Book Review: My Friends
April 8, 2025
I frequently found myself pausing to re-read certain passages, wanting to soak it in deeply, giving it the sensitive reflection it deserves.
I frequently found myself pausing to re-read certain passages, wanting to soak it in deeply, giving it the sensitive reflection it deserves.
McCann’s writing veers off in different directions, gathering glimpses of our world standing on the knife edge of thriving & falling apart.
This is true community: with chaos and contradictions, dubious motivations, skirmishes and secrets, sitting alongside unity and cooperation.
This book contains joy and sadness and complex, indecipherable feelings. Reading it felt a lot like being seen.
If you like your books cozy, look elsewhere! This author delights in voicing the cynical, sinister attitudes that lie just below the surface.
Matthews perfectly encapsulates the struggle of establishing boundaries with family members– and does so with heart-warming hilarity.
A stealthily affecting novel exploring the uneven politics of care, caring and carelessness, centered around the residents of Victory Park.
Don’t be deceived by this slender little volume – it’s chock-full of action, adventure, romance, violence, hilarity, grit and destiny.
Brutes is told predominantly in the collective ‘we’ of oppressive teen clique-iness, 7 characters shifting & morphing into 1 shared identity.
Farm life – sweaty days spent sheering sheep, beers on the front porch – is observed afresh and curiously askew through Tama’s imagination.
I love a character-driven novel, and Wilkins is so adept at creating a cast that feels complex, relatable and easy to love.
This is a novel about familial tensions, the desperation caused by poverty and how to be yourself when so much is expected of you.
Kamali’s beautiful prose was the perfect conduit for this tale of friendship & resistance amidst a dangerously shifting political landscape.
You’ll find characters you’ll either deeply love or deeply hate (I had the experience of wanting to slap everyone but also hug them tenderly)
Abandon your preconceptions & prepare for a wild ride. (Spoiler: some of that ride takes place on a broomstick, with a pig riding shotgun.)
I believe that the less you know about it going in, the better! So take a chance on Piranesi if you’re in the mood for something different.
There is darkness in this story, but it’s leavened by Smith’s ever-playful storytelling, and her characters’ capacity for resistance & hope.
Timelines and characters are bound together through an ancient text that changes their lives in incredible and unexpected ways.
McCracken delights in human absurdity and the slippery art of writing about your family – be it fiction or memoir, or both at once.
This is a spare, affecting picture of a young man trying to pin his fragile sobriety to a version of self and future that he can believe in.
SCORPIO BOOKS
Five Lanes, The BNZ Centre
120 Hereford Street
Christchurch Central City
Ph: (03) 379 2882
TELLING TALES
Five Lanes, The BNZ Centre
101-111 Cashel St
Christchurch Central City
Ph: (03) 741 3309
FREE NZ SHIPPING FOR ORDERS OVER $100