Neverland, by Margot McGovern

Kit Learmonth was orphaned at the age of 10 when she survived a sailing accident that killed her parents. It is fair to say she has issues, with clouded memories and a tendency to self-harm. Kit’s uncle and guardian is a psychiatrist who has turned her childhood home, Learmonth Island, into a treatment centre for troubled teens but sends his niece to various boarding schools on the mainland. She regularly manages to get expelled in order to return to the island, which she calls Neverland, where she escapes into a fantasyland that she created with her author father. At 17 Kit is outgrowing her fantasy world of pirates, mermaids and monsters and needs to come to terms with her patchy memories and tragic past. The story is set in Australia, but could almost be anywhere - the otherworldly qualities of Neverland existing outside of time and geography. At the same time the experiences and responses of Kit and her friends in treatment are grounded in a rather dark reality, which makes for an interesting and challenging tale that is ultimately hopeful.