Our latest reviews
Dulcinea in the Forbidden Forest by Ole Könnecke
A bad birthday is everyone’s worst nightmare – but imagine how bad things could get if you lived next door to an enchanted forest that happened to be the home of an evil, piano-playing, out-of-tune s…
The Tiny Explorers by Kat Macleod
Sometimes a lovely picture book comes along and inspires the imagination. The Tiny Explorers is such a book with its mixed-media illustrations and sumptuous palette. A group of miniature young people…
Lies, Damned Lies by Claire G. Coleman
Noongar writer Claire G. Coleman blazed onto the local literary scene like a comet with her debut novel Terra Nullius in 2017. With its ingenious blend of historical and speculative fiction, it chall…
Squirrel Do Bad by Stephen Pastis
Welcome to Trubble Town where our protagonist Wendy has decided to rebel against an overprotective parent. This process begins with consuming an excess of sugar and descends into total chaos for the …
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
Colson Whitehead’s new novel, Harlem Shuffle, centres on Ray Carney, a furniture store owner who is doing a bad job of flying straight. His father was an infamous crook, and despite Ray’s best effort…
Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
Calling Sally Rooney’s third novel (in only four years) highly anticipated doesn’t quite cut it. Thanks to the immense global success of both Conversations with Friends and Normal People, which toppe…
The Magpie Wing by Max Easton
Max Easton is the creator of the brilliant podcast Barely Human, which explores the underground music scene and the musicians who fascinate him. (The episodes on Randy Newman, Poly Styrene and R.L. B…
Echoes of Life by Alice Sara Ott
The past will always echo through the years, affecting the future in ways that are surprising and often far reaching. Would Chopin have guessed that in the year 2021 we would still be playing and rev…
The Inseparables by Simone de Beauvoir & Lauren Elkin
In 1954, five years after she published The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir wrote a short novel. Beauvoir believed the unnamed work wasn’t serious enough to publish in her lifetime, leaving it to her …
Underground: Marsupial Outlaws and Other Rebels of Australia’s War in Vietnam by Mirranda Burton
It’s the 1960s, and the Australian government has begun conscripting young men to fight in Vietnam. Melbourne housewife Jean McLean and her friends, the Pughs, are determined to protest the draft, an…
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