Discover the new books for young adult readers that our booksellers are excited about this month!
This Stays Between Us
Margot McGovern
Mack, Raffi and Priya were looking forward to their school camp for a chance to hang out and cut loose away from watchful parents. But in an abandoned mining town, filled with stories of a sinister ghost called Smiling Jack, things don’t go as planned. Raffi isn’t talking to Mack, Priya just wants to get some alone time with her boyfriend, and they’re stuck sharing a cabin with the unsettling new girl, Shelley. A séance around a bonfire starts out as a fun distraction to smooth things over, but it ends up taking an ominous turn that none of the girls could have predicted.
This Stays Between Us is a gripping thriller that had me flying through chapters, desperate to know what happens. Not only has Margot McGovern told a horror story that is truly frightening, but she’s also balanced that with a rich and nuanced cast of characters that I absolutely loved. Switching perspective in each chapter, we get an unfiltered look at the thoughts and feelings of each girl, and their well-drawn humanity makes the ever-present threat of Smiling Jack all the more terrifying.
The blurb describes this novel as an homage to ’90s horror movies – note that content warnings include sexual assault and graphic violence – and it certainly equals the dread and fascination created by any teen slasher movie, but with a diverse cast of intelligent young women. I recommend this for horror readers aged 14+, especially those interested in feminist tales.
Reviewed by Bella Mackey.
Sunny At the End of the World
Steph Bowe
The Gold Coast, 2018. It should have taken longer than four days for the world to end, but within that time Sunny’s mum becomes a zombie, her dad dies, and Sunny goes on the run, looking for any place to survive. She finds refuge in her school library, where she meets Toby, a classmate, and Veronica, a baby Toby has been taking care of since her parents became zombies. But soon Toby and Veronica are taken away from Sunny too.
Sydney, 2034. Sunny is now a zombie and a prisoner in an underground facility. However, something different happened when she was bitten: although flesh is literally falling off her body, her mind remains intact, and so does her conscience. This means she is plagued with questions she doesn’t know how to answer – where is she now? How can she survive when everyone is intent on killing her? And what happened to Toby and Veronica?
Sunny at the End of the World comes five years after Steph Bowe’s sad passing from cancer at the age of 25 in January 2020. This novel was later discovered on her laptop, and is incredibly prophetic regarding the worldwide Covid pandemic. The novel questions how it all began and why, and contemplates conspiracy theories of biological warfare, all of which Sunny investigates. Written with wit, dark humour and warmth, Bowe’s posthumous novel is a beautiful and tragic story of family, of survival, and of appreciating everything we have only when we’ve lost it. For ages 14+.
Reviewed by Aurelia Orr.
How to Be Normal
Ange Crawford
This debut novel and winner of the inaugural Walker Manuscript Prize is a story about a family under the influence of a controlling father.
Astrid is starting Year 12 and going to high school for the very first time. She’s been homeschooled because her father doesn’t trust the outside world and keeps a tight leash on her and her mother. He doesn’t allow her to be a normal teenager, and she and her mother must tiptoe around him, catering to his every whim, or else he will explode. Astrid resents her older brother, who escaped a few years ago and left them behind. All she wants is to blend in and be normal, but she doesn’t know all the unspoken codes of communication, she’s shy, and is hiding a terrible secret about her family.
Astrid makes a friend, Cathy, who loves music like her, and she is attracted to cool girl Leila, but she can’t trust either of them with her secrets, which makes her uncommunicative and makes forming friendships a challenge. There are misunderstandings and confusion, but eventually Astrid and her mum devise a plan to escape her father’s controlling influence for good, and she will need her new friends to help.
How to Be Normal is a deeply engaging read about coercive control written by an author with personal experience of it, who never lets the narrative get too dark or confronting. I highly recommend this novel for readers aged 12+ who like contemporary stories.
Reviewed by Angela Crocombe.
All Better Now
Neal Shusterman
Covid is a thing of the past and there’s a new virus in town, going by the name Crown Royale! This virus is nothing like Covid. Instead of losing your sense of smell and having a foggy brain, you lose all the stress and depression you once felt. ‘Recoverees’ of Crown Royale are no longer greedy and selfish; they are just utterly content. Some say the virus is body snatching and will do anything to avoid catching it; others see it as a gift that they must share with the world.
In the midst of this pandemic, All Better Now follows four characters: Ron Escobedo, who struggles with depression and is the son of the third richest man in the world; Mariel Murdoch, a homeless teen who appears to be immune to the virus; Margot Willmon-Wu, whose ambition and ruthlessness wins her an inheritance from Dame Glynis Havill. Dame Glynis’s fear of Crown Royale and what it will do to her leads her to relinquish her fortune, only to instantly regret her decision once she becomes a recoveree. The four characters’ lives intertwine while a search for a vaccine collides with the mission to spread Crown Royale far and wide.
It’s a good year when Neal Shusterman has a new book out; his imagination knows no bounds and All Better Now certainly doesn’t disappoint. It’s a dystopian thriller that will have you constantly questioning what is wrong and right and who the real heroes are. This book is addictive. It’s fast-paced, and the unique storyline and strong character development make it utterly captivating. I highly recommend this to fans of Shusterman, lovers of dystopian tales and sci-fi, or anyone who loves a good story. For ages 14+.
Reviewed by Lucie Dess.
Also recommended are:
The Lovely and the Lost
Jennifer Lynn Barnes
A forgotten past.
Kira vividly remembers the moment Cady Bennett and one of her search and rescue dogs found her as a child, living alone in the wild, with no memories of her life before. Years later, now adopted into the Bennett family, Kira has spent most of her life training in search and rescue herself.
A missing girl.
So, when Cady's estranged father appears with news of a missing child out in the wilderness, Kira vows to bring the girl home.
A dark secret.
As the search intensifies, danger mounts and long-buried secrets begin to come to light. To find one missing child, Kira will have to question everything she thinks she knows.
The House of Rural Realness
Curtis Campbell
Peter Thompkin needs a public image overhaul after his vicious clapback against the most popular gay in school goes viral. When his best friend Alan, aka teen drag queen Aggie Culture, announces the first public drag performance by The House of Rural Realness, Peter steps forward as their producer. It might be the only way he can restore his reputation.
Peter leads the queens as they survive bigoted backlash-and one another. But will Mason County's Drag Extravaganza drop dead before they make their first death drop? And will Peter and Alan's friendship even survive past curtain call?
Touching, sharply funny and a little absurd, The House of Rural Realness explores the pains and pleasures of queer community through one teen's stumbling journey towards self-acceptance.
Darkest Night, Brightest Star
Barry Jonsberg
Thirteen-year-old Morgan lives with his dad and his older brother, Mitch. He hasn't heard from his mum since she left when he was two. He works hard on his football skills, striving to meet his father's high expectations and 'be a man'.
But what that means isn't always clear-cut. When Morgan makes a friend at school, gets injured in a game, and his long-lost mum turns up, everything changes. Then, when he meets an old woman in need of help, Morgan must decide what kind of man he wants to be.
Shining a timely and much-needed light on different kinds of masculinity, Darkest Night, Brightest Star is a unique and compelling novel from a masterful storyteller.
Our Infinite Fates
Laura Steven
They've loved each other in every lifetime. They've killed each other in every one. Evelyn can remember all her past lives. She can also remember that in every single one, she's been murdered before her eighteenth birthday. The problem is that she's quite fond of the one she's in now, and more importantly, her sister needs her for bone marrow transplants to stay alive. So now she has to:
- find the centuries-old enemy who hunts her through each life and destroy them forever
- figure out exactly why she's being hunted in the first place,
- try quite hard not to fall in love with them
...again.
