Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Sunrise on the Reaping: Hunger Games #5 – Suzanne Collins

    Scholastic Australia March 2025 ISBN:9781761641176 RRP: $29.99 So many of us have been waiting, not so patiently, and I was so excited when this arrived last Monday. Over the ensuing nights I have literally devoured it, with Haymitch every step of the way. Whether you are a Hunger Games “tribute” [IYKYK], or have a special…

  • A Good Kind of Trouble – Brooke Blurton and Melanie Saward

    Harper Collins Australia January 2024 ISBN: 9781460761496 ISBN 10: 1460761499 Imprint: HarperCollins AU RRP: $19.99 This is another great novel coming from WA with fresh new voices and perspectives, and one of my most enjoyable reads of last year [I was reading the proof to write the teaching notes]. Jamie is a lively and intelligent girl who is…

  • Comes the Night – Isobelle Carmody

    Allen & Unwin October 2024 ISBN:9781760294762 Awards: Shortlisted, Best Young Adult Fiction, Indie Book Awards, 2025, AU Imprint:A&U Children’s RRP: $24.99 In a future Canberra, the citizens are protected and insulated under domes, safe from extreme weather, solar radiation and all the after-effects caused by recklessness of previous generations. They are also guarded from civil…

  • French Windows – Antoine Laurain

    New South Books Gallic Books 9781913547752 /  September 2024 / AUD$34.99, NZD$39.99 I’m a big fan of cosy murder mysteries. This is not one of those, though it is definitely a murder mystery. I wasn’t familiar with this acclaimed French author’s work but would certainly seek some more of it out. This is a slick and witty…

  • The Skin I’m In – Steph Tisdell

    Pan Macmillan July 2024 ISBN: 9781760984977 RRP: $26.99 It took me a while to get to this one on the review shelf, but when I did, it didn’t take me long to read it – I chomped it up over 3 nights and loved every vibrant word of it. Then of course it was Picture Book…

  • Picture Book Month Extra!!! The Hunger Games [Illustrated edition] – Suzanne Collins. Illustrated by Nico Delort.

    Scholastic Australia October 2024 Imprint; Scholastic Inc. 9781761640995 $49.99 Would you ever have thought The Hunger Games could get even better? This illustrated version is just sensational! This is quite the hefty volume – almost A4 in size – and dense but so beautifully presented and the monochromatic illustrations by Nic Delort bring a whole…

  • If I Have to be Haunted – Miranda Sun

    Harper Collins Australia October 2021 ISBN: 9780008612443 ISBN 10: 0008612447 Imprint: Magpie Books GB RRP: $24.99 Can’t let the little ones have all the fun for Halloween! This is a debut YA novel for which I recently wrote teaching notes**** and it was a really good mash-up of family, ghosts/horror, quest and rom-com. Cara is a serious student,…

  • Salt Runs Through – Mark Rafidi

    Hawkeye Books October 2024 ISBN: 9781923105218 ISBN-10: 1923105213 RRP: $26.99 I was so keen to review this, so thank you Hawkeye, and what a fabulous read it is! Set in Ulladulla, one of my favouritest places in the world [was always my dream retirement plan] at the time of the Currowan bushfire, such a dark time back…

  • Where the Heart Should Be – Sarah Crossan

    Bloomsbury March 2024 ISBN 9781526666598 Imprint Bloomsbury YA RRP: $25.00 Carnegie Medal-winning, former Laureate na nÓg Sarah Crossan became one of my most favourite writers when I read my first of her titles, Toffee. That book made such an impression on me that I quickly sought out others and kept my eye out for them…

  • Aisle Nine – Ian X. Cho

    Harper Collins Australia September 2024 ISBN: 9781460760680 ISBN 10: 1460760689 Imprint: HarperCollins AU RRP: $19.99 Your fans of Stranger Things, Good Omens and Wednesday, any horror x comedy x side-serve of romance, are absolutely going to love this one. When I was asked to write the teaching notes I was not quite sure after reading the summary but…