Book Reviews
Gunflower by Laura Jean McKay
Laura Jean McKay’s latest short story collection combines heart-breaking revelations and inverted realities to strip bare the undeniable truths of very real issues.
Can’t I Go Instead by Lee Geum-yi
This epic historical novel explores the stories of two women, their lives entwined through the tumultuous events of World War II and the Korean War.
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
Romantic Comedy is both a love letter to the genre, and a tongue-in-cheek exploration of some of the stereotypical tropes that define it.
The Days Toppled Over by Vidya Madabushi
Vidya Madabushi’s incredible debut grapples with familial separation, mental health, and navigating the unknown. It gives a voice to the experiences of international students, not shying away from exposing the hardships and challenges they face daily.
West Girls by Laura Elizabeth Woollett
Laura Elizabeth Woollett’s fourth novel is a blunt exposé on girlhood, stripping bare self-worth and beauty to encourage us to question it’s value, as our narrator comes to realise it will only get her so far.
But the Girl by Jessica Zhan Mei Yu
Jessica Zhan Mei Yu’s debut novel explores belonging in a new, enthralling world and delves deeply into the complexities of girlhood.
Kill For Love by Laura Picklesimer
Hailed as the ‘female American Psycho’, this novel that will delight fans of the genre while adding a fresh twist to an old narrative.
the body country by Susie Anderson
Award-winning poet Susie Anderson’s collection of poems is a deeply evocative experience capturing marginalisation, connection and love.
Tissue by Madison Griffiths
Madison Griffith’s nonfiction debut is an ode to complexity, in a searing analysis of abortion and everything it intertwines with.
The Exclusion Zone by Shastra Deo
In this engaging, experimental collection, Deo interrogates the effect that ecological collapse has on the self, language and civilisation.
A Dangerous Land by Marisa Jones
Jones’ debut historical novel is gripping and harrowing story of love and war in New Guinea.
The Hummingbird Effect by Kate Mildenhall
The third novel from Aussie literary fave Kate Mildenhall takes us on an epic journey across time through the lives of four different women.
Alternative Hollywood Ending by Heather Taylor-Johnson
Taylor-Johnson’s sixth collection explores climate change and the environment, the domestic sphere, the political injustices of the Trump era, chronic illness and the body.
Emma of 83rd Street by Emily Harding and Audrey Bellezza
A modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma sees our titular heroine experiencing life, love and dating in Manhattan.
A Real Piece of Work by Erin Riley
This ‘memoir in essays’ explores how we create our identities and how we can transcend them.
I Am Homeless If This is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore
Lorrie Moore’s fourth novel is an ornate, interwoven meditation on mortality, where death is “kind of a spectrum.”
Compulsion by Kate Scott
Compulsion is a story about love, yearning and trying to come right in a world that makes it too easy to self-destruct.
Greek Lessons by Han Kang
The masterful Han Kang continues to captivate readers with her profound exploration of language, connection and loss.
Blue Hunger by Viola Di Grado
Grief, infatuation, lust and pain coalesce in this voracious novel of appetites by Italian author Viola Di Grado.
Owlish by Dorothy Tse, Trans. by Natascha Bruce
This beguiling world of magicians, dolls and sleight of hand mirror tensions in modern-day Hong Kong.