Rounding out 2024 reviews with four brief ones –

Girls They Write Songs About by Carlene Bauer

For the third year in a row, I finished all the books I was reading on the last day of the year, leaving January 1st for a new batch. Satisfying. Less satisfying was this novel. On paper, it had all the elements of something I’d love – two friends, living their best author-ly lives in New York, set in the nineties… so many pop-culture references that spoke to me, so much to reminisce about. However, the main characters, Rose and Charlotte, who begin as work-rivals and then become best friends, are not at all convincing. Their friendship – the time they spend together, their codependency, their dialogue – is that of adolescents, not women in their twenties. The story progresses until the women are in their forties and we see the highs and lows of their relationship. Of course there’s a betrayal (I found it a bit ick) and although Rose and Charlotte’s stories continue, the whole thing felt one dimensional.

I received my copy of Girls They Write Songs About from the publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

2.5/5

Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller

Sometimes you pick up a book that is exactly the right thing at the right time. Such was the case here. It’s the story of a twin brother and sister – at 51 years old, they still live with their mother, in an isolated rural cottage and in poverty. When their mother dies, the twins are left to navigate a world they are ill-equipped for.

There’s mystery around the mother’s life, which results in significant anxiety for the twins – this, combined with their grief, gave the plot a plausible and engrossing degree of tension. There’s nothing earth-shatteringly surprising in this book but it is a solid and satisfying story, and I think Fuller’s writing style is always engaging.

I received my copy of Unsettled Ground from the publisher, Penguin UK, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

3.5/5

The Battle for Home by Marwa al-Sabouni

The subtitle for this book is ‘The Vision of a Young Architect in Syria’ and I think this is precisely why the book was difficult – it’s part memoir; part academic text; part history; part political commentary. Basically, it tries to do too much and the premise of al-Sabouni’s work – she believes that architecture plays a role in maintaining a city’s peace – gets lost.

The book includes some sketches of buildings and city plans – these were helpful in illustrating many of the things that the author was describing, but unfortunately the writing and structure of the book was flat.

2.5/5

Dusk by Robbie Arnott

Although I read it almost two years ago, Arnott’s Limberlost lingers – it was truly magnificent. Because the Arnott bar was set so high, I was hesitant to pick up Dusk, but when I saw it on the ‘Most Wanted’ shelf at my library, I grabbed it. It’s the story of twins, Iris and Floyd, who head deep into the Tasmanian high country to track down Dusk, a puma that has been killing shepherds. Broke and out of work, the twins decide that the bounty on Dusk is worth the risk.

There are layers to this story – at the deeper level is the commentary on the invasion of the lands of the Palawa people, and extinction (of species, culture, practices – the Palawa people collected peat). At a more superficial level, this is a great yarn about a big cat – hard not to get pulled into a story about a mythical beast.

While Dusk didn’t have the emotional complexity and depth of Limberlost, it did have Arnott’s beautiful writing about the forest and land, and that alone made it a great read.

3.5/5