Between the covers: what to read this month

Are you in need of literary balm and distraction?

From August onwards we’ve published 22 book reviews, which means you may have missed an especially interesting title. Here are some notable books to keep you occupied during school holidays, lockdown, and pandemic-fuelled malaise.

Sugar Town Queens, Malla Nunn

Set in South Africa, this is a young adult tale of friendship, familial friction and racial divides. All the tropes of teen fiction are here: relationship dilemmas, romance, and a grappling with identity and one’s place in the world.

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Thuy On is the Reviews and Literary Editor of ArtsHub and an arts journalist, critic and poet who’s written for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, The Australian, The Age/SMH and Australian Book Review. She was the Books Editor of The Big Issue for 8 years and a former Melbourne theatre critic correspondent for The Australian. Her debut, a collection of poetry called Turbulence, came out in 2020 and was released by University of Western Australia Publishing (UWAP). Her second collection, Decadence, was published in July 2022, also by UWAP. Her third book, Essence, will be published in 2025. Threads: @thuy_on123 Instagram: poemsbythuy