Young adult

We Who Hunt the Hollow by Kate Murray

Reviewed by Aurelia Orr

Kate Murray’s debut YA novel We Who Hunt the Hollow is a fast-paced, fun fantasy perfect for fans of Cassandra Clare and Lynette Noni.

Priscilla lives what looks to be a normal teenage girl life – high-school pressures, the thrill…

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Unlimited Futures: Speculative, Visionary Blak and Black Fiction edited by Rafeif Ismael & Ellen van Neerven

Reviewed by Angela Crocombe

This collection of science fiction and speculative fiction is a conversation between local Blak and Black writing communities, as the editors state in their introduction, which itself takes the form of a conversation between the two. The writers who comprise…

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Sugar by Carly Nugent

Reviewed by Angela Crocombe

I was very excited to read this debut YA novel by Carly Nugent, who won the Readings Children’s Book Prize in 2019 for her middle-grade novel The Peacock Detectives. Sugar is for a much older readership and focuses on…

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A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft

Reviewed by Tye Cattanach

Seventeen-year-old Maggie Welty has lived her entire life on the outskirts of Wickdon, a town that has never fully welcomed or accepted her. Her mother Evelyn Welty (an alchemist) left town months earlier on a research trip, leaving Maggie alone…

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The Revelry by Katherine Webber

Reviewed by Angela Crocombe

This intriguing horror story is based around a sleepy rural town and a legendary party in the woods. Known as the Revelry, the festivities are shrouded in secrecy and only the graduating class of students are invited to attend.

Though…

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Growing Up in Flames by Zach Jones

Reviewed by Angela Crocombe

Kenna’s mother Ava died in a bushfire and she now lives with her uncle and aunt in her mum’s hometown, Kimba. She is trying to understand why her mum left 20 years before and never came back.

Noah’s father abandoned…

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League of Liars by Astrid Scholte

Reviewed by Dani Solomon

Telene is an interesting place. There is a permanent misty cloud that hangs over the city blocking out the sun and diffusing all shadows into a safer shade of soft grey, while the streets and public places are brightly lit…

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This Woven Kingdom by Tahereh Mafi

Reviewed by Aurelia Orr

Tahereh Mafi has written an enchanting new book for readers to escape into with her latest YA fantasy, This Woven Kingdom. With elegant, alluring prose reminiscent of old fairytales and legends, Mafi draws on Persian mythology to create a…

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At the End of Everything by Marieke Nijkamp

Reviewed by Angela Crocombe

Written from the perspective of three different teenagers, this is the story of a group of delinquents that the world has forgotten when a plague takes over society. Grace, Logan and Emerson have all ended up at the Hope Juvenile…

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I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

Reviewed by Natalie Platten

Ruta Sepetys is renowned for casting a humanitarian lens on real stories of human tragedy, giving voice to those whose stories may otherwise be lost in the cracks of history. Sepetys was awarded the Carnegie Medal for Salt to the

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