The Overthinkers

Four people, figuring out sex, love, and how to ‘adult.’ Sydney - one of those places that just consumes you. A private school boy, a tortured drug dealer, a starving writer and a gay outcast, try to do their best as they navigate through the unspoken rules which govern the fast paced, status obsessed harbour city.

Benji: desperate to stand on his own, and be perceived as separate to his status-driven family.
Francesca: plotting her remarkable and glamorous future.
Leo: the confident gay-sian, but despite the pretense, lacks a sense of identity and self-worth.
Hamish: fell into drugs to distinguish himself.

Four stories interlaced together. Anxiety masked as confidence. Ambitions as arrogance. Insecurities which fester … until the cracks appear in the perfect façade

"I laughed. I cried. Sometimes at the same time!'
Tim Ferguson.

"Portolan and Cheong’s voices stitch seamlessly together to lay out a funny, honest and extremely relatable story, so clearly born of the 2020s. I couldn’t get enough of it!"
Marlee Silva

About the Authors

Lisa Portolan is a journalist and author from Sydney. She has previously published two books, including bestseller, Happy As (Echo, Melbourne). She has written for publications like the Australian Financial Review, The Guardian, 9 Honey and 10 Daily, and appeared on the Today Show and The Drum.

Ben is a PR consultant and accidental first-time author of The Overthinkers. An openly-gay, cis man, and son of first-generation Chinese Malay immigrants, Ben grew up in suburbia as an outlier in both the ‘Aussie’ and Chinese communities. Instead, Ben attempted

to make connections in a very closeted, young LGBT+ community. As a young adult, Ben felt embarrassed when talking about mental health issues, and heard similar stories from his close friends, which drove him to write his debut novel with Lisa Portolan.