Reviews
Adult fiction
The Name of the Sister (Gail Jones, Text)
Released June 2025
The latest novel from award-winning author Gail Jones, The Name of the Sister, is a literary whodunnit set in a small mining town. The book begins with a woman stumbling onto an outback road at night, desperately seeking help. Her story makes headlines nationwide, but her inability to speak means she’s labelled the ‘Unknown Woman’. Angie,… Read more
King of Dirt (Holden Sheppard, Pantera)
Released June 2025
Holden Sheppard hits again with the blunt edge of Australian queerness in his latest novel, King of Dirt. Continuing his work in the gay coming-of-age genre (Sheppard’s 2019 debut Invisible Boys won the TAG Hungerford Award for an unpublished manuscript and was recently adapted into a Stan original series), the author writes with signature realism about… Read more
Adult nonfiction
Bombard the Headquarters! The Cultural Revolution in China (Linda Jaivin, Black Inc)
Released June 2025
Chairman Mao’s decade of terror is the subject of Bombard the Headquarters!, Australian sinologist Linda Jaivin’s excellent primer on China’s Cultural Revolution. In 1966, Peking University’s Nie Yuanzi created a bold, ink-painted poster denouncing the sinister forces threatening the Chinese People’s Republic. Mao echoed Yuanzi’s daziboa with his own call to ‘Bombard the Headquarters!’, sparking… Read more
When Nothing Feels Real (Nathan Dunne, Murdoch)
Released June 2025
When Nothing Feels Real is a raw and immersive first-person account of journalist Nathan Dunne’s experience of depersonalisation. It begins with a moment – a dive into cold water – that triggers a mental and physical upending. From there, we follow Dunne as he tries to rediscover his identity. By the final page, some readers… Read more
Children's picture books
My Name Is Jemima (Olivia Muscat, illus by Allison Colpoys, Scribble)
Released June 2025
My Name Is Jemima is a heartwarming and informative picture book that introduces young readers to the life and work of guide dogs and teaches children about disability, independence and the vital role of assistance animals. Written by Olivia Muscat, a blind disability advocate and guide dog user, and illustrated by Allison Colpoys, the book… Read more
Lucky’s Star: The Story of a Meteorite (Mark Greenwood, illus by Lucia Masciullo, CSIRO Publishing)
Released June 2025
Children are naturally fascinated by the night sky, and Lucky’s Star will surely delight primary-aged students with its clever combination of storytelling and facts. Based on the real-life 1969 Murchison meteorite that landed in country Victoria, this book offers a child’s-eye view of a major scientific event that gave scientists critical information about the formation… Read more
Younger readers
Rise of the Witch (Everglade #1) (Kitty Black, illus by Rebecca Crane, Affirm)
Released June 2025
Take one part Enid Blyton’s The Enchanted Wood, add a sprinkle of Diana Wynne Jones and a dash of Jessica Townsend’s Nevermoor, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for a new middle-grade fantasy trilogy. Wren Westerly has been a pariah in her town of Everglade ever since she can remember. Her mother, Arabella, was burned… Read more
R.I.P. Nanny Tobbins (Lucie Stevens, HarperCollins)
Released June 2025
R.I.P. Nanny Tobbins by Lucie Stevens is a deliciously macabre and unexpectedly funny debut fantasy for advanced middle-grade readers, blending tension, mystery and moments of humour with remarkable skill. Albertine is a motherless young girl whose father, Papa, has cosseted her in a safe and loving environment for the first eight years of her life.… Read more
Young adult
The Edge of Everything (Miranda Luby, Text)
Released May 2025
In The Edge of Everything, Miranda Luby (Sadie Starr’s Guide to Starting Over) tells a poignant story of a teenager recovering from tragedy. It’s been eleven months since Lucy’s older brother died, but she’s struggling to re-engage with life. She’s drifted away from her schoolmates and her only friend is a girl who used to… Read more
This Dream Will Devour Us (Emma Clancey, A&U Children’s)
Released May 2025
What if humanity developed a drug that could manipulate the elements – essentially perform magic? In This Dream Will Devour Us, debut author Emma Clancey builds a world where the potent substance levicium grants magical abilities but is hoarded by the billionaire Lamour family, making it only accessible to the elite. Nora, the novel’s determined… Read more
Recently released titles
The Sun Was Electric Light (Rachel Morton, UQP)
Released April 2025
Haunted by a pervasive sense of unreality, Ruth leaves her life in New York to return to the last place she loved: a lake in southern Guatemala. In the small town of Panajachel, she meets Emilie, who seems as grounded in reality as Ruth is lost, and they share a brief period of intimacy before… Read more
Unsettled (Kate Grenville, Black Inc)
Released April 2025
Two decades after The Secret River, Kate Grenville sets out on a truth-telling road trip in Unsettled, reflecting on many versions of this critical question: ‘What do we do with the fact that we’re beneficiaries of a violent past?’ I found that Grenville’s most detailed answer lay in the way she told this story, revisiting… Read more
