House Fires By Connor Franta Atria Books In December, 2014, Connor Franta publicly came out as gay in a YouTube video, stating he had accepted who he was and was “happy with that person”. He spoke about the help he got from others and on the internet and stated that his aim in life was […]
Baggage by Alan Cumming Canongate In his first memoir Not My Father’s Son, Alan Cumming wrote about having to deal with his sadistic father’s physical and emotional abuse – “a little boy dealing with a very disturbed and dangerous adult man whose splintered psyche rained down such physical and emotional violence it startled even me […]
Aurora’s End by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff are the award-winning authors of the Illuminae Files, which have sold more than a million copies across Australia and internationally, and Brad Pitt’s production company has even snapped up the TV rights to the series. It was the first book of the […]
All About Ella by Meredith Appleyard HQ Fiction Cutlers Bay, a small seaside town in the Yorke Peninsula, becomes the accidental meeting place for three homeless people. Although Zach, the solitary local police officer in the town, is technically not homeless as he has a soulless government house that came with his job, but it […]
Troop Train by Elizabeth Hutchins Wakefield Press It was February 1942 when the Japanese military overran Singapore and 14 year-old Rosemary Lister writes in her diary that they have been hanging black curtains in every window of their Adelaide house. Darwin had just been bombed and the last thing Rosemary’s family had heard was that […]
More Than Halfway To Somewhere: Collected Gems of a World Traveller John Burbidge Wordswallah (Self-published) Following on from his critically acclaimed works like Dare Me! The Life and Work of Gerald Glaskin and his autobiography The Boatman, Burbidge delves into a travelogue of his world adventures in celebrating his 50th year since boarding a US-bound […]
You Had It Coming by B.M. Carroll Viper Warning: This review contains mentions of sexual assault. Paramedic Megan Lowe has half an hour before the end of her shift and is looking forward to having a day off when a call comes in that a male in his fifties has gunshot wounds to his chest […]
Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires: The Life of Patricia Highsmith by Richard Bradford Bloomsbury Publishing Born in Texas in 1921 at a time when sexuality was, in varying degrees, hidden and fluid, Patricia Highsmith became famous for writing dark psychological thrillers. Notably, many have been made into unforgettable films – including The Talented Mr Ripley, […]
The Breaking by Irma Gold Midnight Sun Publishing Hannah Bird was sitting in the hostel lobby, “a shabby affair, ripe with the smell of mould”, fumbling with some touristy brochures and trying to act like she wasn’t panicking about what she was doing in Chaing Mai by herself. Sitting next to her, another Australian ex-pat […]
As Far As You’ll Take Me by Phil Stamper Bloomsbury Marty is almost 18 and he is sick of living a lie. He has graduated early from high school, earned money working at a ‘shit diner’ and has a one-way ticket to London. Away from his small Kentucky town and his bible-thumping parents who think […]
