Marilou Is Everywhere, by Sarah Elaine Smith

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Marilou Is Everywhere, by Sarah Elaine Smith

26 October 2021

Fourteen year old Cindy leads a brutally unhappy life. Her parents are elsewhere, leaving Cindy in the care of her older brothers, who have little interest – to say the least – in looking after her. But when another local teenager, Jude, goes missing, Cindy perversely sees an opportunity to improve her lot, in Marilou Is Everywhere (published by Penguin Books Australia, 28 September 2021), the debut novel of American author Sarah Elaine Smith.

Jude’s mother Bernadette, afflicted by alcoholism and mental illness, seems unaware her daughter vanished on a camping trip with friends, and unwittingly accepts Cindy as a surrogate. While Cindy is fully aware her charade is all shades of wrong, her longing for the presence of a loving parent, and a happy, stable, family life, is far more compelling.

Michael Schaub, writing for NPR, describes Marilou Is Everywhere as “a novel of stunning emotional intelligence, and Cindy an unforgettable character, but it’s Smith’s writing that’s the real star of the book. Her language is hypnotic and enchanting, with lines that read like poetry.” Sometimes it’s not so much the story, as the way it’s written, that draws me to a book, so this is a title I look forward to reading.

I Give My Marriage a Year, by Holly Wainwright

22 October 2021

If there were an award for book cover of the year (actually there’s the Australian Book Designers Association, and the Academy of British Cover Design, for quick starters), then I’d nominate I Give My Marriage a Year (published by Pan Macmillan, August 2020), by Australian content producer and writer, Holly Wainwright. I’d do likewise if there were also an award for book title of the year.

But I Give My Marriage a Year is more than eye-catching cover design, and a pithy title, it’s like having seats centre stage while you watch two sports teams you know nothing about, go head to head. Sydneysiders Lou and Josh have been married for fourteen years. They have two children, and live in the city’s inner western suburbs. But their marriage has lulled into a void.

Lou decides it’s time to take action. Or more to the point, to make a plan to take action. For twelve months she will subject her relationship with Josh, who works as a carpenter, but would rather be in a band, to a number of stress tests. At the end of the year, she will assess the outcomes and make a final decision, does she leave Josh, or does she stay?

That leaves the reader to decide who they’ll back. And the choice may not be all that simple. Both players will break rules and land low blows. But the best in both Lou and Josh will also come to the fore. Will there be only one winner, or can the spoils of victory be shared? And without any further delay I shall add I Give My Marriage a Year to my to-be-read list.

The Housemate, by Sarah Bailey

21 October 2021

Hands up anyone who misses living in a share house. No, I didn’t think I’d see many hands up in the air. After all, what’s to miss about co-inhabiting with strangers, aside from maybe the parties? The conflicts and politics? No. The person who leaves the kitchen and bathroom perpetually messy? No. The someone bringing noisy “friends” in and out at all sorts of weird hours, usually when everyone else is trying to sleep? No.

The self-appointed head of the house who… but I’ll stop right there. I’m here today to write about the newest addition to my to-be-read list, The Housemate (published by Allen & Unwin, August 2021), the latest novel by Melbourne based Australian author and advertising executive Sarah Bailey. Olive, an investigative journalist in Melbourne, is sent out by her boss to write about the suspicious death of a woman in rural Victoria.

The deceased turns out to be the former flatmate of another woman, murdered in the so-called “Housemates Homicide”, a story that had gripped the nation ten years earlier. While the third housemate was eventually jailed for the crime, the circumstances surrounding the horrific killing were never fully understood.

Working with Cooper, her colleague podcaster, whom she doesn’t always get along with, Olive begins delving into the killing again. In doing so, Olive discovers other deaths may be connected to the original murder ten years ago. She also learns she might have a previously unknown personal connection to case, one that may pose a danger to her and her family.

The Shadow House, by Anna Downes

20 October 2021

It might be a story we’ve heard before, but there’s something about The Shadow House (published by Affirm Press, September 2021), by Sydney, Australia, based British author Anna Downes, that’s snags at my curiosity. First, there’s the prospect of starting a new life in a beautiful house, in a remote, yet welcoming, community, surrounded by a lush forest, far from a previous, unhappy existence.

But then it comes. Slowly at first. A gnawing doubt, that perhaps it’s all a little too good to be true. But by the time that happens, it’s too late. Alex, with her children, Ollie, a teenage boy, and baby Kara, have left Sydney, and moved to rural Pine Ridge, a fictional town on the NSW Central Coast of Australia. She left an abusive partner, and despite Ollie’s misgivings at leaving the city, Alex feels she made the right choice.

Until that is the strange, disturbing parcels, begin appearing on her doorstep, and Alex thinks she sees shadowy figures moving about in the dense woods enveloping the house. Six years earlier, meanwhile, Renee, had lived on a farm that became the site of the community Alex moved to. Like Alex, Renee also had a teenage son, Gabriel. But Gabriel went missing one day, and was never seen again.

Is there a connection between the odd things happening to Alex, and the tragedy that struck Renee’s family? Who is leaving bone fragments outside Alex’s house, and what’s with the spooky carry-on in the nearby forest? But Alex has cause to be alarmed, Renee reported the exact same happenings just before Gabriel disappeared…

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Anna Downes, fiction, TBR list, writing

Scary Monsters, by Michelle de Kretser

19 October 2021

Scary Monsters (published by Allen & Unwin, October 2021) the latest novel from Sri Lankan born Australian writer Michelle de Kretser, literally leaves readers wondering where to begin. With two covers, and telling two stories, what would you do? The first story, set in 1981, centres on a woman named Lili. Her family immigrated to Australia when she was young, but now she works as a teacher in France.

Lili is alarmed by the treatment meted out to immigrants from Northern Africa, who have come to France looking for a new life. Lyle, the central character of the second story in the book, lives in a dystopian near-future Australia, which is still recovering from a recent pandemic. An area of the country is perpetually on fire, casting a smoky pall over the region. Islam has been banned, and anyone who doesn’t “fit in” is deported.

Lyle is also an immigrant, but does his best to act as Australian as possible, lest he garner scorn from the authorities. Despite the dark, ominous, premise of both stories, Michael Williams writing for The Guardian, described Scary Monsters as “both devastating and very funny.” But the question remains, whose story should we read first? Lili’s or Lyle’s?

Far from the Light of Heaven, by Tade Thompson

18 October 2021

An article published in The Atlantic in September 2018, written by Geoff Manaugh, pondered the question of dealing with crime on Mars. It was a thought provoking read, given the long time talk of establishing colonies on the red planet. But talk is easy. Mars is far from hospitable, and colonising the planet presents a raft of challenges, some of which may prove insurmountable.

But what happens, if one day in the future, we discover the means to cross the gulfs of interstellar space, and are able to establish colonies on planets we may find, that are somewhat more conducive to human habitation? The question of law enforcement is likely to be utmost on the minds of those organising such a gargantuan undertaking.

Crime beyond Earth is a theme central to Far from the Light of Heaven (published by Hachette Book Group, October 2021), the latest novel from British-born Yoruban doctor and novelist, Tade Thompson. Shell, the first mate of a vessel carrying one thousand colonists to a distant world, wakes from ten years in hibernation to discover some of the passengers have been murdered.

A puzzle to say the least, given everyone on board was asleep. Shell launches an investigation, but her work is cut out for her. Her captain, an artificial entity called Ragtime, who might know more than he lets on, is little help. Meanwhile menacing robots lurk in the shadows of the enormous vessel, which Shell cannot leave until she works out what happened.

Lemon, by Kwon Yeo-Sun

15 October 2021

It is 2002 and Korea is in the frenzied grip of the football World Cup, an event the nation is co-hosting with Japan. At the same time, Kim Hae-on, a nineteen year old student, was murdered in a crime that became known as the “high school beauty murder.” On the day of her death she wore a yellow dress, from which the name for Lemon (published by Penguin Random House, October 2021), Korean author Kwon Yeo-Sun’s novel, derives.

The story traces the seventeen years following the unsolved murder, as a grief-stricken Da-on, Hae-on’s younger sister, struggles to move ahead with her life. The story also explores the perspective of two of Hae-on’s classmates, the fiancée of one of the suspects, and back to Da-on many years later, as she visits a food delivery driver, the last person to see Hae-on alive, himself also a suspect in the killing.

Although billed as a crime thriller, Lemon is more a meditation of trauma, loss and grief, and the impact of a single devastating moment that changed the lives of those close to Hae-on. But as the story progresses, it gradually becomes apparent Hae-on’s murder wasn’t the only crime committed…

The Arrangement, by Kiersten Modglin

14 October 2021

Ainsley and Peter have been married for years. As far as the outside world is concerned they are happy and successful as a couple. Needless to say, behind closed doors though, it’s a different matter. In a bid to breathe life into their relationship, the couple decide to see other people. They call it the arrangement, which is also the title of American author Kiersten Modglin’s latest novel (published by Amazon Digital Services, January 2021).

But the arrangement comes with stipulations. Both partners must date a different person every week, and two, they are not to discuss with each other what happens while they’re seeing said other person. So far, so good. After all, it’s not as if they’re the only married couple with such an arrangement, no matter how formal. But Ainsley and Peter run into a problem when it comes to confiding in someone else about the other person.

Neither can tell their friends, because they all believe Ainsley and Peter are the perfect couple. So they take to talking to each other, and that’s when cracks start appearing in their plan. Before long they find themselves spiralling into despair, anger, and retribution, and soon the question is being asked, will they even survive, let alone their marriage?

The Ex Talk, by Rachel Lynn Solomon

13 October 2021

How far would you go to save the organisation that has employed you for ten years, a place so beloved, you couldn’t imagine working anywhere else? For Shay, a producer at a radio station in the American city of Seattle, the question seemed like a no-brainer until she was told she must co-host a new show with a colleague, Dominic, whom she detests.

As if that’s not bad enough, she and Dominic need to pose as exes, dispensing relationship advice to their listeners. This is the premise of The Ex Talk (published by Penguin Random House, January 2021), by Netherlands based American author Rachel Lynn Solomon. To the surprise of everyone, especially Shay and Dominic, the show becomes a hit, but as their success grows, the two hosts become ever more uncomfortable with the lie they are forced to live.

The Ex Talk has divided reviewers on Goodreads. Some people feel the story is a tad predictable – would a rom-com be a rom-com if it wasn’t? – while others are, if I may, enamoured by it. I’m yet to partake, so I can’t tell you what I think, but it was the plot outline that caught my eye: would devising story scenarios be the most enjoyable part of writing fiction?

Happy as Larry, by Kaethe Cherney

12 October 2021

Happy as Larry, or Happy as Larry: A New York Story of Cults, Crushes and Quaaludes, to use its full title, is the debut self-published novel of London based American author and film producer Kaethe Cherney. Quaaludes, in case you’re wondering, was the brand name of a sedative–hypnotic medication intended to treat insomnia, though it was commonly used as a recreational drug in the 1970s and 1980s.

Set in the New York of the nineteen-seventies, the story follows, Saskia, a teenager who finds herself grief stricken following the sudden death of her father, and the subsequent disintegration of her family. Saskia also has to contend with a move from their comfortable home in Gramercy Park, to a not so desirable part of town, and adjust to the new high-school she’s forced to attend.

While Saskia is drawn into a world of partying and drugs, her mother turns to alcohol and takes up with a younger man. Meanwhile while her older sister and brother are lured in a cult, and cut-off contact with the family. Happy as Larry has been praised by reviewers for its keen depictions of a New York that no longer exists, making for a poignant reverie for the nostalgic, or a gritty illustration for those who weren’t there.

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