Our latest reviews
Perfume & Pain by Anna Dorn
Like Etat Libre d’Orange’s cult scent Sécrétions Magnifiques, Anna Dorn’s Perfume & Pain straddles the boundary between intoxicating and uncomfortable. Messy, indulgent and, at times, disarmingly earnest, it’s a love letter to lesbian pulp fiction, reality television, perfume and women…
Banal Nightmare by Halle Butler
After a decade of dating a man she now knows is a megalomaniac, Margaret (‘Moddie’) Yance moves back to her hometown to reconnect with old ‘friends’ and forget the number of years she wasted on her narcissistic boyfriend. She was…
The Echoes by Evie Wyld
‘The Echoes’ refers to many things in this book: the name of a rural Australian town from the main character’s past; the ghost of her dead boyfriend in her apartment; the way her family seems to constantly perpetuate cycles of…
Highway 13 By Fiona McFarlane
I grew up in Canberra, only a few hours drive from Belanglo State Forest and Berrima. I might be too young to remember the backpacker murders as they were reported, or the conviction of Ivan Milat, but I’ve encountered the…
Woo Woo by Ella Baxter
Melbourne writer and artist Ella Baxter’s New Animal (published in March 2021) remains for me one of the standout debuts of recent years. A dark, beautiful satire and a new way of thinking about the body in grief, this book…
ABC Disability by Sarah Rose, Alley Pascoe & Rebecca Feiner (illus.)
ABC Disability is not just an A-to-Z list of disabilities, it’s a book designed to start conversations. While it does include a pretty good number of named disabilities, as well as blanket terms for multiple others, it also talks about…
Race of Wonders (Magicalia, Book 1) by Jennifer Bell
When aspiring reporter Bitsy’s dad is kidnapped by a woman wielding a giant hamster-rhinoceros hybrid, she and her sports-obsessed best friend Kosh discover an underground secret society of magical conjurers. To rescue Bitsy’s dad, they must adapt quickly, learning how…
Something Special (40th anniversary edition) by Emily Rodda
Sam’s mother has been busy organising second-hand clothes for a stall at the school fete. The spare room is filled to the brim with clothing. Some are carefully hung on racks. These, Sam’s mother tells her, are Special. As Sam…
The Raven’s Eye Runaways by Claire Mabey
Two very different girls embark on a tense, sprawling quest across a magical world, where the written word holds immense power and reading is restricted to a privileged elite.
Getwin Goode is an apprentice bookbinder, working alongside her mother by…
The Dragon’s Treasure (History Hunter Series) by Mark Greenwood
Mark Greenwood, the history lover and award-winning author, has an impressive backlist of children’s titles. From Ned Kelly and the Green Sash through to the tale of cricket’s real first eleven in Boomerang and Bat, he has shared with…
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