Just So Stories

• Riveted Press
• April 2026)
• Distributed by Simon & Schuster
• ISBN13: 9780645869378
• $17.99

Kate Gordon has certainly forged a following since her first foray into publication. Some of her titles I have reviewed, others I have read but not reviewed but I definitely know which ones have received the positives and enthusiasms. I particularly enjoyed Whalesong. There is a lot to like about this newest one as well.

The wild Whittle sisters, Lark and the others, have gone with their mother to the maternal grandparents’ farm in the Tasmanian midlands. Their father has gone off to the Great War – or has he, Lark wonders?

The characters of the girls are definitely for me the best part of the narrative. Their particular style of anarchy is quite St Trinian’s and so resonates with my own brand of subversion.

I was a little bemused by their names. I’m not sure how many people would choose Bathsheba for their firstborn as naming your beautiful baby girl after a biblical adulteress doesn’t usually factor in most people’s shortlist. But biblical and classical names were still popular at the turn of the 20th century, it’s true. I had a great-aunt called Byzantine after all.

But then there’s Lorna aka Lark which doesn’t seem to ‘go’ with that, followed by Esther (more bible and this time, very positive, so that fits – especially the beauty part!) – The Poppet, whose actual name I can’t recall or even find so that could be anyone’s guess and the baby, Alice, which is again popular at the time but not biblical. I think there was just something about this random collection of names that jarred with me.

And that being said, while there was really a great deal to enjoy about this story, there were also those moments of other such seeming inconsistencies and my suspension of disbelief was not able to reconcile some of those.

For example, the mysterious and ‘strict’ governess Arielle employed by the mother who turns out to be an orphan who has apparently brought herself up, fed herself and clothed herself and kept herself hidden away from the whole town for years – ummm, but wait a minute, but she’s certainly in town looking to be employed by the mother and she definitely nicks stuff from the shop. And no one notices or recognises her? hmmmm.

There’s also the mother herself. Apparently, her complete disregard and disdain of her own daughters is a result of a past tragedy but why then would the kind grandmother, with her apparently boundless ability to forgive almost any explosion, breakage, damage or temper the girls inflict upon the household, withhold that information instead of actually telling the girls (as she does eventually) so that they might understand the ‘why’. Instead she enables and condones the mother’s attitudes, and while I get that she has her own grief to deal with, that just doesn’t sit with me. That she would watch her own daughter alienate and abandon her girls more each day just doesn’t cut it.

Anyway, I’m digressing because those are some of the things that irritated me and detracted from what is essentially a great narrative with a lively and unpredictable cast.

Lark, like her father is a dreamer and storyteller, and she believes that her father has not abandoned them to go to war because he’s just NOT a soldier-type. Like her sisters she is resentful not of being in the Midlands but of her mother’s complete and utter lack of maternal instincts (her attitude swings between complete indifference and intense disapproval).

Bathsheba’s fondness for all things explosive or dangerous is a delight, while Esther’s preening paired with her self-belief that she is perfectly entitled to receive all tributes to her beauty and charms is really quite funny. And The Poppet, who is the most precocious 6 year old I think I’ve encountered in story is a delightful goblin indeed.

It’s a complex plot with deep nuances of trauma-based behaviours, innate personalities and individual gifts, self-loathing, judgemental attitudes and mother-child relationships. For me, the stand-out of the entirety is the sisterhood. Some of us have formed sisterhoods – some of those of necessity as we lacked the blood connection of such – but the ruffian Whittle sisters, despite differences in characters and attitudes, are so truly bonded in one band, or perhaps gang is a better word, that they are able to face down any adversity. I have no doubt that many readers will love this story, in particular for the eccentricity of the characters, and would very likely be wishing they could replicate the ‘living wild’ in the Midlands for themselves. It’s a 3 🌳🌳🌳rating from me for readers from around Year 4 to Year 7/8.