IkaLiterary (by which I mean books that are doing something out-of-the-box and contributing to something beyond their own genre) standouts of the year, part 1:
S J Norman <i>Permafrost</i>
Eerie, interlinked, very queer ghost stories: a reinscription of the European ghost/fairy tradition on Indigenous terms. Subtle writing which goes on working in you long after the book has finished, and packs a hefty political punch.
Nat Ogle <i>In The Seeing Hands of Others</i>
Extraordinary, unnerving, chilling, unpredictable book which walked around my expectations in many ways. Brilliant thinking-through of empathy via an account of sexual assault which never excuses or valorises the perpetrator.
Claire Vaye Watkins, <i>I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness</i>: a literal vagina dentata and a Kathy-Ackeresque feminist trip. Put this on your “motherhood” reading lists.