BOOK ONE
Diary of a
Wairoa Boy
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Dink Rosser has left Wairoa for Auckland, and university is already proving to be a terrible idea.
At eighteen, he’s living away from home for the first time, surrounded by people he barely knows and trying to work out how everyone else seems to understand the rules.
They don’t.
His diary starts as a record of hall life, classes, awkward encounters and the people he keeps getting dragged towards. Before long, it becomes something else: a running account of friendships getting complicated, bad decisions gathering momentum, and Dink attempting to make sense of things while pretending he’s got a handle on them.
He usually hasn’t.
Set between Wairoa and Auckland, The Dink Diaries is a funny, sometimes uncomfortable look at leaving home and discovering that a fresh start doesn’t mean you arrive as a different person.
And Dink has brought rather more of himself with him than he planned.
BOOK TWO
Diary of a
Reluctant Target
Dink Rosser’s first year at university isn’t getting any quieter.
A new relationship gives him something good to focus on, but elsewhere things are starting to feel wrong.
Someone is watching him.
Before long, Dink is checking over his shoulder, questioning familiar faces and wondering whether the person following him is closer than he thinks.
His family life isn’t offering much relief either. His already difficult relationship with his aunt keeps getting worse until one particularly tense dinner ends with Dink doing something nobody at the table is expecting.
He stands up and performs a haka.
It’s one of several moments in a year that seems determined to keep pushing him past his limits.
The Dink Diaries continues with new love, stalking, family conflict and university life all crowding into the same first year.
And for once, looking over his shoulder might actually be the sensible thing to do.
BOOK THREE
Diary of a
Reticent Loudmouth
By now, Dink Rosser should be getting the hang of university.
He isn’t.
His first year is still moving, but the people around him are starting to change direction. Friendships are shifting. HESA is coming apart. Solomon is harder to reach. Persephone is thinking about leaving. Marcus still manages to take up space even when he isn’t there.
Dink, meanwhile, is beginning to realise that avoiding difficult conversations does not make them disappear.
There are missed calls, strained loyalties, bad timing, new opportunities and more than one moment where his usual instinct to make a joke stops being enough.
Braden is still there. Persephone is still there. Ethan opens a door Dink wasn’t expecting.
But for the first time, Dink has to consider what happens when everyone else starts making choices of their own.
The Dink Diaries reaches the sharp end of Dink’s first year, where friendship, guilt, change and responsibility start demanding more from him than a smart answer.
He can still be loud.
The harder part is knowing when to listen.
Meet the characters
The people who steady Dink, unsettle him, protect him and occasionally make everything worse.
Dink
Wairoa-born, Māori and Pākehā, loud, funny and far less certain than he sounds. Dink turns almost everything into a joke, especially when he shouldn't.
Braden
Dink's identical twin and opposite in presentation. Neat, controlled and practical, Braden shows loyalty through actions rather than speeches.
Persephone
Dink's patient, formidable study partner and closest reality check. Organised, perceptive and unimpressed by evasions.
Ethan
Steady, observant and quietly strong. Ethan is the person Dink seeks when he needs calm without interrogation.
Rawiri
An old friend from Wairoa with easy charm and a talent for making trouble look ordinary. Dink trusts him, even when the facts become harder to ignore.
Solomon
Tall, athletic and guarded. Sol says less than Dink and notices more, which makes their connection both grounding and difficult to fake.
Saffron
A classmate who has noticed Dink for far longer than he realises. Neatly presented and outwardly pleasant, Saff's attention carries an intensity he is slow to recognise.
Marcus
Polished, composed and skilled at making attention feel flattering. Marcus knows how to present certainty when someone else is looking for it.
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