Latest Posts
Q&A with Lauren Keegan on The Woman in the Seal Skin
Set in Scotland in 1695, this is the story of Malie, a young woman struggling with grief, oppression, her relationship with nature and her own inherent wildness within during Europe’s ‘little ice age’. Malie grew up hearing tales of selkies: shape-shifting women who shed their seal skins to seduce fishermen on the Orkney shores. That’s…
Keep reading
Love is an Algorithm review: can compatibility be quantified?
Eve wants to make music that’s fuelled by love, passion, and rage (feelings!). She trusts her gut and her friends and in no way wants to rely on technology, let alone AI, to tell her how she feels. Danny is anxious – about his dad, his dating life, his coffee order (why is it twelve…
Keep reading
Review: ‘The Slip’ showcases original, discomfiting stories
These dark, feral and unforgettable stories are about the things we can’t hold onto: a marriage drifting out with the tide, a family collapsing like a wave, a young woman’s affair that dissolves as quickly as it ignites. From Melbourne to regional Victoria and beyond, lovers flounder in the push and pull of desire, and…
Keep reading
The Belly of a Wolf review: Grief, in all its messiness
Red is going back to high school six months after the death of her best friend Wolf. Their friendship began on the first day of Prep, when they were cast as Little Red and Wolf in the school play; ever after their lives were entwined as two halves of the same story. Red is defined…
Keep reading
Review: ‘The Boyfriend Clause’ Has Heart and Humour, But Also an Infuriating Problem
Sabrina’s new Melbourne cafe, her lifelong dream, is struggling—despite her exceptional baked goods and fabulous coffee. Her love life isn’t faring much better—she just keeps dating the wrong kind of guy. But the boyfriend clause in her loan agreement requires her to be in a committed relationship or pay back the loan in its entirety.…
Keep reading
Q&A with Kay Kerr on Might Cry Later
Meet Nora Byrne. Over-thinker, under-achiever, champion vibes-killer. After spectacularly blowing up her life, twenty-one-year-old Nora Byrne retreats to the family home with little to show for herself but a shiny new autism diagnosis. But it’s hard to process this news under the critical eye of her mother, who already treats her like the black sheep,…
Keep reading
A Complete Fiction Review: Who owns a story?
With little evidence, would-be author P.J. Larkin serves a “nibble” on the trendy new social-media app Crave, accusing editor George Dunn of stealing the novel she submitted to him for publication. The nibble shoots to the top of the site’s Popular Menu Items and before you can say “unpaid literary labor,” George is embroiled in…
Keep reading
Review: ‘The Ex-Boyfriend’s Favourite Recipe Funeral Committee’ serves up delicious food and emotional healing
Twenty-nine-year-old Momoko has been tragically dumped. So Momoko does what many broken-hearted people do – she gets incredibly drunk. So drunk that she passes out in a nearly empty café. When she wakes, she pours her heart out to Iori, the curious and impossibly handsome manager, and Hozumi, a Buddhist monk in training and café…
Keep reading
Review: ‘The Experiment’ is a flying adventure
Nathan never understood what was ‘fun’ about secrets, probably because he’s always had to keep a very big one, even from his best friend, Victor. Although he appears to be a typical grade-six kid, Nathan learned at an early age that his family is from another planet, and he’s part of an experiment to work…
Keep reading
December Book Club: Alone with You in the Ether by Olivie Blake
Two people meet in the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist, undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy. By the end of the story, these things will still be true. But this is not a…
Keep reading
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
addiction adult fiction announcement Anxiety australian fiction author interview autism Blog-exclusive book review bonus episode book club book review depression disability eating disorder gender roles grief hospital inpatient treatment kay kerr lgbtiq medication memoir mental health middle grade mystery nicola moriarty non-fiction parenting podcast episode psychological thriller psychology psychosis ptsd racism relationships review romance speculative fiction stigma suicide therapy the surprising power of a good dumpling thriller trauma young adult
Subscribe to our blog
Get new content delivered directly to your email.