This is Shyness

von Leanne Hall

Winner of the Text Prize for Young Adult and Children's Writing, 2009.

In the suburb of Shyness, where the sun doesn't rise and the border crackles with a strange energy, Wolfboy meets a stranger at the Diabetic Hotel. She tells him her name is Wildgirl, and she dares him to be her guide through the endless night.

But then they are mugged by the sugar-crazed Kidds. And what plays out is moving, reckless...dangerous. There are things that can only be said in the dark. And one long night is time enough to change your life.

'This is Shyness is sure to be a hit with imaginative teenagers not convinced by the vampire genre...Hall's vision, channelled through her characters Wolfboy and Wildgirl...is sophisticated, funny and dead on. Their nocturnal meanderings, bizarre encounters and burgeoning romance are handled with unusual skill. This is Shyness is not so much a work of fantasy as a novel that works by fine-tuning the ordinary to illuminate its...