Welcome to Lisa’s YA Book Club!  

The book review will be posted on the 15th day of each month, so please join us mid-August for a discussion. Are you in? Let me know by commenting on this blog post, send me a tweet @LisaFleetwood or join the discussion with me on Goodreads 


Claire ZornThis month I have chosen the YA novel The Sky So Heavy by Claire Zorn published by the University of Queensland Press.

Shortlisted for the Children’s Books Council of Australia – Book of the Year Older Reader, the Aurealis Awards – Best Young Adult Novel, and Long-listed for the Inky Awards – this debut novel has been very well-recieved and will make a great read for book club. I hope you can join me this month.

With themes about family, nuclear warfare, courage, death, spirituality and survival, I am looking forward to the discussion about this book. How would we react if nuclear missiles were detonated right now and a nuclear winter descended upon us? What is important would become very clear, very quickly. Food, water and warmth.

Read the first chapter for The Sky So Heavy HERE.


Description: A haunting dystopian novel in the vein of John Marsden from a brand new voice in Australian YA literature. For Fin, it’s just like any other day – racing for the school bus, bluffing his way through class and trying to remain cool in front of the most sophisticated girl in his universe. Only it’s not like any other day because, on the other side of the world, nuclear missiles are being detonated. When Fin wakes up the next morning, it’s dark, bitterly cold and snow is falling. There’s no internet, no phone, no TV, no power and no parents. Nothing Fin’s learnt in school could have prepared him for this. With his parents missing and dwindling food and water supplies, Fin and his younger brother, Max, must find a way to survive in a nuclear winter … all on their own. When things are at their most desperate, where can you go for help?


Buy it here: Readings, Bookworld, Booktopia or download from iBooks or Amazon.


Claire Zorn picClaire ProtectedAuthor Bio: Claire Zorn lives on the south coast of New South Wales with her husband and two small children. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Post Graduate Diploma in writing. She is a music lover, retro furniture collector and amateur swim-club enthusiast. Claire’s new novel The Protected is out on the 23rd July 2014.

For more information see Claire’s website or the University of Queensland Press


♦Don’t forget to enter my Book Giveaway! Click HERE to read last months Book Club review and discussion – Share the review on social media to enter the draw. Entries close 31st July 2014.

Read all of my Book Reviews HERE 


 I will read this book as part of the Australian Women Writers challenge 2014. To join click here

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