Kirsten Krauth

All of those writers did.

And I think they've just had an impact on how I like to write and also how I like to write teenage characters.

I return to those books all the time and especially Puberty Blues was probably the Australian one that had the most impact on me.

We all used to sneak it around as if it was something really naughty.

So I guess I always associate it with creative kind of readings when I was 12 or 13.

Yeah, and I remember Forever was another one by Judy Blume.

And, you know, my parents were really open.

So it's funny to me because they wouldn't have minded at all if I'd read them.

But I remember feeling like you had to be some, you know, part of some kind of club.

I remember older girls kind of passing it on to me.

And it actually reminds me a bit of Benny in the book, you know, sitting in the room while all the others talk about music.

You know, you kind of felt like you were a bit of an outsider when you were younger and this was sort of your way in to being a part of the club, to being knowing.

Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North had a profound impact on me.

I thought it was just an astonishing piece of writing.

There are only a couple of books I think I've read in my life where I've been completely transported somewhere

and lost all sort of sensation of where I am in the world and the horror of that book, you know, that happened to me.

And I've read it three times now.

I just think, you know, it's absolutely an incredible book.

Also, Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible.

That's another one that has that sort of physical sensation on the body.