The premise for George Kemp’s novel, Soft Serve, is deceptively simple – four people taking shelter in a regional McDonald’s as bushfires close in around the town. What unfolds, is a story about grief, expectations and imagined futures.
…orange embers dart over her head and flutter down the hill towards the town, flicky death-filled confetti… Continue reading
I’ll admit that I bought New Skin by Miranda Nation for one reason – it’s set at Melbourne University in the nineties. Which is when I was there. So yes, references to Carlton, faculty balls and the Baillieu Library were enjoyable. Continue reading
In previous years, I’ve attempted to read the full Stella Prize longlist – that took some effort in terms of coordinating predictions, library reservations and bookshop visits! This year, the longlist announcement crept up on me and I was totally unprepared. Nevertheless, I got my hands on a copy of Lucy Nelson’s short story collection, Wait Here. Continue reading
Love Machines by James Muldoon Continue reading
Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga Continue reading
I have many feelings about the ‘wellness’ industry (which I touched on here and here, but to save you reading, the theme is ‘skeptical’), so I pounced on Katherine Brabon’s latest novel, Cure.
The story focuses on a mother and daughter, Vera and Thea. Vera has suffered an unnamed chronic illness since she was a teenager and, as she watches her daughter’s health follow a similar path, Vera becomes increasingly preoccupied with a blog written by a woman named Claudia, a mother whose daughter also has a chronic disease. Continue reading
I have been very slow to review the novellas I read for #NovNov25, so some quick reviews (and there’s still another bunch to come). Continue reading
Apparently it started like this: Sarah and Chloe were to-ing and fro-ing about whether they’d write anything about the ‘mushroom case’.
None of us wants to write about this. And none of us wants not to write about it.
And then they roped in Helen.
One wild domestic detail galvanises us: his dying aunt remembered the guests ate off four grey plates, while the hostess served herself on an orange one.
Can you imagine the team at Text Publishing when they discovered that Helen, Chloe and Sarah said, ‘Yeah, we’ll do something but only if we can do it together’? Publishing pay-dirt.
And so we have The Mushroom Tapes by Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein. Continue reading
Cult Bride by Liz Cameron Continue reading
To be honest, I was still dining on details of The Salt Path scandal, when I began I Want Everything by Dominic Amerena. I Want Everything is more a story about a literary mystery rather than a scandal per se, but either way, it’s all in the juicy details (and because of that, I’m loathe to say too much about the plot for fear of giving anything away). Continue reading