Latest Reviews

History

Queensland Reviewers Collective (QRC) is the new name for an initiative that began eighteen years ago. Up until November 2016 it was known as M/C Reviews. In December 2015, the M/C Reviews website had a major security breach that took it down, and the editor of the book reviews section and some of the reviewers responded by starting a blog as a temporary site for book reviews until the website could be repaired. Unfortunately, it eventually became apparent that the website was not able to be restored, thus ending its long and illustrious presence as a place for the lively engagement with books and film through reviewing.

Once again, the editor and a small group of book reviewers decided they valued M/C Reviews enough to enable its rebirth as the Queensland Reviewers Collective. It no longer has an association with the Queensland University of Technology.

The website that M/C Reviews was initially a part of was M/C – Media and Culture, founded in 1998 as, according to the History section, ‘a place of public intellectualism, analysing and critiquing the meeting of media and culture’. It was meant as a place where the popular and the academic could meet, and ‘debates may have some resonance with wider political and cultural interests’.

The website was initiated and developed at the University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia; since 2004, it has been hosted by the Creative Industries Faculty at the Queensland University of Technology in Kelvin Grove. The first publication was the M/C Journal, still thriving today, followed by M/C Reviews, and then M/Cyclopedia of New Media.

Acknowledgement of Country

In the spirit of reconciliation Queensland Reviewers Collective acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

Other Reviews

Memoir/Biography

Out of the Blue by Anthony Field

Reviewed by Norrie Sanders Nicole Arthur of the Washington Post once wrote that there are two types of people. “Those who have never heard of the Wiggles and those who know all the words to “Fruit Salad”. There’s a word for those in the latter group: parents” [p151]. For those of us who have reared 

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ARA Historical Novel Prize 2024

WINNER OF THE RICHEST INDIVIDUAL LITERARY PRIZE IN AUSTRALASIA ANNOUNCED  The Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA) announced the winners of the ARA Historical Novel Prize 2024 at a celebratory event at NSW Parliament House on Wednesday, 23 October. Offering the richest individual literary prize in Australasia, with a prize pool of $150,000, the awards recognise

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Non-Fiction

Aussie Rock Anthems by Glen Humphries

Reviewed by Richard Tutin I had a couple of questions as I approached this offering from Glen Humphries. The first was when does a good rock song become a rock anthem? The second question was how do the forty top songs that he has chosen from the Australian songbook became acknowledged as rock anthems when

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Young Adult

Dead Happy by Josh Silver

Reviewed by Rod McLary Dead Happy is the sequel to HappyHead which told the tale of Sebastian Seaton [Seb] who, along with ninety-nine other teenagers, was sent to a new and radical program to solve ‘the national crisis of teenage unhappiness’.  Through a course of gruelling challenges, Seb discovers that he has qualities which up

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History

Henry V by Dan Jones

Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve This impressive and very readable version of the life of Henry V, one of England’s most celebrated monarchs, portrays a young man far from the rollicking, pleasure seeking Prince of Shakespeare’s plays. Dan Jones’s king is a fine leader, cool in his victories, and deeply religious. Upon his triumphant parade through

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General Fiction

River Song by Di Morrissey

Reviewed by Wendy Lipke This hard-covered novel with dust jacket, River Song, is Di Morrissey’s thirtieth book to be published. Over the years she has been providing interesting human stories for her readers taking them to different parts of Australia. She is well regarded in the literary world for her Australian-based stories and has been

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Crime/Mystery

Identity Unknown by Patricia Cornwell

Reviewed by Rod McLary It has been thirty-four years since Patricia Cornwell’s first novel Postmortem was published and Dr Kay Scarpetta emerged as new protagonist in the crime genre.  The novel won four major awards [the Edgar, Creasey, Macavity and Anthony] – it was the first book to ever win all four awards in the

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Crime/Mystery

Midnight and Blue by Ian Rankin

Reviewed by Rod McLary Midnight and Blue is the twenty-fifth book in the series featuring John Rebus – the detective from Police Scotland.  Aficionados of the series will know the history of John Rebus from his early days as a detective through to his becoming Inspector Rebus; and his fall from grace when he was

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Award – Australian Political Book of the Year

The longlist for the 2024 Australian Political Book of the Year Award has been announced. The longlisted titles are: The Odd Couple: The Australia-America Relationship (Allan Behm, Upswell) Quarterly Essay #93: Bad Cop: Peter Dutton’s Strongman Politics (Lech Blaine, Black Inc.) Donald Horne: A Life in the Lucky Country (Ryan Cropp, La Trobe) Mine Is the Kingdom (David Hardaker,

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If you would like to contact the coordinator of the Queensland Reviewers Collective, either to enquire about becoming a reviewer, to offer a book to review, or to make a comment on the blog generally, please use the form.

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