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The post Read An Excerpt From ‘Unhallowed Halls’ by Lili Wilkinson appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

We apologise in advance to your TBR and bank account, but there’s so many fantastic upcoming young adult books hitting shelves between January and June 2025! There’s new releases from Brigid Kemmerer, Libba Bray, Neal Shusterman, Allison Saft, Tracy Deonn, Ava Reid, Jennifer Dugan, Dahlia Adler, Elizabeth Lim, Becky Albertalli, and many more, plus incredible debut novels!

Read on to discover new books hitting shelves in the first half of the year and be sure to check out our other 2025 round-ups too, including our Most Anticipated, Romance, Fantasy & Sci-Fi and Fiction lists.

JANUARY 2025 YA BOOKS

Breath of the Dragon by Fonda Lee and Shannon Lee

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A young warrior dreams of proving his worth in the elite Guardian Tournament, fighting not only for himself but the fate of everything he loves.

Bingsu For Two by Sujin Witherspoon

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This outrageously charming and infuriatingly adorable enemies-to-lovers coffee shop romance is perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Better Than the Movies.

Everything Is Poison by Joy McCullough

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This historical novel in prose and verse tells the story of a deadly secret hiding in plain sight and of the women who risk everything to provide care for those with nowhere else to turn, perfect for fans of Blood Water Paint and The Lost Apothecary.

Royal Heirs Academy by Lindsey Duga

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In this story filled with “romantic tension, royal drama, and family secrets” (Kristy Boyce), four teens living in a glamorous boarding school must compete in order to inherit a European kingdom.

Liar’s Kingdom by Christine Calella

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An Into the Woods-inspired fairy tale retelling where Cinderella never went to the ball and must lie to get her prince.

Brewed With Love by Shelly Page

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A cozy sapphic romantasy about a teen witch trying to keep her family’s apothecary up and running, with a little help from her ex-best friend—and first crush.

I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang

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From the bestselling, and award-winning author of If You Could See The Sun comes a new page-turning speculative YA about a girl who wishes she could be as perfect and successful as her cousin… then wakes up the next morning in her cousin’s body.

Ex Marks the Spot by Gloria Chao

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A swoony rivals-to-lovers romance . . . Family secrets that can’t stay buried . . . A globe-spanning treasure hunt with puzzles to solve . . . This latest YA novel by acclaimed writer Gloria Chao takes readers on a soaring adventure through love, loss, and the lively streets of Taiwan.

The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King by Harry Trevaldwyn

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Heartstopper meets Derry Girls in this wonderfully hilarious rom-com about finding your first love when your personality might be too big for the world around you.

The Queen’s Spade by Sarah Raughley

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In this riveting historical thriller inspired by true-life events, Belladonna meets Bridgerton as revenge, romance, and twisted secrets take center stage in Victorian England’s royal court when Sally, a kidnapped African princess and goddaughter to Queen Victoria, plots her way to take down the monarchy that stole her from her homeland.

Build A Girlfriend by Elba Luz

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A teen deep-dives into her dating history to uncover her mistakes, become the perfect girlfriend, and get revenge on the wrong guy so she can ride into the sunset with the right one in this debut rom-com.

Carving Shadows into Gold by Brigid Kemmerer

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Dangerous magic. Fateful choices. Broken promises. The spellbinding series by New York Times bestselling author Brigid Kemmerer continues.

FEBRUARY 2025 YA BOOKS

The Otherwhere Post by Emily J. Taylor

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The New York Times bestselling author of Hotel Magnifique returns with another glittering dark fantasy about a deadly mystery that spans worlds and a teenage girl who must risk everything to uncover the truth.

Wicked Darlings by Jordyn Taylor

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From the author of The Revenge Game comes a twisty YA thriller about the underbelly of Manhattan’s high society, where nothing is off-limits—not even murder.

Under the Same Stars by Libba Bray

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From New York Times-bestselling author Libba Bray comes an evocative and groundbreaking young adult historical mystery that examines truth, rebellion, reconciliation, and what must be sacrificed for a better world.

Needy Little Things by Channelle Desamours

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In this debut speculative YA mystery, a Black teen with premonition-like powers must solve her friend’s disappearance before she finds herself in the same danger, perfect for fans of Ace of Spades.

These Vengeful Wishes by Vanessa Montalban

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A vengeful female spirit with a thirst for justice ignites a teen girl’s rage in this new YA horror, perfect for fans of She Is a Haunting and House of Hollow.

The Wildest Things by Andrea Hannah

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In this sapphic Snow White retelling, if Snow is to save her kingdom from being ravaged by the Blight, she’ll have to kill the Evil Queen’s daughter…if she doesn’t fall in love with her first.

All Better Now by Neal Shusterman

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From New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman comes a young adult thriller about a world where happiness is contagious but the risks of catching it may be just as dangerous as the cure.

The Rose Bargain by Sasha Peyton Smith

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The Cruel Prince meets The Selection in this captivating duology opener brimming with heart-pounding romance, vicious competition, and beautiful, cruel fae, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Witch Haven, Sasha Peyton Smith.

Wings of Starlight by Allison Saft

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Brimming with magic and romance, a young fairy queen must form an unlikely alliance or risk an unspeakable danger destroying all she holds dear in this fantasy adventure from New York Times bestselling author Allison Saft.

Unlock the Dark by Sasa Hawk

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Perfect for fans of Brigid Kemmerer and Lexi Ryan, this debut romantasy stand-alone novel blends an immersive world, unique magic system, and swoon-worthy romance to create an unputdownable read that explores the great and terrible lengths to which love compels us to go.

Unhallowed Halls by Lili Wilkinson

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A teen girl travels to an exclusive boarding school after a deadly incident at her old school, but the wood-paneled halls of Agathion are built over centuries of secrets—including an ancient society which may have ties to demonic magic—in this dark academia fantasy perfect for fans of Curious Tides.

This Ends in Embers by Kamilah Cole

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Perfect for fans of Raybearer and Fourth Wing, this astonishing sequel to the bestselling novel So Let Them Burn doesn’t hold back. After all, there are no easy endings in war—especially when sisters are forced to fight on opposite sides.

MARCH 2025 YA BOOKS

All the Hidden Monsters by Amie Jordan

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With a crew so entertaining and unique―All the Hidden Monsters is funny, serious, scary―and you’ll never guess who did it. There’s a world below our own, but who is killing who in both of them?

Say a Little Prayer by Jenna Voris

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Saved! meets Casey McQuiston in this wry, heartfelt tale of a teen who’s taking her church camp by storm—one deadly sin at a time.

Nightweaver by R.M. Gray

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Filled with elemental magic, forbidden romance, and breathtaking twists, Nightweaver is a propulsive romantasy about an iron-willed heroine avenging her brother and discovering her destiny.

Oathbound by Tracy Deonn

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Tracy Deonn’s #1 New York Times bestselling Legendborn Cycle continues in the sensational third book about a dazzling contemporary fantasy world that blends Southern Black Girl Magic with secret societies and the legend of King Arthur!

When The Bones Sing by Ginny Myers Sain

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From New York Times bestselling author of Dark and Shallow Lies comes a new southern gothic supernatural thriller about a teen girl in a small Ozark town who can hear the bones of the dead.

Fable For The End of the World by Ava Reid

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The Last of Us meets The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in this stand-alone dystopian romance about survival, sacrifice, and love that risks everything.

Hangry Hearts by Jennifer Chen

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Jennifer Chen’s Hangry Hearts is a funny, big-hearted romance about friendship, family, and first love―and being brave enough to have it all.

Lovely Dark and Deep by Elisa A. Bonnin

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From author Elisa A. Bonnin comes Lovely Dark and Deep, a YA dark academia novel exploring magic, loneliness, and the power of found family.

What Wakes the Bells by Elle Tesch

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Inspired by an ominous Prague legend, What Wakes the Bells is a lavish gothic fantasy by debut author Elle Tesch that is perfect for fans of Adalyn Grace, Margaret Rogerson, and V.E. Schwab.

In The Company of Killers by Elora Cook

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Gossip Girl meets The Sopranos in this fast-paced drama about a teenage mafia heiress who would do anything to avenge her family, even join forces with her handsome enemy.

How to Survive a Slasher by Justine Pucella Winans

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You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight meets Scream in this YA slasher that turns classic horror tropes on their heads.

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

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The phenomenal fifth book in the Hunger Games series. Sunrise on the Reaping revisits the world of Panem twenty-four years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the Fiftieth Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell.

APRIL 2025 YA BOOKS

The Notorious Virtues by Alwyn Hamilton

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Bestselling Rebel of the Sands author Alwyn Hamilton is back with a glittering fantasy thriller about a glamorous media darling, a surprise heiress, and the magical competition of a lifetime.

Run Away With Me by Brian Selznick

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From #1 New York Times bestselling author/illustrator Brian Selznick, a profoundly romantic YA novel about two boys finding each other and falling in love over one summer in Rome.

The Floating World by Axie Oh

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From Axie Oh, the New York Times-bestselling author of The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, Final Fantasy meets Shadow and Bone in this lighthearted romantic fantasy reimagining the Korean legend of Celestial Maidens.

Somadina by Akwaeke Emezi

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From the National Book Award finalist and author of Pet comes a novel set in a magical West African world, about a teen girl who must save her missing twin while learning to navigate her own terrifying new powers.

Boys with Sharp Teeth by Jenni Howell

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We Were Liars meets The Raven Boys in this mind-bending YA debut about dark revenge, twisted desire, and the sinister secrets lurking behind the walls of an elite boarding school.

Pride or Die by C.L. Montblanc

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In this delightful dark comedy debut, when the members of an LGBTQ+ club find themselves accidentally framed for attempted murder, it’s up to them to clear their names before it’s too late.

The Coven Tendency by Zoe Hana Mikuta

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Zoe Hana Mikuta delivers a bloody and unrelenting fantasy about young witches dangling on the edge of love and obsession, of magic and madness, of life and death (and death and death and death). . .

If We Were a Movie by Zakiya N. Jamal

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Booksmart meets Phantom of the Megaplex in Zakiya N. Jamal’s debut enthralling enemies-to-lovers queer romance, set against the backdrop of a historic Black-owned movie theater, the quirky employees who work there, and the suburbs of Long Island. Perfect for fans of Leah Johnson and Today Tonight Tomorrow.

Nav’s Foolproof Guide to Falling in Love by Jessica Lewis

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Giving the new girl lessons in romance so she can woo your best friend couldn’t possibly go wrong…right? Perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Casey McQuiston, this romantic comedy from Jessica Lewis is packed with heart.

Murder Between Friends by Liz Lawson

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Two years ago, the murder of a neighbor tore three best friends apart–now the killer is going to walk free and the ex-friends are going to have to face the past–and each other–in another twisty thriller from the New York Times bestselling co-author of The Agathas.

Chaos King by Kacen Callender

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The explosive sequel to instant New York Times bestselling YA debut Infinity Alchemist by Kacen Callender.

Lady Knight by Amalie Howard

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The daughter of a duke defies the rules of London high society with the help of the resident rake—who just so happens to be her brother’s best friend—in this fun teen historical romance from the USA Today bestselling author of Queen Bee.

MAY 2025 YA BOOKS

The Thrashers by Julie Soto

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A twisty thrill-ride of unforgettable drama and suspense that “encapsulates the vulnerability of adolescents playing adult games” (Ali Hazelwood) from USA Today bestselling author Julie Soto, The Thrashers will keep you up at night desperate to read just one more page.

Audre and Bash Are Just Friends by Tia Williams

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Scorching-hot summer. Scorching-hot chemistry. Two teens can’t forget they’re just friends in this sweet, funny, electrifying romance from New York Times bestselling author Tia Williams. Perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Nicola Yoon.

Salvación by Sandra Proudman

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In this Latinx YA fantasy inspired by El Zorro, Lola de La Peña becomes the masked heroine Salvación in order to save her family and town from a man who would destroy it for the magic it contains…if she doesn’t fall in love with one of his men first.

The Lost Queen by Aimee Phan

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A heroine like no other, ancient magic unleashed, a fated epic battle–the first book in an enchanting YA fantasy duology inspired by Vietnamese lore, weaving magic, sisterhood, and self-discovery.

Summer Girls by Jennifer Dugan

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From the author of Some Girls Do comes a YA sapphic romance about two girls from different sides of the tracks.

This Moth Saw Brightness by A. A. Vacharat

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A weird and revelatory debut that vividly captures the dislocation of growing up BIPOC and neurodivergent in a country awash in both conspiracy theories and genuine conspiracies.

Come As You Are by Dahlia Adler

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Dahlia Adler’s Come As You Are is about refusing to accept less than you deserve, and realizing that the best relationships are with people who know exactly who you are.

Cruel is the Light by Sophie Clark

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An epic new fantasy about a demon hunter and a foot soldier thrown together in a centuries-old war. . . and the forbidden love that could change the course of history.

All-Nighter by Cecilia Vinesse

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Booksmart meets Today, Tonight, Tomorrow in this page-turning romp about two archnemeses—the valedictorian and the class slacker—who band together for a whirlwind night after discovering that they need each other to achieve their very different sunrise goals.  

Out of Step, into You by Ciera Burch

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Out of Step, into You is a sapphic contemporary romance following childhood friends turned cross-country team rivals who are forced to work together to win the state championship – for fans of She Gets the Girl.

Titan of the Stars by E.K. Johnston

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Alien meets The Titanic in this tense YA science fiction horror series by #1 New York Times bestselling author E.K. Johnston.

Death in the Cards by Mia P. Manansala

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The young adult debut from the award-winning author of Arsenic and Adobo! When a high school tarot reader’s latest client goes missing after a troubling reading, she must apply everything she’s learned from her private investigator mother to solve a case of her own.

JUNE 2025 YA BOOKS

Celestial Banquet by Roselle Lim

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Iron Chef meets The Hunger Games in Roselle Lim’s dazzling YA fantasy debut, following a young noodle chef who competes in a cutthroat cooking competition for the gods.

Heir of Storms by Lauryn Hamilton Murray

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RED QUEEN meets SHADOW AND BONE in this explosive start to a YA romantasy trilogy about dangerous magic, forbidden love, and a cut-throat competition for the throne in an empire where crowns are not inherited — they’re won.

The Beautiful Maddening by Shea Ernshaw

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From #1 New York Times bestselling author Shea Ernshaw comes a haunting romantic contemporary fantasy about a teen navigating her family’s love curse that blooms with their enchanted tulips every year.

Never Thought I’d End Up Here by Ann Liang

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From the author of the instant New York Times bestseller I Hope This Doesn’t Find You, Never Thought I’d End Up Here is another hilarious and romantic romcom from Ann Liang, this time following a former model determined to get revenge on the boy who ruined her life.

A Forgery of Fate by Elizabeth Lim

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A breathtaking romantic fantasy inspired by Beauty and the Beast about a girl who paints the future and a cursed dragon lord, bound by love and deception in a plot to bring down the gods.

Nobody in Particular by Sophie Gonzales

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Young Royals meets The Prince and Me when a disgraced princess falls for a new student at their all-girls boarding school, but the two must hide their forbidden love at all costs.

Kill Creatures by Rory Power

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From the bestselling author of Wilder Girls and queen of twisty narratives, Rory Power, comes her highly anticipated new Young Adult thriller.

A First Time for Everything by K.L. Walther

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From the New York Times bestselling author of The Summer of Broken Rules comes a fun new coming-of-age romance full of dating disasters, powerful firsts, and the importance of family.

Amelia, If Only by Becky Albertalli

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The beautiful and heartwarming new romance from Becky Albertalli, best-selling author of Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda.

A Treachery of Swans by A.B. Poranek

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From the New York Times bestselling author of Where the Dark Stands Still comes an atmospheric fantasy based on Swan Lake, following Odile as her plan to restore magic to her kingdom gets disrupted by a murder—forcing her to beg for help from the young woman whose identity she stole.

Among Ghosts by Rachel Hartman

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Set in the world of New York Times bestseller Seraphina, a boy on the run from a dragon—among other dangers—seeks refuge in a haunted abbey in this wholly original ghost story about what haunts us, and what connects us.

If We Survive This by Racquel Marie

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The Walking Dead meets Yellowjackets in If We Survive This, a tense and emotional young adult horror novel from award-winning author Racquel Marie about a teen girl leading a group of survivors on a perilous journey during the apocalypse.

What YA books are you looking forward to? Any other recommendations? Tell us in the comments below!

The post 72 Of The Most Anticipated YA Books Of 2025 appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and first chapter from Lili Wilkinson’s Deep Is The Fen, which is out April 16th 2024!

Merry doesn’t need a happily-ever-after. Her life in the charming, idyllic town of Candlecott is fine just as it is. Simple, happy, and with absolutely no magic. Magic only ever leads to trouble.

But Merry’s best friend, Teddy, is joining the Toadmen—a secret society who specialize in backward thinking and suspiciously supernatural traditions—and Merry is determined to stop him. Even if it means teaming up with the person she hates most: her academic archnemesis, Caraway Boswell, an ice-cold snob who hides his true face under a glamour.

An ancient Toad ritual is being held in the sinister Deeping Fen, and if Merry doesn’t rescue Teddy before it’s finished, she’ll lose him forever. But the Toadmen have been keeping dangerous secrets, and so has Caraway. The farther Merry travels into Deeping Fen’s foul waters, the more she wonders if she’s truly come to save her friend . . . or if she’s walking straight into a trap.

There’s nothing the Toadmen love more than a damsel in distress.

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The post Read An Excerpt From ‘Deep Is the Fen’ by Lili Wilkinson appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Since then, she’s written 14 more books for children of varying ages, completed a PhD in creative writing from the University of Melbourne which examined how books for teenagers create activism for social change within teen readers, and established herself as a key figure within the Australian Young Adult literary scene.

Both of us are Melbournians, so when we spoke, we were both deep in the midst of the Stage 4 lockdown. Yet despite the destabilising experience of the pandemic, by the end of this year, Wilkinson will have released three books; her new YA thriller, The Erasure Initiative; the impetus for our interview, and two books for younger readers: Hodgepodge: How to Make a Pet Monster 1, and 2 (the second is set for release in December). Amid this, she’s also homeschooling her son who is in his first year of school this year. “I taught him to read,” she told me, “which I’m pretty proud of,” she adds. Fairly so.

Having written 15 books to date, it makes sense that even through a pandemic, she would keep writing, despite having, amongst other things, a son “who does not respect my creative process at all.” She speaks quickly, as though she’s got so much in her head that that she’s trying to ensure she gets out, punctuating her words with gestures that make the pink-coloured ends of her hair swing gently. It’s no surprise that this dynamic demeanour influences her writing routine and approach. She says firmly that she rejects the “cult of artistic suffering [a term coined by Elizabeth Gilbert when she interviewed Tom Waits for GQ many years ago]”; “I don’t like the idea of waiting for inspiration to strike, it sounds like procrastination to me […]the idea of being a writer or any kind of artist is that it’s different to do it as a hobby and as a job. It’s a great privilege to do it as a job, but there’s a lot of misinformation created about it.”

The Erasure Initiative, which was released on August 4, is a Young Adult thriller where questions of morality and ethics intersect with the mystery presented from the first page; a girl wakes up on a self-driving bus with no memory of who she is or how she got to be on the bus. Her nametag says Cecily, but she has no way of knowing whether that’s true. There are six other people on the bus, and they are asked variants of the classic trolley problem (one being ‘you are in a moving vehicle. Before you the road forks. Ahead, there is one human. On the side road there are ten cats. You can press a button and the buss will turn off onto the side road. The bus will not stop. Do you press the button?’). As the scenarios progress, the stakes become increasingly higher.

I saw Wilkinson at YA Day 2019, back in the days when author and book events actually meant being in the same physical room as other people. There, she teased The Erasure Initiative, and divulged that although she’d pitched a fantasy book (which she has in fact written but is as yet unpublished, although she loves it “more than anything I’ve ever done”), her publisher effectively gave her a brief: “write another thriller. […] You’ve done girl on a bunker, girl in a cult, you know, girl on a plane?” I’m intrigued at the process behind what is effectively, writing something on demand, so I ask her about it.

“I quite like writing to a brief,” she admits, although she quickly qualifies that doesn’t mean inspiration immediately struck. “I made list after list, I watched all of Black Mirror again. I knew I wanted something slightly speculative because that would be different enough from stuff I’d done before to keep me interested. I came up with a whole heap of different ideas. I thought about just-around-the-corner space exploration, floating trash islands and climate change, but nothing was really sticking. And then I woke up in the middle of the night with this image of a girl in a self-driving vehicle…originally in the city, and she has no memory of how she got into the car, and can’t get out. My initial image of her was banging on the windows of the car, and nobody in the city noticing her. The idea was of being somewhere really busy but alone and not able to escape. That didn’t make it into the book, but that idea of a girl trapped inside a self-driving vehicle with no memory was what formed the basis of the book.”

From the confident way Wilkinson speaks, it’s obvious that she views the world through a deeply analytical lens. When it comes to writing, she’s a planner, “with this book even more than usual,” and approaches her work in a profoundly cerebral, intellectual way. She admits, “I love to deconstruct other people’s books, too.” It makes sense, given the PhD.

She speeds up even more as she gets into talking about her research, passion and the years that go into that kind of endeavour enlivening her manner further. “The research question was: does young adult literature about activism make teenagers more interested in activism? The answer as with all good PhD or postgraduate research is: maybe. All the books I could find that were really specifically about activism; kids engaging in activism that promoted an ideological position, were not books that made young people go out and engage in activism. The books that gave young people questions to think about that would help them go out and interrogate their own worldview, or the things that they’d been taught […] but not given them the answers; the books that asked the questions but then gave young people enough respect and space to come up with their own answers were the books that created readers who were more engaged in activism and politics.”

But her research wasn’t just about how readers interact with texts, it was about what writers put down on the page, or “levels of ideology in text.” She goes on to explain what she means by that: “So you have a surface level, which is what the author wants you to know about what they think. I used JK Rowling as an example. There’s the ethos on the page in terms of what her characters are saying: ‘let’s free the house elves, mudbloods are just as good as pureblood wizards, girls are just as good as boys’, but when you peel back a layer and look at the implicit ideology, none of that is true. Every house elf who is liberated dies or becomes an alcoholic, there are no married women with jobs except for one who dies horrifically, and in the epilogue, there are no new pairings between wizards and mudbloods. Everything she said she wasn’t standing for, she showed us that she does.”

I ask how the research has altered her writing. Her immediate response is to say that thinks “more about what I’m saying, then what I’m really saying,” then notes that this is particularly important given “the changing ideology of a society. I’m doing my best to listen and learn and become a better person, and better writer, and to become more inclusive and to do that respectfully – I’m going to make mistakes, I have and will continue to, but I’m going to try hard not to. That’s slowed down my writing, not in a detrimental manner but I’m more cautious and aware of potentially harmful tropes.”

That deep interest in ideology and the intellectual seems to have permeated The Erasure Initiative with the second half more explicitly engaging with Greek philosophical concepts and their intersection with the questions of morality and ethics which dominate the story. “At the time of writing, I was playing a lot of Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey,” she says with a laugh. It’s a great game, and despite avidly playing videogames myself – and arguing that they should be viewed as legitimate forms of narrative – I’m still pleasantly surprised that Wilkinson games. She continues. “But I am interested in Greek myth and philosophy. The fact that we keep coming back to it a couple of thousand years later is quite telling.”

One of the running themes within The Erasure Initiative is the power and influence of massive tech conglomerates. One doesn’t have to look far for the inspiration for such a theme given the massive accumulation of wealth and power of figures such as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos or Tesla’s Elon Musk. These men have the power to massively alter the state of the world as we know it, and the ego to match. The framework provided by Ancient Greek philosophy could easily be used – or warped – to justify their behaviour. Wilkinson actually admis that she was directly inspired by Musk: “The mythologising around Elon Musk is full on, and he absolutely buys into himself, that he’s going to save the world, and I think it’s hugely dangerous for any one person to have that much money and that much power.”

Wilkinson’s last two books feel eerily prophetic given the Covid-19 pandemic. Her 2018 Young Adult thriller, After the Lights Go Out, which was shortlisted for the Gold Inky award, charts what happens when a solar flare sends out an electromagnetic pulse which wipes out all technology; effectively causing a mini apocalypse.

I ask her how what we’re currently experiencing would affect how she’d write After the Lights Go Out if she were writing it today. She pauses. “Well, I already put in a scene where we run out of toilet paper,” she says, taking a moment to laugh. “But I think the political aspect has been very interesting […] I think I could bring in [questions of] are you pro or anti science. I find that development over the last decade very interesting that there are people who are so rigidly anti-science in many different ways, that it’s almost cult-y; anti-vaxx, anti-mask, people who are paranoid about 5G towers, that technology and science cannot be trusted, global warming is a hoax and the rise of that I find disturbing but also interesting, so I probably would have incorporated some of that into it.”

However, The Erasure Initiative has its own oddly prophetic aspects to the time we’re living through. Cecily and her fellow passengers are trapped in a small space, powerless to get out. Anecdotally, people have reported their responses to the various lockdowns imposed upon the population to curb the infection of the coronavirus, many of which involve looking inward. Beyond this, the behaviour of people has varied widely as we’ve seen the best and worst of human behaviour. We talk about this a bit, and she notes that while “there are always people who are going to be isolationist and ruin it for everyone else, in Australia, and Melbourne particularly, when we walk in the lockdown, people put teddy bears and rainbows in the windows, or leave out seedlings or their own produce for people,” which brings a measure of comfort. Although, “I’d like to see that a bit more broadly for other issues, too,” she adds, with a hopeful smile.

That optimism about people critically assessing their worldview and themselves and choosing to do better is a running theme across Wilkinson’s oeuvre. I make this observation, curious about whether this is a deliberate choice. Her answer is immediate. “Being curious and critical is hugely important to my worldview, and pretty much everything in the world that I’m suspicious of don’t do that or actively prohibit that. The world is really, really interesting and the more we think about that and each other, the better we’re going to be. It’s definitely something I try to promote in my books.” However, she circles back to her PhD and her finding that didactic messages in books don’t necessarily compel people to follow those directives. “So my own worldview does permeate my books, but I do try to explore ideas where I don’t think there’s necessarily a rigid right or wrong answer, and I definitely explored that with After the Lights Go Out and moreso with The Erasure Initiative; I wanted to come up with scenarios where there are no clear answers, no definite wrong or right thing to do. Any worldview that says there is always a right or wrong is dangerous.”

I’m still thinking about my conversation with Lili days after it took place. I remember something she told us back in the State Library about book-to-film adaptations; the first time I ever met her, actually. She had illustrated how films could show things that books had to describe, picking the scene from The Return of the King when the beacons are lit as Gondor calls for aid. “In the book, it’s just a list of names,” I remember her telling us, “but in the film, it’s this spectacular visual moment.” It’s little wonder that she has risen to become such a successful and beloved author – she has a knack for making things stick with you long after the moment, a fact to which anyone has read her books can attest.

The post Interview With Lili Wilkinson, Author of ‘The Erasure Initiative’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Drawing on a science-fiction (ish) setting, the novel is told from the first-person perspective of a girl who wakes up on a self-driving bus without any of her memories. She doesn’t know where she is, she has no idea who she is, and she doesn’t know any of the other people on the bus with her. Her nametag says she is called Cecily, but she has no way of verifying that. It’s an intriguing premise that’s only heightened by what happens next. Cecily, along with the other six passengers, are asked to answer several versions of the classic trolley problem (you are in a trolley, ahead on the tracks are 6 people strapped down, you can pull a lever which will divert the trolley onto a different set of tracks where there is 1 person strapped down, do you pull the lever?). From the outset then, the book is intriguing and it pulls the reader along with the multitude of unanswered questions. What is the ultimate purpose of this? Why this group of people? How and when would such a series of simulations end – a bus after all, isn’t exactly a long-term place of residence.

Following the runaway success of The Good Place (and who didn’t love that twist at the end of Season 1?), this book feels like the more mature (and at times, more sophisticated) dark twist on the philosophical themes, ideas, and questions the series introduced – even the question of salvation. I don’t want to say too because the experience of starting with the same blank slate as Cecily and joining her on the journey of reveals is part of the enjoyment to be experienced within the narrative. It means that while you are guided by Cecily’s interpretations of the information and facts, you can also step back and assess what’s going on and form your own conclusions. After all, isn’t that part of the fun that accompanies reading a thriller? I’m pleased to report that I picked one and a half of the twists.

Many of us ask ourselves, “am I a good person?” The story, subtly at first then with increasing urgency, puts the question before Cecily, and then adds to that a different question: ‘how do our experiences shape the kind of person we are?’ Of course, Cecily, and everybody else on the bus, don’t know who they were in their past lives, so the decisions they make regarding the moral problems put before them, the way they interact with each other, and the way they respond to the snippets of information which begin to emerge about who they were, raises an interesting series of questions which don’t always have clear-cut answers. The way the narrative unfolds serves to offer some answers, but, to my mind at least, leaves the ultimate conclusion in the hands of the reader.

Around the halfway mark, the story and scenario shift (yes, it was due to one of the twists I had picked – clever me). My first reaction as I was reading was to feel my suspension of disbelief waver as the complexity of the moral conundrums became increasingly severe, and practical rather than theoretical. However, I reflected on this quite a bit after I’d finished reading the book, and I realised that the whole story is about thought experiments. Thought experiments by their nature are isolated from reality, they allow us to entertain extremes without actually having to face the realities of what they are asking us. To return to the obvious parallel, I’m reminded of episodes 6 of season 2 in The Good Place, which is actually titled ‘the trolley problem’. Chidi is trying to explain ethics to Michael who is struggling to gasp the abstract nature of the scenarios before him, so they act them out. Suddenly made manifest, what becomes feels distant suddenly takes on an entirely different dimension. It’s the same in the second half of The Erasure Initiative; a series of moral conundrums is put before Cecily but in practical settings. As a result, they do feel extreme, as do the actions she chooses similarly feel extreme, but it works within the context of the premise that Wilkinson sets up.

In addition, nods to contemporary concerns (that certain companies have more power than countries, questions of election interference, flaws within the justice system) ground the plot, reminding us that moral questions and concerns are things we place importance on for good reason, and have insinuated themselves into my thoughts long after I turned the last page.

I was excited to pick up The Erasure Initiative and I was not disappointed. Despite its intensity, it’s a great escape from the current things plaguing (literally) us at the present. I recommend.

The Erasure Initiative is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.

Will you be picking up The Erasure Initiative? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

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.

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Court of Lions by Somaiya Daud
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Court of Lions is the long-awaited second and final installment in the “smart, sexy, and devilishly clever” Mirage series by Somaiya Daud (Renée Ahdieh, New York Times bestselling author of The Beautiful)!

More Than Just a Pretty Face by Syed M. Masood
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

For fans of Becky Albertalli and Jenny Han, a sweetly funny YA rom-com debut about falling in love, familial expectations, and being a Renaissance Man.

Bookish and the Beast by Ashley Poston
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A tale as old as time is made new in Ashley Poston’s fresh, geeky retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

The Erasure Initiative by Lili Wilkinson
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

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.

Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland
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Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe meets Roswell by way of Laurie Halse Anderson in this astonishing, genre-bending novel about a Mexican American teen who discovers profound connections between immigration, folklore, and alien life.

Now That I’ve Found You by Kristina Forest
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A YA novel about searching for answers, love, and your eccentric grandma in all the wrong places.

The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed
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Perfect for fans of The Hate U Give, this unforgettable coming-of-age debut novel explores issues of race, class, and violence through the eyes of a wealthy black teenager whose family gets caught in the vortex of the 1992 Rodney King Riots.

Six Angry Girls by Adrienne Kisner
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Adrienne Kisner’s Six Angry Girls is a story of mock trial, feminism, and the inherent power found in a pair of knitting needles.

You Were Made For Me by Jenna Guillaume
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Katie didn’t mean to create a boy. A boy like a long-lost Hemsworth brother: six-foot tall with floppy hair and eyes like the sky on a clear summer’s day; whose lips taste like cookie dough and whose skin smells like springtime. A boy who is completely devoted to Katie. He was meant to be perfect.  But he was never meant to exist.

Every Little Piece of My Heart by Non Pratt
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

When Sophie receives a parcel from her best friend, Freya, she expects it to contain the reason why Freya left town so suddenly, without goodbyes and without explanation. Instead, she finds a letter addressed to Win, a girl Freya barely knew – or did she? As more letters arrive for more people on the periphery of Freya’s life, Sophie and Win begin to piece together who Freya was and why she left. Sometimes it’s not about who’s gone, but about who they leave behind…

Skywatchers by Carrie Arcos
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

From National Book Award Finalist Carrie Arcos comes a thrilling, genre-bending mystery about the history of the Cold War and the UFO phenomenon. Perfect for fans of In the Woods by Tana French and Netflix’s Stranger Things.

Heartbreak Boys by Simon James Green
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A hilarious story of heartbreaks and hijinks from award-winning author Simon James Green.

What August 2020 YA releases are you looking forward to? Tell us in the comments below!

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After The Lights Go Out is a terrifying yet hope-filled story of disaster, deceit, love, sacrifice and survival. – Fleur Ferris

The thing that makes Wilkinson’s novel scarier is the fact that the events which occur throughout are all things that could happen. What begins innocently enough when a father drags children to the mining town of Jubilee, which is literally the middle of nowhere, this feeling of innocence dissolves quickly as this YA novel becomes what’s being described as this decades’ ‘Tomorrow When The War Began’.

After what Prue Palmer believes is an electromagnetic pulse, caused by a solar flare, it takes out the power in their town. Prue and her twin sisters Grace and Blythe fear the worst for their father as he was at the mine where most of the population of Jubilee work. The girls must make a choice: do they stick to the plan to head to The Paddock, the bunker their father prepared which is stocked with enough provisions to last the four of them years? Or do they go against all their father has drilled into them and band together with the people of the town and share their knowledge and skills, something their father would have hated and would have punished them for doing. The psychological hold he has over his daughters borders insanity, and each time Pru has to make a decision Ricks voice is in her head saying ‘Good Girl’ to the decision that he has slammed into her head.

Wilkinson is given the chance to explore what extremes people would go to in a post-apocalyptic situation, which leads to some absolute gems of wisdom and insight. In a world without the luxury of modern technology—no cars to deliver stock to stores, no way of contacting the outside world—how desperate will the people of Jubilee become? It’s also so great to see realistic and accurate representation of indigenous people and culture through the novel since it is set in a remote part of the Kimberly region. Wilkinson sought permission from and learned about the traditional land owners which makes the novel feel even more authentic.

This book also makes the reader actually question their morals, who lives and dies in this new society? These are just some of the things that we are made to think about.

When the supplies in Jubilee run out people begin to turn on each other, people begin to get desperate, and the sisters decide to keep their bunker a secret (good girl). But in a turn of events the towns people find out about The Paddock, will Prue’s family be shunned, or will the townspeople of Jubilee forgive the fact that they’ve been lied to all this time?

This book is unputdownable with a thrill a minute and filled with adventure, which makes it totally worth how ever much time that it will take to read it. The twists and turns throughout you’ll never see coming and the characters are so well-developed, you’ll fall in love with them. Lili Wilkinson is on to a winner here, well researched, and perfectly executed!

All The Lights Go Out is now available on Book Depository, and at other good book retailers.

Have you read All The Lights Go Out? Or will you be checking it out? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

What happens when the lights go off after what might truly be an end-of-the-world event? How do you stay alive? Who do you trust? How much do you have to sacrifice?
‘After the Lights Go Out is a terrifying yet hope-filled story of disaster, deceit, love, sacrifice and survival.’ – Fleur Ferris

Seventeen-year-old Pru Palmer lives with her twin sisters, Grace and Blythe, and their father, Rick, on the outskirts of an isolated mining community. The Palmers are doomsday preppers. They have a bunker filled with non-perishable food and a year’s worth of water. Each of the girls has a ‘bug out bag’, packed with water purification tablets, protein bars, paracord bracelets and epipens for Pru’s anaphylaxis.

One day while Rick is at the mine, the power goes out. At the Palmers’ house, and in the town. No one knows why. All communication is cut. It doesn’t take long for everything to unravel. In town, supplies run out and people get desperate. The sisters decide to keep their bunker a secret. The world is different; the rules are different. Survival is everything, and family comes first.

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