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Fiction

Seriously afflicted

An Inner North gay thriller

Our New Gods by Thomas Vowles

by Jonathan Ricketson
August 2025, no. 478

Our New Gods by Thomas Vowles

University of Queensland Press, $34.99 pb, 256 pp

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.

Billing itself as a ‘gay Bildungsroman’, Thomas Vowles’s Our New Gods follows Ash, a young man with a dark past, in his move from rural Western Australia to the ultra-hip enclaves of Melbourne’s Inner North. Ash immerses himself in the city’s queer scene and soon finds himself in a viper’s nest of sexual and emotional entanglements. First up is his new friend James, a rich blond Adonis; James is in an open relationship with the volatile Raf; Raf has a connection with a troubled soul called Booth.

 


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Our New Gods by Thomas Vowles

University of Queensland Press, $34.99 pb, 256 pp

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.


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