AustLit

'Set in the 90s, a fifteen-year old unnamed Greek boy is completely confused about what is going on as he tries to fend off what we now know as anxiety, panic attacks and depression while surrounded by his Greek family, friends and girls he might or might not have a crush on.

' I don’t get this.

'I’m fifteen! And in Year 10!

'I don’t have anything to worry about.

'I should be thinking about the way Samantha keeps looking at me, nursing that crush she’s had for me since primary school. Or about Gabriella, who’s so cool and seems interested. Or the Boland Fellowship, an award given out for academic excellence that everybody thinks I could win.

'Or maybe I should think about my best friend Ash, the way he’s sullen about his arguing parents sometimes, or how he bounces from one girlfriend to the next, or Riley, who’s becoming a bigger and bigger troublemaker, although we don’t know why.

'This is high school.

'Isn’t it?

'But when I wake up one night, terrified, it starts a journey of trying to find out what’s wrong. I can’t go to Mum and Dad. They wouldn’t understand. So it’s strange doctors, and scurrying around like everything’s okay, while everything’s coming apart.

'I don’t get this.

'But I’m gonna try work it out.' (Publication summary)