It’s 1949, early in the Cold War, but St. Petersburg, Florida is warm, lush, and booming with newcomers seeking sunshine and opportunity. For seventeen-year-old Nora, St. Pete feels like paradise, especially after she meets and wins over Leonard, the shy, brilliant son of transplanted New Yorkers. Nora and Leonard are soon spending balmy days andContinue reading “Review: Sunlight Finds You explores first love and relationship trauma in the 1950s”
Tag Archives: Blog-exclusive book review
Review: Loneliness is a Molecule Explores Complex People and Complex Grief
Miri was whole, once. She had a best friend, once. She knew who she was – or she thought she did. But now she is a million lonely molecules, flying through the air to a new life on the other side of the world. Rome is light and loud and cobblestones and gelaterias and ancientContinue reading “Review: Loneliness is a Molecule Explores Complex People and Complex Grief”
Review: When She Was Ours shines in emotional moments but struggles with plotting
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”
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”
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?”