Book Reviews
The Hitwoman’s Guide to Reducing Household Debt by Mark Mupotsa-Russell
A twisty, genre-flipping thriller that puts a former assassin turned suburban mum front and centre.
Butter by Asako Yuzuki, trans. by Polly Barton
More than a simple thriller, Butter masters something more critical and sinister as Yuzuki brings to light the issue of unrealistic beauty standards for women in Japan.
No Church In The Wild by Murray Middleton
A bold and unflinching novel that doesn’t shy away from examining racism in contemporary Australia.
The Little Clothes by Deborah Callaghan
The liberating and stifling invisibility of middle age is at the heart of this darkly humorous novel.
A Language of Limbs by Dylin Hardcastle
Over three decades, two lives unfold in parallel, dealing with the big questions of desire, queerness, conformity and love.
Sugar: An Ethnographic Novel by Edward Narain and Tarryn Phillips
Where crime fiction meets colonial legacy in Fiji's diabetes crisis.
rock flight by Hasib Hourani
An epic meditation on mourning, loss and dispossession by a Lebanese-Palestinian poet.
When Cops Are Criminals ed. by Veronica Gorrie
This blistering anthology reckons with the violence and corruption endemic to contemporary policing.
When The Forest Finds You by Lonnie Stabile
This poetry collection uses horror movie references and tropes to disect sexual violence and its aftermath.
The Beauties by Lauren Chater
A masterclass in storytelling, this sumptuous historical novel centres around art, love and the power of feminine beauty.
Potty Mouth, Potty Mouth by Alex Creece
Screaming, crying, throwing up: this debut poetry is a hilarious and visceral exploration of selfhood, queerness and neurodivergence.
A Place Between Waking and Forgetting by Eugen Bacon
A Place Between Waking and Forgetting is a magical, mysterious tour de force of Black speculative fiction.
She is the Earth by Ali Cobby Eckermann
This divine verse novel by a celebrated First Nations poet explores birth, death and grief, while thrumming with life.
Diving, Falling by Kylie Mirmohamadi
A refreshing and engaging story of a woman rediscovering herself after the death of her domineering husband.
Bear by Julia Phillips
In this fable-like novel, two sisters struggle to break free of their circumstances – but it doesn't quite deliver on its promising premise.
Brothers and Ghosts by Khuê Phạm
A generation-spanning family saga that explores the far-reaching impacts of war and colonisation on identity, place and relationships.
Big Time by Jordan Prosser
Cinematic in scope, boldly imaginative in delivery, and worryingly close to the bone in its ‘speculative’ aspects, we couldn’t put this one down.
Hearts & Bones: Love Songs for Late Youth by Niamh Mulvey
In this debut collection, Mulvey explores the fraught relationships, loves and milestones that define a life.
How to Knit a Human by Anna Jacobson
In her debut memoir, Anna Jacobson invites readers on a journey through the fractured landscape of her memory and selfhood.
My Husband by Maud Ventura
My Husband is a trip into the darkest depths of one woman’s mind, exploring the lengths she will go to be loved.