For something new and intensely affecting…

Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser

A story told in two narratives.

Lili’s family migrated to Australia from Asia when she was a teenager. Now, in the 1980s, she’s teaching in the south of France. Lyle works for a sinister government department in near-future Australia. An Asian migrant, he fears repatriation and embraces ‘Australian values’. Three scary monsters - racism, misogyny and ageism - roam through this mesmerising novel told in a reversible format. Read our review here.

For a clever and subversive mystery…

Lemon by Kwon Yeo-sun (translated by Janet Hong)

In the summer of 2002, nineteen-year-old Kim Hae-on was murdered in what became known as the High School Beauty Murder. There were two suspects: Shin Jeongjun, who had a rock-solid alibi, and Han Manu, to whom no evidence could be pinned. The case went cold. Seventeen years pass without justice, and the grief and uncertainty take a cruel toll on her younger sister, Da-on, in particular. Unable to move on with her life, Da-on tries in her own twisted way to recover some of what she’s lost, ultimately setting out to find the truth of what happened.

For those who enjoyed Squid Game…

Reprieve by James Han Mattson

When Bryan, Jaidee, Victor and Jane team up to compete at a full-contact escape room, it seems simple. Hold your nerve through six terrifying challenges; collect all the red envelopes; win a huge cash prize. But the real horror is unfolding outside of the game, in a series of deceits and misunderstandings fuelled by obsession and prejudice. And by the end of the night, one of the contestants will be dead.

For fans of Sally Rooney…

Love and Virtue by Diana Reid

Michaela and Eve are two bright, bold women who befriend each other their first year at a residential college at university. They could not be more different; one assured and popular - the other uncertain and eager-to-please. But something happens one night in O-week - a drunken encounter, a foggy memory that will force them to confront the realities of consent and wrestle with the dynamics of power. Read our review here.

For an entertaining whodunnit…

Fromage by Sally Scott

Journalist Alex Grant is enjoying the last days of her summer holiday in Croatia when she is accosted by an old school friend, Marie Puharich, and her odious brother, Brian. An incorrigible foodie, Alex is unable to resist Brian’s invitation to visit the family creamery in Australia’s south-west to snoop around for stories and eat her body weight in brie. But trouble has a way of finding Alex, not least because her curiosity is the size of a giant gouda wheel. What begins as a country jaunt in search of a juicy story will end in death, disaster and the destruction of multiple pairs of shoes.

For poetry that cuts to the bone…

How Decent Folk Behave by Maxine Beneba Clarke

On a daylight street in Minneapolis Minnesota, a Black man is asphyxiated - by callous knee of an officer, by cruel might of state, and under crushing weight of colony. In Melbourne the body of another woman has been found - this time, after catching a late tram home. These poems speak of the world that is, and sing for a world that may one day be. They explore themes including systemic violence, natural disasters, and the pandemic, among many others.

For a whimsical, soothing fantasy…

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own sparsely-attended funeral, Wallace is outraged. But he begins to suspect she’s right, and he is in fact dead. Then when Hugo, owner of a most peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace reluctantly accepts the truth. Yet even in death, he refuses to abandon his life - even though Wallace spent all of it working, correcting colleagues and hectoring employees. As Wallace drinks tea with Hugo and talks to his customers, he wonders if he was missing something. The feeling grows and when he’s given one week to pass through the door to the other side, Wallace sets about living a lifetime in just seven days.

For plenty of twists and turns…

Long Division by Kiese Laymon

It’s 2013: after an on-stage meltdown during a nationally televised quiz contest, fourteen-year-old Citoyen ‘City’ Coldson becomes an overnight celebrity. The next day, he’s sent to stay with his grandmother in Melahatchie, where a young girl named Baize Shephard has recently disappeared.

Before leaving, City is given a strange book without an author called Long Division. He learns that one of the book’s main characters is also named City Coldson, but Long Division is set in 1985. This 1985-version of City, along with his friend, discovers a way to travel into the future, and steals a laptop and cellphone from an orphaned teenage rapper — called Baize Shephard…