Our latest reviews
The Divorcées by Rowan Beaird
Upon fleeing her loveless marriage, Lois Gorski finds herself back under the control of her strict father and is dispatched to The Golden Yarrow – a divorce ranch in Nevada. There she will spend six weeks under yet another person’s…
The Pyramid of Needs by Ernest Price
What do transgender identities, pyramid schemes and the climate crisis have in common? The answer is Ernest Price’s Pyramid of Needs. In his eclectic debut, Price introduces us to Linda, a 70-year-old woman who has spent most of her…
Thunderhead by Miranda Darling
Winona Dalloway wakes up at 5am to steal a sense of freedom. From the outside, she seems an ordinary suburban mother/wife/person, but inside the thunder is growing louder and louder. Chaos stirs and swells into the corners of her mind…
The Work by Bri Lee
Bri Lee’s foray into fiction should not come as a surprise to anyone who has been following this smart and perceptive writer. Reflected in her nonfiction work are the issues of privilege, consent, relationships, and identity, and clearly, here, she…
What I Would Do to You by Georgia Harper
Georgia Harper’s debut novel, What I Would Do to You, is an example of speculative fiction executed to perfection. Set in the not-too-distant future of 2039, the death penalty has been reintroduced in Australia for the most heinous crimes…
Dirt Poor Islanders by Winnie Dunn
Winnie Dunn’s debut novel is unlike anything you’ve ever read, because it is unlike anything that has been published in Australia before. That said, it’s a universally relatable tale of the painful process of coming to an understanding of self…
Black Beauty (Oxford Children’s Classics) by Anna Sewell
As a child, I was utterly obsessed with this story of a beautiful horse and his journey from childhood to old age in 19th-century England, a time when horses were the main form of transportation.
Black Beauty is the autobiography…
Death of a Foreign Gentleman by Steven Carroll
One of Steven Carroll’s superpowers as a novelist is to look back at history and make very astute observations about how society works. We have seen this skill in his other works, and now with this quiet detective novel, we…
The End of the Morning by Charmian Clift & Nadia Wheatley (ed.)
There is both a joy and a sadness in reading Charmian Clift’s unfinished novel, The End of the Morning, as it is published now, 55 years after her death. Nadia Wheatley, Clift’s long-time advocate, biographer, and champion of the…
No Church in the Wild by Murray Middleton
Murray Middleton won the 2015 Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award, an award for an unpublished manuscript by an author under 35 and known for uncovering writers like Tim Winton, Kate Grenville, and Andrew McGahan. The resulting book of Middleton’s award, When There’s…
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