Our latest reviews
Pixel Flesh: How Toxic Beauty Culture Harms Women by Ellen Atlanta
Pixel Flesh: How Toxic Beauty Culture Harms Women by Ellen Atlanta is a profoundly impactful addition to the discourse surrounding modern beauty culture. From coloniser cultures to the fetishisation of youth, each chapter delves into the web of toxic beauty…
Hazzard and Harrower: The Letters by Brigitta Olubas & Susan Wyndham (eds)
Those who read the extract from Hazzard and Harrower in the April Readings Monthly will not be surprised to see it recommended here in the month of its release. While that small sample could hardly convey the astonishing scope of…
Did I Ever Tell You? by Genevieve Kingston
Did I Ever Tell You? emerges as a testament to resilience and love, touching on topics of grief, love and family. Genevieve (Gwen) Kingston’s mother faced a terminal cancer diagnosis when Gwen was just three years old. Despite this, her…
Give While You Live: A Practical Guide to More and Better Giving in Australia by Peter Winneke
The 200 wealthiest families in Australia have an aggregate wealth of $563 billion and 56,000 Australians have assets worth more than $10 million. Many families have more money than they need to live comfortably yet, despite this wealth, only 46.4…
Peripathetic: Notes on (un)belonging by Cher Tan
Peripathetic is a collection of nine essays by Singapore-born Australian writer Cher Tan. The essays span a diverse range of topics, from the online punk and zine scenes in Singapore and the rise of open access file sharing platform ‘Pirate…
Red River Road by Anna Downes
Katy’s sister Phoebe has vanished into thin air on a solo trip around Australia. Determined to find her when no one else can, Katy sets off in a van just like Phoebe’s, all on her own, just like Phoebe, following…
One of Us Is Missing by B.M. Carroll
This story is all a little too possible for my liking. The day I finished it, I woke at 3am in a cold sweat. This is the story that has since made me feel anxious on hearing Coldplay’s ‘Viva La…
The North Wind (The Four Winds, Book 1) by Alexandria Warwick
Wren of Edgewood lives in a world perpetually in winter. An orphan hardened by the inherent powerlessness of her situation and the struggles of being the sole provider for herself and her sister, she has always sought to protect her…
Antiquity by Hanna Johansson & Kira Josefsson (trans.)
Our narrator – lonely, introspective, of uncertain reliability – is on the Greek island of Ermoupolis, drawn there by her adoration for and desire to please an older woman, Helena. However, Helena’s younger daughter, Olga, provides at first a source…
The Coast Road by Alan Murrin
Izzy Keaveney is in an unhappy marriage; her friend Colette Crowley ruefully observes, ‘So what if your husband’s a bit of a bully, they all are in their own way.’ It’s 1994 in a small coastal town in County Donegal…