{"title":"Laura Elizabeth Woollett","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLaura Elizabeth Woollett\u003c\/strong\u003e crafts compelling narratives that blend gripping tension with emotional depth. Readers can expect richly drawn characters navigating unsettling and often dark circumstances, where the boundaries between trust and danger blur. Her stories traverse the realms of \u003cem\u003ecrime, thriller\u003c\/em\u003e, and psychological drama with a sharp, evocative voice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWoollett’s work often explores themes of resilience and identity, with intimate portrayals that resonate beyond the suspenseful plots. Whether delving into personal struggles or broader societal issues, her novels offer a thought-provoking and immersive reading experience within the spectrum of \u003cem\u003egeneral fiction\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003ememoir-inspired storytelling\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-love-of-a-bad-man-by-laura-elizabeth-woollett-9781925321555","title":"The Love of a Bad Man","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA schoolgirl catches the eye of the future leader of Nazi Germany. An aspiring playwright writes to a convicted serial killer, seeking inspiration. A pair of childhood sweethearts reunite to commit rape and murder. A devoted Mormon wife follows her husband into the wilderness after he declares himself a prophet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe twelve stories in \u003cem\u003eThe Love of a Bad Man\u003c\/em\u003e imagine the lives of real women, all of whom were the lovers, wives, or mistresses of various 'bad' men in history. Beautifully observed, fascinating, and at times horrifying, the stories interrogate power, the nature of obsession, and the lengths some women will go to for the men they love.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46555166179564,"sku":"9781925321555","price":34.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/13540883482873.jpg?v=1750097543"},{"product_id":"west-girls-by-laura-elizabeth-woollett-9781922585905","title":"West Girls","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eI chose the jagged rocks, the broken bones, the spattered brains. I chose beauty. I'd choose it again.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eLuna Lewis is white. But her friends aren't, nor are her brothers, nor her one-time Princess of Indonesia-finalist stepmother. After transforming from pudgy preteen to 'exotic' beauty, Luna reinvents herself as 'Luna Lu' and takes her ticket out of the most isolated city on earth. However, as her international modelling career approaches its expiry date, Luna must grapple with what she's sacrificed—and who she's become—in her mission to conquer the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFeaturing an intersecting cast of glamour-hungry public schoolgirls, WAGs, mining heiresses, backpacker-barmaids, and cosmetic nurses, \u003cem\u003eWest Girls\u003c\/em\u003e examines beauty, race, class divisions, and social mobility in Australia's richest state. It's also a devastating catalogue of the myriad, inventive ways in which women love and hurt one another.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWest Girls\u003c\/em\u003e shows us a sordid, self-regarding, and shiny world of schoolgirls and supermodels, and in any other lesser writer's hands this would be straight parody, but Woollett's extraordinary talent is to make the \"real\" more grotesque than the satire, and to infuse every sentence with her poet's vision and every character with a true melancholy and flawed humanity.\u003cbr\u003e\n- Alice Pung, author of \u003cem\u003eOne Hundred Days\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe beginning teases us with fast-paced, colourful snapshots of culturally diverse characters and scenes—mother-daughter adventures, unconventional family models, teen politics, and preoccupation with appearances. As we read further, however, the story gets more unsettling. \u003cem\u003eWest Girls\u003c\/em\u003e dissects the idea of beauty—Indah, as the protagonist's stepmother's name suggests—at the intersection of power, privilege, and exploitation. Who's exploiting and who's being exploited? Woollett takes the theme of 'becoming' to the darker side; whilst subverting assumptions of fixed identities, she poses uneasy questions around cultural appropriation, racially and sexually structured gaze under capitalism, and disciplined bodies.\u003cbr\u003e\n- Intan Paramaditha, author of \u003cem\u003eThe Wandering\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eApple and Knife\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhat a talent! It's rare indeed to find a book this intelligent and this wickedly addictive. \u003cem\u003eWest Girls\u003c\/em\u003e is dark as a mining magnate's soul, cackle-out-loud funny, and so smart it stings. Ah-mazing!\u003cbr\u003e\n- Emily Bitto, author of \u003cem\u003eWild Abandon\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Strays\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46672637231340,"sku":"9781922585905","price":34.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/14270173482872.jpg?v=1752856123"},{"product_id":"the-newcomer-by-laura-elizabeth-woollett-9781922310231","title":"The Newcomer","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere's no such thing as a perfect victim.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThere's no such thing as a perfect victim.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn a hotel room on a sleepy Pacific island, Judy Novak waits. And worries. It isn't the first time 29-year-old problem child Paulina has kept her mother waiting. But Judy can't ignore the island's jagged cliffs and towering pines - or the dread that Paulina has finally acted on her threats to take her own life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Paulina's body is discovered, Judy's worst fears seem confirmed. Only, Paulina didn't kill herself. She was murdered.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSo begins a thorny investigation, wherein every man on the island is a suspect yet none are as maligned as Paulina—the captivating newcomer known for her hard drinking, disastrous relationships, and habit of walking alone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut, above all, Paulina is her mother's daughter. And death won't stop Judy Novak from fighting for Paulina's life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLaura Elizabeth Woollett has done it again. \u003cem\u003eThe Newcomer\u003c\/em\u003e pulls you in from its eerie opening and drags you along with intriguing characters and beautifully wrought prose. As the mystery deepens, you begin to realise things are never clear-cut, and everybody is guilty of something. A cautionary tale inspired by true events by one of my favourite authors. Read this book now.\u003c\/em\u003e -JP Pomare, author of \u003cem\u003eCall Me Evie\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Newcomer\u003c\/em\u003e is a dark and disturbing novel, speaking to some of the most troubling aspects of contemporary Australian society. As in \u003cem\u003eBeautiful Revolutionary\u003c\/em\u003e, Woollett's prose is delicate and brutal in equal measure, offering an intimate portrait of a small and tight-knit community. With a fast-paced narrative and a complex central character, this is a searing exploration of sexual violence and victimhood, taking forward important conversations within our national psyche.\u003c\/em\u003e -Catherine Noske, author of \u003cem\u003eThe Salt Madonna\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLaura Elizabeth Woollett is my kind of writer - fearless, incisive, and darkly poetic. \u003cem\u003eThe Newcomer\u003c\/em\u003e is by turns tragic, funny, sinister, and completely riveting.\u003c\/em\u003e -David Whish-Wilson, author of \u003cem\u003eShore Leave\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46675481100524,"sku":"9781922310231","price":37.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/11513433482872.jpg?v=1752936407"},{"product_id":"beautiful-revolutionary-by-laura-elizabeth-woollett-9781925713039","title":"Beautiful Revolutionary","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe thrilling new novel, inspired by Jim Jones's Peoples Temple, from the author of \u003cem\u003eThe Love of a Bad Man\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt's the summer of 1968, and Evelyn Lynden is a woman at war with herself. Minister's daughter. Atheist. Independent woman. Frustrated wife. Bitch with a bleeding heart.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFollowing her conscientious-objector husband Lenny to the rural Eden of Evergreen Valley, California, Evelyn wants to be happy with their new life. Yet as the world is rocked by warfare and political assassinations, by racial discrimination and social upheaval, she finds herself disillusioned with Lenny's passive ways - and anxious for a saviour.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEnter the Reverend Jim Jones, the dynamic leader of a revolutionary church called Peoples Temple. As Evelyn grows closer to Jones, her marriage is just the first casualty of his rise to power.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMeticulously researched, elegantly written, and utterly engrossing, \u003cem\u003eBeautiful Revolutionary\u003c\/em\u003e explores the allure of the real-life charismatic leader who would destroy so many. In masterful prose, Woollett painstakingly examines what happens when Evelyn is pulled into Jones's orbit - an orbit it would prove impossible for her to leave.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'Woollett reclaims victims' narratives from sensationalist headlines and re-educates her readers through sharp, expertly crafted fiction.'\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n-Anne Joyce, Irish Times\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'It's a novel that benefits from deep research worn lightly, and from Laura Elizabeth Woollett's sensitivity to the perversity of human character and behaviour.'\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n-The Saturday Age\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'Laura Elizabeth Woollett's \u003cem\u003eBeautiful Revolutionary\u003c\/em\u003e grabs attention from the beginning, not with narrative hooks but with the sheer penetration of its prose. Woollett's debut novel is an imaginative refiguring of the Jonestown massacre story ... A truly exciting writer.'\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n-Ed Wright, Weekend Australian\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47371041702124,"sku":"9781925713039","price":40.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/17455723482873.jpg?v=1773206183"},{"product_id":"hell-days-by-laura-elizabeth-woollett-9781922585929","title":"Hell Days","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen I think of my hell days, I think of crime scenes. Familiar sites, made uncanny with violence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the fluorescent tedium of a call centre in 2018, acclaimed novelist Laura Elizabeth Woollett finds herself meticulously plotting her own death. Until her period arrives, and equilibrium with it. After years of dismissing these monthly turns, she's diagnosed with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). Then, at 33, she falls pregnant and experiences a reprieve - but will it last?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThrough case studies, interviews, extensive medical research, forays into history, true crime, and algorithmic rabbit-holes, Woollett looks beyond herself to assemble a chorus of PMDD sufferers, along with dedicated scientists and clinicians. Navigating the impossible terrain between a potentially fatal disorder and treatments that can be almost as dangerous, \u003cem\u003eHell Days\u003c\/em\u003e is a testament to the precarity and dignity of life as a periodically suicidal person in an often-brutal world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47754346889452,"sku":"9781922585929","price":38.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781922585929-hell-days.jpg?v=1781662525"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/collections\/laura-elizabeth-woollett.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}