'The Geography of Friendship' by Sally Piper (UQP)

'The Geography of Friendship' is circular in structure, further echoed in devices including the bush walk which produce an oppressive, claustrophobic world where nature provides no escape. It shows the trials of being a girl and a women in this world of toxic masculinity.

Sally Piper's 'The Geography of Friendship' is a claustrophobic read concerning toxic masculinity and its impacts on women

'She wanted to tell him that a woman's body wasn't a confection though; that women weren't a free for all feast of the eyes with some bits of them looking tastier than others.

She said nothing to her son though. Instead she hurried him along on to the car.

In this she knows she failed him.'

What is unsaid is the greater failure of the mother: to the girls and women a boy or man with this unchecked toxicity would hurt.

The looping, repetitive thoughts of the women across their 20-years-apart-walks build a trap which is mental, physical and geographical. Congratulations Sally on your second book.

The photo is closest I could get to a bush walk in my inner city 'hood!