BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL
(Joint winners)
Dead, Actually by Kaz Delaney (Allen & Unwin)
Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin)

18th Annual Aurealis Awards:
Judges Report, Best Young Adult Novel (60 Entries)

“Judging the works entered into the Young Adult novel section was made more difficult by the extremely high quality of work submitted. A number of works sought to put a fresh spin on old fairy stories or works of classic literature, while others walked the more familiar trails that reside within the relative tropes.

Throughout our deliberations we took into account originality, tone, literary value to the genre and whether the work was the best representation of the market. Discussion regarding the finalists and subsequent winner took many weeks of analysis and debate until finally we were able to make our final decision.

While a point system was put in place for the initial deliberations, the final scoring was so close the judges had to reread the works in order to finalise the winner. In the end this proved impossible. The quality and diversity of the works submitted was so outstanding we decided to choose joint winners.”