Cher Tan is a skilled essayist with a strong authorial voice. I personally don't know very much about the punk scene, but reading about it was a fun, new process for me.

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

Go to review page

emotional hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

4.75

A wonderfully reflective, yet fast-paced memoir that opens up a painful yet beautiful conversation. Although excising a relationship that's marred by abuse, Maria Machado's book is ultimately about the relationship she has with herself. Excellent prose as well.

Content Warnings

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

Go to review page

emotional informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A really wonderful read to end the year, I enjoyed Beautiful World more than I did Normal People. An interwoven story of four disaffected millennials, Rooney reflects on what it means to achieve personal 'success' under late-stage capitalism. Perhaps reaching your forties without completely hating yourself is enough.

Content Warnings

Griffith Review 86: Leaps of Faith by Carody Culver

Go to review page

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

A bold claim, but this may be my favourite issue of the Griffith Review ever! If you could only read one thing from this collection, it should be Myles McGuire's essay Gay Saints. Absolute banger. It comes as no surprise that McGuire won the Richell Prize for 2024. Stunning.

Critic Swallows Book: Ten Years of the Sydney Review of Books by Catriona Menzies-Pike

Go to review page

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.5

A fantastic collection of Australian essays and literary criticism. Set myself the goal to read the whole book in a year, and feel that it was worth taking my time to read each essay.

While not every essay spoke to me specifically, each one was worth the time it took to read, and all had insightful observations and claims about a wide range of Australian literature and the authors' personal experiences. Some standout essays for me were:

Staring Back, Jeanine Leane on Evelyn Araluen
Untimely Modernism, Alys Moody on Jack Cox
The Living an the Undead, Ben Etherington on Les Murray and Mudrooroo
Critic Swallows Book, Catriona Menzies-Pike on Trent Dalton (because, of course)
Probably Not Tomorrow, Drusilla Modjeska on Lesley Stern and Sigrid Nunez (this essay was so gripping and definitely my favourite in the whole book — I will now be chasing down more of Modjeska's work).

Great experience all round.

A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas

Go to review page

fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

0.75

Horrible, truly the worst. This is the book in the series that finally convinced me not to pick up another Sarah J Maas novel.

Having and Being Had by Eula Biss

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional funny informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

A scathing, yet simultaneously tame critique of late-stage capitalism. Biss' own complicity in being a part of a political economic system she hates gives this book a circular feeling — no questions are answered, only raised.

More...

deb_prosp's reviews 47 reviews

deb_prosp's reviews
47 reviews