Goodwood
“The kind of big-hearted, emotionally bruising story that reminds you why you love fiction. . . Goodwood is many things: a satisfying and conscientiously constructed mystery, an affectionate but clear-eyed portrait of a time and a place, and a darkly lovely coming of age story. But most of all, it’s a complete revelation, the conjuring up of a sad, beautiful, indelible little world of its own.” – THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
“It has been a while since I lost a weekend to a debut novel. . . There is so much to enjoy about this book; my tip is that it will become a firm book club favourite. ★★★★★” – GOOD READINGS MAGAZINE
“So finely observed. . . with laconic wit. . . a nuanced portrayal of hidden truths in tight knit communities.★★★★☆ ” – BOOKS & PUBLISHING
“Goddamn brilliant. This funny-sad mystery about growing up, missing persons and dark truths about your neighbourhood will gently, gorgeously demolish you.” – BENJAMIN LAW
“Goodwood is gripping, moving, often funny and written with a sure ear for Australian country-town vernacular. Very good.” – MARK COLVIN
“Stunning. . . a distinctly Australian coming-of-age story. . . balancing carefully evoked dread with genuine warmth, it’s an assured and singular debut.” – THE BIG ISSUE
“Lyrical without being abstruse, colloquial without being contrived. Her characters, while familiar, are nuanced and authentic, and her depiction of small-town life is bang-on in both its endearing and suffocating ways. . . the close-knit cast of characters, the power of gossip as currency, even small details. . . all ring remarkably true.” – READINGS MONTHLY
“A little bit Twin Peaks and a little bit Picnic and Hanging Rock, Goodwood is a terrific, thoroughly Australian novel. . . [Throsby] proves she has yet another string to her extraordinary creative bow” – WOMEN’S WEEKLY
“[Goodwood’s] quiet dreamy pace is undercut by a dark sense of foreboding… strong and captivating. . . the tale’s country setting [is] so vividly brought to life” – VOGUE
“Throsby proves herself as a deft hand at literary prose as the world she builds around her teenage narrator in this book is so vivid it can occasionally feel more like fact than fiction. . . Goodwood is wonderfully lush and well-realised. . . The intrigue slowly builds to the point where the urge to learn the truth about the disappearances becomes overwhelming. The ending does not disappoint.” – THE AUSTRALIAN
“A lyrical, rolling ballad of a small country town hit with a one/two punch of grief and a one/two punch of burgeoning sexuality for the story’s narrator, seventeen year old, Jean Brown. The characters are rich and myriad, from family and friends, neighbours, shopkeepers and barflies. All are beautifully realised. . . Refrain and reprise are used brilliantly in a composition that’s rich in rhythm with a melodic tone conceived from a keen imagination, an observant eye and a fine ear for idiom and the colloquial.” – SYDNEY ARTS GUIDE
“The portrait of small town life is given a deep richness by Throsby, in this her first novel, presenting a very readable, enjoyable, quirky, slightly wry look at the many, many characters you will find in any town, on any given day, pretty much anywhere in the world, let alone Goodwood, somewhere in Australia.” – BLUE WOLF REVIEWS
“Even as Throsby ratchets up the fear factor, she writes with an observant, gentle humour, displaying an awareness and affection for tiny-town idiosyncrasies. Despite the dark undertow, Goodwood is feel-good fiction.” – QANTAS MAGAZINE
“The small town of Goodwood is rocked when two locals disappear in this chilling, evocative and buzzed-about debut.” – WHO WEEKLY
“Goodwood is a sharp, well written and charming novel. . . Although the book can be dark in nature. . . there is a multitude of colour underlying the paragraphs.” – THE AU REVIEW
“So much truth, so much aching and pain by humour. What a wonderful book. I can see the Australian novelist continuum from Patrick White and Thea Astley in her explicit representation of the character of Australians in regional towns. Others have compared Throsby with Tim Winton. I hope she is writing another book.” – LINDY MORRISON in LOUD MOUTH
“The town of Goodwood is so well-created that it almost becomes a character. The townsfolk. . . become a kind of single organism, with the distinctive neuroses, a particular vernacular, and the way the town collectively navigates between the un-ease caused by the missing people and the familiarity and domesticity of their daily lives. . . The shock of those events is a catalyst here for deeper explorations of what lurks below the surface and how we create meaning in our lives in this tender, rich, and deeply enjoyable book.” – COMPULSIVE READER
“[Goodwood is] very, very readable. I devoured it in a couple of sittings…thoughtful and authentic. . . these portraits were outstandingly done. Top reading indeed.” – FAIR DINKUM CRIME
“The first half of Throsby’s book promises a delayed sort of coming of age story about the ties we share amongst the people living amongst us, the inescapable interconnectivity of small townships and the way a death or vanishing sends ripples through a community. But it is equally an insight into the personal goings-on and formative queries of protagonist Jean, who must process the central mystery while also calibrating her sense of reality and emerging bisexuality. . . If you put Goodwood side-by-side with some of the more obvious choices of queer youth canon, it offers an alternative to the masculinist narratives that have dominated Australian queer fiction.” – KILL YOUR DARLINGS
“I don’t usually recommend fiction but I have just read Holly Throsby’s Goodwood and it is simply the best, gentlest, most amusing description of life in an Australian country town. . . It is subtle, witty, wise. . . Where, too often, satire and sarcasm are the usual tools employed to describe rural life, Throsby employs extraordinary perceptiveness and an attention to detail which evokes a country town in all its complexity – its closeness, the familiarity of the locals, the quirkiness of daily rituals and the essential goodness and decency of the people.” – BRUCE ELDER in a mail out from AUSSIE TOWNS