Aotearoa Fiction (YA)

Looking for a great book by a New Zealander, for business (NCEA) or pleasure (it just makes you happy to read a good book)? Look no further than this very list, with approximately 45 of our fave Aotearoa YA titles. These books have been hand-selected for their delicious use of language and gripping, yet relatably Kiwi, narratives. You can find a much deeper exploration of Māori authors over on this list, so be sure to check it out as well.

Updated June 19, 2024
W
Wellington City Libraries Youth team at Wellington City Libraries
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
Tonight, I burn
Adams, Katharine J
Paper Book
From one of the most exciting new voices in romantasy comes the tale of a thorn witch with the power to walk between the realms of Life and Death who finds herself at the center of a magical rebellion--and a dangerous romance--that could destroy her coven and her soul in this dark and decadent...
Draw me a hero
Ashworth, N. K.
Paper Book
Jane Dawson is fourteen years old, lives with her mum and older sister, loves drawing and wears an old leather flying helmet. Facing another dull term at school, Jane loses herself in her art. But when a boy, Bailey Summer, moves in three doors down, with brooding good looks and a long grey...
I am not Esther
Beale, Fleur
Paper Book
Imagine that your mother tells you that she is going away. She is leaving you with relatives whom you have never heard of-and they are members of a strict religious cult. Your name is changed to a biblical one, Esther, and you are forced to follow the severe set of social standards set by the cult....
Juno of Taris
Beale, Fleur
Paper Book
'Don't give up. Don't let them kill your spirit. Things will change. You need to be strong. You need to be ready. And you will need courage.' Juno is young; she has no authority, no power, and to question the ways of Taris is discouraged. She knows what it's like when the community...
Zombabe
Belle, I. S.
Paper Book
Two weeks before graduation, Henry "Babe" Simmons is resurrected by his best friend (and secret crush) Eugene "Dude" Marsh. Consequences include freaking out a town who just buried you, an overwhelming hunger for human flesh, and a monster who will step in if you...
How to get a girlfriend when you're a terrifying monster
Cardno, Marie
Paper Book
Life is tough when you're an eldritch abomination. Trillin isn't technically a person. She's a tiny breakaway piece of consciousness from the all-devouring Endless, doomed to eventually rejoin it. But when a human witch stumbles into her world, Trillin suddenly has a new...
Because everything is right but everything is wrong
Donohue, Erin
Paper Book
Can you be lost and not know it? Can other people stop you from being lost? Seventeen-year-old Caleb¿s world is disintegrating, his walls are closing in, his sky is threatening to fall. He¿s barely holding on. To deadlines. To friends. To family. To mum. To Pat. But he has Casey.
The sparrow
Duder, Tessa
Paper Book
An exciting new novel from the author of Alex. In September 1840, two ships arrive on the shores of the Waitemata Harbour to establish Auckland, the new capital of New Zealand. Among the settlers on board the Platina is young Harry, travelling alone and determined...
Andromeda Bond in trouble deep
Falkner, Brian
Paper Book
In a very near future the International Space Station has been replaced by a massive new satellite, known as Spacetown, complete with space hotel, restaurants, bars, fun park, and gaming arenas. When 12-year-old Andromeda is selected for the worlds first real life, zero gravity, live-streamed video...
Shooting stars : the private diary of Egan (Bush) Tucker and other stuff
Falkner, Brian
Paper Book
In 15 years, Egan Tucker has spoken to no-one but his mother. Escaping from an abusive husband, Moana (Moma) took baby Egan to live in the Coromandel bush. For 15 years, Moma taught Egan to survive, and instilled in him her code for a good life. A chance meeting with a DOC deer culler (JT) while out...
Between the flags
Fenton, Rachel
Paper Book
What if the worst thing that could ever happen to you had already happened, but you didn't realise? Like your brain couldn't handle it, so you turned it into a comic. Then closed it. Fourteen-year-old trainee lifeguard Mandy Malham has wanted to beat Jen in the surf lifesaving championships at...
Salt
Gee, Maurice.
Paper Book
Salt is an utterly compelling fantasy adventure, the work of a master storyteller at the peak of his powers. When his father Tarl is captured and enslaved to work in Deep Salt, Hari vows to rescue him. This is a forbidding task: no one returns from Deep Salt. But Hari was born and...
The 10 pm question
De Goldi, Kate
Paper Book
Worry-prone Frankie keeps his family secret under control--until a bold, inquisitive girl enters his life--in this warm, witty, and captivating YA novel. Twelve-year-old Frankie Parsons is a talented kid with a quirky family, a best friend named Gigs, and a voice of anxiety...
Eddy, Eddy
De Goldi, Kate
Paper Book
A series of earthquakes exposes the fault lines in a teenager's unconventional life in a powerful crossover novel that explores raw emotion with wit and warmth. After the deadly 2011 earthquakes in Christ Church, New Zealand, Eddy Smallbone must navigate the ruins of his hometown...
These violent delights
Gong, Chloe
Paper Book
An Instant New York Times Bestseller! A BuzzFeed Best Young Adult Book of 2020 Perfect for fans of The Last Magician and Serpent & Dove, this heart-stopping debut is an imaginative Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920s Shanghai...
Singing home the whale
Hager, Mandy
Paper Book
An award-winning and extraordinary story of a boy who protects a baby whale that locals believe is threatening their livelihood. Winner of the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2015 Young Adult...
When we wake
Healey, Karen
Paper Book
My name is Tegan Oglietti, and on the last day of my first lifetime, I was so, so happy. Sixteen-year-old Tegan is just like every other girl living in 2027--she's happiest when playing the guitar, she's falling in love for the first time, and she's joining...
Legacy
Hereaka, Whiti
Paper Book
Seventeen-year-old Riki is worried about school and the future, but mostly about his girlfriend, who has suddenly stopped texting him. But on his way to see her, he's hit by a bus and his life radically changes. Riki wakes up one hundred years earlier in Egypt, in 1915, and finds he's living through...
Glimpse
Higgins, Jane
Paper Book
The city authorities have abandoned the D-Zone as damaged beyond repair. It's a no-go area where ongoing earthquakes threaten to destroy what's left. But Jonah and Bas and everyone else trying to survive in the devastation there can't leave-they're 'illegals', without citizenship, without...
Flight path
Hill, David
Paper Book
A gripping novel for young adults that captures both the daring and the everyday realities of serving in the Air Force during the Second World War. Pete and Paul yelled together. 'Bandit! Nine o'clock! Bandit!' Jack spun to stare. There was the Messerschmitt on...
The whale rider
Ihimaera, Witi
Paper Book
Eight-year-old Kahu, a member of the Maori tribe of Whangara, New Zealand, fights to prove her love, her leadership, and her destiny. Her people claim descent from Kahutia Te Rangi, the legendary "whale rider." In every generation since Kahutia, a male heir has inherited the title of chief. But...
Lucy Bee & Soline
Ingram, Anne
"About Lucy 15, a New Zealander, and Soline 16, French exchange student. Topics: friendship, family, land ownership, belonging, different cultures, heritage, tapestries, historical mystery, contemporary issues, careers. Main theme: The importance of ones cultural past to ones identity and how...
Juggling with mandarins
Jones, V. M.
Paper Book
Pip dreads every soccer match. His father is always there, yelling and arguing, pushing him to be more like his older brother, a winner. Plus, there's the girl next door who outshines him on the field and overlooks him off of it. Then one day, Pip stumbles into a new world inside a rock-climbing...
The raging quiet
Jordan, Sherryl.
Paper Book
Marnie comes to the remote fishing hamlet of Torcurra as the reluctant bride of Isake Isherwood, a lord of her parents' farm. But two days later, while thatching the roof, Isake falls to his death. Marnie's only kindness comes from Father Brannan, the village priest, and Raver, the strange mad boy...
The po?rangi boy
Kino, Shilo
Paper Book
"Twelve-year-old Niko lives in Pohe Bay, a small, rural town with a sacred hot spring and a taniwha named Taukere. The government plan to build a prison here and destroy the home of the taniwha has divided the community. Some are against it, but others see it as an opportunity. Niko is worried about...
Mortal fire
Knox, Elizabeth
Paper Book
Sixteen-year-old Canny Mochrie's parents go away on a vacation, so they send her off on a trip of her own with her step-brother Sholto and his opinionated girlfriend Susan, who are interviewing the survivors of a strange coal mine disaster and researching local folklore in 1959 Southland, New...
Miracle
Lane, Jennifer (Novelist)
Paper Book
'Miracle' won the Ngaio Marsh Award 2024 for the Best YA Novel and was shortlisted for the New Zealand Book Awards 2023. Born in the middle of Australia's biggest-ever earthquake, Miracle is fourteen when her world crumbles. Thanks to her dad's new job at...
The Rarkyn's Familiar
Lee, Nikky
Paper Book
"A stunning debut." -Aurealis Magazine "Steeped in other-worldly magic and adventure." -Andromeda Spaceways Magazine An orphan bent on revenge. A monster searching for freedom. A forbidden pact that binds their fates.<...
Evie's war
Mackenzie, Anna
Paper Book
They offered up the innocence of a generation . . . Evie is 18, straight out of school and excited by the prospect of a tour of Europe. Instead, she finds herself immersed in war; first in the Home Counties - where the young New Zealander is confronted not only by society's...
The tricksters
Mahy, Margaret
Paper Book
While gathered together for the Christmas holiday, a large New Zealand family and their various guests and hangers-on find their lives suddenly invaded by three fascinating but rather sinister brothers and by New Year nothing is the same again.
Wildwood dancing
Marillier, Juliet.
Paper Book
High in the Transylvanian woods, at the castle Piscul Draculi, live five daughters and their doting father. It's an idyllic life for Jena, the second eldest, who spends her time exploring the mysterious forest with her constant companion, a most unusual frog. But best by far is the castle's hidden...
Falling into Rarohenga
Matuku, Steph
Paper Book
It seems like an ordinary day when Tui and Kae, sixteen-year-old twins, get home from school - until they find their mother, Maia, has disappeared and a swirling vortex has opened up in her room. They are sucked into this portal and dragged down to Rarohenga, the Maori Underworld, a shadowy place...
Here upon the tide
McMillan, Blair
Paper Book
When Amir's city in Syria is bombed as civil war erupts, his father makes a fateful decision. Amir soon finds himself on a perilous journey by land and sea, with little hope of reaching his destination. Milly is still reeling from the aftermath of earthquakes in her home city of Christchurch. Her...
Catch a falling star
Merriman, Eileen (Haematologist)
Paper Book
A fifteen-year-old reaches for stardom as he slides into psychosis in this multiple-award-winning novel for teens. ASLA DANZ Young Adult Winner 2025 New Zealand Book Awards Young Adult Fiction Award 2024 NZ Booklovers Best Young Adult Book 2024 Storylines...
Indigo moon
Merriman, Eileen (Haematologist)
Paper Book
Book 1 of the gritty, fast-paced, thought-provoking Eternity Loop Series. Promise you will never, ever mess with time . . . Both Rigel and Indigo are Offspring, born to virally optimised parents. With dire warnings about the possible consequences of time...
Hello strange
Morrow, Pamela
Paper Book
A vivid, fast-paced novel about artificial emotional intelligence. Since the death of their mother, Hunter, Milly and Coel have come unstuck. Their father isn't coping either, even though he's the successful head of BIOlogic and is developing a humanoid to enhance human...
Gideon the ninth
Muir, Tamsyn
Paper Book
Gideon the Ninth is the first book in the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Locked Tomb Series, and one of the Best Books of 2019 according to NPR, the New York Public Library, Amazon, BookPage, Shelf Awareness, BookRiot, and Bustle!...
Before George
Robertson, Deborah (Teacher)
Paper Book
When Marnya immigrates to New Zealand from South Africa in 1953 with her mother and sister, her mother cuts off Marnya's hair and changes her name to George to hide her identity as a girl. Hours later, their Christmas Eve train plummets into the Whangaehu River and George loses not only her...
Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas
Sang, Anthony
Paper Book
Kidnapped by time-travelling ninjas, Helen is thrust into the year 2355 - a ruined future with roving gangs and 'Peace Balls', giant humming devices that enslave and control people's minds. The Go-Go Ninjas have one goal - to destroy the Peace Balls. They believe that...
Ursa
Shaw, Tina
Paper Book
This alternate history coming-of-age YA is the Winner of the 2018 Storylines Tessa Duder Award. "An inferior people, that's what the Director called us at the beginning of his reign, but still useful." There are two peoples living in the city...
Dawn Raid
Smith, Pauline
Paper Book
"Imagine this: You're having an amazing family holiday, one where everyone is there and all 18 of you are squeezed into one house. All of sudden it's 4 o'clock in the morning and there's banging and yelling and screaming. The police are in the house pulling people out of bed ..." Sofia...
Tim Te Maro and the subterranean heartsick blues
Valley, H. S.
Paper Book
What happens when your enemy becomes your friend ... with benefits? Red, White and Royal Blue meets The Magicians in this surprising, wildly original and joyously funny LGBTQ YA novel set in a magical boarding school. 
Iris and me
Werry, Philippa
Paper Book
So begins the story of Iris Wilkinson, who wrote poetry, novels and journalism under the pen name Robin Hyde. In January 1938, she left New Zealand for England. On the way, intrigued by glimpses of China, she ventured inland despite the war raging there, becoming one of the first women war...
Aspiring
Wilkins, Damien
Paper Book
Fifteen-year-old Ricky lives in Aspiring, a town that's growing at an alarming rate. Ricky's growing, too -- 6'7", and taller every day. But he's stuck in a loop: student, uncommitted basketballer, and puzzled son, burdened by his family's sadness. And who's the weird guy in town with a chauffeur...
Afakasi woman
Young, Lani Wendt
Paper Book
A collection of stories about the women of the Pacific, their struggles with family, love and the effects of climate change on their world. About the author: Lani Young is a Samoan/Maori author and columnist. In 2018, she was named the ACP Pacific Laureate, selected by the African, Caribbean,...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.