Thea Erickson, a renowned surgeon, is filled with both joy and grief as her family gathers at their home on a summer night in 1995. Her elder daughter Phoebe is getting married, but even the happiness of the day feels bittersweet, as Thea grapples with a terminal cancer diagnosis. She worries she won’t be aroundContinue reading “Review: When She Was Ours shines in emotional moments but struggles with plotting”
Category Archives: Blog-exclusive book review
Review: Neighbourhood Watch balances realism and hope
The annual Curlew Street scarecrow competition is back, and the residents of Melbourne’s inner north have never seen an entry like it. Shirt bloody, head and arms slumped over a scarecrow crucifix: Victoria’s most conservative Supreme Court Judge, Harry ‘The Pope’ Somerton, is dead. Priyanka Pal, a former psychologist turned homicide detective, is disturbed whenContinue reading “Review: Neighbourhood Watch balances realism and hope”
Review: The Paradise Heights Miniature Railway Bust-Up, A Neuroaffirming Cosy Mystery
Something is amiss at the Paradise Heights Miniature Railway. And this suits Fleck Parker just fine – she’s on the hunt for a new puzzle to solve. Expensive equipment and supplies have disappeared and nobody knows why. Who could possibly wish harm on a community group delivering Sunday afternoon fun on a fleet of jollyContinue reading “Review: The Paradise Heights Miniature Railway Bust-Up, A Neuroaffirming Cosy Mystery”
Review: Reflecting on schizophrenia representation in The Sooner I Go
Seven months after her boyfriend and parents die tragically on the same night, eighteen-year-old Brynn—once an aspiring singer, now desperate for any paying gig that will keep her from ending up on the streets—sets out to rebuild her shattered world. At her new ad agency job, she’s distracted by enigmatic twenty-year-old Micah. Their enemies-to-lovers attractionContinue reading “Review: Reflecting on schizophrenia representation in The Sooner I Go”
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 twelveContinue reading “Love is an Algorithm review: can compatibility be quantified?”
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, andContinue reading “Review: ‘The Slip’ showcases original, discomfiting stories”
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 definedContinue reading “The Belly of a Wolf review: Grief, in all its messiness”
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.Continue reading “Review: ‘The Boyfriend Clause’ Has Heart and Humour, But Also an Infuriating Problem”
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 inContinue reading “A Complete Fiction Review: Who owns a story?”
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 caféContinue reading “Review: ‘The Ex-Boyfriend’s Favourite Recipe Funeral Committee’ serves up delicious food and emotional healing”