Author Archives: alysonebaker

Crazy Love by Rosetta Allan – 2021

Posted on October 13, 2021 by alysonebaker

Crazy love is about addiction, art, love with no boundaries, and the burden of mental illness. It is sad, beautiful, frustrating, and tantalising. It is about survival and despair and mundanity. It is about Vicky Miller and the destructive love … Continue reading →

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The Last Guests by J.P. Pomare – 2021

Posted on October 9, 2021 by alysonebaker

“Someone else is out there, watching, waiting. Terrorising us.” Lina is an ambulance driver, dealing with emergencies for a living. She is also dealing with Cain, her husband of seven years, who is still having nightmares after returning injured from … Continue reading →

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Crocodile Tears by Alan Carter – 2021

Posted on October 7, 2021 by alysonebaker

Philip ‘Cato’ Kwong, now part of the Major Crime Unit in Perth, is dealing with two, apparently unrelated, mutilated bodies – one an ex-cop one an ex-schoolteacher. Sharon Wang, his wife, is a federal agent, working nights at the international … Continue reading →

Posted in #SouthernCrossCrime, Book Review | 1 Comment

The Animals In That Country by Laura Jean McKay – 2020

Posted on October 2, 2021 by alysonebaker

I think anthropomorphism is useful when it enables people, and researchers, to see non-human animals as thinking feeling beings with a sense of their place in the world. I think anthropomorphism is a bad thing when it entails the animals … Continue reading →

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Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz – 2021

Posted on September 8, 2021 by alysonebaker

Jennifer Beard, Monica Cantwell, Heidi Paakkonen, Mallory Manning, Grace Millane … just some of the women’s names we in Aotearoa know because they died brutally at the hands of men. Their names are all most of us do know about these … Continue reading →

Posted in #yeahnoir, Book Review | 1 Comment

Double Helix by Eileen Merriman – 2021

Posted on September 3, 2021 by alysonebaker

Jake and Emily were childhood friends and neighbours. Now in his early twenties, Jake returns to Dunedin from Auckland, where he has been studying after failing to get into medical school. Jake will finally start his medical training, which Emily … Continue reading →

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Things I Learned At Art School by Megan Dunn – 2021

Posted on August 28, 2021 by alysonebaker

Megan Dunn takes you on a journey – from her first infatuation with Strawberry Shortcake dolls, through her fixations on various other mass-produced toys, later wearing them on clothing as “beacons of burgeoning sexuality”. She attends Elam School of Fine … Continue reading →

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The Leaning Man by Anne Harré – 2021

Posted on August 23, 2021 by alysonebaker

Solace in the Wind is a Wellington waterfront statue, nicknamed The Leaning Man. Stella Weston loves the statue, wanting herself to be able to “lean fearlessly into the unknown, forge ahead, get things done”. But Stella is still traumatised by … Continue reading →

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The Only Living Lady Parachutist by Catherine Clarke – 2021

Posted on August 15, 2021 by alysonebaker

Lillian Hawker, Gladys Van Tassel, Gladys Freitas, Leila Adair, Lillian Rayward … are they one woman or many women? They are all aeronauts, ascending in hot air balloons, descending under parachutes – if all goes well. Through all her various … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Historical | 1 Comment

The Impossible Resurrection of Grief by Octavia Cade – 2021

Posted on August 2, 2021 by alysonebaker

“Can you watch something die and let it die?” The global mismanagement of the Covid pandemic, and consequential human deaths. The plundering of the environment, and consequential deaths of humans, non-human and ecosystems. The decades of spewing greenhouse gases into … Continue reading →

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