Category: Issue Thirteen Book Reviews

Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Amy T Matthews Publisher: Simon & Schuster RRP: $32.99 Release Date: 31 January 2024 “Plant a tree that will live long after I’m gone. Something shady. That also has blossoms.” Sometimes, it takes the people who know us best to push us out of hiding from life and start to…

Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Robyn Harding Publisher: Simon & Schuster RRP: $32.99 Release Date: 3 July 2024 “My first novel, Burnt Orchid, has been out in the world for two days. The manuscript I poured my soul into for almost three years now sits on bookstore shelves, and it’s the achievement of my life.”…

Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion Publisher: Hachette RRP: $32.99 Release Date: 27 March 2024 “If I’d wanted an image to sum up everything that’s disturbed me in my first three weeks of acute psychiatry at Menzies Hospital – and, in a strange way, what I’ve loved about it – I…

Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Amy Hutton Publisher: Simon & Schuster RRP: $32.99 Release Date: 5 June 2024 “It was like he was in one of those videos that freeze-frame at the exact moment of disaster, while a voice brightly states, ‘Yep, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation.’” Can…

Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Emma Darragh Publisher: Joan (Allen & Unwin) RRP: $32.99 Release Date: 27 February 2024 “If she could help it, this year would be different.” Every now and then, a novel comes along that dares to be different and push conventional structure out the window. Emma Darragh’s debut, Thanks For Having…

Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Siobhan O’Brien Publisher: HarperCollins RRP: $32.99 Release Date: 31 January 2024 “A vision projected itself onto the black screen of her memory, and she saw a time when the cottage was tranquil and filled with joy.” How do you find hope, love or chase your dreams when a life you…

Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Emma Edwards Publisher: Allen & Unwin RRP: $34.99 Release Date: 27 February 2024 “Good With Money is a label we all want to wear.” Are you in complete control of your finances? Do you struggle to break old and bad financial habits? Emma Edwards, founder of The Broke Generation, wants…

Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Elizabeth Coleman Publisher: Pantera Press RRP: $32.99 Release Date: 3 January 2024 “Ted looked down at her miniature schnauzer, Miss Marple, who was sprawled at her feet, and she could’ve sworn she saw her eyes roll.” What do a private investigator, a miniature schnauzer called Miss Marple, a ballerina, a…

Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Garry Disher Publisher: Text Publishing RRP: $32.99 Release Date: 3 April 2024 “Found the bitch” A rural antiques store is not where you would normally expect to see an Australian crime-thriller set. Yet, in Australian crime writer Garry Disher’s latest stand-alone novel, Sanctuary, his protagonist finds a safe place in…

Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: James Colley Publisher: Pantera Press RRP: $32.99 Release Date: 30 January 2024 “Norm has just had a big idea. The biggest idea of his life, in fact. Norm is not used to having ideas, particularly not big ones.” If you could build a Big Thing in your town, what would…

Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Sue Williams Publisher: Simon & Schuster RRP: $32.99 Release Date: 3 April 2024 “On a rugged beach of fiery red sand, shark-infested waters and patrolling crocodiles somewhere in the remote reaches of Australia’s far northwest, a little family are fighting the battle of their lives.” Would you go into hiding…

Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Amy Lin Publisher: Zibby Books RRP: $34.99 Release Date: 1 July 2024   “When he dies, I fall out of time.” Canadian author Amy Lin’s memoir, Here After, is a beautiful, intimate and heartbreaking insight into the disorienting chaos of processing grief after the sudden loss of a loved one.…