Vikki Wakefield

A gritty, ultimately triumphant novel from one of Australia’s most loved YA writers, the author of award-winning Friday Brown

This Is How We Change the Ending

Everyone knows seventeen-year-old Grace Foley is a bit mad. She's a prankster and a risk-taker, and she's not afraid of anything—except losing. As part of the long-running feud between two local schools in Swanston, Grace accepts a challenge to walk the pipe. That night she experiences something she can't explain. The funny girl isn't laughing anymore. She's haunted by voices and visions—but nobody believes a girl who cries wolf. As she’s drawn deeper into a twenty-year-old mystery surrounding missing girl Hannah Holt, the thin veil between this world and the next begins to slip. She can no longer tell what's real or imagined—all she knows is the ghosts of Swanston, including that of her own mother, are restless. It seems one of them has granted her an extraordinary gift at a terrible price. Everything about her is changing—her body, her thoughts, even her actions seem to belong to a stranger. Grace is losing herself, and her friends don’t understand. Is she moving closer to the truth? Or is she heading for madness?

Ballad for a Mad Girl

Seventeen-year-old Friday Brown is on the run—running to escape memories of her mother and of the family curse. And of a grandfather who’d like her to stay. She’s lost, alone and afraid. Silence, a street kid, finds Friday and she joins him in a gang led by beautiful, charismatic Arden. When Silence is involved in a crime, the gang escapes to a ghost town in the outback. In Murungal Creek, the town of never leaving, Friday must face the ghosts of her past. She will learn that sometimes you have to stay to finish what you started—and often, before you can find out who you are, you have to become someone you were never meant to be. Friday Brown is the breathtaking second novel from the author of the award-winning All I Ever Wanted. Vikki Wakefield is an astonishing talent.

Friday Brown

"Friday Brown and her mother Vivienne live their lives on the road, but when Vivienne succumbs to cancer, 17-year-old Friday decides to search for the father she never knew. Her journey takes her to a slum of orphans and runaways, ruled by a charismatic leader named Arden"--

Friday Never Leaving

At seventeen, Jacklin Bates is all grown up. She’s dropped out of school. She’s living with her runaway sister, Trudy, and she’s in secret, obsessive love with Luke, who doesn’t love her back. She’s stuck in Mobius—a dying town with the macabre suicide forest its only attraction—stuck working in the roadhouse and babysitting her boss’s demented father. A stranger sets up camp in the forest and the boy next door returns; Jack’s father moves into the shed and her mother steps up her campaign to punish Jack for leaving, too. Trudy’s brilliant façade is cracking and Jack’s only friend, Astrid, has done something unforgivable. Jack is losing everything, including her mind. As she struggles to hold onto the life she thought she wanted, Jack learns that growing up is complicated—and love might be the biggest mystery of all.

Inbetween Days

What happens to a family when a child goes missing? In a busy street market, Abbie lets go of six-year-old Sarah’s hand. She isn’t a bad mother, just exhausted. When she turns around, her daughter isn’t there. Six years later, Abbie is in love and getting married. But her fragile peace is constantly threatened: not knowing what happened to Sarah is like living with a curse. Then she receives a phone call from an unknown number. A man claims to know what happened to Sarah, but if Abbie tells anyone or fails to follow his instructions, she’ll never find out. How far will Abbie go to know the truth? Prize-winning and hugely popular author Vikki Wakefield turns her hand to the psychological thriller in this unputdownable novel that will disturb your dreams! Vikki Wakefield writes fiction for adults and young adults. Her novels All I Ever Wanted, Friday Brown, Inbetween Days and Ballad for a Mad Girl have been shortlisted for numerous awards. This Is How We Change the Ending was a Book of the Year in the 2020 CBCA Awards. After You Were Gone, a psychological thriller, is her first novel for adults. She is working on her second one. ‘Elegantly written and utterly chilling. A dark and twisting novel of psychological suspense that will have you turning pages and checking your locks.’ Emma Viskic, author of Those Who Perish ‘Gripping, propulsive, and unbearably tense – the best psychological thriller I’ve read in years.’ Mark Brandi, author of The Others ‘After You Were Gone cleaves open ideas of friendship and family, revealing the complex inner workings of our closest relationships. In doing so, Wakefield achieves what all good crime writers aspire to do: she forces the reader to stress-test their own sense of morality. She looks you in the eye and asks what would you do if the unthinkable happened? What would you sacrifice? How far would you go? At once tense and atmospheric, After You Were Gone is also brilliantly plotted and populated with complex characters. An exciting new voice in Australian crime.’ J.P. Pomare, author of The Last Guests ‘Beautifully written and superbly unnerving, After You Were Gone is the very best kind of thriller: tender and wise as well as pulse-poundingly tense, with characters so real you want to linger with them even as you race through the pages, desperate to find out what happens. Absolutely wonderful, I could not have loved or admired it more.’ Anna Downes, author of The Safe Place

After You Were Gone

Mim knows what she wants, and where she wants to go—anywhere but home, stuck in the suburbs with her mother who won't get off the couch, and two brothers in prison. She's set herself rules to live by, but she's starting to break them. Now Mim has to retrieve a lost package for her mother. Does this make her a drug runner? Why is a monster dog called Gargoyle hidden in the back shed? And Jordan, the boy she sent Valentines to for years, why is he now suddenly a creep? How come there's a huge gap between her and her best friend, Tahnee? And who is the mysterious girl next door who moans at night? Over the nine days before her seventeenth birthday, Mim's life turns upside down. She has problems, and she's determined to solve them herself. But in the end, she works out who her people are, and the same things look entirely different.

All I Ever Wanted

Ein Coming-of-Age-Roman und ein Psycho-Thriller, so gefährlich und so sagenhaft schön wie das Australische Outback Vikki Wakefield erzählt von der siebzehnjährigen Friday, die auf der Flucht ist – vor den Erinnerungen an ihre Mutter, vor ihrem Großvater und vor sich selbst. Mit einer Straßengang, angeführt von der schönen und charismatischen Arden, zieht sie in eine Geisterstadt weit draußen ins Outback. Als einer der Jungen aus der Gang tot aufgefunden wird, findet Friday heraus, wer dahinter steckt und begibt sich dadurch selbst in große Gefahr. In einem atemberaubenden Showdown lernt sie, dass man manchmal bleiben muss, um zu beenden, was man begonnen hat. Und dass man manchmal erst jemand werden muss, der man nie sein wollte, bevor man herausfindet, wer man wirklich ist. Mit großem literarischen Können schafft die australische Autorin Vikki Wakefield faszinierende Charaktere, die noch lange im Gedächtnis bleiben.

Zeit zu gehen, Friday Brown

Winner of the Adelaide Festival Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction, 2012. Over the nine days before her seventeenth birthday, Mim's life turns upside down. In the end, the same things look entirely different. Rule number one: I will not turn out like my mother. Mim knows what she wants, and where she wants to go. Anywhere but home-in a dead suburb and with a mother who won't get off the couch. Her two older brothers are in prison, so now Mim has to retrieve a lost package for her mother. Does this make her a drug runner? She's set herself rules to live by, but she's starting to break them. And she can't seem to find answers to all the new questions: Why is the monster dog Gargoyle hidden in the back shed? Why is the boy she sent Valentines to for years now suddenly a creep? And who is the mysterious girl next door who moans at night? Vikki Wakefield's first young adult novel, All I Ever Wanted, won the 2012 Adelaide Festival Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction, as did her second novel, Friday Brown, in 2014. Friday Brown was also an Honour Book, Children's Book Council of Australia, 2013. Among other awards, it was shortlisted for the prestigious Prime Minister's Awards, 2013. Her new novel, Inbetween Days, will be published in October 2015. Vikki lives in the Adelaide foothills with her family. 'One of the most memorable YA books I've ever read. Original, real, startling and beautiful.' Cath Crowley, author of Graffiti Moon 'One of the best debut novels I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Vikki Wakefield has gifted the Australian Publishing world, and readers of Young Adult Fiction, a superior tale, full to brimming with formidable characters and an exquisite protagonist.' The Book Gryffin 'While it's both a thriller and a gritty romance, for me All I Ever Wanted is first and foremost a sparkling journey into hope. As the story drives toward its surprising conclusion, we're left as stunned as Mim as she discovers "that there are so many ways to tell a person you love them." I loved this book.' Paul Griffin '[An] absorbing young adult novel...Despite the grim setting, the characters are richly and lovingly drawn with smart-mouthed, determined Mim a particular delight. At the core of the book is the idea that things (and people) are not what they seem. It's nothing new as a concept, but it's executed with winningly original style, wit and heart. Think Underbelly meets Hating Alison Ashley.' Big Issue 'Vikki Wakefield's first novel walks the tightrope between fate and human agency. Despair is leavened by shards of hope; this is not Young Adult literature that peddles misery or wallows in a nihilistic fug. Mim is one of those resilient protagonists who still wields a degree of control over her life....Like her protagonist, Wakefield plays with the reader's prejudices. Little by little, the restrictive labels forced on various characters are seen to be products of convenience or carelessness, rather than truth...All I Ever Wanted is a thoughtful and impressive debut, and Wakefield a talent to watch.' Australian Book Review 'A beautifully-written account of one young girl trying to claw her way out of the circumstances into which she was born...It's a story about daring to dream and the transformative power of hope.' Sunday Tasmanian

Vikki Wakefield

About

Books

Join the club