Author: Lyndon Bower

Yet again, the amazing Alice Oseman has teamed up with director Euros Lyn to create the third season of Heartstopper. Previously, the Netflix series was well-known for its gradual approach regarding topics of queerness, health, growing-up, the experiencing of firsts, family dynamics and relationships for a teenage and young-adult audience. However, season 3 takes a…

I recently spoke to Kat Kruimink about her brand new novel, Heartsease, a complicated book about familial ties, friendships, flowers, grief, trauma, memory, ghosts, and sisterly love. You can read my review of the book HERE, and read on for our interview! Hi Kate, thank you so much for taking time out of your day…

Kate Kruimink, the Fiction Editor at Tasmania’s literary magazine Island, has just released her second book – Heartsease. Heartsease is a beautifully complicated story that focuses on two sisters, Charlotte (Lot) and Ellen (Nelly), who are doing their best to process their mother’s death while also trying to get sober at a retreat. However, this…

Are you curious about Australia’s early modernist literary movement? Then Her Sunburnt Country by Deborah FitzGerald is the perfect introduction. Many Australians should know of Dorothea Mackellar’s poem – “My Country”, with its captivating prose and beautiful description of Australia. Since the poem’s publication in 1908 it has only grown in popularity, quickly became a…

Burn by Melanie Saward is an emotional read that reflects upon why good kids do bad things through the lens of generational and collective trauma, depictions of decolonised justice systems, the ongoing effects of colonisation, and the harm that can stem from disconnection to Country and culture. Burn is Saward’s debut novel and is developed…

The Heartstopper franchise is the perfect way to expose young people to diversity, inclusivity, and what it is like to grow up, experience first times, and all the awkwardness that comes with it. At the beginning of the book, one of the main characters, Charlie Spring, turns sixteen. After a year of Nick Nelson and…

Others Were Emeralds by Lang Leav is a coming-of-age tale that explores the complications of friendships, relationships, and the experiences of immigration during the 1980s and 1990s when anti-Asian sentiment flooded Australia. Ai, her family, and her close-knit group of high school friends live in the diverse fictional town of Whitlam, based on Sydney’s Cabramatta, where…

Roseghetto, the debut novel from author Kristy Jagger, takes a hard look at trauma and low-socioeconomic hardships. The novel begins with the main character, Shayla, at just three-years-old and follows her right through to when she is an eighteen-year-old. Throughout the book, readers get a glimpse into what it is like living and growing up…

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff is a historical fiction novel set in the early days of North America’s colonisation. This third person narrative explores a servant girl’s escape from a settlement, her battle for survival, the discovery of a new alien environment, and her belief in God. At the beginning of the book, readers…

A Real Piece of Work, the new memoir from Erin Riley, brings light to disadvantaged and marginalised communities. Riley works with marginalised and disadvantaged people as a social worker in Sydney. In their memoir, a collection of twenty essays, Riley shares their personal experiences of social boundaries. Discussions of justice, family, love, intimacy, power structures, and…

Two powerful families unite through their son’s misunderstanding. A tale of enemies to lovers. Red, White & Royal Blue, based off the book by Casey McQuiston, is a romantic comedy directed by Matthew Lopez, produced by Amazon Studios and Berlanti-Schecter Films. The central characters are sons from two powerful families in the western world; Alex…

Heartstopper Season 2 continues to explore the importance of representation. Not only in the LGBTQIA+ community, but through families, relationships, friendships, and abilities. The heartfelt romantic tv drama series aired on Netflix on the 3rd of August, produced by See-Saw Productions, written by Alice Oseman, and directed by Euros Lyn.  Based on Oseman’s webcomic and…

Orphia and Eurydicius by Elyse John is a beautiful and poetic new retelling of the original Greek myth, Orpheus and Eurydice. In the original myth, Orpheus is known to be a dominating male lead, with Eurydice as his submissive lover. In John’s retelling,  the gender roles of the two characters are switched, making Orphia a…