From the author of CBCA-shortlisted Yellow comes a powerful exploration of family and identity set against the humid build-up to the wet season in Darwin.

Seventeen-year-old Iliad Piper is named after war and angry at the world. Growing up with a violent father and abused mother, she doesn’t know how to do relationships, family or friends.

A love-hate friendship with Max turns into a prank war, and she nearly destroys her first true friendship with misfit Mia. She takes off her armour for nobody, until she meets Jared, someone who's as complicated as she is.

Reviewed by Olivia at Angus & Robertson Bookworld:

Megan Jacobson is fast emerging as a staple voice in Australia’s young adult fiction community, and after reading The Build-Up Season it’s not hard to see why. At its heart, this book is an uncompromising look at love in all forms and how it can blind us to the worst in people.

The Build-Up Season follows 17 year old Iliad Piper, a girl who is rather aptly named given that she is at war with everything (and everyone) in her life. What Ily lacks in kindness she makes up for with passion and fury, and that’s no surprise given her situation. She’s dreaming of an artistic life in Sydney while stuck in Darwin with her mother and Nan, hiding from her abusive father. This is a book that I wish had been around when I was 17, because Megan Jacobson writes so authentically about relationships, friendship, and sexuality, without a hint of triteness.

At once hilarious, heart-breaking and inherently relatable, The Build-Up Season is a book I hope every young person will enjoy as much as I did.