The Serpent Rider (Yxavel Magno Diño, Bloomsbury Children’s)
Younger readers
Released January 2025, reviewed by Anneliese Gates.
Inspired by Filipino folklore, Yxavel Magno Diño’s debut novel, The Serpent Rider, is a mesmerising middle-grade fantasy. All Tani wants...
The Pool (Hannah Tunnicliffe, Ultimo)
Fiction
Released January 2025, reviewed by Danielle Bagnato .
In Hannah Tunnicliffe’s latest novel, The Pool, a motley group of southside Melburnians meets for a summer party. The young families...
That Island Feeling (Karina May, Macmillan)
Fiction
Released January 2025, reviewed by Lisa Schuurman.
Set on a sleepy, scenic Australian island and featuring oysters, wine and flirty banter, That Island Feeling is the summer...
Panic (Catherine Jinks, Text)
Fiction
Released January 2025, reviewed by Coco McGrath.
Modern society is well versed in the evils of social media. From cyberbullying and trolling to revenge porn and deep...
Under the Sand (Millie Lewis, illus Marina Borkun, Five Mile)
Children’s picture book
Released January 2025, reviewed by Brenton Cullen.
A little girl named Elizabeth is digging on the beach for lost treasure when her spade hits something solid, and...
The Paradise Heights Craft Store Stitch-Up (Kate Solly, Affirm)
Fiction
Released January 2025, reviewed by Michelle Atkins.
Remember the easy warmth, dry humour and cosy storytelling of Kate Solly’s Tuesday Evenings with the Copeton Craft Resistance? Well,...
Cruel Is the Light (Sophie Clark, Penguin)
Young adult
Released January 2025, reviewed by Aurelia Orr.
In a world both familiar to and hauntingly different from our own, the Vatican Empire has waged a centuries-long war...
Figuring Out Thirty: Decoding the Decisive Decade (And What Really Matters) (Bridget Hustwaite, Penguin)
Nonfiction
Released January 2025, reviewed by Joanne Shiells.
Bridget Hustwaite (How to Endo) is well known as an author and podcaster for her valuable insights into women’s health....
Saturday, Sunday (Natalie Kate Forbes, illus Danny Snell, Affirm)
Children’s picture book
Released January 2025, reviewed by Angela Meyer.
Weekends are so busy for families, with the competing demands of sports and activities, seeing friends and extended family, shopping...
Unfinished Business (Shankari Chandran, Ultimo)
Fiction
Released January 2025, reviewed by Sonia Nair.
The first in Miles Franklin–winning author Shankari Chandran’s Ellie Harper political thriller series, Unfinished Business mirrors the themes of the...
The Worst Perfect Moment (Shivaun Plozza, Walker)
Young adult
Released January 2025, reviewed by Jordi Kerr.
The Worst Perfect Moment is a dark comedy about finding yourself and finding the good in the bad. After dying...
Lexie Moon and the Word Burgling Bungle (Melissa Garside, illus Lauren Mullinder, Riveted Press)
Younger readers
Released January 2025, reviewed by Joy Lawn.
Lexie Moon and the Word Burgling Bungle is debut author Melissa Garside’s exciting junior novel about a creative and prolific...
Gunnawah (Ronni Salt, Hachette)
Fiction
Released January 2025, reviewed by Shannon Grey.
In 1974, in the fictional rural Riverina town of Gunnawah, population 989, everyone knows everyone’s business … or so they...
The Wedding Party (Rebecca Heath, Head of Zeus)
Fiction
Released January 2025, reviewed by Vanessa Pengelly.
In her latest thriller, The Wedding Party, Rebecca Heath (The Summer Party, The Dinner Party) masterfully tells the gripping story...
The Spirit Circle (Tara Calaby, Text)
Fiction
Released January 2025, reviewed by Nilab Siddiqi.
Tara Calaby’s The Spirit Circle is a thrilling sapphic historical fiction set in 19th-century Victoria, exploring the passage of loss...
One Dark Night (Hannah Richell, S&S)
Fiction
Released January 2025, reviewed by Kate Frawley.
One Dark Night is Hannah Richell’s sixth novel. Like its predecessor, The Search Party, the story is a gripping, tangled...
Saltwater Cure: True Stories of the Transformative Power of the Ocean (Ali Gripper, Murdoch)
Nonfiction
Released December 2024, reviewed by Jess Lomas.
In Saltwater Cure: True Stories of the Transformative Power of the Ocean, journalist Ali Gripper (The Barefoot Surgeon) explores the...
Revenge of the Toxic Space Potato (First Dog on the Moon, A&U Children’s)
Younger readers
Released December 2024, reviewed by Anthony Morris.
Finding a fresh angle on superheroes in 2024 is no easy task—unless you’re the Indefatigable EnviroTeens, who effortlessly revitalise a...
Every Rock Has a Story: An A to Z of Australian Geology (Kitty van Cuylenburg, illus Cher Hart, CSIRO Publishing)
Nonfiction
Released January 2025, reviewed by Nadia Heisler.
In Every Rock Has a Story: An A to Z of Australian Geology, Kitty van Cuylenburg invites readers to experience...
Yayoi Kusama (ed by Wayne Crothers & Miranda Wallace, NGV)
Nonfiction
Released December 2024, reviewed by Hannah Cartmel.
The book Yayoi Kusama from the National Gallery of Victoria captures the extraordinary 80-year legacy of the enigmatic artist, as...
