Reaction Time

A contemporary coming-of-age lesbian novel about discovering who you want to be and finding how to live with your past—without repeating it.

City girl Luce May’s first year out of high school has been the worst. When she escapes her turbulent life in Sydney to start over at a university in the middle of nowhere, the last thing she wants is anyone in her new life to know of her past. Especially that to escape her chaotic, alcoholic mother, Luce also had to abandon her teenage sister.

As Luce slowly starts to find another version of herself in this place, she also finds a new family in her eclectic group of friends. She even begins to find solace and possibility in her budding relationship with Eva, the girl who loves trees so much she travelled across the world to live among them.

But when Luce’s sister back home starts to follow Luce’s own wild footsteps, and Luce’s guilt starts to grow, she finds it harder to keep her old and new worlds apart. Can Luce find a way to embrace this new life and take care of her family without returning to her old destructive ways?