2025 Booker Longlist: Endling by Maria Reva
Book number seven for our panel is one of the few debut novels that made the list this year. So what did our panel think of the book?
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Sep 8
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2025 Booker Longlist: The South by Tash Aw
Next up for our panel is Tash Aw’s novel, The South. Four of our panelists read this book and our final panelist is making her way through the book (post will be updated once she had finished). Once again we have some mixed reviews.
Read moreAug 29
2025 Booker Longlist: Flashlight by Susan Choi
Next up for our panel is Susan Choi’s Flashlight. All five panelists read this book and we were pretty split in our reviews. Which reviewer do you side with?
Read moreAug 25
2025 Booker Longlist: One Boat by Jonathan Buckley
Next up for our panel is One Boat by Jonathan Buckley. Four of our panelists finished and reviewed the book, one abandoned it. Here are our reviews.
Read moreAug 22
2025 Booker Longlist: Audition by Katie Kitamura
Our panel’s first longlist nominee is Audition by Katie Kitamura. Four of our panelists read this book, one panelist couldn’t finish it. Here are our panelists’ reviews…
Read moreJun 10
Audition by Katie Kitamura
Life has been hectic so the blog has been slow/dormant for a few months. Despite my silence, I’ve been reading a decent amount and trying to go into Booker season with more books under my belt. Audition has been getting some very mixed reviews and I know quite a few people who hated it and abandoned it. Keep reading for my review. Will this make my prediction list for this year’s Booker longlist?
Read moreBooker shortlist 2024: Held by Anne Michaels
Apologies for rushing through these last three posts but time got away from me and I wanted to post this last one before our predictions post (which I will also post tonigh). Our panel had somewhat mixed reviews for Held. You can read our short reviews here: Held. The novel made it onto 3 of our predictions lists with Nicole, Tracy, and Anita predicting it. The Booker judges had this to say about the book…
‘The first few pages of this brief kaleidoscopic novel from the author of Fugitive Pieces may seem forbidding, yet every member of the judging panel was transported by this book. Michaels, a poet, is utterly uncompromising in her vision and execution. She is writing about war, trauma, science, faith and above all love and human connection; her canvas is a century of busy history, but she connects the fragments of her story through theme and image rather than character and chronology, intense moments surrounded by great gaps of space and time. Appropriately for a novel about consciousness, it seems to alter and expand your state of mind. Reading it is a unique experience.’
What does our panel think of the odds of this book being this year’s winner? Keep reading to find out
Read moreBooker Shortlist 2024: Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood
The verdict was also unanimous on this book: Our whole panel loved it. You can read our short reviews here: Stone Yard Devotional. The Booker judges had this to say about the book…
‘Sometimes a visitor becomes a resident, and a temporary retreat becomes permanent. This happens to the narrator in Stone Yard Devotional – a woman with seemingly solid connections to the world who changes her life and settles into a monastery in rural Australia. Yet no shelter is impermeable. The past, in the form of the returning bones of an old acquaintance, comes knocking at her door; the present, in the forms of a global pandemic and a local plague of mice and rats, demands her attention. The novel thrilled and chilled the judges – it’s a book we can’t wait to put into the hands of readers.’
You can read more about the novel and an author interview on the booker prize website: here.
What does our panel think of the odds of this book being this year’s winner? Keep reading to find out
Read moreBooker 2024 Shortlist: The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
Our panel reviewed the Safekeep (you can read our reviews here) favorably and it made it onto 3 of our predictions lists – Nicole, Tracy, and Lisa called it. The Booker judges had this to say about the book
‘Set in the early 1960s in the Netherlands in an isolated house, The Safekeep draws us into a world as carefully calibrated as a Dutch still-life. Every piece of crockery or silverware is accounted for here. Isa is the protagonist – a withdrawn figure who is safeguarding this inheritance. When her brother brings his new girlfriend Eva into this household the energy field changes as we sense boundaries of possession being crossed, other histories coming into the light. We loved this debut novel for its remarkable inhabitation of obsession. It navigates an emotional landscape of loss and return in an unforgettable way.’
What does our panel think of the odds of this book being this year’s winner? Keep reading to find out
Read moreNov 8
Booker shortlist 2024: Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
Our panel was very mixed on this book and so is the literary community. You can read our short reviews here: Creation Lake. The novel made it onto 2 of our predictions lists (Jen and Lisa correctly predicted it). The Booker judges had this to say about the book…
‘Sadie Smith – not her real name – is an FBI agent turned spy-for-hire, whose latest mission is to infiltrate a commune of eco-activists in rural France. She’s an extraordinary creation: sharp-minded, iron-willed, accustomed to moving fast and breaking things. As she investigates the group, she hacks into emails from their guru, a shadowy eccentric who has withdrawn from modernity into the ancient caves that dot the landscape; he has some beguiling ideas about the role of Neanderthals through history. What’s so electrifying about this novel is the way it knits contemporary politics and power with a deep counter-history of human civilisation. We found the prose thrilling, the ideas exciting, the book as a whole a profound and irresistible page-turner.’
You can read more about the novel and an author interview on the booker prize website: here.
What does our panel think of the odds of this book being this year’s winner? Keep reading to find out
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