Red Queen in Aussie Readers

Oct 05, 2012 Brenda rated it it was amazing

Shelves: borrowed-from-library, aussie-authors, australian-thriller

When the highly contagious virus hit the shores of Australia, working its way through the country with a speed that stunned, the people who didn’t die immediately sought refuge wherever they could. They were called the survivors; Rohan and Shannon were two such people. The brothers had lost their parents to the disease, and were fortunate to have a cabin deep in the woods which their father had built for such an emergency.

Day and night they kept watch – they couldn’t trust a soul, knew that if a ...more

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Jul 23, 2010 Mish rated it it was amazing

Shelves: australian-authors, favourite

Thought this book was amazing. I was hooked from the very first chapter. Looking forward to reading Honey Browns latest book "The Good Daughter" ...more

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Jul 26, 2010 Jenny rated it it was ok

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 31, 2014 Kira rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery, aussie-author, library, drama, dystopia

4.5* Shannon and his brother Rohan have survived a killer virus and live hidden away in a remote region of the Australian country side. Their routine and their lives are thrown into chaos and confusion with the arrival of a woman, Denny. At first suspicious and wary of her, she soon changes everything for them. The suspense in the story builds and the reader finds themselves drawn deeper into the story. Uncertainty about Denny (who she is, is she trustworthy, why are they acting the way they do) ...more

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Jul 29, 2010 Graham Clements rated it it was amazing

I decided to read Red Queen, by Australian author H.M. Brown, after reading a review of it in The AGE. The review was positive and said that the novel had won last year’s Aurealis award for best horror novel, but that is not what had me wanting to read it, it was the prospect of reading an apocalyptic novel set in Australia that raised my interest.

The novel is set after a virus has decimated the population. Two brothers, Shannon and Rohan, are hiding from the virus in a very well stocked cabin i I decided to read Red Queen, by Australian author H.M. Brown, after reading a review of it in The AGE. The review was positive and said that the novel had won last year’s Aurealis award for best horror novel, but that is not what had me wanting to read it, it was the prospect of reading an apocalyptic novel set in Australia that raised my interest.

The novel is set after a virus has decimated the population. Two brothers, Shannon and Rohan, are hiding from the virus in a very well stocked cabin in the Australian bush. The story is told from the viewpoint of 23 year-old younger brother, whose life is dominated by his much older brother Rohan.

The brothers have electric power from a water wheel, sheep, chooks and three shipping containers full of plentiful supplies for two people. They are constantly on guard for the arrival of virus carriers and thieves, and always carry rifles. Shannon stays up at night to guard the cabin.

Their monotony of survival is wrecked when Denny, a smart, sexy woman appears. The conflict she creates between the brothers is not the cliché of a sibling rivalry fight over her: it’s more subtle, as she attempts to manipulate the brothers into getting what she wants.

The conflict between Denny and the brothers keeps the tension high throughout the novel. The fact that there is an outside world with a deadly virus that could intervene at any moment is forgotten as the reader tries to figure out what Denny is up to.

I did wonder at it winning the Aurealis for best horror novel. The only real horror element is the virus, which could easily have caused it to be labelled as science fiction, but if it was labelled just as a thriller, it could be mistaken for being a crime novel. It is possibly a hard book for the publisher to pigeon-hole.

Red Queen is one of the best thrillers I have read, due to its constant tension and polished writing. I found myself stopping to marvel at some of the author’s short quick descriptions. I also appreciated the novel’s shortness; it didn’t seem to contain any unnecessary scenes. ...more

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Jan 01, 2014 Lauredhel rated it really liked it

Shelves: australian-women-writers-challenge, australian, postapocalyptic, plague, thriller, aww2014

Not your standard post-apocalyptic/SF: instead, this is a (almost-)closed-room thriller set in an immediately post-plague-outbreak Australian countryside. There are a fair few content notes, for those who need them - this is definitely a confronting read:

(view spoiler)

Not really my usual kind of book, but it qualifies ea ...more

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