A Killing Frost

The final part of a trilogy set in an imagined future when Australia has been invaded and a small group of teenagers conduct their own guerilla warfare. The story may seem like wartime heroics but the intensity of the writing makes this a powerful and compulsive read which crosses the divide between children's and adult writing, partly for the epic drama of its plot and some depth of thought and feeling in the central character, Ellie. It's gripping and emotion-straining and leaves you feeling as battered as the kids themselves.