I should probably start by saying I did not plan to become the subject of three books. I planned to leave Wairoa, study Health and Physical Education in Auckland and become the sort of person who knew where his lecture was before it started. That last part proved ambitious.

In Diary of a Wairoa Boy, I am eighteen, new to Auckland and trying to work out university without looking as lost as I am. Braden is here too, which means my identical twin has immediate access to every mistake I make. Persephone becomes the person I trust most. Then Solomon, Tavai and Liam enter my life. I call them Leg Day before I know their names. It is not my finest introduction, but it is accurate.

The first year is full of people deciding who I am before asking me. I do some of that too. There are friendships I did not expect, feelings I would rather not explain and several moments when staying quiet would have helped. I rarely stay quiet at the useful time.

In Diary of a Reluctant Target, Auckland is no longer new. I know the campus and I have people who matter to me. That should make life easier. Instead, attention finds me when I do not want it. Assumptions spread. Relationships become harder to protect once other people start treating them as public property. I have to decide when to laugh something off and when laughing would mean letting it continue.

By Diary of a Reticent Loudmouth, I understand that keeping your head down is still a choice. It just lets someone else do the talking. Marcus arrives in Book Three with very clear ideas about identity, belonging and who gets heard. Some of what he says reaches me. Some of it makes me question people I trust. The difficult part is working out whether finding my voice means speaking louder or finally saying the thing I have been avoiding.

Across the trilogy, I deal with family, friendship, first love and being Māori when strangers think they have already worked me out. I get defensive. I make jokes at bad times. I hurt people I care about. They do not stop mattering just because I am angry with them.

These books contain the parts of university nobody puts in the prospectus. There is affection here. There is conflict. There are people trying to belong without agreeing on what belonging requires. Most of all, there is me, attempting to record events fairly while being personally involved in all of them.

Read the full trilogy and decide whether I handled any of it properly. I have my own opinion. It changes depending on the chapter.