Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Gloam – Jack MacKay

    Bloomsbury September 2025 Imprint: Oneworld ISBN: 9780861549528 RRP: $16.99 Sometimes a debut novel comes along that completely blows you away, and this would be one of those. I’m not a fan of horror, but I don’t mind a bit of creepy – this was actually quite a lot of creepy! and an enormously good read.…

  • Resist: a story of D-Day – Alaz Gratz

    Scholastic Australia April 2025 Imprint: Scholastic Inc ISBN: 9781761649172 RRP: $12.99 If anyone is confused and feels like they have seen this, or heard of it, some years ago, here’s what author Alan Gratz explains: The physical paperback version of Resist was something I wrote as an exclusive giveaway for Scholastic’s Book Clubs in 2019. Scholastic gave…

  • Manslaughter Park -Tirzah Price

    Harper Collins Australia January 2025 I very much enjoyed #2 in this series which I reviewed last year and did also like this one very much. Not quite as much, but that was merely a personal preference. It is just as well-written and engaging but I think tried a little too hard with the whole…

  • Three Boys Gone – Mark Smith

    Pan Macmillan Australia Imprint: Macmillan Australia December 2025 ISBN: 9781761269868 RRP: $34.99 When I taught my rowdy Year 9s a few years ago, and even the most disengaged became completely engrossed in The Road to Winter (and many of them going on to read the rest of the trilogy!), it was pretty obvious Mark Smith has…