General Fiction Archives

Book review: Sophie, Standing There by Meg Mason

September 6, 20263 min read

I didn’t read the much-lauded and loved Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason but now that I’ve read her second book, Sophie, Standing There, I know I need to rectify that. While it may have been the plot (a writers festival sound technician fan-girling a well-known but potentially prickly author) that led me to purchase her latest release, Mason’s writing is stunning. There’s a depth or weightiness to her prose making them profound and poignant… all at once.

VIEW the POST

Share

Book review: The Midnight Train by Matt Haig

May 22, 20264 min read

The Midnight Train by Matt Haig is the second in a series peeking into life and death. In The Midnight Library we spend time with a woman teetering BETWEEN life and death. Here we meet a man, recently-dead, who’s offered a chance to drop in on his past selves at pivotal moments in his life. He’s not meant to intervene or be seen, but here octogenarian Wilbur asks… what if there’s a chance to rectify a mistake that will haunt you for years. One you might not even realise the extent to which you regret it until you’re dying. Or (ahem… you know) dead.

VIEW the POST

Share

Book review: Dove by Georgia Harper

May 18, 20264 min read

I was a latecomer to Georgia Harper’s award-winning debut novel, What I Would Do To You, buying a copy after meeting her at the BAD Sydney Crime Writing festival a few years ago. I missed out on a review copy of her second book, Dove, but picked one up when I went to a (rare) local author event featuring Harper and Penguin stablemate Mercedes Mercier (whose book I also missed for review*). And I must confess, this book stayed with me after I turned the last page. In fact, the night I finished the book it somehow became muddled in a work-related dream I was having and I woke very discombobulated.

VIEW the POST

Share

Book review: The Bookshop of Buried Pasts by Sarah Clutton

May 18, 20262 min read

The Bookshop of Buried Pasts by Sarah Clutton is the Australian author’s second book and I very much enjoyed her first The Remarkable Truths of Alfie Bains , giving it a rare 4.5 star rating. I confess I didn’t love this quite as much as her debut (I’m a sucker for a child narrator – ie. Alfie) but I enjoyed it a lot. She delivers the perfect measure of bittersweet sadness and hope. It’s themed around families – those you’re born into and those you find along the way and it offers a reminder of the lengths we go to, in order to protect those we love and hold dear.

VIEW the POST

Share

Book review: Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

January 4, 20262 min read

Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth is another I missed getting during the year for review, so I only read it belatedly during my brief Christmas sojourn. 81-year-old Elsie is a bit like a character out of a Fredrick Backman book. Sassy and grouchy to all except her long-time friend Daphne and Pete, a neighbour. We learn she’s lived on Kenny Lane for 60 years and it’s a societal microcosm of sorts and also includes a single mother and her rowdy 7-year-old daughter, and the litigious Joan who’s constantly slipping notes under Elsie’s door complaining about one thing or another. When this book opens the latest note references Elsie’s past which she thought she’d left far behind her.

VIEW the POST

Share

Book review: What I Would Do To You by Georgia Harper

December 7, 20253 min read

What I Would Do To You by Georgia Harper won the Sisters in Crime 2025 Davitt Award for best debut crime fiction this year. It’s certainly warranted but interesting as I’m unsure I’d classify this as crime fiction – more the aftermath of a crime perhaps? Either way Harper certainly offers up a confronting commentary on many MANY topical issues, from climate change to gender roles to domestic and family violence and sexual assault. It’s set in 2039, so the near distant future and in many ways it’s akin to a warning… of the direction society could find itself taking if we don’t heed the many warnings that seem to be ever-present.

VIEW the POST

Share

Book review: The Worst Thing I’ve Ever Done by Clare Stephens

October 18, 20253 min read

The Worst Thing I’ve Ever Done by Clare Stephens is a little outside of my crime fiction/thriller genre and I’m unsure if I requested the review copy but I’ve received so few (print / real) books lately I was keen to turn the pages of something tangible during my evening baths. And this, by the former Mama Mia editor-in-chief is certainly well-written, offering an insightful commentary on the online world today. Stephens knows that world and is well-placed to reflect on it… warts-n-all. In fact it means we get to go behind the scenes of the world of clickbait headlines and regurgitated stories featuring the royal family or B list celebrities.

VIEW the POST

Share

Book review: Twice by Mitch Albom

October 1, 20252 min read

Twice by Mitch Albom is a story within a story. It opens with a man (Alfie) being questioned by casino security having done the unthinkable and won at the roulette table three times in a row. His interviewer (Vincent) assumes Alfie’s colluded with a casino employee or used magnets or similar, but Alfie continues to maintain his innocence… only requesting that Vincent read a journal he’s brought along with him. And thus begins the story of Alfie’s life, starting with the tragic death of his mother when he was just eight years old.

VIEW the POST

Share