On Better Words this week: Genevieve Novak

Writing 'dumb bitch lit' and character-driven novels

Long-time podcast listeners know that we love a character-driven contemporary, and Genevieve Novak dishes up some bloody brilliant ones.

We’re talking (gushing) about her new novel, Crushing, and touching on her process for writing her debut, No Hard Feelings.

Genevieve is based in Melbourne and also writes columns for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald that make men on Twitter very upset.

🎧 Listen to the episode at the link below or search ‘Better Words’ in your podcast player 🎧

Things we talked about

• Why Genevieve calls her books 'dumb bitch lit', and why the main characters of both her novels make kinda infuriating decisions

• How Marnie's past relationships are represented in Crushing and how she needs to rebuild her sense of self outside these men

• Genevieve's writing process and whether the character or plot comes first

• The ugly reality of jealousy in friendships and between siblings

• The overwhelm/strangeness of building modern relationships over text and apps

• How we value ambition and career 'success' and how it's explored in the novel

• Striking the right balance between observations, wit and humour in writing

• Genevieve's journey to publication with her debut, No Hard Feelings

Book club: Janice Hallett's The Appeal and The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels

Before we chat with our featured author, we always share some other recommendations. This week was a book club, with a twist.

Janice Hallett's mystery novels feel truly fresh and unique. They're always in the style of 'found documents', a collection of emails, texts, briefings and other documents.

Both are intriguing and totally gripping novels that you can get swept up in over the course of a few hours. Read more about The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels in Michelle’s review on

The Unfinished Bookshelf

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- Caitlin & Michelle

🎧 Search ‘Better Words’ in your favourite podcast player to get new episodes as soon as they’re live. We’ll be back with another episode next Wednesday! 🎧