We’re excited to launch a new series of online reviews, edited by Cher Tan. You’ll find the first offerings below—watch this space for more excellent content soon.
Reviewed: Our Members Be Unlimited, Sam Wallman
by Mag Ngo
“On 1st April 2022, a ground-breaking election victory occurred in the United States: Amazon’s first-ever union was created since its 28-year history in the country, despite the millions spent by the company trying to sway the vote. Fittingly, comics-journalist, cartoonist and union organiser Sam Wallman has also just published Our Members Be Unlimited…”
Reviewed: An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life, Paul Dalla Rosa
by Claire Cao
“Gloriously deadpan and effortlessly incisive, Paul Dalla Rosa’s debut short story collection An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life is a pitch-dark look at the alienation of modern life. The characters in the ten stories are predominantly young artists, their hunger for creativity and meaning curtailed by economic precarity: they work at shadowy corporations and dive bars, as dishwashers, cam boys and retail assistants.”
Reviewed: Root and Branch, Eda Gunaydin
by May Ngo
“The first thing that strikes me about Root and Branch, Eda Gunaydin’s debut collection of essays, is her eye: what she sees and how she sees, and the way this is conveyed through exuberant writing that is at turns funny, sarcastic and dark. It’s the details here that matter. . .”
Reviewed: The Burnished Sun, Mirandi Riwoe
by Maks Sipowicz
“Mirandi Riwoe’s latest book, The Burnished Sun, is a forceful collection of stories about alienation, missing home, sacrifice, and striving for acceptance. It consists of twelve stories, including ‘The Fish Girl’, which won the Seizure Viva La Novella prize in 2017. Throughout this book Riwoe takes the reader into the emotional lives of her protagonists…”
Reviewed: Here Goes Nothing, Steve Toltz
by Scott Limbrick
“Angus Mooney is dead. This isn’t a spoiler: this is page one of Steve Toltz’s latest novel, Here Goes Nothing. Angus, a wedding videographer with a checkered history, has been murdered, and is immediately thrust into a strange afterlife that isn’t heaven, hell, or even purgatory, while the man who killed him attempts to seduce his wife. . .”
Reviewed: How to Be Between, Bastian Fox Phelan
by Zowie Douglas-Kinghorn
“Bastian Fox Phelan’s debut, How to Be Between, is a striking millennial odyssey. Documenting their experience growing up in Wollongong, Newcastle, and Sydney, couch-surfing in Europe and backpacking in the US, Phelan weaves their personal narrative into an exploration of facial hair and its implications for a young genderfluid person. . .”
