Dark Matters

Reviews

Dark Matters is a transformative tour de force; lyrical as Sappho and revolutionary as Wittig in Les Guérillères.
—Roberta Arnold, Sinister Wisdom

Dark Matters is a meteoroid. When it hits, it will make a different world of you.
—Hayley Singer, Cordite Poetry Review

Susan Hawthorne’s novel [Dark Matters] could be placed on a par with Kafka’s The Trial.
—Kannan Sundaram, publisher Kalachuvadu Publishing (India)

With Dark Matters, Susan Hawthorne has written a remarkable novel that pulls lesbians out of the fissures of marginalization and obscurity to solid ground where lesbian visibility and meaning can emerge.
 —Gariné Roubinian, Rain and Thunder (USA)

Dark Matters reminds me of The Autobiography of Red – surprise detours that sometimes lead you to mysterious places. 
—Estelle Disch, photographer (USA)

there is so much wisdom woven into this book, you can spend weeks teasing out the strands and pondering them....
—Harriet Ann Ellenberger, Founding Editor, Sinister Wisdom

The writing is virtuosic in its adjustments - in turn, meditative, speculative, lyrical, then stuttering in broke-back phrases of pain and sorrow, or, again, falling swift and flamboyant, in meteoric, scintillating image-events.
—Marion Campbell, author (Australia)

I must admit that I am rather protective of my bookshelves, but I simply had to let my colleagues and friends read Dark Matters. This book is alive - as it should be.
—Nina Dragicevic, translator and poet (Slovenia)

Dark Matters is a passionate avowal against the Orwellian future that’s bearing down on the present. It traces historical counterculture through poetry and despair. It is a book of great feeling, mystery and intrigue which seeks out and elegantly deforms the limits traditionally placed on the novel to make it blaze in mythic proportions. Read the full review here.

—Lucy Alexander, Verity La

Hawthorne depicts a lesbian under siege, her personhood, psychic, and personal boundaries all compromised by systems which cannot accept her. Personally, she is attacked by abduction and assault. Societally, she is diminished through prejudice and inequality. The resulting text is something profoundly important. Dark Matters is a war-cry. It is a declaration of personhood and reclamation of identity from the traumas induced by these dark histories. Read the full review here. 

—Mel O’Connor, Mascara Literary Review

Dark Matters is a terrifying, yet beautiful novel by the Australian writer, Susan Hawthorne, published by the feminist and contemporary Spinifex Press, in 2017. It deals with the issues of homophobia, love, family, female heroism and terror.This unique book defies categorisation. It is a work of literary fiction, with a side of horror, crime, and mystery. It is even dystopian at times
.…this book is an amazing and individual way of exploring intense social issues. 
…I admire how she dealt with such horror filled themes that disgusted and engaged me as a reader at the same time. She manages to add some beauty to all this dark matter. It has definitely left me in a different place. My understanding and experiences are expanded and clearer. For this, I highly recommend reading Dark Matters. Read the full review here.

—Madeleine Reid, Other Terrain Journal

Reading this new work by a writer who has devoted her considerable mind and her life to the creation of literature and its championing, turned out to be, despite its dark matter, an exploration of not only the evil but the courage of the human heart. Read the full review here.

—Sue Woolfe, Live Encounters

The beauty of the language of the book provides a necessary distance for facing the horrors about which Hawthorne writes. Given the topic, this book could have been much more depressing, or voyeuristic. Readers are confronted with the "dark matters," but only through words on the page, reminding us that the world we live in is not always benign. Sometimes we need to be reminded of this to avoid glib optimism or the assumption that we are alone if we suffer. Hawthorne's insight and skill keep the story from being overwhelming for most. This is a wonderful book that I heartily recommend. Read the full 5 star review here.

—Marilyn Dell Brady, Me, You and Books Blog

This book is poetically written. Hawthorne is a well-known poet. The subject is men's torture of lesbians, a subject that Hawthorne has bravely pursued for years. Part of the story takes place in Australia, but there are flashbacks to death squads in South America. The protagonist, Kate, tries to sustain herself with poetry and memories of Greece even while she is being tortured. But torture decenters her, as it does everyone who undergoes it. The book's other viewpoint character is her niece Desi, who seeks years later to find out what happened to Kate. This is a beautifully written book, but not for those who have flashbacks.

—Carol Anne Douglas, Amazon.com

I experienced Dark Matters as a kind of deep and swift current that swept me up and carried me along. I am back in calmer waters now, but it has left me in a different place, and with a subtle momentum that was not there before.

—Carolyn Gage, playwright and performer (USA), Carolyn Gage

Susan Hawthorne's stunning novel, Dark Matters, is both a work of art and an exploration of important social issues. The title has a number of meanings that become clear as you read the book. These include the "darkness" of Kate's story and the dark matter of the universe.... Dark Matters is about dreadful, challenging subjects. And though its story is about terror, it is also a story about family, women’s heroism, and love.

—Judith Laura, Medusa Coils

I am asking myself what accounts for the haunting power of Dark Matters, this latest in a long line of books of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction by Susan Hawthorne. One clue may simply be the length of that trail of published work which precedes Dark Matters. No one creates a profound work of art by staying on the surface of life, but it is equally true that no can do it before they’ve taught themselves to be at home in their own language. Each sentence of Susan Hawthorne’s Dark Matters says what it says — and it also says, “my writer knew what she was doing.” To tell more of Dark Matters might be to ruin it for new readers, so I’ll stop here with one last thought: there is so much wisdom woven into this book, you can spend weeks teasing out the strands and pondering them.... Read the full review here.
—Harriet Ann Ellenberger, Founding Editor, Sinister Wisdom, Mago e-magazine

Hawthorne has managed to deal with a horrific topic in a beautiful and poetic manner.
—Beatriz Copello, LOTL

Dark Matters by Susan Hawthorne is a fascinating book, which in a post- modern way, tell stories about women, their lives and their myths. Through diary sequences, poetry and narrative we get to know Kate, Mercedes and Desi…. Hawthorne has managed to deal with a horrific topic in a beautiful and poetic manner. Very skilfully she utilizes short sentences to manage the tension and the drama. Even in the darkest moments there is relief in the profundity of the thoughts, in the poetic narrative, and in the inspirational strength of Kate.  
—Beatriz Copello, Curve Magazine

As a novel, it is deeply poetic, almost in parts a kind of prose poem. Susan has created a tool that can invoke multiplicity and looseness. There is here Voice, story, memory, myth building, myth recovery, invention and certainly deep POLITICS.
—Suzanne Bellamy's speech at launch of Dark Matters, Rochford Street Review

In this wide-ranging book, there is a sense of slowly uncovering. Much is revealed but lots of questions remain - it is not an easy unfolding, but it confidently draws you along. There's a lot going on, but we never get lost. Much of this is because of the style and structure Susan has used. No words are wasted but much is conveyed.
—Coralie McClean (Australia)

Susan's work as a writer, a community builder, an activist and a publisher has never failed to influence my own in such a profound way and her latest novel Dark Matters is no exception. In this important work she brings to light some deep truths about the devaluing, erasure and contempt that lesbians, and especially lesbian feminists, are subjected to.
—Dani Tauni, activist (Australia)

I just read Dark Matters - such a beautiful book - although this does not seem to be the right word because of the subject matter - I couldn't put it down! Very moving, shocking and enlightening. When the launcher said it was written as fragments, I thought it would be scattered but it has a real central core and cohesion and seems so well written. I learnt a lot about all these mythical figures as well. I think that is where a lot of the book's beauty comes from. And the figures in the family histories too. It subverts the horror of the narrative.
—Dr Catherine Lynch