Aussie YA: older main characters (Kirsty Eagar Week)

One of the things I LOVED about Kirsty Eagar's Raw Blue is that the characters are older than the average YA book. Carly is 19, graduated high school and dropped out of uni. Ryan (gosh-I-love-him) is 27.

As an older reader of YA I am drawn to the older end of the YA spectrum. I am a huge advocate for an emerging New Adult market (which YA publishers are traditionally not keen on)

In my cosy bubble of readerly-writerly friends (who have mostly finished high school) I see the same craving for coming-of-age stories that feature out-of-school-aged characters.

The YA scene has always had it's own little groove going on down here in Australia and, surprisingly, it is not at all hard to find Aussie YA books that slice right into the New Adult market.

Today ~ I am featuring just a handful of Aussie YA novels which feature older protagonists and are riding the older YA vibe. These are [only] contemporary YA (often YA fantasy and other genres have an older vibe anyway, due to being set in entirely different worlds)

I hope you can find a good Aussie YA recommendations in here :)

[all links go to goodreads for more info]

Good Oil. While Amelia (sweet, fiesty, yearning Amelia) is only 15, Chris is a gorgeous 21 year old. Half the book is in his POV ~ and it's brilliant ~ some 21 year old male angst, he yearns for different things, has a past teen-perspective and brilliantly captures those days of wanting more of the world and feeling at odds with how to get there.

This is in my top fave YA books of all time

Finding Grace by Allyssa Brugman. Oh how I truly love this gorgeous book. Rachel has graduated high school, is working, left home and starting uni. It's a quirky, mesmerising and unexpectedly emotional read about one girl facing the beginning of life out in the real world.

One of my long time favourite reads

When You Wake and find Me Gone by Maureen McCarthy
Kit is 20 years old, loving uni until she has an unexpected trip to Ireland... So much fun, travelling to Ireland and there's some awesome IRA conflict and a (cute) Irish boy.

 I devoured this the first time I read it <3 ~ and was stoked to find a copy at my second hand book shop a few years ago. Planning a re-read [soon]

[Maureen McCarthy also has other books which easily slide into an older YA scene]

Fireflies by Jonathan Harlen
I love this book. Funny and sexy (!) and a little bit crazy. Brilliant male POV set in Sydney ~ John Berryman has left school, writes radio comedy and irreverently pursues Johanna ~ daughter of the American Ambaddassor.


 It is also one of my all-time faves. I am crazily nostalgic for it.

The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta
When I first heard of this stand-alone companion novel to Saving Francesca I was insanely excited. Visiting the gang but 5 years in the future? Where they are all 21? = Perfection. I LOVE this idea. And of course, half the story here also belongs to Georgie (in her 40's). While The Piper's Son does not see to fall into the constraints of traditional YA it is booming in the YA market down here (nominated for many YA awards)

Another book contending for a spot in my top ten all-time faves :)

I am The Messenger by Markus Zusak
Haha, this book is truly funny and exceptionally noteworthy. Ed and his gang of mates are all finished school and in various states of uni/work/hanging out-ness. Perfectly captures that feeling of being "out in the real world" and still trying to figure out what you're meant to be doing in it.

This book also has one of my fave first chapters. Ever. [I also loan my copy out to non-YA-reading adults all the time.]

Circles of Stone by Pamela Rushby
Lea (20 years old) takes a year break from university to back-pack with friends. While in Scotland, she is at the discovery of a 2000 year old body in a peat bog O.o. I LOVE bog stories, and this one is not all-the-way contemporary as their is a time travelly-vibe going on. Still ~ made of win.

The Byron Journals by Daniel DuCrou
Matthew and his mates are in their first year out of high school ~ partying at Byron Bay in a gap year scenario. This is one fantastically absorbing and beautifully written book featuring off-beat music, girls, drugs and it cracks open a world much bigger than high school.

Occasionally this was too edgy for me (in terms of sexual content, druggy-drugs) but it perfectly captured experimentation and getting caught up in something much bigger than yourself. The tension built brilliantly as well.

Give it a go if you love alternative funky beach-y music-y books, with a wild background ~ and don't mind mature (!) content. I personally am a fan of the whole gap-year scene :)

Black Painted Fingernails by Steven Herrick
Black Painted Fingernails made it through to the 2011 Gold inky's shortlist (announced yesterday). It's 2 main characters are well out of school, one a teacher in training and the other a hitchhiker finding her way. It also features the POV of the parents splattered throughout the pages. It's firmly in the new adult category.

It is not my favourite Herrick but it was still a very funky, insightful road tripping book.

Something in the World Called Love by Sue Saliba
This is a gorgeous and gentle unconventionally written book (no capital letters, interesting punctuation) that is set in Melbourne ~ Esma has moved to begin her first year at uni and is flatting with new friends ...

Poetic and unusual, I took me a little to get into it, but by then end I truly appreciated it.

Broken Glass by Adrian Stirling
Danny is 21 and the return of an old high school mate in their small country town stirs up memories from a sinister high school event. It is a highly emotive and evocative book, creating a setting for Aussie country towns similar to what Lucy Christopher did for our desert in 'Stolen'

It's gritty and tense and powerfully written, I really enjoyed this debut.

Suburban Freak Show by Julia Lawrinson
Jay is in her first year of uni ~ an not everything is going according to plan. This book is cynical and deliciously quirky in parts.

[More on Julia below]

Julia Lawrinson also wrote 'The Push' another YA novel featuring older protags (in their 20's and above) set in the 50's ~ the girls in this book are working, talking marriage, sexing it up and figuring out life in their own way.

Julia Lawrinson is a fantastic YA author with such strong cross-over appeal. Highly recommended.

I cannot have a post about older Aussie YA without mentioning  Sonya Hartnett (link to all the books I have read by her). Her YA books really defy genre-casting (they excel in the YA section, but are really for all ages). I could profile nearly her entire catalogue here but have selected three books that fit the contemporary mold the best with characters out of high school.

'All My Dangerous Friends' is a first year at uni book. Wilful Blue is set at an artists retreat (one of my long-time faves) and 'The Devil Latch' is more thriller-vibe ~ Kitten (our male protag) is early twenties, gorgeous and a smidgen mesmerising (in a sinister way). 

So ~ once I got started I realised I really could think of a lot more out-of-school-age Aussie YA protags. Especially if I decided to widen the parameters to protags who are nearly 18 but have left school ~ such as the awesome No Worries by Bill Condon (high school drop-out, working story, very good) or the dual narrative Halfway To Good  by Kirsten Murphy which has the POV of a first year out teacher, and the POV of her student in his final year of high school (LOVE Kirsten Murphy).

I think traditionally (gauging from the abundance of New Adult-type books that have been published over the years) Australian publishers run with all kinds of books for young adults and the age of the protagonist is of less concern to the actual story being told. I have LOVED growing up reading some of these books as a teen ~ reading about characters at uni or n their early twenties, written for teenagers. It perfectly bridges the gap between YA and the adult market.

I hope you've liked me chatting up some of my fave older Aussie YA books

Have you read any of these?

Got any recommendations (books I haven't mentioned)?

Would you like to see more YA books in the New Adult age bracket?

Also ~ don't forget to enter for your chance to win RAW BLUE by Kirsty Eagar ~ one of my all-time fave Aussie YA books featuring 19 year old Carly and 26 year old Ryan <3


* of course, this is not an exhaustive list, only books I have personally read that immediately came to mind.

The Comet Box by Adrian Stirling

It's 1986 and Halley's Comet is hurtling towards Earth. Everyone is talking about what the comet will bring - wishes could be granted, people might go mad, great disasters could happen...

When Andrew is asked to write down his greatest wish for the Comet Box, he can think of only one thing – that his runaway sister Amelia will finally come home. As the comet draws nearer he begins to learn the reasons why she left in the first place and the more he learns, the more he wants to forget.

When Amelia is captured and brought home she reveals a shocking secret that makes Andrew's once safe world begin to unravel. As the comet arrives, Andrew must choose whether to be blind to the mistakes of the people around him or to side with his sister as she tears his family apart.

I was so looking forward to Adrian Stirling's sophomore novel after pretty much being blown away by his debut Broken Glass. My expectations were high and he absolutely delivered (yay!)

The Comet Box is quite different in tone and atmosphere to Broken Glass. In Broken Glass, Stirling nails that gritty, claustrophobic and tight knit feel of a dusty small country town community. It was a sensory and gripping read, tense, vivid, absorbing and featured an astonishing climax.

While the Comet Box is different in setting, era and themes, it still shines with the same brilliance that blew me away in Broken Glass: it's a vivid and absorbing portrayal of life in the Aussie suburbs. I was continually impressed with how completely Stirling immerses the reader in the era ~ mid 1980's Aussie suburban life ~ utterly authentic and absolutely undeniably Australian. 


There was just so much to love about this novel. Of course, there's the mystery surrounding why Andrew's sister has run away ~ and the suspense bubbles quietly under the surface throughout the novel:

'If I told you the truth, you'd run away as well,' she said so quietly that I could barely hear it. 'Go to bed, Andrew, and forget about everything.' p109

But it wasn't just the hook that captivated me while reading The Comet Box. It was the way Stirling holds a mirror up to suburban life, to human nature, to each character in the novel. He should win some sort of award for delving effortlessly into the minds of all the neighbourhood characters and beautifully, astonishingly, scarily depicting them. I could have been reading about a number of people I know and have grown up with O.O


I don't like to compare books, but reading The Comet Box reminded me very much so of the way Christos Tsiolkas explores Aussie themes/lifestyle/etc in The Slap (which won so many awards for it's honest & startling depiction) although The Comet Box is still entirely different. I didn't particularly enjoy The Slap but I so very immensely liked The Comet Box. And I think it was because our protagonist is so relate-able ~ and also due to the gritty, grinning sense of humour ~ OH MY GOSH there are some completely brilliant lines in there. It's pretty much an entirely quotable book.

I ate an apple and forgot to take the sticker off first - my mother was probably wishing that I'd saved it for the scrapbook.' p123 (loved Andrew's scrap-booking mum. So easy to imagine her)

Andrew is curious and right at that point in life where he is searching for answers and thinking about life and what it should be against how it is. And finding out things are not at all how they seem. Perfect YA themes. Kind of disturbing and addictive ~ as if reading you are spying on Andrew's neighbourhood. Andrew puts himself right in the thick of things and the climax of the novel really is heart-pounding. There's this feeling that anything could happen and things get perfectly wild and edgy and it's taut and everything a climax should be.  

Apart from the main themes in the novel ~ I pretty much LOVED all the smaller events that took place. I have lots of favourite grin-worthy parts. A lot of them made me feel quite nostalgic. Here's some of my favourite scenes/moments:

• Going camping at the caravan park ~ just brilliant
• MAGIC MOUNTAIN (!) so perfect (I went there too!) and the day there made me LOL
• buying lollies from the corner shop <3
• all the media and anticipation of Haley's comet (gosh ~ awesome idea to weave into the premise!)
• Christmas day ~ so easy to visualise and feel the atmosphere
• the BBQ's ~ and the cornflake salad, haha. PRICELESS
• Romeo and Andrew in the abandoned house. that scene is so made of teenage win!

I wondered why people were so happy when they were camping, when they left the things they owned. p 83 (adore Andrew's observations)

For a second, I wondered if the road in front of us and the hills in the distance were real or just a backdrop that could tear apart at any moment and leave us hanging in space. p159 

Recommended: YES. It's the kind of book that is perfect not just for teens but also as a cross-over. Teenagers will be enthralled and adults can easily find truths in Stirling's book. The prose is atmospheric and it's an engrossing and at times harrowing read ~ but it's also nostalgic and absolutely Australian and the whole thing is just thread together masterfully. It's also the kind of book that would be engaging and packed full of ideas for students to study in (upper) high school. 


And woah, this review got a little bit long, haha ;)


The Comet Box will be available in Australia @ the end of this month.

The Comet Box @ Penguin Australia

Read an extract: Chapter One

The Comet Box @ goodreads

Broken Glass @ goodreads (Adrian Stirling's debut)

CBC Book of the Year

Notable Book in 2009 for Broken Glass (Older Readers)

Inkys

Short-listed in 2009 for Broken Glass (Young Adult Book Award)

W.A. Premier's Book Award

Short-listed in 2008 for Broken Glass (Young Adult Book Award)








The Comet Box is also featured in Penguin Australia's first edition of OFF THE SHELF: new online magazine for teachers and librarians. It's an awesome resource and I am very impressed and think the idea is genius :D

Subscribe and browse the first edition of Off The Shelf

Thanks to Pengiun Australia for sending this review copy