Category: National Reviews

Necromancy is suggestive of sorcery and black magic but in Lily’s House this gateway to the afterlife is initially more subtle and understated before assuming a deeper significance as the family tree unravels with Jen struggling to accept her grandmother’s death and its mystical fall out. The seaside setting imbues the story with golden hues … Continue reading “Lilly’s House by Cassandra Perkins”

Sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll might not provide obvious comfort to victims of abuse but in Doctor Natalie King we are confronted with a forensic psychiatrist whose approach to mental healthcare is more black book than text book. In a race to reveal the injustice of a seemingly tainted underclass the Ducatti riding maverick … Continue reading “Medea’s Curse by Anne Buist”

A bohemian existence that challenges the social norms of pre-war Melbourne society is given innocent perspective by the childhood friendship of Eva Trentham and Lily as they live an often feral but intellectually stimulating existence in a nascent artistic commune In this boot camp for developing talent Evan Trentham is the Simon Cowell of his … Continue reading “The Strays by Emily Bitto”

Matt Wilven’s immersive writing style could well result in a spell of intensive therapy as the reader is taken on an incursive journey into the head of a father struggling to deal with the sense of loss brought about by the death of his son. Vince’s filial dependency on Charlie is replaced in grief by … Continue reading “The Blackbird Singularity by Matt Wilven”

Down and Outs rehabilitating themselves by living off the land paints an incongruous picture of back to basics self help but in these bucolic surroundings we see the Good Life descending into a testosterone fuelled version of Lord of the Flies. Don’t be fooled by this seemingly green oasis in an urban sea of grey … Continue reading “Wild Life by Liam Brown”

Miles Platting is a man whose ambition is driving his love affair with the commercial power of language. However his conscience is desperately clinging to the coat tails of his naming rights agency’s vision of transforming the material fortunes of a town by rebranding its identity from the meaningful and permanent to the lightweight and … Continue reading “Lingua Franca by William Thacker”

The Wacky Man isn’t mad he’s bad so don’t be fooled by this faintly cartoonish title as there is nothing slapstick about a story which highlights the shattering of family normality by an abusive father whose emotional meltdown has a life changing impact on those closest to him. Irish nationalism and English xenophobia are the … Continue reading “The Wacky Man by Lyn G Farrell”

Armadillos are the ubiquitous roadkill littering the endless highways of the American prairies and in 15 year old Aggie we have a human reflection of this seemingly dispensable and inconsequential mammal. She is the daughter of an abusive father living in a “sub family” where any semblances of sexual and social normality have disappeared and … Continue reading “Armadillos by PK Lynch”

Town planning and local government are synonymous with bureaucratic negativity but in the sepia tinted goals of these much derided institutions we uncover an unlikely antidote to the social media driven generation whose morals have become warped by the desire for quick fixes with little substance, unless they are stimulants of the narcotic variety. Wheatley … Continue reading “The Planner by Tom Campbell”

Bobby Baker the Illusion Maker is a magician’s moniker more suited to a children’s birthday entertainer than a modern day Dynamo but it’s this lack of pretension that is a fitting metaphor for these semi-autobiographical stories tracing the lives of three generations and their battle to preserve the innocence of truly living from becoming a … Continue reading “When We Were Alive by C J Fisher”