Love-shy (Lilli Wilkinson, A&U)

Tuesday, 20 March 2012 Unlocked content from the archive. Books+Publishing

YA author Lili Wilkinson is well known for her insightful views into the teenage mind, with books such as The (Not Quite) Perfect Boyfriend and Pink. Love-shy is the next cab off the rank. Penny Drummond is an overachieving, gung-ho high school student who wants to be a brilliant journalist and excel at everything else. She finds out about a condition called love-shyness and is determined to ‘fix’ the male student at her school who is blogging about his affliction, and then write a prize-winning article about it. Penny finds her man and finds out a lot about herself in the process. Wilkinson has written a story that will keep the reader engaged, however, at times the dialogue and some of the characters seem a bit clichéd, for example, Ms Tidy the teacher, Penny’s gay father and the bubbly Japanese neighbour. Issues concerning single parenting, sexuality, relationships and identity are covered and although Love-shy will appeal more to girls, boys may ‘learn’ a thing or two about female minds as well.

Katie Haydon is a former assistant editor of Bookseller+Publisher

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

Category: Reviews