Novel Feelings

Two people meet in the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist, undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy. By the end of the story, these things will still be true. But this is not a story about endings. Our December book club discussion is on Al...

Our latest book club discussion is about Freshwater , a semi-autobiographical novel by Nigerian writer, Akwaeke Emezi. We talk about multiplicity and the character's experience with alters, and the role of trauma in its development. We aimed to view the story through the lens that the author intended while acknowledging our Western understanding and training - hopefully we succeeded! Book club inf...

Romance author and academic Dr Jodi McAlister shares her insights on her latest release, an Academic Affair. Meet academic rivals Sadie and Jonah; when a position comes up that Sadie and Jonah are both perfect for, their ongoing enmity explodes into a red-hot competition. We dive into the world of early career academia, rivals to lovers, and sibling and family dynamics. Detailed show notes, and ot...

Recording her dialogues with her psychiatrist, and expanding on each session with her own reflective micro-essays, Baek begins to disentangle the feedback loops, knee-jerk reactions, and harmful behaviors that keep her locked in a cycle of self-abuse. Our July book club discussion is about I Want to Die, But I Want to Eat Ttteokbokki , an intimate therapy memoir by South Korean writer Baek Sehee....

We sit down with Neal Shusterman to discuss his latest Young Adult novel, All Better Now , which speculates on what could happen if there was another pandemic, but this time, of a virus that brings contentment to its recoverees. We have a lot to talk about, including what a happiness virus would really entail, and its impacts on characters with lived experience of mental ill-health - as well as Ne...

Join us for a fascinating interview with Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion, authors of the Menzies Mental Health series – i.e. The Glass House and The Oasis. We have a lot to talk about including the complexity of the Australian mental health care system, balancing technical accuracy and storytelling, and telling the lived experience of healthcare professionals while also prioritising the rights of pe...

Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with six directives to help her “Get a Life". Our May book club discussion is about Get a Life, Chloe Brown , a romance novel that features characters experiencing chronic pain and trauma. We talk about impacts and healing from abusive relationships; the mental toll of ch...

A daring literary account of a young woman’s experience of psychosis by Bengali-Australian writer Sanya Rushdi. This March, our book club discussion features Hospital , which explores the experience of psychosis and subsequent hospitalisation, drawn from the author's real-life experience. We unpack the limitations of the medical model approach towards treatment of mental health issues, shared deci...

Tara Calaby joins us on today's episode to discuss her latest novel, The Spirit Circle : a speculative historical fiction on the intersection of spiritualism and grief. The novel features women who are haunted by grief and come together as a church under the charismatic leadership of a medium. Tara discusses writing cult-ish dynamics in the story, marginalised identities in a historical context, a...

This week, we get on the mic to discuss an unexpected identity crisis: we seem to be growing out of Young Adult (YA) fiction. We try to define what exactly YA is (a tough job!) and what we still love about books in this category, as well as grapple with why we no longer gravitate towards this area in the bookshop. And oh, we took a slight detour into discussing Middle Grade (MG) books as well. Boo...

In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. Join Priscilla and Elise for a book club discussion on Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow 's complex characterisation and video game nostalgia, including an in...

You are invited to join Novel Feelings' 2025 Book Club (a.k.a. season 4!) in collaboration with Amplify Bookstore. Tune in to learn about how the book club will work, to hear about our book club choices, and for a special interview with Marina from Amplify about their mission and history. Amplify is a bookstore dedicated to books by authors who are Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Colour – with...

This week, we're celebrating our 50th podcast episode! Join us for a retrospective into the inception of Novel Feelings, as we celebrate what we've achieved in four years, highlight some of our favourite memories, and revisit some of our best (and worst) books we've covered on the podcast. Plus, you're invited to join our new Facebook community - where we'll be posting announcements, chatting abou...

We were thrilled to sit down with Danielle Binks to talk all about her latest novel, Six Summers of Tash and Leopold: a big, hopeful, coming-of-age middle-grade book that features complicated families and life-changing summers. The novel follows the titular characters as they deal with difficult life transitions and school can't (a.k.a. school refusal). Danielle chats about the therapeutic nature...

In this interview, we welcome author Nina Kenwood back to the show, where we will be discussing her new book - and her first book for adults - The Wedding Forecast . Topics include starting over after a long-term relationship, anxieties around parenthood and aging, and stability versus taking a leap. Content notes for the episode: anxiety and overthinking; situationships; grief over loss of a pare...

Priscilla and Elise sit down with Emma Lord to discuss her debut novel, Anomaly . The novel follows teenager Piper Manning, who wakes up after an apocalyptic pandemic alone - and with an uncontrollable power. We talk about the depiction of grief and PTSD, Piper's isolating experience in the aftermath of a pandemic, Anomaly 's cast of lovable characters, and monsters that get inside your head. Cont...

Author Alice Robinson joins Elise and Priscilla for an insightful interview about her new release, If You Go. The novel follows protagonist Esther, who must piece together a timeline between her past and the highly confusing present. We chat about a non-linear experience of grief, the relationship between feminism and motherhood, and speculate about the future. Find Novel Feelings via: Our website...

Elise and Priscilla chat to author Ariane Beeston on her memoir, Because I'm Not Myself, You See , which traces her experience with motherhood and mental illness. Discussion topics include perinatal and postnatal depression and anxiety, postpartum psychosis, inpatient treatment, and stigma. Find Novel Feelings via: Our website Instagram Twitter Goodreads . Join our 2024 Reading Challenge on The St...

In this episode, Priscilla interviews clinician-author Dr Sarah Sasson about the newly released Tidelines , a tender coming-of-age novel about growing up in the face of unimaginable loss. Tidelines examines the stories we subconsciously write for ourselves, and what remains later, when we have the courage to tear them apart. Discussion topics include substance use, ambiguous grief and loss, and bu...

Nobody said fifth grade was going to be easy, and Penny Lowry has a million questions going through her mind all the time. The Penny Draws series by Sara Shepard follows Penny as she navigates feelings, friendships, and all sorts of changes that life brings her way.  In turns sweet and hilarious, we adored the series, and we were delighted to chat to Sara about how she approaches writing them...

How do you pick up the pieces after life has served you enough trauma for a lifetime? Charlotte, aged 17, is trying to recover in a world that owes her nothing, but has taken so much. In our season 3 finale, we dive into Girl in Pieces ' representations of self-harm, hospitalisation, and unhealthy relationships, and ask the big question: does this book risk doing more harm than good? Spoiler revie...

Life is pretty good for sixteen-year-old Abby.  When new girl Chloe arrives, Abby is pleased to be the one to show her around, to welcome her to the group. But Abby doesn’t imagine Chloe fitting in so well or quite so quickly. And before long Abby is feeling just a little left out, a little unsure of Ella’s friendship. In a moment of anger and confusion she wishes something bad would happen....

Is it possible to hibernate your problems away? Our main character - privileged, vain, and traumatised - chooses to sleep for a year to take a break from her life. In our spiciest review yet, we discuss self-medication, unlikable characters, and one of the worst mental heath professionals we’ve ever encountered in fiction. Spoiler review starts at 41:36 Find Novel Feelings via: Our website Instagr...

When Dale stumbles into a bedroom at a party and sees a drunk girl being undressed by a group of guys, he backs away and runs. He’s pretty drunk himself, but he knows what he saw. Why didn’t he stop them? Why did he run? We speak in-depth with author Robyn Dennison about how she approaches writing a character who struggles with passivity, representations of disordered eating, and her research. NOT...

How do you come back from the depths of your own mind? Neal Shusterman is one of our favourite authors, so it was a no brainer for us to dive into a book he's written about an often stigmatised mental health disorder. Joined by Leah from YA Book Chat, we discuss the experiences of delusions and hallucinations; hospital-based treatments of mental health disorders; and the role of families in recove...