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Friday Unlocked reviews >

Pictures of You (Emma Grey, Penguin) 

Tuesday, 3 September 2024
Emma Grey’s second adult romance, Pictures of You, follows her successful debut, The Last Love Note, and shares similar themes of love, grief and hope, while weaving in mystery and...

A Secret Garden in Paris (Sophie Beaumont, Ultimo) 

Tuesday, 3 September 2024
Sophie Beaumont’s latest novel, A Secret Garden in Paris, follows three women whose lives intertwine in Paris. The women are each at a substantial crossroads in their lives: Emma has...

Meerkat Mayhem (Mem Fox & Judy Horacek, Puffin) 

Tuesday, 3 September 2024
Mem Fox and Judy Horacek, the dream team behind the popular picture book Where Is the Green Sheep? (now celebrating its 20th anniversary), have a new collaboration that is also...

Epic Salads (Jessica Prescott, Hardie Grant Books) 

Tuesday, 27 August 2024
If you’re ready to ditch the pre-made salads from your local supermarket, Jessica Prescott’s Epic Salads: For every mood, craving and occasion is a must-have for your cookbook collection. Prescott...

This Kingdom of Dust (David Dyer, Penguin) 

Tuesday, 27 August 2024
In his sophomore novel, David Dyer skilfully blurs history and fiction to pose the question: What if the Apollo mission had failed to return from the Moon? This Kingdom of...

The Burrow (Melanie Cheng, Text) 

Tuesday, 27 August 2024
A triumph of restrained and tender storytelling, Melanie Cheng’s The Burrow follows a Melbourne family living on autopilot five years after a senseless tragedy. Amy, Jin and Lucie have since...

Everywhere We Look (Martine Kropkowski, Ultimo) 

Tuesday, 27 August 2024
Everywhere We Look is the debut novel by Martine Kropkowski, a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland, who has also written about the ethics of true crime and crime...

Skysong (C A Wright, Pantera) 

Tuesday, 20 August 2024
C A Wright’s debut novel, Skysong, is inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale ‘The Nightingale’. Oriane is the latest in a long line of skylarks: women who transform into...

The Natural Advantage (Jenny Brockis, Major Street) 

Tuesday, 20 August 2024
The message of Jenny Brockis’s The Natural Advantage is straightforward: the cure for stress in our increasingly hectic modern world is to spend more time in nature. ‘Intuitively, we know...

The Belburd (Nardi Simpson, Hachette) 

Tuesday, 20 August 2024
Written with the same lyrical prowess and evocative tone as her award-winning debut, Song of the Crocodile, Yuwaalaraay storyteller Nardi Simpson’s second novel, The Belburd, is a powerful ode to...

Prize Catch (Alan Carter, Fremantle) 

Tuesday, 20 August 2024
Alan Carter’s latest crime novel, Prize Catch, is a page-turning thrill ride set on Australia’s Emerald Isle. With the action taking place in Hobart and its surrounds, and brimming with...

A Song to Drown Rivers (Ann Liang, Macmillan) 

Tuesday, 13 August 2024
A Song to Drown Rivers is a bold departure from Ann Liang’s critically acclaimed YA rom-com novels (This Time It’s Real, I Hope This Doesn’t Find You, If You Could...

Double Happiness (Rochelle Siemienowicz, MidnightSun) 

Tuesday, 13 August 2024
In Double Happiness, journalist and film critic Rochelle Siemienowicz explores the intricacies, challenges and taboos surrounding polyamory and ethical non-monogamy (ENM). Set in Melbourne between 2014 and the Covid lockdown...

Twenty-Two Impressions (Jessica Friedmann, Scribe) 

Tuesday, 13 August 2024
For years, Jessica Friedmann (Things That Helped) circled the tarot, feeling a combination of mild embarrassment, curiosity and intellectual bewilderment when a pack was inevitably drawn at the end of...

No One Will Know (Rose Carlyle, Text) 

Tuesday, 13 August 2024
Pregnant, homeless, and alone, 24-year-old Eve Sylvester is faced with a desperate future when a meeting at her dead fiancé’s gravesite offers a chance too glorious to refuse: nannying for...

Dusk (Robbie Arnott, Picador) 

The cover of Robbie Arnott's novel Dusk Tuesday, 6 August 2024
In his fourth novel, Dusk, Robbie Arnott returns to familiar terrain. ‘Dusk’ is the name the highland graziers have given to a puma who has begun to ‘take’ shepherds and...