Bugs
Whiti Hereaka
Huia, $25.00,
ISBN 9781775501336
When We Wake
Karen Healey
Allen & Unwin, $22.00,
ISBN 9781742378084
Awakening
Natalie King
Penguin, $20.00,
ISBN 9780143570790
Bugs, the eponymous protagonist of Whiti Hereaka’s first YA novel, is unimpressed with much of what her generation is expected to read. Her English teacher insists they discuss that infamous “human/werewolf/vampire love triangle … because the characters are our age, they’re going through what we’re going through, we can relate. Like half of us could relate to a white chick with a thing for dogs and dead dudes.”