New Year, New Reads: Fiction We Can’t Wait to Read in 2023
Anyone else still struggling to write 2023, or is it just me?
As ever, a highlight for me with the arrival of a new year is looking ahead to some of the hotly anticipated new reads coming our way - and it looks like 2023 will surprise us with some incredible debuts from emerging authors around the world.
Below are eight that have already ensnared my attention, forthcoming in the year's first half.
Enjoy!
Compulsion by Kate Scott
Published: January 2023, Penguin Books Australia
Compulsion launches its narrative from the turn of a new millennium, where bright young things are partying like it’s the end of the world - including Lucy, an editor of a music magazine, looking to escape complications in her chaotic personal life. In an attempt to reset, Lucy returns to the remote seaside town of her childhood. Seeking consolation and understanding, Lucy strikes up a high-stakes flirtation with Robin, a photographer, and the two forge a bond built on charged conversations about music and philosophy. But is Lucy learning or simply repeating old compulsions? Where “music, sex, food, drugs, fashion and nature coalesce to overwhelm the senses on every page”, Scott’s debut looks like a thrill ride we all need to jump on.
Bad Cree by Jessica Johns
Published: January 2023, Doubleday Books
It looks to be a hot year for debuts, and one I’m keen to get stuck into comes from Jessica Johns, a Nehiyaw aunty and member of Sucker Creek First Nation in Treaty 8 territory in Northern Alberta. Her debut, Bad Cree, is a gripping exploration of the legacy of violence on one family, their community and the land they call home. Tinged with an edge of supernatural horror, Bad Cree introduces us to MacKenzie, a young Cree woman whose waking world and dreams begin subtly merging in terrifying ways. As the buried truth about her sister’s death begs to be uncovered, Mackenzie must return home and face what her dreams - and someone in her reality - are desperately trying to tell her.
The Town by Shaun Prescott
Published: February 2023, Giramondo Publishing
The Town was first published in 2017 to international acclaim, and while not a ‘new’ book, it’s still pretty high on my TBR list for 2023. A young writer arrives in a nondescript town in regional New South Wales to research a new book about disappearing towns and becomes entrenched in the “futile rhythms of the place.” When an outbreak of mysterious holes start appearing, the marginal existence of the town is threatened further with total oblivion. “Unsettling and quietly luminous”, Prescott’s debut explores the disquiet at the heart of Australia’s rural places and buried history. This new edition from Giramondo celebrates the book with a new cover to accompany Prescott’s second novel, Bon and Lesley, released in 2022.
Shirley by Ronnie Scott
Published: February 2023, Penguin Books Australia
Posing the question of who is really worthy of our devotion, Shirley introduces us to the daughter of a celebrity who finally feels like she’s got her life together twenty years after an infamous incident - only to find it unravelling. When her long-term boyfriend starts sleeping with men, and her mother announces she’s selling their family home, the girl begins questioning everything she thinks she knows about her desires. A heady exploration of identity, Shirley charts a “search for meaning in a world where the fracturing of ambitions – work and purpose, real estate and home, family and love – has left us uncertain how to recognise ourselves.”
Flux by Jinwoo Chong
Published: March 2023, Penguin Random House
“A haunting and sometimes shocking exploration of the cyclical nature of grief, of moving past trauma”, Flux is already getting a lot of attention for its originality and intelligent telling of Asian identity within America. A speculative fiction edge takes Chong’s debut into time-bending narratives as the lives of 8-year-old Bo, 28-year-old Brandom, and 48-year-old Blue begin to intersect. Uncovering secrets, experimental technology and a string of violent crimes, the three realise they may not be as separate as they initially thought. This neo-noir thriller with a time travel twist is set to be a wild, mind-bending read.
The Dangers of Female Provocation by Zoë Coyle
Published: May 2023, Ultimo Press
The second novel from Sydney-based author Zoe Coyle looks set to be a heady ode to feminist rage. Odessa Odin is living a coveted lifestyle in London with her husband, successful career and close circle of friends, but scratch the surface a little, and the veneer begins to fall apart amid a web of betrayal ad neglect. When Odessa discovers her husband has been having an affair and her glittering world begins to fall apart, she takes matters into her own hands. Setting her sights on her friends' marriages, calling the men into question - and ownership - for their behaviour with dangerous results. But reality might be catching up with Odessa in ways she never accounted for. “A razor-sharp, delicious testament to the force of women stepping into their own power”, The Dangers of Female Provocation looks not to be missed.
Where I Slept by Libby Angel
Published: May 2023, Text Publishing
The unnamed narrator in Angel’s work of autofiction tugs us through 1990s Melbourne bohemia in a whirlwind of “decadence and despair, sex and drugs”, charting the places she slept throughout. From boarding houses to share houses and on the streets, our narrator professes undying love for poetry and beauty while craving stability and a place to anchor herself. “Ironic, deadpan, and darkly comic”, Angel’s forthcoming book details a life lived on the fringes and the universal yearning to find a place we can belong.
Dykette by Jenny Fran Davis
Published: May 2023, MacMillan
“Addictive, absurd and darkly hilarious”, Dykette has already been likened to Milkfed by Melissa Broder and Luster by Raven Leilani. Unfolding over ten days, Sasha and Jesse have been invited to a country getaway with an older lesbian couple, Jules and Miranda. Along with a third couple, Lou (Jesse’s best friend) and her current cool-girl flame, Darcy, the three couples spend their days in a blur of home-cooked feasts and sweaty sauna sessions. Tensions rise as generational differences become known amidst financial disparities and wildly different worldviews. As infatuation, jealousy and desire mount, Sasha finds herself spiralling down a path of destruction that threatens all three couples. “Wickedly entertaining”, Dykette is an intense look at self, identity and relationships, and the places we look - rightly or wrongly - for recognition.
Elaine Mead is a freelance writer and book reviewer, currently residing in nipaluna (Hobart), Tasmania. She is passionate about the ways we can use literature to learn from our experiences to become more authentic versions of ourselves and obsessed with showing you photos of her Dachshund puppy. You can find her online under www.wordswithelaine.com.
