#edenglassie

🔹 The Possession of Alba Diaz - 4⭐

When plague strikes their city, Alba and her family retreat to a desolate mining village, where things take a turn for the sinister. A fun read, very bloody. Let down by the prose, which got a bit repetitive. If I'm told another thing feels like smashed glass... The opening implies a lot of time has passed since the events, so the epilogue was a bit of a suprise.

✅ Gothic fiction

🔹 On A Woman's Madness - 3⭐

The story of a young woman who leaves an abusive marriage and tries to make her own life, in a very conservative society. It doesn't end up very well for her. The writing style is pretty opaque, with time jumps between paragraphs and lots of things being hinted at but not stated clearly. I definitely don't have the cultural or geographic knowledge to really get the nuances. On other hand, I've never read a book from Suriname before! The queer themes were a nice surprise too.

✅ Book with a pink cover

🔹 Edenglassie - 5⭐

The main story follows a young aboriginal man in the first decades following the colonisation of Brisbane, with a second story in the modern day which is looking at community, belonging and gatekeeping. Eventually the threads come together. The nineteenth century story is stronger and I would have happily read more about it. Some things never get answered but I guess that's part of the point, that so much has been lost. Brilliant book, but oh boy will it make you angry.

🔹A Mouthful of Dust - 3⭐

The latest installment in the Singing Hills series of novellas. Cleric Chih and Almost Brilliant are sent to record stories from a town where a bad famine occurred. I'm not sure how it would hit for someone who hasn't spent time in the cannibalism fandom, but I didn't think it was very creepy and the final reveal was pretty flat. To be fair, Chih kind of agrees. I felt like the cat could have been in it more too, to build things up a bit more. Genuinely fascinated by the way this series alternates between good and mid every other book though, at least the next one is due to be good again?

Best Literary Page Turner: 'The Axeman's Carnival' by Catherine Chidgey. This was a book club pick and I think between the eight of us the longest time it took to get through was 48 hours? Pacy, tense. I was also deeply moved at the moment when Tama remembers his Dreaming.

Best nonfiction: 'Bad Cop: Peter Dutton's Strongman Politics' by Lech Blaine for the Quarterly Essay. Essential reading for any Australian - given that a federal election is extremely imminent, it's worth knowing more about the bloke in charge of the Opposition. (Hint: he's actually worse than previously thought).

Best classic: 'Middlemarch' by George Elliott. An absolute tome of a book. The central tension is about the ultimate state of the heart, mind and soul of the main character Dorothea Brooke. I would die for her. She is better than every man in this book, with the possible exception of Caleb Garth.

Best retelling: 'Silence of the Girls' by Pat Barker. Here is where I confess I actually know very little about the Greek classics, so when I finished I read through about a dozen Wikipedia pages to catch up. A brutal read.

Best Australian novel: Edenglassie by Melissa Lukashenko. I love Lucashenko and this is her first proper historic novel, set about a generation after the colonisation of Brisbane. Shows how things could have been different, and how positive change might be possible today.

Best Series: the Temeraire novels by Naomi Novak. An utter delight and succour. Come for the navel battles, stay for the friendship between the beautiful and honourable Laurance and his abolitionist dragon. Chock full of new blorbos. The book set in Australia also moved me to tears - things could have been different! We could have done better! If only, if only, if only...