The Sydney Morning Herald
· collected 2026-09-18 · by Thuy On, Fiona Capp
M
ean girls, pirate queens, psychedelics and quantum physics: this week’s books cover some unlikely territory.
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books → cover → territory
Our critics review 10 fiction and non-fiction books worth knowing about.
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critics → review → books
Fiction
We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad (Simon & Schuster, $35)
The publicity notes tout that this book is a cross between Frankenstein and Heathers, which sounds like a winning combination.
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which → love → combination
, Mona Awad’s follow-up to her cult hit Bunny gives us the point of view of the kidnappers, the self-named clique of mean rich girls called bunnies who have entrapped Samantha Heather Sweeting while she was on tour to promote her autobiography, ostensibly about her experiences with the posse.
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she → give → posse
Restrained and gagged, she has no choice but to listen to their individual versions.
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she → gag → versions
We Love You, Bunny continues this creepy-cute tale.
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Bunny → love → tale
This campus horror takes a satirical swipe at academia, creative writing schools, the obsessive desire to succeed and the cult of friendship, which is also riven by rivalry.
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which → take → rivalry
It’s a fun, campy read, self-aware and bonkers, with pop culture and literary references throughout, and an unexpectedly bizarre character who swoops in at the end (Mary Shelley, eat your heart out).
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who → ’ → heart
The rabbit references do become a little tiresome (yeah, we get it), but on the whole its surrealism-meets-reality schtick works if you’re looking for something whimsical, weird and violent.
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you → become → something
Based on the eventful life and adventures of Grace O’Malley, a little-known 16th-century Irish sea captain who defended her country against the English during the reign of Elizabeth I, The Pirate Queen is a feminist reckoning, a contemporary reading of how this female chieftain rebelled, defied gender expectations, and battled and strategised in a man’s world.
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chieftain → base → world
Even before the story begins, the reader is presented with a cast of characters that spans three pages, as well as a guide to Gaelic pronunciation.
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that → begin → pronunciation
It’s a bit intimidating, but luckily the narrative is so propulsive that you’ll forgive all this preliminary information.
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you → ’ → information
Ariel Lawhon eschews a chronological storyline, dividing O’Malley’s life into three (maiden, mother and matriarch), with different perspectives and an editorial quirk that plays around with timelines.
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that → eschew → timelines
For example, a chapter in which she is 60 is followed by one in which she is 14.
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she → follow → which
Although this structure does have a deleterious effect on pacing and momentum, Lawhon gets away with it because her source material and recreation are so strong.
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material → have → it
The Bridge by Colm Tóibín (Picador, $30)
Colm Tóibín’s latest book is set in the Catalan Pyrenees and is ostensibly a sequel to his short story, A Long Winter.
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book → set → story
It’s a grim, austere offering that picks up the story after the death of Miquel’s mother.
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that → ’ → mother
Abandoned by his brother, he’s left with his father on an isolated farmstead with their sheep and donkeys.
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he → abandon → sheep
Their relationship is uneasy and strained; neither trusts the other.
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neither → trust → other
Miquel longs for escape; the only brightness in his life seems to be their servant Manolo, with whom he has an emotional and sexual bond.
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he → long → bond
Sundry other encounters with random men are conducted in secret and with shame.
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encounters → conduct → shame
But a new bridge linking the neighbouring villages initially offers hope and opportunity.
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bridge → link → hope
Alas, thanks to some bad choices, bad luck and betrayal, Miquel’s desire for freedom and exploration is cruelly denied.
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desire → deny → freedom
The Bridge reads more like a chapter in a book or an extended short story, with necessary narrative omissions due to its novella length.
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Bridge → read → length
It’s not Toibin’s best work.
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It → ’ → ?
The book can be graphic in its erotic descriptions, but also frustratingly coy when you want more details about its characters and their motivations.
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you → want → characters
When Farah’s husband is discovered to have cheated on her, Farah’s closest mates (Stella, Molly, Viv, Gab) rally round, but nothing says healing potential as much as an impromptu girls’ trip – an eight-day holiday in Mykonos.
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nothing → discover → Mykonos
It was decades ago that the forty-something group had last visited the Greek island, and they’re looking forward to reliving their careless, debauched 20s.
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they → visit → 20s
In among the endless sweet cocktails, fake tans and beach parties, the quintet relax, bitch, get drunk, pop pills, fight and reassess their lives.
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quintet → relax → lives
Zoë Foster Blake pays particular attention to perimenopausal Stella, who has lost her groove after long enduring the mental load of carrying the household.
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who → pay → household
But what exactly does she want, and is her long-term husband aligned with her desires?
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husband → want → desires
Group Chat is a relatable book for any woman, or at least any middle-aged, middle-class woman who has ever pondered the merits of adventure over security.
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who → ponder → security
The World Beneath Her Feet by Holly Ringland (HarperCollins, $35)
Thirty-eight-year-old Maggie Byrd works at the Natural History Museum in London.
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Byrd → work → London
Her dream life of fossils and opals is matched with her contentment in hanging out with her best friend, Harriet, and her boyfriend, Joe.
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life → match → friend
But when she inherits her uncle Neil’s property in Topaz Valley, south-east Queensland – a wild pocket teeming with native vegetation and fauna – she has to return home to reclaim it.
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she → inherit → it
The trip back means a resurfacing of traumatic memories that necessitated her departure years ago.
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that → mean → departure
The World Beneath Her Feet is a character-driven novel that’s written with the same level of empathy and scrupulous plotting that made Holly Ringland’s earlier novels (The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding) so successful.
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novels → drive → Wilding
Except for the surprising last chapter, the narrative is split into two: Maggie as a rather tentative adult in 2018, and her firebrand adolescent self at 15 in 1995.
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narrative → split → 1995
Aside from her deft touch in conjuring up the beauty of the natural world, Ringland is particularly good at detailing teen angst and confusion as Maggie grapples with love and loss with her besties, Gemma and Adam.
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Maggie → conjure → besties
But what if medicalising these substances isn’t the way to go?
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medicalising → medicalise → substances
…and 36 more, not listed.
The Aporia
