Category: Reviews
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Down Stream – Book Review
Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Annika Johansson Publisher: Echo Publishing RRP: $32.99 Release Date: Out Now “The life that Sal and I had two weeks ago is now a peeling, stewing carcass.” In February 2022, Lismore and the Northern Rivers region of NSW experienced the worst flooding disaster in Australian recorded history. The…
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Three Wild Dogs and The Truth: Book Review.
“There’s nothing like having a punch-up with your dog on a crowded city street.”
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Upon a Starlit Tide: Book Review
Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Kell Woods Publisher: Voyager AU (HarperCollins Australia) RRP: $34.99 Release Date: 25 February 2025 “Her tail flicked of its own accord, and she surged through the water, faster and stronger than she had ever thought possible.” What happens when you blend historical fantasy with fairy tales, romance and…
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Australian Gospel: A Family Saga
Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Lech Blaine Publisher: Black. Inc RRP: $36.99 Release Date: Out Now “Michael Shelley kidnapped Elijah on a sunlit Monday afternoon.” There is a well-known saying that truth is stranger than fiction. In the case of Lech Blaine’s creative non-fiction, Australian Gospel: A Family Saga, this sentiment rings at…
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Smoke Encrypted Whispers: Poetry Book Review
Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Samuel Wagan Watson Publisher: UQP RRP: $19.99 Release Date: Out now “it spilled out onto the bitumen like the bursting stomach of a consumed beast the writer’s black suitcase bleeding onto the pavement…” (The Writer’s Suitcase) Initially published in 2004 and winner of the NSW Premier’s Literary…
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The Fog: Book Review.
Review by Stacey O’Carroll
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The Thinning: Book Review
Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Inga Simpson Publisher: Hachette RRP: $32.99 Release Date: Out now “We haven’t always lived on amber alert, ready to run.” What do you get when you cross astronomy with a dystopian thriller and the Central West and North West Slopes of NSW? The Thinning is a unique and…
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Portraits of Drowning: Poetry Book Review
Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Madeleine Dale Publisher: UQP RRP: $24.99 Release Date: 3 September 2024 “Imagine Mary, waiting ten days by the yellow house as if waiting for inspiration — for the same raw-breeze must who turns oak leaves over and breaks windfall fruit from its branch.” The Poet in Water Poetry…
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Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales: Book Review
Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Heather Fawcett Series: Emily Wilde Book #3 Publisher: Hachette RRP: $32.99 Release Date: 14 January 2025 “If there is one subject upon which Wendell and I will never agree, it is the wisdom of attempting to drag a cat into Faerie.” Academia and faeries are not what you…
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The Burrow: Book Review
Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Melanie Cheng Publisher: Text Publishing RRP: $32.99 Release Date: 1 October 2024 “It was the middle of spring. The curfew for metropolitan Melbourne had been lifted but restrictions were still in place…Jin had been driving for forty minutes, alone, first through country vineyards and later through graffitied outer suburbs,…
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Pictures of You: Book Review
Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Emma Grey Publisher: Penguin Random House RRP: $34.99 Release Date: 12 November 2024 “All the scaffolding in my life has crumbled and I’m stranded on a mile-high ledge.” What if you woke up in a hospital bed and couldn’t remember any of your adult life? Scared and confused,…
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Liars: Book Review
Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: James O’Loghlin Publisher: Echo Publishing RRP: $32.99 Release Date: 30 July 2024 “Hi, I’m Joe Griffith, and welcome to Catching The Strangler. Seven years ago my friend Sal McIndoe was murdered, the third and final victim of a killer dubbed the Blue Mountains Strangler…This podcast will re-examine the case,…
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Writers on Writers Series – Tim Winton, Beverley Farmer, Peter Carey and Kim Scott: Book Review
Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Various Publisher: Black. Inc RRP: $22.99 Release Date: Out Now Writers on Writers is an intriguing series of tiny but mighty essay books written by prominent Australian authors on an Australian author who has inspired the writing. Published by Black. Inc in association with Melbourne University and the State…
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Belburd: Book Review
Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Nardi Simpson Publisher: Hachette RRP: $32.99 Release Date: 25 September 2024 “The entire space was filled with the orange and cinnamon scent of warming mulled wine.” Is there anything more magical than when words dance and sing on the page? When they not only tell a story, they…
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Dinner For Vampires – Life on a cult TV show: Book Review
Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Bethany Joy Lenz Publisher: Simon & Schuster RRP: $34.99 Release Date: 30 October 2024 “He had only injured his hand punching holes in several of our walls and doors. A sweatshirt was really nothing.” If you are of a certain age, you will perhaps be familiar with the…
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Class: Book review.
By Antonia Cassetta. The poetry anthology Class, edited and sent in to Other Terrain by the reputable Les Wicks, is an enlightening collection that highlights the systemic plights of contemporary society. It tackles neoliberal capitalism unflinchingly, in a way that is undeniably human, breaking down the borders we have built up and wrongly attributed…
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Issue Thirteen Book Reviews.
The Glass House: Novel Review Love From Scratch: Novel Review Thanks For Having Me: Novel Review A Dance With Murder: Novel Review Tidelines: Novel Review Someone Else’s Bucket List: Novel Review Kit McBride Gets A Wife: Novel Review The Next Big Thing: Novel Review The Deed: Novel Review Sanctuary: Novel Review Non-Fiction Reviews Good With…
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Kit McBride Gets A Wife: Novel Review
Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Amy Barry Publisher: Simon & Schuster RRP: $22.99 Release Date: 3 April 2024 “Well, spit. How was Junebug to know flour was flammable?” Teenage Junebug McBride has had enough of cooking and cleaning for her ungrateful older brothers in the isolated Buck’s Creek, Montana. So, when she is asked to…