A review by Nalini Haynes Cyclone tells the story of the cyclone that destroyed Darwin in the 1970s in rhyming verse with evocative watercolour illustrations. …
Women
99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne
A review by Lynne Larby Darcy Barrett and Tom Valeska have known each other since they were eight years old, and Darcy has had a …
Emergency Contact by Mary H K Choi
A review by Lynne Larby Emergency Contact is a young adult coming-of-age romance. Penny heads off to college, relieved at leaving behind her mother who’s …
Vox by Christina Dalcher
A review by Nalini Haynes Jean McClellan is a wife and mother, removed from the workforce by white male supremacists who’ve decided the way to …
No Limits by Ellie Marney
No Limits for Harris Derwent, a bad boy but he’s not so bad that he wants to be a drug mule, not even when a friend offers him a job could get him out of his father’s house. Amie is a nursing assistant in the local hospital. Her Punjabi family ties keep her in this small town although she had dreams of being a photographer. They meet in hospital, Amie caring for Harris after he was shot helping a friend. Sargent Blunt, Amie’s father, encourages Harris to accept a job as a runner for a drug ring so Blunt can take down some local drug dealers before his health forces him to retire.
Wisp: A Story of Hope by Zana Fraillon and Grahame Baker-Smith
A review by Nalini Haynes One day a wisp lands at Idris’s feet, feet trapped in a dark refugee camp surrounded by rolls of barbed …
Jeannette Ng
Jeannette Ng’s book Under the Pendulum Sun is about “[t]wo Victorian missionaries [who] head into darkest fairyland, to deliver their message to the godless magical …
Disabling Characters: Representations of Disability in Young Adult Literature by Patricia A Dunn
Patricia Dunn selected several Young Adult literature texts for discussion in Disabling Characters: Representations of Disability in Young Adult Literature, which focuses on teaching disability …
Carved from Stone and Dream T Frohock
A review by Nalini Haynes Carved from Stone and Dream starts several years after Where Oblivion Lives and is a very different novel although it …
A Curse of Ash and Embers by Jo Spurrier
A Curse of Ash and Ember is book 1 of the Tales of the Blackbone Witches. Elodie is restless; she’s a prisoner in her own …
The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton
A review by Nalini Haynes Camellia Beauregard is one of the Belles; she was born with colour in Orleans, a magical archipelago where the God of …
Corpselight by Angela Slatter
A review by Nalini Haynes Corpselight is Verity Fassbinder book 2; in book one, Verity learns she’s half-fae and her father was a monster, even …
3MT: Prejudice Kills
Context: The Three Minute Thesis is a public speaking competition I had intended to participate in this year. For reasons that will become obvious, I …
The Ones That Disappeared by Zana Fraillon
A review by Nalini Haynes Ezra, Miran and Isa are children living in slavery, tending opium plans in a basement in Australia. They’re rarely allowed …
Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion
Last year Suzanne Kiraly invited Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion to Bookplate, the cafe at the National Library of Australia, to promote their books Dangerous to Know (Buist) …