I’ve seen so many new stories about abandoning a high-powered job for a role which is far simpler but also far more satisfying. Cosy fantasy novels about owning a tea store and farming sims about escaping to the countryside abound, and I’m a little sick of it. In this world of stories about the beauty…
You find the edition you want. A signed hardback, or that sprayed-edge special edition, or maybe it’s the boxed set that keeps surfacing on your feed. It’s sitting on an American bookseller’s site at a price that makes the local RRP look unkind, and then you reach the checkout and Australia isn’t showing up on…
The thing about time travel novels is, you’re either supposed to think deeply about whether or not the time travel actually works, or you aren’t. As actual “time travel”, the decade hopping done by the main characters in Jaclyn Moriarty‘s latest novel for adults, Time Travel for Beginners, may not stand up to scientific scrutiny,…
There are some stories of World War II which were never told. Not because they were uninteresting, or unimportant, but because they couldn’t be told. Because those they belonged to were silent about their work, even after the war ended. And now, so many years on, they are finally ready to be told. It is…
J A Stevens’ debut novel, A Change of Pace, gives every impression that it is the opening chapter of a long running Regency era mystery series. Its lead character, Georgina Pace, feels like a combination of Phryne Fisher and Lord Byron – hopping from bed to bed, flouting convention, and solving a few problems for…
Ellena Savage’s debut novel, The Ruiners, is exactly the kind of novel that abounds in Australian writing at the moment. Predominately focussing on characters who are over-educated and under-employed, it is a smart, witty novel which zones in on characters at a particular moment in time, all whilst favouring philosophical and intellectual insights over plot…
Whose perspective shapes history? What happens if we look through a different lens? That’s what acclaimed historian Henry Reynolds’ asks in Looking from the North: Australian History from the Top Down. His latest book explores history from the vantage point of the tropical north, delivering an important truth telling. Known for seminal works, including Why…
While the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is perhaps best known for its comedy programming, the world’s largest performing arts festival has something for everyone. British music promoter and musician Andy Macleod certainly understands this, as he debuts his new one-man show at the event, Soho Days and Camden Nights. It’s his second time at the Fringe,…
When you think of cosy fantasy, you think of Travis Baldree – or more precisely, his novel Legends and Lattes, which introduced so many readers to the genre. His latest work Brigands and Breadknives continues this sweet trend, but with a little twist. It keeps the comforting vibes going, but with an added dash of…
In Natalie Conyer’s latest crime novel, Finding the Bones, a cold case is thrust back into the spotlight when the remains of Belle Fitzgerald, a young heiress and housing activist, are discovered buried above another grave. Told between the past and present, the story follows Belle’s final months in 1980s Kings Cross, which she spends…
Emma Donoghue‘s latest historical novel The Paris Express was inspired by an unusual photo. In an age of AI-manipulated images, the photograph of a train hanging out of the second-storey of the Gare Montparnasse train station could easily be dismissed as a fake. But this photograph captures the chaos of the Montparnasse derailment, a real…
Just days after unveiling its Off Campus collection, Funko is continuing its streak of bringing BookTok favourites to collectors’ shelves, this time turning its attention to the hit LGBTQ+ romance series Heated Rivalry. The pop culture collectibles company has announced its first-ever POP! figures inspired by the television adaptation, celebrating the fan-favourite relationship between professional…
Prime Video’s Off Campus has quickly grown from bestselling book adaptation to streaming obsession, and now fans have another way to show their love for the series. Funko has announced its first-ever Off Campus POP! collection, with four of Briar University’s most beloved characters joining the company’s ever-expanding line-up of pop culture collectibles. Inspired by…
Just like that, the year is half over. While we are past the winter solstice and the days are starting to get longer, the wintery weather will be with us a bit longer yet. Luckily, we are heading into some prime months for book releases. The books team have scoured every corner of the internet…
As the winner of the Tasmanian Literary Awards 2025, I was expecting something rare and raw from Johanna Bell’s latest novel. And that was exactly what I found with Department of the Vanishing. Strange and sad, it is a tale of this time of extinction, broken yet beautiful. Our protagonist, Ava, is surrounded by the…
Howard McKenzie-Murray‘s debut novel – shortlisted for the 2024 Hungerford Award novel – has something of a dreamlike quality to it. The kind of dream where you are trying to get somewhere important, but increasingly bizarre obstacles keep getting thrown in your path. This is what happens to Maud Tarkington, the twenty-one year old protagonist…
It is a surprise that I Remember Everything is WA writer and researcher Fiona Wilkes’ debut novel – it is, after all, a tale told with so much skill, passion, and delicacy. Shortlisted for the 2024 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award, it is a bittersweet story of love and loss, religion and forgiveness. It is…
Written by Masateru Konishi and translated by Louise Heal Kawai, My Grandfather The Master Detective is a novel which seems to say it all with its title. It’s about a young woman, and her grandfather, and solving mysteries. Simple. But while that title is true, it’s also a little deceptive – this novel is about…
If your ever-growing “to be read” pile is competing with your streaming watchlist, Netflix has a new feature designed to bridge the gap between the two. Launching globally on June 2, Watch Your Favourite Books is a dedicated destination within Netflix that curates the platform’s extensive collection of literary adaptations, helping viewers discover films and…
It’s clear that disabled author Olivia Muscat knows just how frustrating and inaccurate some portrayals of disability (and especially blindness) can be. Equally as clear is her passion for telling a more accurate narrative, with all the real-life frustrations and unexpected aspects that can come with it. It’s that own-voices approach that makes her new…
The colder weather is setting in, and with it, perfect reading weather. But with so many amazing new releases hitting the stands all the time, it can be hard to know where to begin. Never fear, as the books team from the AU Review are here to tell you all about the books you may…
It’s a niche subject, the history of Australian publishing. Even more so when you take regionalism into account, and choose to focus on the history of one of Western Australia’s oldest publishing houses alongside one of its newest. But this is exactly what Linda Martin has done in her debut book as an author, A Tale…
It’s been fourteen years since M.L. Stedman‘s debut novel The Light Between Oceans was published, and went on to become a bestselling sensation. In the intervening years, there’s been very little news about the West Australian born writer, who now lives in London, aside from the novel’s adaptation into a film starring Alicia Vikander and…
“No burnings at the stake. Just lighting more candles, driving away more darkness.” You may have heard that we live in the Age of Information. Naomi Alderman argues that we live an era called the Information Crisis. The internet has flooded us with more information than ever before; and with it, more opinions, ideas, opportunities,…
Penny Tangey is no stranger to the publishing world, with four novels for young readers to her name. She’s also no stranger to the world of libraries. But her latest novel – set in the busy East Melbourne Library – is brand new territory for Tangey, who (one hopes) has never had to solve a…
Liz Byrski’s twelfth novel, Lost and Found, feels like the perfect bookend to her memoir, Remember Me, published in 2000. Described as “true story of love lost and found”, the book charted Liz’s own reunion with a boyfriend whom she had not seen since she was eighteen, some thirty-seven years later, and the way that such…
It’s hard to classify Shaeden Berry’s novels into any one genre. On the one hand, both her latest novel, At Cafe 64 and her debut, Down the Rabbit Hole revolve around a crime. But on the other, Berry’s writing puts its focus so far away from the traditional ‘solving of a case format’ that it…
When Ainslie Harvey read that women make up just 0.5% of written history, first she got mad, and then she decided to try and even the odds a little bit. As the creator behind Hot History Club on TikTok (or Instagram, for those of you who are elder millennials like me), Harvey has now turned her…
It’s hard to believe that Gunpowder Creek is Alex Dook‘s first novel – probably because it’s not. The Perth-based writer has been recognised twice for the Fremantle Press Fogarty Literary Award with a long-listing in 2019 and a shortlisting in 2021, though neither manuscript was picked up at the time. In the fifteen or so years that…
Three of Australia’s greatest literary journalists walk into a court. It almost sounds like a lead-in to a joke except that these three women are award-winners, and no strangers to the true crime genre. They want to make a podcast but settle on writing a book. The result is something that offers insight into what…
