In a small town, everyone thinks they know you: Charlie is a hardcore rocker, who's not as tough as he looks. Hammer is a footy jock with big AFL dreams, and an even bigger ego. Zeke is a shy over-achiever, never macho enough for his family. But all three boys hide who they really are. When the truth is revealed, will it set them free or blow them apart? Invisible Boys is a raw, confronting YA novel, tackling homosexuality, masculinity, anger and suicide with a nuanced and unique perspective. Set in regional Western Australia, the novel follows three sixteen-year-old boys in the throes of coming to terms with their homosexuality in a town where it is invisible – and so are they. Invisible Boys depicts the complexities and trauma of rural gay identity with painful honesty, devastating consequence and, ultimately, hope.
Author
Holden Sheppard is an award-winning West Australian author. His debut novel Invisible Boys (Fremantle Press, 2019), about three teenage boys coming of age and coming to terms with their sexuality in the regional town of Geraldton, won multiple accolades, including the 2019 West Australian Premier's Prize for an Emerging Writer and the 2018 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award. In 2020, Invisible Boys was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards and was named a Notable Book by the Children's Book Council of Australia. The novel is now in development as a television series. Holden's second novel The Brink (Text Publishing, 2022), about a group of school leavers whose post-graduation holiday is thrown into chaos by a death, won the Young Adult Book of the Year Award at the 2023 Indie Book Awards. The Brink is currently shortlisted for the 2023 NSW Premier's Literary Awards and was named one of the Best Books of 2022 by The West Australian. Holden's writing has been published in books including Growing Up in Country Australia (Black Inc, 2022), Hometown Haunts (Wakefield Press, 2021), How To Be An Author (Fremantle Press, 2021) and Bright Lights, No City (Margaret River Press, 2019). He has written articles for WA Today, 10 Daily, the Huffington Post, the ABC and DNA Magazine. His creative works have been published in journals including Griffith Review, Westerly, page seventeen and Indigo Journal. When he's not writing, Holden works out at the gym, plays touch footy (AFL), barracks for the Collingwood Football Club and occasionally works as a labourer. He lives in Perth with his husband.
