03/05/2026 · 3:46 pm

The Bruising of Qilwa

Persion-inspired fantasy about blood magic

This was a set book for my feminist fantasy bookclub last year and I was really curious about this one. It has such an interesting title and a striking cover, and I had never heard of it or the author before.

Image is of "The Bruising of Qilway" by Naseem Jamnia. The eBook cover is red and purple with a hand dripping blood hovering above a white walled city.

“The Bruising of Qilwa” by Naseem Jamnia is a fantasy novella set in a fictional island city called Qilwa. The story is about a healer’s assistant called Firuz, a Sassanian refugee whose family has fled genocide on the mainland for safety in this new city. Firuz is also secretly a practitioner of blood magic, an identity that is even more dangerous to hold. While helping healer Kofi with patients affected by a plague sweeping through the city, Firuz discovers that several of the dead appear to have a bone marrow disease that has the signs of untrained blood magic. Among training another person with affinity for blood magic, trying to help their brother with an alignment spell to help his body match his gender identity and treating patients, Firuz must find the source of the blood bruising disease before it is too late.

This is a beautifully written novella which, despite it’s short length, has exceptional world building with a fully formed premise. Firuz is a multi-layered character with many close family ties and a strong sense of obligation, and I really appreciated Jamnia’s exploration of the migrant/refugee experience often characterised by family, work, study and cultural repsonsibilities and extremely hard work. The magic in this book was really interesting and it felt like it underpinned the story in a natural way without either overwhelming or underwhelming the main plot or themes.

The only thing that I found slightly confusing was the reveal and motivations behind the source of the blood bruising disease; it was the only part of the book that felt rushed.

A really immersive, unique story and I look forward to reading more of Jamnia’s work.

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02/05/2026 · 6:30 pm

The Book That Held Her Heart

Third and final book in “The Library Trilogy”

After loving the first and second books in this series, I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say this was my most anticipated read of 2025. Shorter than the first but a similar size to the second, it has a striking red and purple cover with gold foil that matches the design of the other paperbacks in the series. If you haven’t read the first or second book yet, please note this review contains spoilers.

Photo is of "The Book that Held Her Heart" by Mark Lawrence. The paperback book is standing between a silver goblet and a ridged black and red book with a mirror reflecting below. The cover is red and purple with seemingly infinite bookshelves and spiral staircases with a crow in the foreground.

“The Book That Held Her Heart” by Mark Lawrence is the third and final book in the speculative fiction series “The Library Trilogy”. Following the events of the previous book, instead of in the library, this book opens in Nazi Germany; the third portal that opened in the library floor and the one chosen only by Yute and Kerrol in an attempt to find a compromise between the warring ideologies. Evar, most of the canith and Arpix entered the first portal which leads to a dangerous and foggy city, whereas Livira, Yolanda and other humans find themselves back in time at the desert settlement of Livira’s birth.

This is an ambitious book that tackles many topics including how we either learn from or repeat the mistakes of the past, such as the Holocaust; the question about whether more knowledge or less knowledge is the most dangerous; and how different circumstances can influence a person’s character and the very nature of reality. Lawrence’s strongest points in the book are comparing the different, fractured realities (especially for Arpix) and what a person like King Oanold may have been like at circumstances not led him into tyrrany and moral bankruptcy.

However, I have to say, I truly was disappointed with this ending to what had started out as such a phenomenal series. The book took until about page 130 to get going, which was about a third of the length of the book. The book felt rushed and unedited, and considering how quickly it was published after the second, I wonder if perhaps it would have been better if Lawrence had had more time to work on it. For example, this following sentence just felt clunky and repetitve:

As one of the fliers lifted. A handful remained broekn and twitching, amongst the broken and twitching bodies of the humans and canith that had been chosen to show their superiority.

I wasn’t engaged in the foggy world at all, and it really only had a page of exposition and a series of taverns that gave it a medieval vibe. I also really felt like the chapters of being imprisoned by King Oanold really dragged on and I wasn’t really invested in the story arc or whatever commentary was being made about humanity. While I understood the narrative choice Lawrence made in ending the story, the explanation for how exactly it transpired was difficult to follow and largely unsatisfying.

To be honest, a bit of a let down after the first two books that felt like it needed more time and more thought.

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27/04/2026 · 5:03 pm

The Little Lost Ducklings

Children’s picture book about a duck and her ducklings

I’m not quite sure how this book made its way into our house, but I guess when you have a baby children’s books just do. This one stands out due to the unusual fuzzy duck face on the front cover that, despite the “soft tales” text on the front cover feels a little more spiky than soft. The cover is also decorated with silver foil – picking out animals and insects featured in the book.

Photo is of "The Little Lost Ducklings" by Brenda Apsley and illustrated by Craig Cameron

“The Little Lost Ducklings” by Brenda Apsley and illustrated by Craig Cameron is a children’s picture book about a mother duck who takes her three ducklings swimming for the first time. Despite instructions to stay close, the ducklings are each overcome with curiosity and one by one they are left behind.

This is a brightly illustrated book that explores a river ecosystem and some of the plants and animals you might come across. The digital painterly style gives a sense of softness, and the story is gentle and easy to follow.

My main reservation is that the story does feel a little critical of (apparantly) single parent Mummy Duck who, despite trying her best to raise three ducklings alone with a cheery disposition, manages to swim on without each of them. The page where she realises they are missing is quite sad.

A cute little story that my toddler enjoys with plenty of quacking along the way.

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25/04/2026 · 10:19 pm

My Presents

Children’s flap book about birthday presents

After the success of “Dear Zoo” and “Oh Dear!“, when I saw this one at the Lifeline Bookfair, we had to get it. Please note this reivew contains spoilers.

Photo is of "My Presents" by Rod Campbell. The children's book is partially inside a gift bag decorated with a colourful bunting pattern. Thecover is of various wrapped presents.

“My Presents” by Rod Campbell is a children’s flap book about the presents a child receives at their birthday. Told in the first person by an unnamed narrator, the child receives presents from many friends and the reader ‘unwraps’ them by pulling down the flap.

This is a bright, fun book that is great for developing vocabulary and fine motor skills. Like Campbell’s other books, each page prompts the reader to say aloud the image revealed behind the flap. Each wrapped present is a different colour and shape, giving readers plenty to discuss. Instead of saying what the item is, the book instead provides some descriptions of its properties (adjectives) and what you do with it (verbs). The open-endedness of this book also gives room for different names of objects, allowing for no wrong answer.

My only reservation is that the reveal on the last page is, in my view, quite ambiguous. Sometimes my toddler says “dog” and sometimes my toddler says “cat”. The body shape is quite cat-like but the mouth with the tongue hanging out does appear to be like a dog’s, so it could either be a fluffy white cat or a fluffy white dog. Watching people read the book aloud online, the consensus seems to be that it is in fact a cat, and there appear to be other editions in circulation that have a more cat-like last page (as well as different names, wrapping presents and presents – including a puppet which is not in my edition).

A fun book that is a great way to engage young readers in storytelling.

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14/04/2026 · 12:24 am

Hunger & Thirst

Horror novel about teen trauma and friendship

I received a copy of this eBook courtesy of the publisher. I was excited to receive this one because I’ve previously enjoyed “Our Endless Numbered Days” and “Unsettled Ground” by this author.

Image is of "Hunger & Thirst" by Claire Fuller. The eBook cover is of a young white girl with dark hair sitting on a bed with red sheets, hugging her knees.

“Hunger & Thirst” by Claire Fuller is a gothic horror novel about a sixteen year old girl called Ursula who has grown up in the care system. When her social worker arranges a job for her at a local art school, she meets some other young people called Sue and Vince and is excited at the prospect of making new friends. Her friendship with Sue in particular is going well, and when she is invited to move into an abandoned house called The Underwood with Vince, she says yes. However, the intensity of the new friendships, the house and her traumatic past culminate in an irreversible but mysterious event that haunts Ursula decades into the future.

Like much of Fuller’s work, this is a deeply unsettling book that I couldn’t put down. I finished reading it this very evening and basically couldn’t do anything else until I had. The horror and mystery elements of the book were especially engrossing and all night I’ve been trying to put together pieces of a puzzle that keeps slipping from my grasp. Fuller is a master of subtlety and discomfort, and of stepping in the shoes of isolated and vulnerable characters. Ursula in particular is a fascinating character, and Fuller juxtaposes the confident successful artist in her 50s against the naive and traumatised teenager deperate for any semblance of a family. However, she is also potentially an unreliable narrator and as a reader, you are torn between believing the unbelievable or trying to make sense of an otherwise inexplicable mystery. The slow unfurling of Ursula’s childhood, and the present day documentary that is being made about the events that happened at The Underwood, keeps the reader looking for connections and patterns that feel just out of reach. Even now, while I’m writing this, I’m still trying to make things line up to explain what happened. In some ways, this book reminds me a bit of Margaret Atwood’s “Cat’s Eye”, especially about the intensity of childhood and teenage friendships and how they feel at the time compared to how you understand them in hindsight, and how the protagonist, a successful artist, keeps being drawn back to that time in her life.

A truly haunting novel that demanded to be finished and slowly digested afterwards.

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12/04/2026 · 12:34 pm

Fun Farm

Children’s flap book about farm animals

This is one of the many books that has made its way into our home after having a baby, and it has been fun exploring a random and diverse selection of books with her and seeing what captures her interest.

Photo is of "Fun Farm" The children's board book is resting between a range of farm animal puzzle pieces with handles. The cover is a pretty ugly illustration of several farm animals on a green farm with a barn in the background.

“Fun Farm” is a children’s flap book about a variety of different animals that might be found on a farm including horses, cows, sheep, chickens and pigs. As indicated on the front of the book, there are more than forty flaps that reveal even more animals doing activities around the farm.

There are two things that recommend this book. First, my toddler really loves it. Despite being aimed at 3 years and up, this book was extremely engaging for her even as early as 18 months and she would request it frequently. The second thing that recommends this book is that the flaps are incredibly resilient to young hands. The book is a board book and the flaps are quite thick carboard with a finger-shaped space to easily open them and are pre-creased at the join which means that a year of heavy use haven’t impacted the book at all.

However, as the adult supervising this book, I have to say, hand on my heart, the illustrations are hideous. I think the fact that there is no author or illustrator attributed to the book is telling. It was originally published back in 2007, and is clearly a bit of an early experiment in digital illustration. There are a lot of obvious shortcuts in the book with images of animals and flowers obviously copy-pasted. The animal designs are really unsettling with all the animals, including herbivores, designed with huge blue eyes right in the middle of their faces instead of on this side. The accompanying text isn’t inaccurate exactly, but it is extremely over-simplified and doesn’t have a huge degree of relevance to modern farms.

An aesthetically-challenging book that my toddler loves and that I’m constantly wondering if she’d miss if I gave it away.

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11/04/2026 · 2:07 pm

Kaikeyi

Fantasy reimagination of Hindu epic poem “Ramayana“

This was a set book for my feminist fantasy bookclub. I hadn’t heard of this book and was very intrigued to read it when it was selected. I have some vague familiarity of “The Ramayana” through Javanese wayang performance (dance and puppetry), though unfortunately wasn’t able to study it further when I was living there because while I speak Indonesian fluently, I don’t speak Javanese.

“Kaikeyi” by Vaishnavi Patel is a fantasy novel that retells the Hindu epic story of “The Ramayana”, but from the perspective of Kaikeyi, a princess whose prospects are deeply affected by her mother’s banishment. Despite living in a world where gods frequently respond to prayers, Kaikeyi’s go completely ignored. So when she discovers an ancient text and a secret power, she learns that the only way to advance is to rely on herself and manipulate those around her.

This was a really compelling story with a fascinating magic system that focused on the social bonds between people and how relationships can be nurtured, neglected and destroyed altogether. Patel does a wonderful job bringing these ancient characters to life and making them feel human with relatable motivations and mistakes. Family relationships are very strong and important in this book and Kaikeyi’s relationships with her twin brother was particularly interesting. I thought that Patel cleverly used Kaikeyi’s special knowledge and insight through her magic to more sympathetically explain the decisions she is later condemned for. I also liked that she built on Kaikeyi’s courageous and passionate personality to try to improve conditions for women. While it appears he is very different in the book to how he is in the original stories, I also really liked Ravana as a character.

I think probably my only main criticism of this book was that it is very long, and the interest and novelty in the earlier parts of the story lost momentum towards the later half. It did also at times feel as though perhaps the book was skewed a little too sympathetically towards Kaikeyi and I would have been OK if her motivations hadn’t been entirely pure and were a little self-serving.

A really great example of a modern, feminist retelling and a must-read if you are looking for something that feels both traditional and unique.

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05/04/2026 · 1:22 pm

The Great Aussie Animal Easter Egg Hunt

Children’s picture book about a competitive Easter egg hunt

This was an gift for my toddler last year so I was excited to read it with her in the lead up to Easter.

Photo is of "The Great Aussie Animal Easter Egg Hunt" by Emma Middleton. The children's picture book is resting next to a wicker basket filled with colourful easter eggs. The cover is of Australian animals racing towards a basket of Easter eggs.

“The Great Aussie Animal Easter Egg Hunt” by Emma Middleton is a children’s picture book about a wombat called Willow who always comes last in the annual Great Aussie Animal Easter Egg Hunt. Despite receiving some disparaging remarks from the usual winner Emu, Willow perseveres and makes a new friend along the way.

This is a lovely little book that explores the Easter tradition of finding eggs in an Australian context. It highlights different Australian animals and the way that they move. The illustrations are really charming with a style reminscent of classic children’s books despite a relatively recent publication date. I liked that the focus was on friendship rather than success measured in number of eggs found. Most importantly, my toddler listened riveted and then asked me to read it again.

There was a slight plot hole in this story that, despite several rereads, I haven’t been able to reconcile. Despite being described several times as being very slow, when Koala falls into her basket Willow manages to bring Koala multiple eggs and there isn’t a clear explanation for how she manages to do that.

A cute little book to get young children excited for some of their first Easter egg hunts.

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04/04/2026 · 2:04 pm

Hunwick’s Egg

Children’s picture book about a bilby

I picked this one up at the Lifeline Bookfair, and I think I’ve mentioned on here before that if you think you enjoy the Bookfair as an adult, it is even better going and choosing books for and with children. I’ve reviewed this author on here before and thought this would make a nice Easter-adjacent story.

Photo is of "Hunwick's Egg" by Mem Fox and illustrated by Pamela Loft. The children's picture book is next to a light turquoise Easter egg and a small chocolate bilby. The cover is of a bilby with large ears peaking out of a square.

“Hunwick’s Egg” by Mem Fox and illustrated by Pamela Lofts is a children’s picture book about a solitary bilby called Hunwick who, after a big storm, discovers a large egg. When the egg doesn’t hatch, the other animals become worried about Hunwick but Hunwick might know more than he is letting on.

This is a quirky little story about the different ways we experience love and comfort. Hunwick is a unique, older character who finds meaning and purpose after he discovers the egg. I really liked that while the other animals are concerned for him, they don’t judge him and leave Hunwick and his egg alone. The illustrations are rich and exaggerated, showcasing some lesser known Australian desert animal species like the Spinifex Pigeon. I also really liked that it was a nod to the Easter Bilby, the Australian alternative to the Easter Bunny, but without being obviously about Easter.

I think the only downside is that my toddler hasn’t shown much interest in it, and when I offered to read it to her last night, said “No”, put it on the floor, and then pointedly stacked other books on top of it.

A lovely, understated story counterbalanced by over-the-top illustrations that is probably suited to slightly older children.

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03/04/2026 · 8:30 pm

Blood Ninja

Historical fantasy novel set in 1500s Japan

Another Lifeline Bookfair find, I picked this up from the fantasy section many years ago because of the striking black tinted edges. It wasn’t until I finally read it on my recent trip to Japan that I realised the edges aren’t just black, but have a blood splatter design that you can only see when you flip the pages. Genre-wise, it probably wasn’t my first choice which explains why it has languished so long on my to be read shelves, but I finally managed to read it in the very country it is set.

Photo is of Blood Ninja by Nick Lake. The paperback book is sitting in frong of an elaborate art display with a suit of black samurai armour in the middle. The cover is black with a red mask design.

“Blood Ninja” by Nick Lake is a historical fantasy novel set in 16th century Japan. The story is about an adolescent boy called Taro who lives in a seaside village. Always considered different from everyone else in his communtiy, Taro’s life is changed forever after his family is is attacked by ninjas. When he is mortally wounded, he is given a choice: die or become a ninja who must forever live in the darkness.

This is an action-packed and immersive story through which Lake’s passion for Japanese culture and history shines through. The concept of ninja necessarily being vampires was an interesting one and helped to underline the deadly, night-time aesthetic. I would place it firmly in the young adult category; there are some very strong female characters and all the familiar tropes we know and love. The writing is also pretty good.

However, again while I appreciate I read it some time ago, I didn’t find it especially memorable. Referring back to my notes, there was a lot of decapitating, and it did remind me a lot of this song. There is quite a bit of political intrigue in between the fight scenes but not as much character development or magic that I really enjoy in the fantasy genre. Despite the strong start, the plot seemed to fall apart later in the book with character motivations no longer making sense.

A book for kids who love weapons, fighting scenes, ninjas, samurai and vampires.

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