The Meteoric Rise of Drax Project

Posted 4:05pm Saturday 24th February 2018

With over two million streams of their single “Woke Up Late,” two EPs, and a gig opening for Ed Sheeran this year, Drax Project are certainly doing well for themselves. It’s a long way from where they began, busking on the streets of Wellington. Drax (an amalgamation of the Read more...

The Virgin Suicides

Posted 1:26pm Sunday 17th September 2017

The Virgin Suicides, written in 1993, is, I suppose, a haunting depiction of the ‘enigma’ that is girl-hood. Set in small town Michigan in the 1970s, the novel is narrated by an anonymous group of boys who obsess over the Lisbon sisters. There are five sisters: 13-year-old Cecilia, Read more...

The Lost Daughter

Posted 12:50pm Sunday 20th August 2017

"Books, once they are written, have no need of their authors."   Nobody knows who Elena Ferrante really is. An Italian writer, she (could be a he, but everyone assumes…) is mainly famous for her coming of age Neapolitan novels. Ferrante has been named one of the 100 Read more...

Bleaker House By Nell Stevens

Posted 1:15pm Sunday 30th July 2017

“I am scared that the life I want to lead, the life of a writer, is inevitably built on loneliness, and I need to know if I can hack it.”   Bleaker House is Nell Steven’s first novel and she hit the nail on the head. The book is messy, unpredictable, and absolutely Read more...

Gilead

Posted 1:30pm Sunday 23rd July 2017

It took longer than I’d expected for me to get into this book. Marilynne Robinson has proven herself a talented, tender and transportive writer in her other novels, and over the years she has received a veritable feast of awards. Published in 2004, Gilead was the winner of the 2005 Read more...

The Panopticon

Posted 1:55pm Sunday 16th July 2017

I studied this book for an English paper last semester and thought it was worth a review. Set in Scotland and with Edinburgh vernacular to match, the Panopticon is a sharp novel that examines the lives of the down and outs, the uncontrollable criminal youths and the doomed-to-fail losers of the Read more...

Milk and Honey

Posted 1:45pm Sunday 2nd April 2017

As nervous as I am to admit it, I disliked milk and honey.  The majority of people to whom I’ve mentioned Rupi Kaur’s first and only book don’t hesitate to immediately vomit their adoration for the poetry and the woman behind it, leaving me feeling awkward and unable to Read more...

Housekeeping

Posted 2:30pm Sunday 19th March 2017

"Having a sister or a friend is like sitting at night in a lighted house. Those outside can watch you if they want, but you need not see them."   Following the lives of Ruthie, the narrator, and her young sister Lucille in the fictional town of Fingerbone, Idaho, Housekeeping by Read more...

The Hell Hole | Issue 3

Posted 3:14pm Sunday 12th March 2017

I was baby-sitting my little sister that afternoon and we decided to go to Discovery World. She loved the giant piano but got pretty bored with everything else so we paid to visit the Butterfly room. There was no one inside. My sister ran off to gawk at the glass boxes containing caterpillars and Read more...

Bad Neighbors 2 — Sorority Rising

Posted 12:19pm Sunday 10th July 2016

Rating: B+ Let’s call this a progressive comedy for a modern age. Neighbors 2, In the spirit of the first film, opens with tubby wubby Mac (Seth Rogen) and his wife Kelly (Rose Byrne) attempting sex as exhausted parents.  The film begins gross, gets grosser, and ends kinda Read more...