Based on a true story, The Bearcat offers a mesmerising and nuanced exploration of the life of Anne Hamilton-Byrne, Victoria’s notorious cult leader of The Family, and everything that happened right here in the Dandenong Ranges.

Told through two narratives, the novel explores the perspectives of Anne’s mother, Florence, in the 1920s as she raises a newly born Anne, and Anne as a woman, navigating her story through the formation of her cult in the mid-1960s to her arrest in 1993. The author, Georgia Rose Phillips, has chosen an intriguing and intimate analysis of The Family, one by which fans of dark true crime stories, twisting murder mysteries, and gory details may be surprised. A quick search online will show that Anne’s cult was characterised by their use of hallucinogenic drugs, illegal adoptions, cruel discipline and abuse of children, and more, including the unwavering belief that Anne herself was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

However, Phillips portrays Anne in the way Anne would have thought of herself. That is, as a woman raised by a neglectful father and a mother who felt she had given up her life too soon and too quickly by having children. A woman who sought to look after other women in difficult situations and to help children who weren’t wanted by their own parents anymore. A woman who thought she was put on this earth for greater things.

Any of these reasons might make a woman sound normal. However, the reality of The Family – the trauma, lies, and corruption of its members at Anne’s command – demonstrates the enticing and charismatic nature of cult leaders, and how they draw in those too vulnerable to see the truth.

The Bearcat is an ambitious and complex novel that subtly dissects the families that raise us, the families we create, and how they shape us as human beings.