“The one thing I do recall most vividly from my reading of the manuscript is the sophistication of your prose. It remains as or more true of the completed book. The language is sublime. It romps along with ease and a deceptively casual poetic quality which permeates the text without ever bogging it down. You know how to keep it simple and direct when it needs to be and yet there is plenty of well-crafted ornamentation for a lover of purple prose like me. I won’t quote phrases at you. There were few pages where I didn’t think at some point, ooh, nice.
The overall arc of the story is strong. Not surprisingly. Your grasp of structure is entirely evident – not in a contrived, obvious way. Andy’s artlessness flips into a suitably dark and dangerous journey of obsession and degradation. I did love that culmination in him trying to wrest meaning and connection from a transactional encounter in a St Kilda side street. I also liked the restraint with which you kept the babysitter just hovering in the corner of our eye….” Stephen Mitchell, Hanging Rock, Victoria, 2019.