Books

(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) “I wanted to write a book that felt like a warm hug.” Reading that sentence in the Acknowledgement section of The Spell Shop by Sarah Beth Durst was not only delightful because who doesn’t know want to know the author of a book they loved actually Continue Reading

(courtesy Simon & Schuster Australia) It’s a rare thing indeed to pick up a fantasy novel and to have it be not only fantastically imaginative, with audaciously fun world-building that knocks your absolute socks off, but to be full of off-the-wall ideas that are hilarious, engaging and which come to Continue Reading

(courtesy Hachette Australia) If the wondrously good Emily Wilde trilogy of books by Heather Fawcett didn’t convince you that fairies aka faeries were a whole lot of malevolently inconsistent bad news, and nothing like their Disneyfied modern image of light and flittery loveliness, then get ready for the similarly superlative Continue Reading

(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) Retellings of classic tales are often quite illuminating, revealing aspects of the original story that simply didn’t register because of the familiarity attached to their ubiquitous status. We become so used to the beats and tropes of the story, to the well-known elements that define it, Continue Reading

(courtesy Hachette Australia) Imagination is the power source behind any great fantasy novel but as anyone who has read many books in the genre will attest, not all imaginative minds are created equal. Having just finished the gloriously clever storytelling that is Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan, it is well and Continue Reading

(courtesy Hachette Australia) Hiding away from the world, even if it’s in plain sight, is something that anyone who has undergone trauma is very adept at doing. You may long for happy-ever-afters and a community to call your own and a life that’s buoyant and free but the truth of Continue Reading

(courtesy official Freya North site) Identity is a powerful driver for every person alive. Not all of us may acknowledge it outright, but whether we emphatically embrace the dogma of a religion, the fervency of fandom of a football team or we live and breathe artistic expression in all its Continue Reading