Cass Moriarty (Author of The Promise Seed)

Cass Moriarty made a comment on their review of Ex Libris " It’s such a strange concept! I’ve read it and I still can’t wrap my head around it. 😂 I’ll be interested to know what you think. "
Nov 25, 2020 01:01PM · see review
Cass Moriarty rated a book it was amazing Ex Libris by Simon Groth (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This is one of the strangest book reviews I’ve ever written, because you will never read the book I’m about to describe to you. Don’t get me wrong – you can certainly BUY the wonder that is Ex Libris (Ghost Owl Press 2020) by trailblazer and digital ...more
Nov 24, 2020 08:17PM · 2 likes · like · see review
Cass Moriarty rated a book it was amazing The Morbids by Ewa Ramsey	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The Morbids (Allen and Unwin 2020) by Ewa Ramsey is, on a superficial level, a story about two female friends, love and romance, a typical 20-something tale of getting by and finding your place in the world. But anyone who reads this book will gradua ...more
Nov 22, 2020 05:02PM · 1 like · like · see review
Cass Moriarty rated a book it was amazing Jack by Marilynne Robinson	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jack (Virago Press 2020) is author Marilynne Robinson’s final book in her series of contemporary fiction that includes Gilead, Home and Lila. Set just after World War Two, Jack is the story of John Ames Boughton, or Jack as he is known, the prodigal ...more
Nov 20, 2020 07:46PM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Jack by Marilynne Robinson. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Jack by Marilynne Robinson <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Cass Moriarty rated a book it was amazing If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Set in Harlem in the 1970’s, If Beale Street Could Talk (this edition produced as a Penguin Classic 2019) was originally published in 1974, with author James Baldwin gifting us a novella richly depicting the black soul of New York City. A compelling ...more
Nov 20, 2020 01:04AM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Cass Moriarty has completed the 2020 Reading Challenge Cass Moriarty has completed their goal of reading 100 books for the 2020 Reading Challenge! 104 of 100 (104%) Create your own 2020 Reading Challenge »
Nov 19, 2020 02:37AM · 4 likes · like · view books
Cass Moriarty rated a book it was amazing How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Stone Sky Gold Mountain by Mirandi Riwoe – the story of our own Chinese people in the Australian Gold Rush – is kicking goals and winning awards all over the place at the moment and if you enjoyed that book, then you will also love the American debut ...more
Nov 18, 2020 04:49PM · 2 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Cass Moriarty rated a book it was amazing Rivers, The Lifeblood of Australia by Ian Hoskins	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Just in time for Christmas ideas for the nature lovers in your life is this stunning, hardcover book Rivers – The Lifeblood of Australia (National Library of Australia 2020), by award-winning author Ian Hoskins. Filled with gorgeous photographs, maps ...more
Oct 20, 2020 08:58PM · 3 likes · like · see review
Cass Moriarty rated a book really liked it Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oh, what a strange and wonderful gothic novella is Flyaway (Picador 2020) by debut author Kathleen Jennings. The prose in this magical story is beautiful, evocative, and endlessly fascinating. It reads like a fairy tale or a fable, a myth or a legend ...more
Oct 18, 2020 01:26AM · 3 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Cass Moriarty rated a book it was amazing Trust by Chris Hammer	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mention Australian crime noir and the name Chris Hammer comes to the fore. His best-seller debut novel Scrublands and the sequel Silver have sold more than 285 000 copies internationally. Fans have been waiting patiently for the third book in the ser ...more
Oct 15, 2020 06:11PM · 3 likes · like · see review

Cass Moriarty made a comment on their review of Ex Libris

" It’s such a strange concept! I’ve read it and I still can’t wrap my head around it. 😂 I’ll be interested to know what you think. "

Cass Moriarty rated a book it was amazing

Ex Libris
by Simon Groth (Goodreads Author)

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This is one of the strangest book reviews I’ve ever written, because you will never read the book I’m about to describe to you. Don’t get me wrong – you can certainly BUY the wonder that is Ex Libris (Ghost Owl Press 2020) by trailblazer and digital This is one of the strangest book reviews I’ve ever written, because you will never read the book I’m about to describe to you. Don’t get me wrong – you can certainly BUY the wonder that is Ex Libris (Ghost Owl Press 2020) by trailblazer and digital publisher extraordinaire Simon Groth. But the book that you purchase will be quite different from the one that I have purchased and reviewed here for you. Let me explain why.
Simon Groth began the Ex Libris project a few years ago. (Ex Libris, by the way, means ‘an inscription on a bookplate to show the name of the book’s owner’, a definition for which the meaning will soon become apparent.) He wanted to create a book that shared the opening and closing chapters, but where the 12 chapters in between were shuffled entirely at random, meaning that every single edition of the book reads in an entirely different order, with the story therefore unfolding in a completely different way EVERY SINGLE TIME. This feat results in approximately four hundred and seventy-nine million different combinations of the narrative. Think about that for a moment.
So while I will share with other readers how the story starts, and also how it ends, the journey between those two points will be entirely different for every reader. It’s amazing! It’s incredible! And somehow, with a lot of hard work and a whole lot of intellectual / mathematical / digital / randomisation data that frankly, I don’t have a hope of understanding, Groth has managed to achieve this goal. It is an impressive experimental work that I have never experienced before. Apparently there have been some precursors, but this is certainly the first I’ve read.
But it is not only the powerfully experimental form and structure of the book that is incredible. The narrative itself, the characters and the themes are also fascinating in themselves. The four main characters are Dock, Trace, High and Inkle. The book is set in the future, when the world is a very different place, and machines and technology rule. A small group of ‘free readers’ are determined to challenge the ‘oppressive ruling network of the metropole’ by scavenging and recreating fragments of printed and electronic stories, which have been banished under the new rule. As Ryan O’Neill says in the introduction, ‘… Ex Libris is a book about books and about the power of reading’.
When I read this story, it seemed to me that the chapters were in exactly the right order. I simply couldn’t imagine any part of the book being moved or shuffled around and it still making sense. And yet, I know for a fact that every other reader of this book (and it’s now in it’s third reprint) will have read essentially a very different story, but probably feels the same way – that THEIR version is the true story and anything else wouldn’t make sense. And this is the magic and the skill and talent of Simon Groth and his Frankenstein creation: every book is unique, every reader is gifted a unique reading experience, every story makes perfect sense. I don’t pretend to understand how he has done what he has done. The dedication and brain power and vision needed to complete this undertaking seems Herculean to me, virtually impossible to comprehend. And yet, here it is, in my hands, in black and white.
The genre is I suppose science fiction or speculative fiction, but the story is very human and accessible. The language and the plot – and even most of the setting – is recognisable. In fact, were you given this book and told or assumed it was just like a normal book, you probably wouldn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. But after having read it, if you were then given another edition, and then another, and another, and found that each was entirely different, and yet each was comprehensible, you would be astounded, confounded and bamboozled.
This is indeed ‘A book in half a billion’. My copy is numbered 00123. That’s unique. And my copy will tell the same story – with the same beginning and the same ending – as YOUR book, whatever your number. I truly don’t understand it. I’ve tried reading my copy at random – choosing various chapters out of order – and it doesn’t seem to make sense to me. It’s not the story I know. The plot is confused and the narrative is out of order. But rationally I know that for another reader, that is the way their story is structured and anything else for them would seem wrong. It’s a puzzle inside an enigma. It’s a remarkable achievement in storytelling. It’s a truly unique (and I use that word literally) reading experience. If you are at all interested in reading or stories or would like to give someone a (literally) unique Christmas gift, then this book is perfect. Your lucky recipient will never get another exactly like the one you give them. EVER. (Unless I suppose Groth sells more than half a billion copies, in which case, theoretically, there might be two identically-ordered stories?! But that’s highly unlikely.)
Independent bookstores such as https://avidreader.com.au/ or https://riverbendbooks.com.au/ currently stock Ex Libris (although it might be quicker to phone them rather than try to order online), or you can order direct from Simon Groth at https://www.simongroth.com/#/ex-libris/ . (Note: you can also order a digital version.)
I know that this mammoth effort took a lot of blood, sweat and tears (especially tears) and also a popular crowdfunding campaign to get the idea off the ground. But now, here it is, in my hands, in YOUR hands if you so wish. It’s rare to review a book that nobody else will ever read. I never thought I would have to do that. Never thought it would be possible or necessary to do that. But with Ex Libris, it is an honour to recommend that you purchase a book that I myself will never read, but that afterwards, we will be able to spend many hours discussing and dissecting a story that is both familiar in its origin and conclusion, but new terrain in terms of how we both experienced getting from beginning to end. ...more

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The Morbids
by Ewa Ramsey

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The Morbids (Allen and Unwin 2020) by Ewa Ramsey is, on a superficial level, a story about two female friends, love and romance, a typical 20-something tale of getting by and finding your place in the world. But anyone who reads this book will gradua The Morbids (Allen and Unwin 2020) by Ewa Ramsey is, on a superficial level, a story about two female friends, love and romance, a typical 20-something tale of getting by and finding your place in the world. But anyone who reads this book will gradually realise that underneath that levity, there is a deeply thought out, carefully crafted and nuanced story about mental illness, relationship dynamics, self-esteem and self-identity, with an underlying profound philosophical exploration of grief, death, fear and loss. The tone of this book is one of a descent into madness; what happens when an event, or a series of serious events, affects your psyche to the degree that you no longer have control over your thoughts or your behaviour, but instead are forced to survive through routines and habits bound up in magical thinking about what will save you from the worst that can happen.
While The Morbids is incredibly easy to read, and again on the surface quite an entertaining story, much darker themes run seamlessly through the narrative, giving us an entirely different reading experience than the overt story suggests.
The premise is simple: Caitlin is a normal young woman with career and travel plans. We find out much later that there was an incident in her youth that has affected her more than she has realised, but at the beginning, she doesn’t know that, and neither does the reader. So she is happily going about her life, planning to travel overseas with her best friend Lina, when she is involved in a fatal car accident that shakes her to her core and leaves her with the unshakeable feeling that she was not meant to survive, and that in fact death is just around the corner and could take her at any time.
She avoids these Thoughts (with a capital T) by drinking too much, working too hard and also attending a self-help support group for people who are also coping with death-related anxiety, a group informally known as The Morbids. This is a fascinating group of people of vastly different backgrounds, ages and genders. But they all share a constant and debilitating fear of death, a determined belief that it is a hair’s breadth away at any time. Some focus on industrial accidents or cancer, some on freak weather incidents or train derailments, some on choking or falling or being attacked by a stranger. But all of them are terrified, all the time, of what they are convinced is just around the corner – a sudden, inexplicable death, or even that they have an illness and are already slowly dying but are not yet aware of the cause.
The most fascinating part of this book is Caitlin’s gradual mental deconstruction, her inexorable mental decline, as she ruminates about her death, and does everything to avoid thinking about the impetus behind it. The Morbids is a study in severe anxiety and how it can affect someone to a crippling degree. Of course, this is one story about one person’s anxiety, and will not be a reflection or representative of everyone’s individual experience of anxiety, but I found Caitlin’s characterisation completely compelling. The visceral descriptions of her physical reaction to stress and anxiety, the vivid depiction of her wild, ruminating Thoughts, the way her anxiety reduces her to a small, vulnerable shadow, incapable of escaping or making decisions. Her body freezes, her mind is stuck in a never-ending loop of dark Thoughts.
This is one of the best books I’ve read that presents that experience of anxiety in such a fully-rounded, all-inclusive, immersive and comprehensible way. I could feel Caitlin’s fear. I could understand her sense of losing herself, her loss of control, her self-doubt and her bizarre desire to tempt fate by putting herself into the exact situations in which she feared death would occur, constantly testing herself, because she knows death is coming, and it is easier for her just to accept it so that the anxiety of its imminent arrival disperses. Ramsey has really nailed this heightened mental state and its effects.
But to balance this darkness, the story has the light-hearted overt narrative going on at the same time. Caitlin’s friend Lina is getting married, and Lina’s dreams of the perfect wedding and the new house and homemaking and settling down are the perfect balance to the darkness going on in Caitlin’s head. And Caitlin has her own tentative romance – she meets Tom, a handsome doctor, and while their on again / off again relationship flits delicately about, never landing on the one place for too long, it is clear they have a connection. It is Caitlin’s past and her anxiety and her Thoughts that keep her from committing to Tom or even allowing him into her life in any meaningful way. These two men – Tom, and Lina’s partner Matt – provide a degree of lightness to balance the weightiness of other issues. There are other characters too who provide life and light – Caitlin’s boss, Nic is a good example.
The other aspect of this book that I found admirable was Ramsey’s descriptions of desire, romance and young love. The physical, mental and emotional closeness that develops between Caitlin and Tom is written with exquisite care, sensitivity and sensuality. Every touch of a hand, every breath, every tentative kiss is laden with desire and yearning.
Sometimes it may seem easier not to live, especially when you fear death is waiting to grab you at any moment. Sometimes actual death seems the easier option than the constant anxiety of waiting for death. But despite exploring these dark themes, this book is also life-affirming and optimistic, with Caitlin and Lina both discovering that the past can be made to remain in the past, and that the future is something to embrace. ...more

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Jack
by Marilynne Robinson

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Jack (Virago Press 2020) is author Marilynne Robinson’s final book in her series of contemporary fiction that includes Gilead, Home and Lila. Set just after World War Two, Jack is the story of John Ames Boughton, or Jack as he is known, the prodigal Jack (Virago Press 2020) is author Marilynne Robinson’s final book in her series of contemporary fiction that includes Gilead, Home and Lila. Set just after World War Two, Jack is the story of John Ames Boughton, or Jack as he is known, the prodigal son of the family, the wayward lad who has flitted in and out of previous books and is mostly known for his bad behaviour (according to the family’s standards). This book is a chance to delve deep into Jack’s story, allowing us to fill in the blanks of the long years of Jack’s absence from his family in the other books.
It is by no means a salvation story. Jack is indeed still a ‘drunkard and a ne’er-do-well’ who stays in cheap, temporary flop houses or sometimes sleeps in parks (or the cemetery). He survives by grifting, thieving, stealing, occasionally doing an odd job, and relies also on the regular envelopes of money that find their way to him via his brother, Teddy.
But all of that is background to what this story is really all about, and that is love. In St Louis, Missouri, Jack meets Della Miles, a young black woman with a ‘discriminating mind, a generous spirit and an independent will’. They meet by chance, several times; fate accords their relationship is meant to be. But he is white (and poor white trash at that) and she is educated, demure, responsible and black, an African-American high school teacher. In these days of segregation, their love is not only frowned upon, but it is against the law. Even to be seen together creates all sorts of trouble. And trouble has a way of following Jack around wherever he goes.
One thing they do have in common is that both their fathers are well-respected and well-known preachers, although of different denominations.
As with all of Robinson’s writing, this is a novel of great strength, power and beauty. The craft of every sentence is something to behold. The characterisations of Jack and Della are so intimately and finely detailed that we feel we know them inside and out. And as with Gilead, Home and Lila, Jack is a profound and philosophical treatise, an existential exploration of the meaning of life, why we are here, how we should treat one another, the rules of society, and the love that breaks those rules. I find Robinson to be a wholly wise writer, one who is able to articulate thoughts that I didn’t even know I had until she wrote them down for me to read aloud. This story is compassionate and empathetic, realistic and true, witty and sad, poignant and heart-breaking.
Jack is a hopeless, hapless bum, or so he believes, and so he thinks most others believe also. He is constantly ruminating about his many failures, and about how even his attempts to at least do no harm usually end up not only doing harm but often exacerbating a situation. He ‘… wondered for the millionth time how he had trapped himself in such a ridiculous life. Harmlessness is not for the faint of heart.’ Or: ‘Exhausting. How could a man whose life amounted to absolutely nothing have so many things to think about?’ Or: ‘There were the hours in which he resigned himself, not for the first time, to the fact that he had nothing to give anyone, that his life was an intricate tangle of futility …’ Or: ‘… they were caught in a great web that made every choice impossible.’
This is a love story that truly delves deep into the hearts and minds of the lovers, cataloguing every thought, every deed, measuring every word and action. It examines the beginning of Jack and Della’s story, casual and fortuitous, chaste and innocent, respectful and careful and shy. It slowly reveals their developing friendship and how this becomes a deeply-held love, and how they nurture that feeling despite each of their misgivings. The whole novel is touch and go as to whether they will ever touch, ever hold hands, ever kiss, ever open themselves up to each other. Like magnets, they are drawn together and then spun around and repelled apart. Jack believes he is no good for Della; he tries to avoid ruining her life. Della knows her family will be disappointed, angry and heartbroken if she falls for a white man. Their friends and family reiterate these warnings at every turn. And yet … still … their love blossoms, through words and food, poetry and walking, a joining of the minds as they discuss the great questions of life.
Marilynne Robinson is one of the greatest life writers of our time, and Jack demonstrates once again her inordinate talent and ability to expose to us a character’s innermost desires, thoughts and yearnings through intimate dialogue and careful circumstances, set against the backdrop of societal oppression and disapproval, racism, classism and religious beliefs. Jack is a simple story told through simple acts, yet one which rings loudly with truth and the questioning of the veracity of motivations. Unbelievably good. ...more

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If Beale Street Could Talk
by James Baldwin

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Set in Harlem in the 1970’s, If Beale Street Could Talk (this edition produced as a Penguin Classic 2019) was originally published in 1974, with author James Baldwin gifting us a novella richly depicting the black soul of New York City. A compelling ...more

Cass Moriarty has completed the 2020 Reading Challenge

Cass Moriarty has completed their goal of reading 100 books for the 2020 Reading Challenge!

104 of 100 (104%)

Create your own 2020 Reading Challenge »

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How Much of These Hills Is Gold
by C Pam Zhang (Goodreads Author)

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Stone Sky Gold Mountain by Mirandi Riwoe – the story of our own Chinese people in the Australian Gold Rush – is kicking goals and winning awards all over the place at the moment and if you enjoyed that book, then you will also love the American debut Stone Sky Gold Mountain by Mirandi Riwoe – the story of our own Chinese people in the Australian Gold Rush – is kicking goals and winning awards all over the place at the moment and if you enjoyed that book, then you will also love the American debut novel How Much of These Hills is Gold (Virago 2020) by C Pam Zhang. It’s the north American equivalent and some of the similarities are astonishing: although set in different continents, both books feature Chinese siblings keen to make their fortune amidst the harsh and indifferent foreign land in which they find themselves. Both novels take us deep into the relationship between the siblings, and the complicated family circumstances they must endure. And both will have you absolutely gripped with tension from beginning to end.
The main characters in How Much of These Hills is Gold also reminded me of the child protagonists of Trent Dalton’s novels, particularly Molly Hook in All Our Shimmering Skies – a child weighed down by adult choices and responsibilities, a feisty and courageous figure determined to make the best of a bad situation.
We meet Lucy and Sam just after their father Ba has died in the night. Their mother has already gone. Aged only 12 and 11, they are suddenly very much alone, and on the run as they try to find a suitable and appropriate place to bury their father’s body. Fraught by superstition and their father’s abusive and hateful behaviour, the two beg, borrow and steal to try and stay alive and stay together.
This is a perspective of the Gold Rush not often visited. Lucy and Sam are outsiders, bound by their family memories, their promises to each other, their very different ambitions and personalities. Gradually they drift apart, as each tries to build a new life.
The plot is tense, unforgettable and complex. The characters are memorable and engaging. The landscape is harsh, bitter and unforgiving. The themes are universal and thought-provoking. This almost-myth about two feral children and their strange journey has a touch of magic realism alongside some very visceral realities. The story is a dark tale of a broken family and a society that couldn’t care less. It is about longing and belonging, about betrayal and forgiveness, about determination and courage. ...more

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Rivers, The Lifeblood of Australia
by Ian Hoskins

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Just in time for Christmas ideas for the nature lovers in your life is this stunning, hardcover book Rivers – The Lifeblood of Australia (National Library of Australia 2020), by award-winning author Ian Hoskins. Filled with gorgeous photographs, maps Just in time for Christmas ideas for the nature lovers in your life is this stunning, hardcover book Rivers – The Lifeblood of Australia (National Library of Australia 2020), by award-winning author Ian Hoskins. Filled with gorgeous photographs, maps, old black and white images and drawings, Rivers explores the life-giving veins that run through our mostly arid country, and what the rivers mean to us historically, culturally, developmentally and sustainably.
In his foreword, Don Watson exclaims that ‘… our lives are so bound up with rivers it is ruinous not to love them.’ From the original First People’s interrelated connections to Australia’s waterways, to the benefits and dangers of dams and the unhappy story of the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia’s complicated relationship with our life-giving waterways is celebrated and also described as being under threat.
Author Ian Hoskins has done a wonderful job of compiling many of Australia’s major rivers into a book that examines the diverse aspects of water and its role in our country’s history and development. He has devoted individual chapters to specific rivers, including The Murray, The Ord, The Clarence, The Franklin and The Snowy, plus many more. He refers to an ancient atlas, an historical document, that traces the original paths of these rivers, at a time when there were many more rivers than roads. He speaks of the importance of those ‘… thousands of thin blue lines – tremulous, organic and almost wriggling across the pages’, especially to the deserts and arid regions of inner Australia. He speaks of history, use, abuse, and sustainability. He discusses the interconnectedness and symbiotic nature of rivers.
This is a book that contains a multitude of facts for those interested, combined with an easy to read style with lots of anecdotes and fascinating stories. His wealth of historical knowledge is impressive and he includes a lot of well-researched Indigenous background, and quotes from sources such as environmentalists, authors, politicians, water security experts and from the people who actually use the land and rely on the rivers for their livelihood. He touches on the flora and fauna inhabiting our rivers, and the protests around rivers and National Parks. Well-referenced and a beautiful book to own. ...more

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Flyaway
by Kathleen Jennings (Goodreads Author)

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Oh, what a strange and wonderful gothic novella is Flyaway (Picador 2020) by debut author Kathleen Jennings. The prose in this magical story is beautiful, evocative, and endlessly fascinating. It reads like a fairy tale or a fable, a myth or a legend Oh, what a strange and wonderful gothic novella is Flyaway (Picador 2020) by debut author Kathleen Jennings. The prose in this magical story is beautiful, evocative, and endlessly fascinating. It reads like a fairy tale or a fable, a myth or a legend. Set in outback Queensland, where country folk believe in superstitions and the power of the unknown, magical realism blends seamlessly with a tangible story of a young woman living a quiet life in the small town of Runagate. Bettina lives with her complicated, fragile and very proper mother. Her father and brothers have long since disappeared. But when a cryptic note appears, Bettina is forced to confront what really happened in the past, both in this town and to her family.
If you are looking for a standard mystery with a tidy resolution, this is not the book for you. This is a mysterious mystery, an entangled mess of stories and rumours, magic and fantasies. Flyaway is a dark book full of secrets and hidden places, quietened tales and buried truths. This is the kind of book that you read, devouring every word, every sentence, with wonder and yet as you progress through the pages, you feel you are coming no closer to a conclusion. Different stories are presented by different narrators. The thread of Bettina’s story is always there but often blurred by the complex tales surrounding it.
I did have some trouble keeping track of who is who, and how they are all related, where the stories begin and how they intersect. Once I’d finished, I felt like I needed to go back to the beginning and read it again, with a clearer head. I felt like this book had cast a spell on me and muddled my brain. There are so many clever subplots and side stories that mirror the novella’s eerie tone; they are unnerving and ridiculous and impossible and yet somehow they are happening. There are stories about the land and our connection to it, our relationships with others, about history and memories and how they are not always the same, about wonder and strangeness and curiosity and madness and loyalty and death.
There is a rising and sinister sense of pending dread throughout, but I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what it was, or why it was there, or which character was feeding it. There is just this awful sense that something is not quite right, even with the perfectly normal parts of the book, and a creeping fear that something very bad is going to happen, or has happened, or might happen, and that nothing will be the same again. One of the final scenes is so creepy it gave me goosebumps.
If you love Max Porter’s Lanny, this book will appeal. It is strange and wonderful, weird and powerful, indescribable and ethereal, unbelievable, unsettling, beautiful and terrible. It is such an odd book. And yet that oddness makes it unique. Read it for the language, for the voice, for the evocative description and for the magical realism. I don’t fully understand this book, but I fully appreciate the skill of the author and the depth of her creativity, control and imagination. ...more

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Trust
by Chris Hammer

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Mention Australian crime noir and the name Chris Hammer comes to the fore. His best-seller debut novel Scrublands and the sequel Silver have sold more than 285 000 copies internationally. Fans have been waiting patiently for the third book in the ser Mention Australian crime noir and the name Chris Hammer comes to the fore. His best-seller debut novel Scrublands and the sequel Silver have sold more than 285 000 copies internationally. Fans have been waiting patiently for the third book in the series, Trust (Allen and Unwin 2020), and will not be disappointed. Hammer has again created a fast-paced, tense, action-packed thriller, with a complexity of background and character that is reminiscent of the popular Stieg Larsson’s Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series. As with those books, Hammer’s plots are complicated entanglements of political corruption, media controversy, nepotism, secret societies, the force of the rich and powerful and privileged, and police incompetence or outright bribery and fraud. The landscape into which Hammer parachutes his readers is impressively broad and yet he holds our interest with the microscopic clarity with which he presents his main characters.
Trust again features journalist and author Martin Scarsdale, who in the previous two books became caught up in horrific events which threatened to engulf him, and which opened up the wounds of his past trauma. This third novel focuses equally on Mandalay Blonde, or Mandy, his partner. In the first book, I thought she was a fleeting figure, but throughout Silver, she became more important, and now, in Trust, much of the story is actually related to her own backstory and history. This is revealed naturally and organically. We are surprised by what we gradually uncover about Mandy (as is Martin) but it all seems perfectly credible, and we understand why we haven’t known these things about her before now. Like crime author Dervla McTiernan, Hammer does an excellent job of drawing our attention to another main character and shining the spotlight on them while still keeping the protagonist – Martin Scarsdale – front and centre of events.
The book opens with a benign prologue with a shocking ending, that seems unrelated until we get further into the story. But once we realise its importance, we go back to it again and again to visit its relevance. Early in the story (second chapter), the pace quickens as Mandy finds herself drugged and kidnapped, and realises that ‘it’s the past, come to claim her’. And indeed, this narrative is all about the past, and how our actions inevitably catch up with us, no matter how determined we are to wallpaper over them, cover them up, and replace them with happier and more innocuous versions of our lives. Martin is alerted to Mandy’s predicament by a single voicemail – a scream, and when he races home, he finds an unconscious man on the floor and Mandy missing. As he begins to investigate what has happened, why, and who is involved, Mandy’s past crawls from the shadows, and leads him to a case possibly bigger and more influential than any he has been involved in before. The intrigue increases and the danger rises as the full extent of what he has uncovered, and what he is up against, becomes obvious.
In true Hammer style, these revelations are gradual and insidious, and even until the last pages, we are still trying to piece together the many clues and bits of evidence that he has carefully seeded throughout the book. And just when you think you understand everything that’s going on, another secret is revealed, another motivation is exposed, and another unexpected crime is uncovered.
Scrublands exploded onto the international crime scene, and Silver shored up Hammer’s reputation. This book, Trust, cements that reputation and builds on it. Hammer has an extraordinary grasp of the big picture structure of his stories, and as each book has featured many of the same characters and the same settings, the series as a whole only becomes more and more compelling. We know these characters now, as if they are friends (or enemies). We can clearly picture the towns, the environment and the landscape. We can see ourselves there, amongst the characters we know.
If you haven’t yet had the pleasure of reading Hammer’s work, I highly recommend you begin with Scrublands and then progress to Silver and Trust. Although each can be read as a standalone, much of the enjoyment of this series comes from the complex world-building and the layer upon layer of familiarity that he expands on with each book.
The title, ‘Trust’, becomes more and more appropriate as the story unfolds, this related to many of the characters, but particularly to Martin and Mandy, who may finally have found the deep trust and acceptance they have both yearned for and sought. I look forward to where Martin might go next. ...more

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