Ash

This was pretty great. The stories are told in a highly accessible, easily digestible and occasionally humorous way. I'm not suuuper into games and I didn't know all the ones that were covered, but I enjoyed the ride.

Maaate. I picked this up on a whim and finished it in a weekend, felt a bunch of feelings, and now I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. It's a great read, beautifully written, and a fresh kind of queer bogan representation you don't exactly see a lot of. I really loved it.

Damn. I don't think you'd classify this as a thriller per se, but the way everything spirals out of control there's so much tension you could cut it with an analogy. I hate every one of these characters, but they're each brilliant in their myriad of flaws. And there's multiple layers of story, I find myself wanting to know what happens and dreading the inevitable conclusion at the same time. I liked it.

“Queer people don't grow up as ourselves, we grow up playing a version of ourselves that sacrifices authenticity to minimise humiliation & prejudice. The massive task of our adult lives is to unpick which parts of ourselves are truly us & which parts we've created to protect us.”

This one was a bit real at the start. Growing up gay in the Queensland public school system was fine enough, but it was a time of incredible shame and confusion and it was uncomfortable reading those early chapters. The rest of the book deals in drugs, drag and stardom, but eventually comes to a heartwarming conclusion about gender identity and self. It was sweet, and I learned a couple of things.

I spotted this on a display by the entrance of Big W at a particularly low point in my life, and it gave me some joy to find a new Australian novel I'd missed. I had trouble getting into Boy Swallows Universe and never finished it because the library ebook returned itself, but this one grabbed me and I couldn't put it down. I saw someone describe it as a slice of life, which I suppose it is. But it's also a murder mystery, with some thriller elements. A bit of family drama. It's a lot of things. Very nicely done. I liked it.