you reading right now?

I’ve just finished reading Monsters by Emerald Fennell, a YA novel about two teens who bond over a series of murders in a little beachside town. It’s a really unsettling but fascinating look into the mind of a sociopath – definitely a read that will stay with me for years to come!