Review search
Bohemian Negligence (Bertie Blackman, A&U)
Released October 2022
Bertie Blackman is an artist and ARIA Award–winning musician whose storytelling is as beautiful as the drawings scattered throughout her memoir. Bohemian Negligence is told by Blackman as a four-year-old... Read more
The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding (Holly Ringland, Fourth Estate)
Released October 2022
Esther Wilding grows up in the shadow of her older sister Aura. When the once-sparkling Aura returns from Copenhagen hollowed out by life, and walks into the sea to her... Read more
The Tower (Carol Lefevre, Spinifex Press)
Released October 2022
The Tower follows Carol Lefevre’s well-received 2021 Christina Stead Prize–shortlisted novella Murmurations. Set in Australia and England, The Tower is exquisitely sophisticated in imagery and form. It is structured around... Read more
The Branded (Jo Riccioni, Pantera Press)
Released October 2022
Twins Nara and Osha are Pure—unmarked by the plague that ravaged their continent. Behind the walls of the isolated citadel of Isfalk, the course of their lives is clearly prescribed:... Read more
Tulips for Breakfast (Catherine Bauer, Ford Street)
Released October 2022
Tulips for Breakfast follows teenager Lena, who has settled into her new life in a Dutch town after she and her parents fled Germany as one of many Jewish families... Read more
The Dangerous Business of Being Trilby Moffat (Kate Temple, Lothian)
Released October 2022
Kate Temple—one half of the powerhouse duo that brought us such gems as Bin Chicken, Yours Truly, Alice Toolie, and the Underdogs series—breaks out on her own for The Dangerous... Read more
Runt (Craig Silvey, illus by Sara Acton, A&U)
Released October 2022
• Craig Silvey was charged with various child exploitation offences in early 2026 Nobody knows where Runt came from, but everybody knows he’ll only listen to Annie. Annie’s instinct is... Read more
Unnecessary Drama (Nina Kenwood, Text)
Released October 2022
Things are going well for Brooke. Fresh out of high school and going straight into university, she is determined to reinvent herself from the nerdy and awkward person she once... Read more
A Kind of Magic (Anna Spargo-Ryan, Ultimo)
Released October 2022
It’s still quite something to read a book that speaks the truth about mental health. A Kind of Magic is Anna Spargo-Ryan’s epic, relentlessly honest autobiography of a life lived... Read more
Limberlost (Robbie Arnott, Text)
Released October 2022
Fifteen-year-old Ned helps his father and sister on the family orchard while his brothers are away at war. Seeking escape from his sister’s worry and his father’s silence, Ned traps... Read more
Humanity’s Moment (Joëlle Gergis, Black Inc.)
Released September 2022
‘In a single lifetime, humans have become a force of nature,’ Joëlle Gergis reminds us in Humanity’s Moment. As a climate scientist and lead author of the UN’s IPCC Sixth... Read more
The Grizzled Grist Does Not Exist (Juliette MacIver, illus by Sarah Davis, Gecko Press)
Released October 2022
Following the international success of That’s Not a Hippopotamus, linguist Juliette MacIver returns with The Grizzled Grist Does Not Exist, an irresistible, rhyming rollick through the wilderness. While Ms Whisk... Read more
Charlie’s Whale (Libby Gleeson, illus by Hannah Sommerville, Lothian)
Released October 2022
Distinguished writer Libby Gleeson and CBCA-shortlisted illustrator Hannah Sommerville have successfully collaborated on Charlie’s Whale, a picture book that is destined for awards, and for popularity with children aged two... Read more
Moon Sugar (Angela Meyer, Transit Lounge)
Released October 2022
Mila—40, single, childless—is used to attending to the needs and wants of others. Her own wants, particularly her sexual desires, have always come second. Kyle, a tentative man in his... Read more
A Girl Called Corpse (Reece Carter, A&U)
Released October 2022
Reece Carter—who previously brought us The Garden Apothecary—has turned his hand to prose for his debut middle-grade novel A Girl Called Corpse. Corpse is a ghost with no memory of... Read more
Seeing Other People (Diana Reid, Ultimo)
Released October 2022
Eleanor and Charlie are sisters in their 20s, emerging from the pandemic and trying to decide what they want from their lives. Intellectual, straitlaced Eleanor has just broken up with... Read more
Try Not to Think of a Pink Elephant (Fremantle Press)
Released October 2022
Mental illness is so misunderstood—often even by those of us who live with it—but obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) gets an odd deal. The phrase 'a little bit OCD' infantalises the... Read more
All That’s Left Unsaid (Tracey Lien, HQ Fiction)
Released September 2022
Brutally murdered inside a restaurant on the night of his high-school graduation, Ky Tran’s brother, Denny, has suffered a ‘bad death’. It is 1996, and when Ky (pronounced ‘key’) travels... Read more
11 Words for Love (Randa Abdel-Fattah, illus by Maxine Beneba Clarke, Lothian)
Released October 2022
Multi–award winning author Randa Abdel-Fattah and highly acclaimed author–illustrator Maxine Beneba Clarke unite with 11 Words for Love, a beautifully rendered, timely picture book created with heart. Appealing to children... Read more
The Upwelling (Lystra Rose, Lothian)
Released September 2022
Kirra doesn’t understand how or why, but her dreams come true. And no one believes her, not even Nan, who told Kirra to never mention her ‘power’. One night, she... Read more
