Publisher's synopsis

I have questions I’ve never asked. Worries I’ve never shared. Thoughts that circle and collide and die screaming because they never make it outside my head. Stuff like that, if you let it go—it’s a survival risk.

Sixteen-year-old Nate McKee is doing his best to be invisible. He’s worried about a lot of things—how his dad treats Nance and his twin half-brothers; the hydro crop in his bedroom; his reckless friend, Merrick.

Nate hangs out at the local youth centre and fills his notebooks with things he can’t say. But when some of his pages are stolen, and his words are graffitied at the centre, Nate realises he has allies. He might be able to make a difference, change his life, and claim his future. Or can he?

This is How We Change the Ending is raw and real, funny and heartbreaking—a story about what it takes to fight back when you’re not a hero.

Awards

  • Winner, Book of the Year: Older Readers, Children’s Book Council Awards, 2020
  • Shortlisted, Young Adult Literature, Prime Minister’s Literary Award, 2020
  • Shortlisted, Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, 2020
  • Shortlisted, Writing for Young Adults, Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, 2020
  • Shortlisted, Best Designed Young Adult Cover, Australian Book Design Awards, 2020
  • Shortlisted, Griffith University Young Adult Book Award, Queensland Literary Awards, 2020
  • Longlisted, The Stella Prize, 2020
  • Longlisted, Booktopia Favourite Australian Book, 2020
  • Longlisted, Young Adult, Indie Book Awards, 2020
  • Longlisted, Book of the Year for Older Children, Australian Book Industry Awards, 2020
  • Longlisted, Young Adult, Indie Book Awards, Leading Edge, 2020