JAY KRISTOFF Truel1f3: Lifel1k3 Book 3. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley.
Truel1f3 delivers a satisfying conclusion to Jay Kristoff’s dystopian Lifel1k3 series, a tale of love, sacrifice and betrayal. ‘You built a world on metal backs. Held together by metal hands. And one day soon, those hands will close. And they’ll become fists.’...
MICAIAH JOHNSON The Space Between Worlds. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Micaiah Johnson delivers a fresh take on multiple worlds and explores issues of power, nature and fate in her novel The Space Between Worlds. The idea of multiple worlds or multiple realities is a common one in science fiction. In her debut, The Space Between...
LUKE HORTON The Fogging. Reviewed by Amy Walters
Luke Horton’s tense debut novel asks uncomfortable questions about intimate relationships. In hindsight, the end of a relationship can take on an air of inevitability. But is it possible to pinpoint the exact moment when it irrevocably breaks down? Or is the end...
KIM KELLY Her Last Words. Reviewed by Sally Nimon
Historical novelist Kim Kelly (author of Walking, Sunshine and Wild Chicory) turns to the 21st century in her new novel to deliver a tale of intrigue and literary ambition. What a strange year 2020 has been. The world has already had bushfires, floods, pandemics,...
MIA WALSCH Money for Something: extract
This week we have an extract from Mia Walsch’s memoir Money for Something: Sex work. Drugs. Life. Need. It’s a lively, insightful, frank and at times harrowing account of a young woman’s experiences as a sex worker. Her mental illness makes it difficult for her to...
VICTORIA HANNAN Kokomo. Reviewed by Jessica Stewart
Winner of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, Victoria Hannan’s debut is a rewarding journey. Victoria Hannan’s Kokomo takes us deep into the conundrum of love, with its heartbreak and trauma. In this, her first...
SL LIM Real Differences. Reviewed by Ann Skea
SL Lim’s debut won this year’s UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and explores questions of race, religion and culture. Nick, who tells this story, is a rather disengaged white Australian man who, as he tells us, ‘graduated...
IMBI NEEME The Spill: extract
This week we’re delighted to bring you an extract from Imbi Neeme’s debut The Spill, winner of the 2019 Penguin Literary Prize and published just last month. It’s an absorbing novel about two sisters, and how differently each remembers the past. When Nicole was 11 and...
LAURA JEAN MCKAY The Animals in That Country. Reviewed by Kurt Johnson
Laura Jean McKay’s novel asks us to see the world through animals’ eyes. It was just past Goulburn on the Hume Highway, heading back to Sydney last Christmas. The Southern Highlands were aflame, and a southerly had pushed up smoke clouds as thick as a...
TRUDI CANAVAN Maker’s Curse: Millennium’s Rule Book Four. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
Trudi Canavan provides a suitably epic final instalment to her Millennium’s Rule series with Maker’s Curse. ‘All you can do is make sure you only have enemies because you are a good person.’ The bestselling author of four previous series, including...
JESSIE TU A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing: extract
This week we’re thrilled to bring you an extract from Jessie Tu’s novel A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing – an exhilarating, disturbing, unputdownable debut about music, sex, and, yes, loneliness and connection. Jena Lin was a musical child prodigy, touring the great...
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