Reviews

Review

Review: Tony Fomison, by Mark Forman

'Forman paints a vivid picture of Fomison's life in the 1960s and 1970s, including his time on the streets in Paris, his stay in a European mental hospital, stints of incarceration...

Reviewed by Andrew Paul Wood

26 March 2025

Review

Review: See How They Fall, by Rachel Paris

Rachel Paris's debut thriller SEE HOW THEY FALL provides plenty of pace and unpredictability, as poisonings among a billionaire Australian family unleash all sorts of skeletons. R...

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

26 March 2025

Review

Review: Te Moana o Reo | Ocean of Languages

Anuja Mitra explores the kaleidoscopic collection TE MOANA O REO and its 'melody stitching together a number of voices; old and young, established and new.'

Reviewed by Anuja Mitra

23 March 2025

Review

Review: Clay Eaters, by Gregory Kan

Reviewed by Erik Kennedy

19 March 2025

Review

Review: Toitū te Whenua, by Lauren Keenan

Reviewed by Sarah Ell

18 March 2025

Review

Review: Violet and the Velvets, by Rachael King

'Meet Violet Grumble: a twelve-year-old rockstar in the making. Violet’s dream is to compete at BandChamps, the ultimate school music competition. The only problem? Her bandmates d...

Reviewed by Imogen Gadd

17 March 2025

Review

Review: An Indigenous Ocean, by Damon Salesa

Siniva Bennett considers the accessibility of Pasifika scholarship in Damon Salesa's award-winning AN INDIGENOUS OCEAN, published by Bridget Williams Books.

Reviewed by Siniva Bennett

12 March 2025

Review

Playmarket: Three Pasifika plays, reviewed

Three reviewers, Rebecca Puni, Elizabeth Hosking, and Tony Fe’ao, tackle three Pasifika Playmarket plays in a series of short reviews coordinated and edited by Shaun Bamber.

Reviewed by Rebecca Puni, Elizabeth Hosking, and Tony Fe’ao

10 March 2025

Review

Response: A Niu Dawn: Creative Responses to the Dawn Raids

'This book is a powerful collection of visual and personal responses to the dawn raids, created by leading and emerging Pasifika artists...'

Reviewed by Pauline Smith

6 March 2025

Review

Review: Manuali'i by Rex Letoa Paget

'We all agreed that powerful poetry provides a platform for urgent dialogue. Just as Manuali’i is a collection of moments of loss, love, heartbreak, and everything in between, it a...

Reviewed by Ruby Macomber

5 March 2025

Review

Review: Black Sugarcane, by Nafanua Purcell Kersel

'Kersel’s poems are deeply rooted in Pacific family and culture, and she paints these connections with such warmth and precision that you can almost smell the sapasui simmering on ...

Reviewed by Gina Cole

3 March 2025

Review

Review: Star Gazers, by Duncan Sarkies

'Brief chapters which centre on the alpaca’s point of view balance out the rest of the novel’s hectic pace, and also serve as a reminder that they are the victims in all the schemi...

Reviewed by Angelique Kasmara

24 February 2025

Review

Review: When the Deep, Dark Bush Swallows You Whole by Geoff Parkes

Greg Fleming examines Geoff Parkes' debut novel, WHEN THE DEEP, DARK BUSH SWALLOWS YOU WHOLE, and enjoys the carefully observed setting of 1980s small town King Country.

Reviewed by Greg Fleming

23 February 2025

Review

Review: The Comeback Code, by Jake Bailey

David Hill, not young, not fond of Self-Help books, reviews young Jake Bailey's latest book, THE COMEBACK CODE, and is taken with it.

Reviewed by David Hill

19 February 2025

Review

Review: The Defiance of Frances Dickinson, by Wendy Parkins

In 1845, Frances Dickinson filed for separation in the English courts. It was to become one of the most reported on divorce cases of the decade. Here, Carolyn Cossey reviews profes...

Reviewed by Carolyn Cossey

9 February 2025

Review

Review: The Eldest Girl by Olivia Aroha Giles

'Giles skillfully employs a dual timeline structure, weaving past and present to illuminate the choices and regrets that shape her characters’ lives...'

Reviewed by Savannah Patterson

3 February 2025

Review

Review: Bound, by Maddie Ballard

Maddie Ballard's debut book is a gentle sewing-focussed memoir. Claire Williamson writes about the contemplation of making and remaking, and how the threads of Ballard's life are i...

Reviewed by Claire Williamson

27 January 2025

Review

Review: For When Words Fail Us, by Claire Beynon

'A man and a woman, complete strangers, meet at an exhibition in upstate New York on a cold snowy night. At the art gallery they start a conversation and discover they have several...

Reviewed by Bernadette Cassidy

19 January 2025

Review

Review: Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Māori Art, by Deidre Brown and Ngarino Ellis, with Jonathan Mane-Wheoki

'Ngā kete e toru o te mātauranga, the three baskets of knowledge, are used to structure the book, and to loosely divide Māori art into three separate, but connected and overlapping...

Reviewed by Jade Kake

18 December 2024

Review

Review: Te Hau Kāinga: The Māori Home Front during the Second World War

'One of the strengths of this book is the weaving of personal stories with official data and stories about food are particularly evocative. I particularly enjoyed Te Onehou Phillis...

Reviewed by David Veart

11 December 2024

Review

Review: Liar, Liar, Lick, Spit by Emma Neale

Anuja Mitra admires the empathy and reminder of our shared humanity within Emma Neale's new poetry collection, LIAR, LIAR, LICK, SPIT, in this capsule review and poem extract.

Reviewed by Anuja Mitra

9 December 2024