Inbetween Days
Authors: Vikki Wakefield
PRAISE FOR VIKKI WAKEFIELD AND
FRIDAY BROWN
Winner, 2014 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature for Young Adults
Shortlisted, 2013 Victorian Premier's Book Award for Young Adult Fiction
Shortlisted, 2013 Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA)
Honour Book, 2013 CBCA (Children's Book Council Award) Older Readers
Shortlisted, 2013 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction
Shortlisted, 2013 Queensland Literary Awards, for Young Adult Fiction
Shortlisted, 2013 Western Australian Premier's Book Awards Shortlisted, 2013 Gold Inky, Centre for Youth Literature
* * *
â
Friday Brown
will haunt you long after you've turned the last page. Vikki Wakefield weaves the fantastical and the gritty into a harrowing, heartbreaking, intensely suspenseful story that's as dangerous and starkly gorgeous as the Australian outback. It will break your heart then put the pieces back together in a new way. I absolutely loved this book.' Libba Bray
âA feat of storytelling.'
Sydney Morning Herald
,
Saturday Age
and
Canberra Times
âWhen I finish a Vikki Wakefield novel I get a tiny ache in my heart because I'm already missing her gutsy characters.' Melina Marchetta
â
Friday Brown
is every superlative you can throw at it. It's a masterpieceâ¦There are no words to describe this novel adequately. There is only humbled, awestruck, heartbroken silence.'
Mostly Reading YA
âThat she's a new shining star for Australian YA is a given. But her explorations in
Friday Brown
are urban and fantastical, coming-of-age mixed with thriller⦠Vikki Wakefield writes the tough stuffâ¦Her characters are so vivid and endearing, or vicious and infuriating that she makes you feel everything down to your bones. 5/5.'
Alpha Reader blog
âThe gripping story and rich characters took me to places where I didn't expect to ventureâ¦I devoured each page.'
Australian Book Review
âThis is a pull-no-punches story about learning the truth and growing up, full of the preciousness of friendship and love.'
Herald Sun
âThis novel is Australian young adult fiction at its best.
Friday Brown
will blow your mind.'
Viewpoint Magazine
âA tense, multilayered tale about loyalty, memory and survivalâ¦Lyrical, suspenseful and haunting.'
Kirkus Reviews
âEvery single character in
Friday Brown
is utterly fascinatingâ¦Set against an Australian landscape brimming with the gothic, and full of elegiac beauty and intelligent insights into the human mind, this is a stunning contribution to young adult fiction.
'
Australian Bookseller + Publisher
âThis book is moving. Be prepared to have your heart ripped out because this is no light read. It gets you thinking and staying up all night pondering questions you'd never thought of before.'
Viewpoint
âBeautiful and brave.'
Readings bookstore, Top YA reads 2012
âWakefield's prose is rich, gorgeous and rawâ¦It's not often you discover such a unique and exciting voice.'
Scotsman Savages
âWakefield reveals herself to be a master of madness and suspense, rivaling such authors as Adele Griffin and Neal Shusterman. With the effect of both a seductive dream and a nightmare, the story throbs with uneasiness; curses, terrible secrets and twisted relationships all threaten to explode at any moment. Wakefield's writing is gorgeous. She renders the Australian settingâ¦with visceral detail, and her characters are disturbing, yet sketched with deep compassion for their lonely, wounded hearts.'
Booklist
, starred review
PRAISE FOR
ALL I EVER WANTED
Winner, 2012 Adelaide Festival Literary Award for Young-Adult Fiction
Shortlisted, 2012 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards
Shortlisted, 2012 Queensland Literary Awards
A 2012 CBCA Notable Book
Shortlisted, 2012 NSW Premier's Literary Awards
Shortlisted, 2012 REAL Awards
Shortlisted, 2011 Gold Inky, Centre for Youth Literature
* * *
âThis is one of the most memorable YA books I've ever read. The voice is original, the characters are real, the language is startling and beautiful.' Cath Crowley, author of
Graffiti Moon
âVikki Wakefield has created a feisty, sharp-witted and thoughtful heroine.'
Adelaide Review
âWith a heart-swelling conclusion, Wakefield's novel contains characters so palpable you can imagine passing them in the street.'
Weekend Australian
âIn a tarnished world, Mim is tough and sweet and true. Utterly charming.' Fiona Wood, author of
Six Impossible Things
and
Wildlife
âA brilliant coming-of-age novel.'
Australian Bookseller + Publisher
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. Vikki lives in the Adelaide foothills with her family.
The Text Publishing Company
Swann House
22 William Street
Melbourne Victoria 3000
Australia
Copyright © 2015 Vikki Wakefield
The moral rights of the author have been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright above, no part of this publication shall be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously.
First published by The Text Publishing Company in 2015
Cover and page design by W.H. Chong
Typeset by J&M Typesetting
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Creator:
Wakefield, Vikki, 1970- author.
Title:
Inbetween days/by Vikki Wakefield.
ISBN:
9781922182364 (paperback)
ISBN:
9781925095340 (ebook)
Target Audience: For young adults.
Subjects: Teenage girlsâFiction. Life change eventsâFiction.
FamiliesâFiction.
Dewey Number: A823.4
For Russ
CONTENTS
The worst part was the waiting. I swear I spent half my life with my chin on my hands, looking out the bedroom window. The summer I turned seventeen we were all waitingâour town was waiting for death to bring it back to life; my sister Trudy was waiting for me to grow up so the rest of her life could happen; Ma was waiting for Trudy and me to disappear.
I waited for Sundays. Every other day was just an empty square on the calendar that I couldn't wait to put a line through.
Friday night: a pale half-moon, no breeze. The air was so humid it was hard to breathe and my pyjamas clung to my skin. Even though it meant the world could see in, I switched on a light in every room. The sky was split open and the stars were a blizzard; in the trees, the high-pitched buzz of the insects was like an electrical pulse. My blood kept time. Sunday was still too far away.
Just before eleven, a car had driven up the dirt road behind our house to the hanging forest. Now it was after midnight and it hadn't come back down.
I was good at being alone. I listened to the radio, played who'll blink first with the possum in the gum tree, or wrote notes to Luke Cavanaugh that I'd never send. I had our old boxer Gypsy for company. She was twelve, arthritic and half-blind, but her instincts were sharp. Her under-bite was so bad we had to wipe her chin after she'd eaten.