Joy Moody Is Out of Time (Kerryn Mayne, Bantam)

For two decades, Cassiopeia (Cassie) and Andromeda (Andie) Moody have understood their destiny. They are special, chosen and kept safe, spending most of their lives within the confines of their Melbourne home, behind Joyful Suds, Bonbeach’s premier laundromat, speaking only to their neighbours. On their twenty-first birthday, they will be taken to the year 2050, where they will fight as Daughters of the Revolution. Joy Moody made a life-altering decision to protect these twins when they were babies, and in the intervening years, the fictional stories she wove to hide the truth became everybody’s reality. Days from the birthday deadline, Cassie hesitates to leave her gentle life behind, while Andie realises they won’t be going anywhere at all. Waking up the morning after their birthday, the two women find themselves alone in a harsh new reality, unlike the one they expected. Unsure of who they can trust when nobody has taught them how to survive in the world, Cassie and Andie discover they aren’t so alone after all. Kerryn Mayne’s writing navigates a delicate line between light and dark; even when the storyline seems bright, funny and close to fantastical, she has a firm grip on death and violence in the real world. By turns quirky and suspenseful, and always keeping readers wrongfooted, this book is for readers who liked Mayne’s Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder, the suburban edginess of Liane Moriarty or the deep characterisation of Paula Hawkins.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Fiona Hardy is the author of the How To series of middle fiction books, and a bookseller at Readings. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

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