Our latest reviews
The Erasure Initiative by Lili Wilkinson
A girl wakes up with no knowledge of who she is or what has happened in her past. All she knows is that she is on a driverless bus speeding along a coastline with six other people on board, none of w…
The Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey
What to do with a mother’s guilt? Where does a mother’s shame lead? What does love make us do? Amanda Lohrey asks these questions of her readers in her latest breathtaking novel.
Erica Marsden’s so…
I Saw Pete and Pete Saw Me by Maggie Hutchings & Evie Barrow
From the creative flair of Maggie Hutchings, who brought us Unicorn! and Your Birthday Was the Best, alongside Evie Barrow’s hand-drawn sketches that celebrate beauty in imperfection, we have a touch…
You Were Made for Me by Jenna Guillaume
You Were Made For Me is the second novel by Australian YA rom-com master Jenna Guillaume, and it does not disappoint. Our protagonist, Katie Camilleri, is sixteen years old and has never been kissed.…
Jillian by Halle Butler
Halle Butler’s Jillian is a whole-body cringe, can’t-look-away experience of vicarious mortification. The second novel by Butler to be published in Australia, following The New Me which delighted Rea…
Loner by Georgina Young
Loner won the Text Prize in 2019. It is the universal story of becoming an adult and all the uncertainty, drifting and questioning that entails. Some lucky young people know who they are and what the…
Kokomo by Victoria Hannan
The anguish of living with unfulfilled desire pulses through Victoria Hannan’s debut novel, Kokomo. Its characters, each in their own way, are trying to work out how to live when they cannot get what…
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell
David Mitchell’s new novel, Utopia Avenue, is a love letter to the music of the 1960s on both sides of the Atlantic. In it, the process of music-making is inhabited so convincingly, it made me wonder…
Wild Nature by John Blay
This year of staying at home has made me ravenous for the wild places I can’t visit, and John Blay’s new book is a balm for this frustrated urge. Blay is a naturalist, best known for his exploration …
The Great Godden by Meg Rosoff
A British family of six and their friends spend each summer at the beach, returning to an old home, and all their summer pursuits. It’s different this year as they are joined by two American brothers…
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