Book picks similar to
Spidion World by Mark McKenzie


young-adult
ya-fiction
australia
australian-writers-male

Saved By the Music


Selene Castrovilla - 2009
    In Saved by the Music, Willow thinks she’s alone until she meets Axel, an older teen who lives isolated from the world on the sailboat docked nearby. An unlikely romance sparks as the two grapple with their darkest secrets and bond through shared pain and laughter. It is a summer where music must do more than just soothe the soul.

L.I.E.


David Hollander - 2000
    It’s the late eighties in Long Island, New York, and eighteen-year-old Harlan Kessler plays in a band, parties with friends, and struggles with a family that offers anything but a Kodak moment. The one ray of hope in Harlan’s life is Sarah DeRosa. With her by his side, Harlan just might make the right choices between love and aggression, intimacy and absence, finding himself and losing his mind. . . .

How It Feels to Float


Helena Fox - 2019
    She has her people, her posse, her mom and the twins. She has Grace. And she has her dad, who tells her about the little kid she was, who loves her so hard, and who shouldn't be here but is. So Biz doesn't tell anyone anything. Not about her dark, runaway thoughts, not about kissing Grace or noticing Jasper, the new boy. And she doesn't tell anyone about her dad. Because her dad died when she was six. And Biz knows how to float, right there on the surface—normal okay regular fine.But after what happens on the beach—first in the ocean, and then in the sand--the tethers that hold Biz steady come undone. Dad disappears, and with him, all comfort. It might be easier, better, sweeter to float all the way away? Or maybe stay a little longer, find her father, bring him back to her. Or maybe—maybe maybe maybe—there's a third way Biz just can't see yet.

The Mall


Megan McCafferty - 2020
    Scrunchies, mixtapes and 90210 are, like, totally fresh. Cassie Worthy is psyched to spend the summer after graduation working at the Parkway Center Mall. In six weeks, she and her boyfriend head off to college in NYC to fulfill The Plan: higher education and happily ever after.But you know what they say about the best laid plans...Set entirely in a classic “monument to consumerism,” the novel follows Cassie as she finds friendship, love, and ultimately herself, in the most unexpected of places. Megan McCafferty, beloved New York Times bestselling author of the Jessica Darling series, takes readers on an epic trip back in time to The Mall.

Jasper Jones


Craig Silvey - 2009
    His visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in the regional mining town of Corrigan.Rebellious, mixed-race and solitary, Jasper is a distant figure of danger and intrigue for Charlie. So when Jasper begs for his help, Charlie eagerly steals into the night by his side, terribly afraid but desperate to impress. Jasper takes him to his secret glade in the bush, and it's here that Charlie bears witness to Jasper's horrible discovery.With his secret like a brick in his belly, Charlie is pushed and pulled by a town closing in on itself in fear and suspicion as he locks horns with his tempestuous mother; falls nervously in love and battles to keep a lid on his zealous best friend, Jeffrey Lu.And in vainly attempting to restore the parts that have been shaken loose, Charlie learns to discern the truth from the myth, and why white lies creep like a curse.In the simmering summer where everything changes, Charlie learns why the truth of things is so hard to know, and even harder to hold in his heart.

Nona & Me


Clare Atkins - 2014
    Yapas.They are also best friends. It doesn’t matter that Rosie is white and Nona is Aboriginal: their family connections tie them together for life.Born just five days apart in a remote corner of the Northern Territory, the girls are inseperable, until Nona moves away at the age of nine. By the time she returns, they’re in Year 10 and things have changed. Rosie has lost interest in the community, preferring to hang out in the nearby mining town, where she goes to school with the glamorous Selena, and Selena’s gorgeous older brother Nick.When a political announcement highlights divisions between the Aboriginal community and the mining town, Rosie is put in a difficult position: will she be forced to choose between her first love and her oldest friend?

I'll Tell You Mine


Pip Harry - 2012
    How can Kate be herself, really herself, when she's hiding her big secret? The one that landed her in boarding school in the first place. She's buried it down deep but it always seems to surface. But then sometimes your soul mates sneak up on you in the most unlikely of places. Like Norris Grammar Boarding School for Girls, where's she's serving a life sentence, no parole, because her parents kicked her out.So, how do you take that first step and reveal your secrets when you're not sure that people want to see the real you?

Starfish Sisters


J.C. Burke - 2007
    At first they are not friends, as jealousy, insecurity, secrets, and lies abound. Yet they soon realize that their friendship brings out the best in each of them. But will it be too late to make the grade at the camp?

Please Don't Hug Me


Kay Kerr - 2020
    But things are not going to plan. Life is getting messy, and for Erin, who is autistic, that’s a big problem. She’s lost her job at Surf Zone after an incident that clearly was not her fault. Her driving test went badly even though she followed the instructions perfectly. Her boyfriend is not turning out to be the romantic type. And she’s missing her brother, Rudy, who left almost a year ago.But now that she’s writing letters to him, some things are beginning to make just a tiny bit of sense.

Eating Bull


Carrie Rubin - 2015
    Tossed into a storm of media buzz and bullying, the teen draws the attention of a serial killer who’s targeting the obese. Soon the boy, the nurse, and their loved ones take center stage in a delusional man’s drama. Through fiction, "Eating Bull" explores the real-life issues of bullying, fat-shaming, food addiction, and the food industry’s role in obesity.

the Trouble with Hate is...


Elizabeth Stevens - 2019
    …it’s safer. …it’s often not hate at all. The Granger and Drake families have been through everything together; the suicide of the eldest Granger son, the Drake patriarch’s cancer diagnosis, family holidays with only slight maiming, and more dance recitals than anyone would care to remember. Leilani Granger can’t stand the person Casper Drake has become, and Casper doesn’t even recognise his best mate’s little sister anymore. Loving each other is second-nature, but they don’t know how not to hate each other either. As they face losing Leilani’s only remaining brother and Casper’s best mate to his inner demons, old habits lead them back to each other for comfort. But, after one night of a deeper connection than either of them were ready for, the lines between the emotional and the physical start to blur. Leilani wasn’t the kind to lose herself in meaningless sex. Casper’s been doing it for years. It's the only time they can forget the storm clouds in their lives. It’s the only time they can remember the sunshine. It’s the only time hate doesn’t get in the way. But, the trouble with hate is…it’s often not hate at all. NB: Contains mature content. Not suitable for younger readers. Please be aware that this story is set in Australia and therefore uses Australian English spelling and syntax.

Willow Woods Academy for Witches


R.L. Weeks - 2018
    Fans of Harry Potter and Beautiful Creatures will love this series. Kat and Angie have just enrolled at Willow Woods Academy for Witches against their parent's wishes. They're thrown into a magical, mysterious world that is everything they dreamt it to be. However, when an ancient book falls into their laps, their worlds are turned upside down. 10 years ago, a rivalry between the covens of Willow Woods Academy and Morwood's School cost many their lives and cast a dark shadow over the academy. Now, Morwood's has opened again for the first time since the incident, and mysterious happenings are occurring - and they all seem to be surrounding Kat. School's never easy, and with her exams coming up, a stalker in the trees, and her family name shadowing doubt over what side she's on, the first year of school is more of an adventure than she had ever anticipated.

Pike


Anthony McGowan - 2015
    When local gangsters get involved, the brothers find themselves in too deep and in danger. A powerful companion piece to the Carnegie long-listed Brock.

Frankie


Shivaun Plozza - 2016
    Just ask the guy whose nose she broke. Or the cop investigating the burglary she witnessed, or her cheating ex-boyfriend, or her aunt who's tired of giving second chances.When a kid shows up claiming to be Frankie's half brother, it opens the door to a past she doesn't want to remember. And when that kid goes missing, the only person willing to help is a boy with stupidly blue eyes, a criminal record, and secrets of his own.Frankie's search for the truth could change her life, or cost her everything.

The Secret We Kept


Ayana - 2017
    Dealing with a mom who is mentally, emotionally, and physically abusive and classmates who bully her on a daily basis, she did not want anything else to add to her list of stress. But after spending one night with her high school crush and the school's most popular boy, Anthony Royal, things take a serious turn. Anthony Royal, boyfriend to Kimberly's worst enemy Veronica Mills, finds himself in a messy situation. He is tired of dealing with his overbearing parents who run his life and a girlfriend who cares about nobody but herself. Spending the night with Kimberly on their school field trip wasn't supposed to happen and getting her pregnant was definitely not in his plan. Knowing his parents will want to get rid of Kim and the baby, he decides not to tell them and help raise the baby with Kim in private. But what will happen when things start to get too complicated and spiral out of control? Will they still be able to keep their baby a secret or will it be revealed? Find out in The Secret We Kept...