Dizzy Limits is an eclectic collection of experimental non-fiction that uses unorthodox style to capture truth and deeper self-exploration. The book features a range of contributors, who all utilise various styles and voices to produce unique pieces of work. The twenty-two essays explore a range of topics including cultural identity, the body, the environment and…
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Journalist-cum-author Azadeh Moaveni commands a wealth of knowledge when it comes to Middle Eastern politics and ideology, and it shines in her latest offering, Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of ISIS. This narrative non-fiction is written as a pastiche of sorts, vividly painting a picture of the journeys many Muslim women followed…
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CW: sexual abuse, child abuse The honesty of Patricia Eagle’s Being Mean: A Memoir of Sexual Abuse and Survival is at times a painful and difficult read. The book chronicles Patricia’s life in vignettes from the ages of four to sixty-five, with chapters presented chronologically. The early chapters relay her experiences of child sexual abuse,…
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From Here On, Monsters is Elizabeth Bryer’s debut novel. Having been published in Meanjin, Griffith Review, Kill Your Darlings and Overland (to name just a few), as well as having worked as the inaugural translation editor for The Lifted Brow, Bryer is no stranger to the Australian literary scene. This shows in her writing, which…
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After She Left follows three generations of women across a span of five decades, utilising the characters and time periods within the novel to explore different facets of feminism. The story begins by introducing one of the three main characters, Deirdre, a free-spirited artist who emigrates from Ireland to Sydney in the 1930s after falling…
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“It’s got Baby written in wispy orange lettering on the side. It’s bluish-white, with dirty bits at the water line, and the sea clinging at its little hips like low-waisted pants. There are bigger boats around it, but Baby catches the sun better… “Baby appears gradually from behind all the bigger, more robust boats, dancing…
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Dyschronia by Jennifer Mills is a wonderfully charming, yet melancholic novel that had me wanting to know what happened next. Different stories from different points of time intertwined to create a beautifully sad account of one girl’s life. While I will admit I had to attempt to read this novel twice before I was…
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“I think all women carry something of a rebellion inside them that often goes unexpressed. Because we think we are not in the race – or game, or whatever the sporting analogy is – we have a sense of anarchy that I think is an advantage. In times like these it threatens to erupt. It…
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With the rigorous research involved and the potential for disagreement and criticism, what could be more difficult than writing the biography of an historical figure? The answer? Writing the life of an historical figure on whom the historical record is completely silent. In the latter case, academic rigour must be balanced against a refined imagination…
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Fight Like a Girl is a rousing memoir-meets-manifesto by Clementine Ford. Though casual in tone, it is persuasive and confronting. Ford shares her experiences as a woman claiming her space in the world and exposes the brutality of life as a woman, which we are raised to be oblivious to. You finish the book angry…
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The Science of Appearances, the third novel from Melbourne author Jacinta Halloran, is the story of two thirteen-year-old non-identical twins and the very different ways they find themselves in the wake of their father’s sudden death. Set in rural Victoria, in a town called Kyneton, and then in Melbourne, in the wake of WWII, this…
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Walking into the playground, early on in primary school, two of my friends got into fight. There was hair pulling, slapping and screaming. A crowd gathered, cheering them on. “You fucking bitch,” yelled one, using the colourful language we were just starting to learn. “You’re a monkey,” said the other. Watching on, I had never…
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Emma Cline’s debut novel, The Girls, is a coming of age story set in extraordinary circumstances. Based on the true events of the Charles Manson family, The Girls follows Evie Boyd, a fourteen-year-old girl on the cusp of adolescence, as she is drawn into the inner circle of a soon-to-be-infamous cult. The research that has…
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From its inception as a (widely panned) movie, through to the iconic TV show and comic book series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BTVS) has proven to be an ‘undying’ piece of pop culture. Celebrated for its punning protagonist Buffy Summers and her ‘Faith’-ful Scooby Gang, BTVS is canonical in its portrayal of female strength. In…
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