We caught up with author HOLDEN SHEPPARD to discuss his novel Invisible Boys and it’s upcoming 10-part TV adaptation which premieres 13 February on Stan.
Your novel Invisible Boys is getting a television adaptation – what can you tell us about this?
I can tell you I absolutely love the Stan Original Series adaptation of Invisible Boys and it totally does justice to the novel. It can be a bit of the roll of the dice for a novelist as to whether an adaptation will honour the book or go on a totally different tangent. In this regard, I feel like I really lucked out. The series of Invisible Boys just perfectly captures the tone and essence and mood of the book.
Invisible Boys is a 10-episode series, 30-minute episodes so it’s super bingeable, and it premieres on 13 February on Stan, all episodes at once. It’s the story of Zeke, Charlie, Hammer and Matt: four young gay men grappling with their sexuality while growing up in Geraldton, my hometown in the Midwest of Australia.
It takes a whole village to make a show like this – literally hundreds of people in all kinds of roles – so I am grateful for the part every single one of them played in making this production a reality. From the talented writers room to the director and assistant directors to all the crew and of course, the cast themselves – all led by brilliant producer Tania Chambers.
A special shoutout to the actors, who have all brought my characters to life so incredibly well, and especially to the mega-talented four leads: Joseph Zada (Charlie), Aydan Calafiore (Zeke), Zach Blampied (Hammer) and Joe Klocek (Matt). These four are superstars and they have been cast perfectly, each delivering so much emotion in their portrayals.
What inspired the story of Invisible Boys?
Invisible Boys came from a very real place of double devastation for me. The second devastation (bear with me) was in 2017. I was in a rough patch: I’d been made redundant at my day job, I was trying to quit smoking and trying to stay sober. Among that, I had spent three years writing a mainstream fantasy novel, which I hoped would get published and become a huge bestseller. But when I pitched it to agents, nobody wanted it. One agent in particular mentioned my writing was just ‘competent’ – nothing to write home about.
This rejection crushed me. I realised I would have to dig deeper and find something real to write about – something with heart – if I ever wanted to get published. I’d seen an Ernest Hemingway quote at the time – ‘Write hard and clear about what hurts’. I thought this was an encapsulation of what my writing was missing at the time: emotional honesty and vulnerability and pain.
So, I sat on the couch and made a very emo list of things that were hurting me. And at the top of that list was something that had traumatised and scarred and nearly killed me: growing up as a young gay man in country Australia. This was the first devastation. I had such a horrific time with my mental health as a teenager that I never talked about it, never dealt with it, never wrote about it. I had kept so much of my life and myself invisible to the rest of the world in order to survive. And on the couch in 2017, I realised I was ready to tell the truth. I went in with the idea that nothing was off-limits. It was a gigantic liberation, truly seismic. Invisible Boys came roaring out of me with the force of a V8 engine in just two months. I felt then, and still do, like I wrote myself into existence with that book. It was profoundly life-changing, not just professionally but personally.
How does it feel to have your story reach a whole new audience?
It’s a dream come true. To be honest, when you’re a novelist, the dream come true is just getting a book deal in and of itself. To have a book adapted for screen is like this epic, exciting bonus round you always hope for, but never expect to really happen, because it’s so rare. I’m so stoked it’s real.
I’m excited to see how the non-reading world will react to this story. When the official trailer recently dropped, the buzz in both the traditional media and social media was like nothing I’ve experienced in my career and that was super promising about what’s to come. It looks so good!
I think audiences are hungry for authentic gay representation that isn’t rendered clean and sweet and desexed and safe for straight audiences, but leans into the reality and messiness and of a male sexual awakening and what it actually looks like to be a gay bloke. This series is the latter. It was not just based on a book by a gay man but the episode scripts were written by a team who have that lived experience to draw on (Allan Clarke, Declan Greene, Nicholas Verso, Enoch Mailingi, and myself) so it’s as authentic as it can get.
More broadly, I think Aussies love watching dramas that reflect our own culture and lives and customs. I hope this will resonate with local audiences, as well as giving international viewers a taste of this part of our country.
In what ways will this series differ from your novel?
There are always some changes from book to screen, and I knew that from the beginning of the optioning process back in 2020, so I was happy to lean into it. I think as a creator of a source work, what you need an adaptation to do is to remain faithful to the mood and essence and truth of a story, but not necessarily totally faithful to every single plot point. That’s what Invisible Boys is like. I reckon readers of the book will find it a satisfying experience to watch the adaptation as it feels totally right for the characters and the story. There are some changes to plot points and characters, there’s not anything that jars badly.
Specifically, I want to mention the young female leads of the show as their characters are beefed up more than in the book. The idea of the novel was to be entirely focused on gay male characters, but when you’re making a show with a broader cast, you need to flesh the roles out more. Bec (Jade Baynes) is much more likeable and sympathetic to Charlie than the book character Hannah she is based on. Rochelle (Mercy Cornwall) and Sabrina (Olivia Nardini) also have some greater moments of emotion and stakes than in the book – and it works so, so well. They are all excellent!
There are plenty more differences I could list, of course, but I don’t want to spoil the show.
Invisible Boys is set in a rural town in Western Australia – how important is place to this story?
I think the fascinating thing for me is how I still get regular fan mail from readers who say the small country town they grew up in – whether in WA or NSW or overseas – felt exactly like Geraldton does in the book. Growing up gay in a country or rural area seems to have this extra layer of isolation and difficulty and that feeling is very universal no matter where your small town was.
I have bulk affection for my hometown of Gero, even if I struggled while growing up there. It was important to me that anyone I gave the film and TV rights to would film it on location in Geraldton, and I’m happy that did happen. The Gero community really got around this, and lots of locals appear as extras. I’m a bit chuffed I could create some opportunities for locals like that.
Did you draw from your own life to shape any of the scenes or characters in this story?
I definitely did, but I don’t like to tell which parts are real and which aren’t – it’s a secret! Ultimately, this book is fiction, so the plot and characters are made up – but the emotional truth of the book is heavily drawn from my own experiences growing up. I will say no more before I spill something by accident!
What do you hope the audience take away from this new adaptation?
I hope gay viewers will feel seen by it. Really, properly seen.
I hope other viewers are given the chance to reflect on what our lives growing up are like, how hard it can be, and can feel some empathy for those of us who struggle.
Gay or straight, all people know how shame feels and how much it hurts the soul. I’ve always hoped this story will tell any audience that there is no need to be ashamed of yourself. All humans are all good enough, just as we are.
WATCH THE TRAILER
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Holden Sheppard was born and bred in Geraldton, Western Australia. His debut novel, Invisible Boys, won multiple awards, including the 2019 WA Premier’s Prize for an Emerging Writer and the 2018 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award. Invisible Boys has been adapted for television as a Stan Original Series.
Holden’s second novel The Brink won the 2024 Ena Noel Award and the 2023 Indie Book Awards YA Category Prize. Holden’s books have been shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs), the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and the South Australian Literary Awards, and Invisible Boys was named a CBCA Notable Book.
Holden’s 2025 novel King of Dirt is his third book. He has received grant funding from the Minderoo Foundation and the WA Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries to write a forthcoming fourth novel, which is a sequel to Invisible Boys.
Holden’s writing has been widely published in books, journals and the media. He served as Deputy Chair of Writing WA from 2019 – 2023, and is an Adjunct Creative Fellow at Edith Cowan University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Honours. He featured in the 2022 ‘Bogans’ episode of the ABC television series You Can’t Ask That.
When he’s not writing or reading, Holden can be found working out at the gym, playing video games or watching footy.
He lives in Perth’s far north with his husband and his V8 ute.
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