AustLit

'A gripping and suspenseful rite-of-passage novel about five teenagers and one night that will change them all, from award-winning author Jane Godwin.

''It's just a walk in the dark. What is there to worry about?'

'That's what the head teacher, Johan, says. And so the Year Nines from Otway Community School set out on an overnight hike, with no adults.

'But doesn't Johan know that a storm is coming?

'When five teenagers head in to the forest that late afternoon, none of them is aware what the night will bring. Each will have to draw on their particular strengths to survive. Each will have to face the unknown, battling the elements, events beyond their control, and their own demons. It's a night that will change everything.

'Set in the rainforest of Victoria's Otway Ranges, A Walk in the Dark is about friendship, trust, identity and family, consent and boundaries, wrapped in a compulsively readable, suspense-filled adventure.

'Five head into the forest, but will all five make it out?'  (Publication summary)