A interesting concept that is persecuted well . Teenagers locked in a shopping mall with no access to the internet and mobile devices aren't working. Well everyone would have to be curious about how that would turn out I know I definitely was.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this.

This is a very interesting read, but not something I completely enjoyed.

6 teens and a baby find themselves trapped inside an Inner Sydney mall in Australia but are unable to leave/escape. The group work together to survive, with one being mainly responsible for looking after the baby they found alone in the centre.

While I found the idea of the story, there were many things that fall short for me to enjoy this book. The characters don't really try to attempt properly to find a way out or try other ways to escape. They simply accept that they can't escape and make do with what they have available at hand, and find themselves mystified at how everything (food) just simply appears fresh and never seems to go off.

The one thing I did like about this book was the diverse cast, but other then that, this was not my cup of tea. But I guess this could mainly be due to the fact maybe I was the not targeted group.

This book feels like a beautiful combination of Groundhog Day and The Breakfast Club but set in the suburbs of Australia. Tegan did an amazing job highlighting todays Aussie culture, the shopping centre felt so familiar like she was describing the one 5 minutes from my house. I loved the diversity of the characters it felt like a genuine representation of modern day Australia and wasn’t treated as a tick to meet the diversity checklist. Move over Lord of the Flies, this is the book they should be teaching in Aussie high schools.

by Tegan Bennett, "Royals" A young adult book called Daylight takes place in a mall in Western Sydney. At 5.17pm, time seems to stop, and a group of teens, a 12-year-old, and a newborn find themselves stranded in a mall. The narrator, 16-year-old Shannon, struggles with anxiety. She is a little bit of a loner, but as they spend more time together, they quickly become close. They learn details about one another's lives outside of technology and even begin to forget about it. Though it's an interesting story, I actually truly enjoyed it. Instead of being called "Lord of the Flies for Gen Z," this book.

Great novel, really enjoyed it and i love that it was set in Aus! Really enjoyed the story and the character!

I offered to review of an ARC of this book provided by #netgalley and the publisher. This was an entertaining light YA read that didn't turn out quite like I expected but was enjoyable nonetheless. From the description, I was expecting darker Lord of the Flies vibes or even a crime/thriller-type element, which wasn't really present in the story. Instead, we meet a group of Western Sydney teens who are from different walks of life, yet are all decent and responsible people. There isn't much intrigue within the group dynamics, but we are presented with a seemingly realistic account of how a group of teens would react to being stuck inside a shopping centre for days on end. I enjoyed the diversity that was present in the story and felt uplifted by the way the group members accepted and supported one another. We were given glimpses into their individual lives and interestingly, not much drama. Nevertheless, I flew through the first half of the book and the ending as the premise of this book was fabulous. There was a bit of lag in the middle which probably coincided with the monotony the author was trying to portray. Overall, this was an enjoyable read which I think could be described as providing insight into teen life in modern-day Australia, and the way young people navigate friendships and relationships with each other in a diverse society.

Royals by Tegan Bennett Daylight is a YA novel set in a Western Sydney shopping centre. A group of teenagers, a 12 year old and a baby somehow become trapped in a shopping centre when time seems to freeze at 5.17pm. Shannon, the narrator, is a 16 year old girl with anxiety problems. She is a bit of a loner however, as the group spend more time together they bond quickly. They find out things about each others lives in the outside world and even start to forget about life with technology. This is a rather unusual story but I quite liked it. Rather than this book being described as 'Lord of the Flies for Gen Z', I found this book to be like a season of Big Brother! Thanks to Netgalley, the author and Simon Schuster Australia for my digital copy of Royals.

A thoroughly engrossing YA novel.
I genuinely enjoyed every page of this, it was fun, interesting and kept me guessing.

Set in a western Sydney shopping mall, Royals is a fascinating read, whether you are a teenager or, like me, quite a bit older. Told in the first person, the story puts you right there, where six teenagers and a baby, all of diverse backgrounds, learn what at it’s like to be isolated in another plane where time appears to have stopped, yet all manner of shopping delights are there for the taking. Watching them move from cautious to adventurous, breaking down barriers and opening themselves up was fascinating. While I thought the pacing was a little slow at times, this was a super entertaining read.

*I received a digital ARC of this book to read in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own!*
I was drawn to this book because of the diversity of the cast of teenage characters, the Australian (Sydney) setting, and the promise of a weird time-loop situation. The book was a quick and easy read but left me a little cold.
I appreciated the diversity of the characters in this story, which included different genders, sexualities, ethnicities and abilities, who become a sort of found family throughout the story. Sometimes though, the diversity felt a bit contrived and it became a little bit preachy. Much was made of how the characters judged/felt judged by and came to accept one another. Shannon, whose POV the story is told from, was not my favourite character and I found myself wishing I could read parts of the story from another character's perspective.
The concept was interesting (they're just...stuck in a shopping centre where everything resets each day and technology isn't working at all) but it dragged a bit and I felt like there was not a lot happening throughout the middle of the book- it was fairly slow paced and really focused on how the relationships between characters developed without much conflict to drive it.
One thing that struck me was that the author spent a lot of time describing how much consumption the characters indulged in but without them really reflecting on or learning anything from this - by the 100th description of fast food and bubble tea I was a bit done.
I also wish that there was a bit more development of the time loop situation - it feels like it wasn't really fully explained, or even explained enough to leave me with interesting questions. It just sort of happened and there wasn't a really satisfying resolution for it.

Note ** Due to my negative rating I will not be posting to my socials only to Goodreads.

A bunch of misfits come together after mysteriously locked in the shopping centre located in Sydney Australia. For some reason people outside the shopping centre can’t see or hear them.

I got about 17% into this book and it felt like it was a retake of the movie Groundhog Day. Day in and day out they were eating, complaining and rechecking the doors. I know this probably makes the story seem realistic but I wasn’t a fan of it. I was expecting an overnight locked-in kind of story.

I think the writing let the book down too, it was as if I was reading from a young teenager's diary. To me I felt the characters didn’t sound like teenagers, and the communication between the characters was just as bad.

Paragraphs were often jumped from one thing to another. I'm not sure if it was an editing issue or deliberately made that way. It just left me confused.

The only thing I did like was that there was a diverse range of people in the story. Which I think is always great in “making friendship” stories.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for the copy of Royals for reviewing purposes.

Royals

From the get go, this Australian contemporary novel was quirky and had ne on the edge of my seat.
The meshing of characters from different walks of life is a classic way to show how different people react to the same traumatic element. Feels very The Breakfast Club with a magic system no one understands, woven in.

I love the Australiana within these pages. Reading shop names and slang terms that ice grown up with, gives it a hit of reality and relatability that books set elsewhere don't carry.

Unfortunately that's where my love for this one ends. I understand that the point is the characters are trapped and are discovering who they are and who they want to be etc. But they don't really do that. They do the same things, make the same choices and don't grow or progress. The only one that does is Juno, the baby.
The characters are also a little hit and miss. The author has done well to represent people from all cultures and walks of life, with diverse interests and backgrounds.

Royals is easy to read and to follow, and I think YA readers on the younger side will get a kick out of being trapped in a shopping centre. Unfortunately this one missed the mark for me.

6 teens and a baby find themselves trapped inside an Inner Sydney mall in Australia…. But somehow there’s no way out? Described as the Gen Z version of The Lord Of The Flies with magical realism and with diversity with First Nations Australian characters, another character with a physical disability requiring support of a wheelchair and an androgynous presenting female character.

I ultimately DNF’d this book around 50% Unfortunately what would seem like my thing - YA with diversity and a remake of a classic didn’t quite hit the mark for me. I struggled with the first person writing style which often broke the fourth wall and just didn’t quite overall hit the mark for me unfortunately. This book had all the right marks for me but just didn’t hit it for me personally. I’m still excited for future books by this author as they’ve shown exciting ideas!

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for this ARC.

2 1/2 stars

This book left me feeling warm and confused lol.

We follow Shannon who finds herself stuck in an Australian plaza in some sort of twilight zone situation, where it is only her and a motley group of other teens - and a baby - and they can't escape. They discover that everything replenishes so they have food and clothes and entertainment, but they soon realise they are starting to forget key details of their lives outside the plaza.

I really liked the relatability of the plaza. Like it could be any shopping centre in Australia, and even though this one was set somewhere in NSW, I was picturing Fountain Gate in VIC. The diversity of the characters was very Breakfast Club. A wheelchair user, Indigenous girls, a guy with ADHD, a gay character... where they were initially judged for their outward appearance but soon discovered there was a lot more to each other, which was heart warming. Ultimately, though, it felt like the author didn't know how to end it? When they figured out what was going on with the plaza, it pretty much just ends and the reader never gets any real answers. So, while I enjoyed getting to know these characters, I ended up feeling frustrated.

It feels like this would be a great high school English book where you get to speculate and draw your own conclusions and infer what they author may or may not have meant. Still worth the read for sure.

A Young Adults novel, Royals by Tegan Bennett Daylight is a survival tale of six teenagers trapped in a shopping centre, who are thrust together, unknown to each other and unable to leave the building complex. Narrated by Shannon, she reveals how they find a year-old baby that needs constant care, as they adapt to their limited world amid the various shops, whilst having no outside communications nor internet available to them. An enthralling story, with good insight into the teenage psychic, as they struggle to survive and deal with a range of challenges, and surprising revelation. A character-driven tale, rich with compassion, that makes this a four stars read rating. With thanks to Simon & Schuster Australia and the author for an uncorrected proof copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own and freely given.

This book was a 3⭐️read for me.

While a well-written book, it didn’t have what I look for in a book. It’s definitely on the younger YA side, and I’d recommend it for teens in intermediate and early high school.

It was an interesting premise when I first saw the description of it being ‘Lord of The Flies' for Gen Z.
I’m older Gen Z so I found I couldn’t relate to the characters as much as younger audiences could. Though set in Australia, as a Kiwi I could understand some of the terms used.

I definitely would recommend this book to younger audiences who are looking for an interesting read.

This book is not something I would normally read, but I decided to try something different for a change. Straight away the concept of being trapped in a mall intrigued me - this is often something I would think of as a child, and how cool it must be to have access to all the different shops. I was also interested as to why all the clocks had seemingly stopped. This book includes a diverse range of characters, which was nice to see for a change. As the book went on it lagged for me. Nothing plot-related really happens and it is mostly about each character and what they are doing day to day in the mall. The reason I’m only giving four stars is I felt disappointed at the ending and how nothing was explained to us.

A group of teen trapped in at shopping centre, what could possibly go wrong? An interesting book of the interactions, fears and dreams that come true - but maybe they are nightmares, or not as one would imagine
A fun book to read, probably not what I would generally read - felt it was a little age specific - but interesting nevertheless. Thanks you NetGalley and the publishers for the DRC

Described as Lord of the Flies for gen Z, a group of kids, 12 to 17 years old, find themselves locked alone in a shopping mall in Western Sydney. They can see people outside but no one can see them shouting for help, they have no WiFi and all their phones have frozen. You’d think being locked in a mall would be every kid’s dream and, once they’ve got over the fear of being unable to get out, it is. They help themselves to every designer good they’ve ever wished for and gorge on unlimited fast food in the food court, but then it becomes tedious and they long for family and friends.

The kids are a diverse group, each with their own problems fitting into ‘mainstream’ society. The range of diversity is pretty unlikely, but makes the novel more interesting and raises a lot of issues for the kids to discuss and explore. A baby they find in the play gym helps to bring them together as a group as they work out how to care for her. As they get to know each other better and understand what makes each of them the way they are, they start to form a unit.

Clearly written for teen and YA readers, this is a creative and entertaining idea, with much that will appeal to that age group such as references to popular contemporary music, movies, food and designer goods. Quirky and fun! 3.5 stars

If you don’t mind reading from the point of view of a sixteen year old you’d enjoy this book. The plot really caught my attention. Odd little tidbits here and there kept me wanting to read and see how it ended! I enjoyed this book. The writing was easy to read and the plot kept me captivated