Our four must-read new books for teen and young adult readers, featuring new releases, bestselling and favourite authors and, all-in-all, captivating reads.
The Great Godden, by Meg Rosoff
This is the story of one family, one dreamy summer – the summer when everything changes. In a holiday house by the sea, in a big, messy family, one teenager watches as brothers and sisters, parents and older cousins fill hot days with wine and games and planning a wedding.
Enter the Goddens – irresistible, charming, languidly sexy Kit and surly, silent Hugo. Suddenly there’s a serpent in this paradise – and the consequences will be devastating.
From bestselling, award-winning author Meg Rosoff comes a lyrical and quintessential coming-of-age tale – a summer book that’s as heady, timeless and irresistible as Bonjour Tristesse and I Capture the Castle but as sharp and fresh as Normal People.
Harrow Lake, by Kat Ellis
Stephen King meets Hitchcock for the Netflix generation in HARROW LAKE, the most nerve-shredding thriller of the summer.
Welcome to Harrow Lake. Someone’s expecting you . . .
Lola Nox is the daughter of a celebrated horror filmmaker – she thinks nothing can scare her. But when her father is brutally attacked in their New York apartment, she’s swiftly packed off to live with a grandmother she’s never met in Harrow Lake, the eerie town where her father’s most iconic horror movie was shot. The locals are weirdly obsessed with the film that put their town on the map – and there are strange disappearances, which the police seem determined to explain away.
And there’s someone – or something – stalking her every move.
The more Lola discovers about the town, the more terrifying it becomes. Because Lola’s got secrets of her own. And if she can’t find a way out of Harrow Lake, they might just be the death of her.
The Erasure Initiative, by Lili Wilkinson
A brilliant psychological thriller from one of Australia’s finest YA authors.
I wake up, and for a few precious seconds I don’t realise there’s anything wrong.
The rumble of tyres on bitumen, and the hiss of air conditioning. The murmur of voices. The smell of air freshener. The cool vibration of glass against my forehead.
A girl wakes up on a self-driving bus. She has no memory of how she got there or who she is. Her nametag reads CECILY. The six other people on the bus are just like her: no memories, only nametags. There’s a screen on each seatback that gives them instructions. A series of tests begin, with simulations projected onto the front window of the bus. The passengers must each choose an outcome; majority wins. But as the testing progresses, deadly secrets are revealed, and the stakes get higher and higher. Soon Cecily is no longer just fighting for her freedom – she’s fighting for her life.
The acclaimed author of After the Lights Go Out returns with another compelling YA thriller – a timely novel about the intensity and unpredictability of human behaviour under pressure.
The Colours the Blind, by Rutendo Tavengerwei
Thirteen-year-old Tumirai lives with his protective big brother, Mkoma in Harare, Zimbabwe. He’s the first albino kid ever to have attended his school and constantly feels like an outsider.
When his brother is invited to go travelling for work, Tumirai goes to stay with their grandmother, Ambuya Thandie. She is scarred, in more ways than one, but her memory is a treasure trove – and her stories of Zimbabwe’s war for independence are a long, long way from the history Tumirai has heard before.
