A Brown Girl's Guide to Surviving Sixteen

Kavya Perrera only has one goal in life: survive the day. At school, she laughs with her four best friends, flirts with her crush of whom she suspects is beginning to return her feelings and, fake it to her teachers. when she gets home, she tiptoes around her mum and dad, pisses off her older brother by just breathing and most importantly: doesn't let any of them see just how much she has no idea what she's doing. When the day's done, she'll go to sleep and wake up the next morning to do it all over again.

Ok, so Kavya does have bigger goals: The Goal, which entails getting into a prestigious university in the big city to study to become a doctor. Once she begins the next chapter of her life, she'll finally get to be the person she's always wanted to be (whoever that is) and never look back. But she's got more that one year left of high school so until then, Kavya is stuck in her small regional town she begrudgingly calls home.

However, life is not easy for a first-generation Australian child of Sri Lankan immigrant parents. Her whole life, Kavya has felt like she has one foot in two separate worlds, and for sixteen years, she's managed to keep them as they're supposed to be: separate. But in between interchanging friendship groups, late night texts, top-secret concert rehearsals and, keeping up with her parents' and her own expectations for her studies, Kavya's two worlds are quickly heading for collision with each other. Can she find equal ground with the best of both worlds, or will she crash and burn?