Among the young audience is Eoin McGlynn, a Year 12 student at Wakatipu High School. Eoin loves reading and writing short fiction and poetry and is excited to be volunteering this weekend alongside his mum Kendall: "From the moment I heard about the Queenstown Writers Festival, I was filled with anticipation. An event with the sole purpose of creating a forum for local creatives to share their work and learn from others in the field is such a wonderful idea." Helping the siblings navigate queerness, multiracial identity, and the tendency of their love interests to flee, is the Vladisavljevic family: Maori-Russian-Catalonian, and as passionate as they are eccentric.

Literature is a hard game. It’s hard to write, it’s hard to get published. What keeps you going as a writer?

Featured Reviews

But this, too, is a banal debate. I’m critiquing context and writers deserve more close reading and aesthetic analysis. But if they weren’t so concerned with policing the moral integrity of their peers—and reviewers—then this discussion would be completely moot, not just cliché. A big fat slice of joyful queer family life, peppered with messy breakups, bad dates and terrible decisions. You’re gonna fall in love with the warm, witty and utterly idiosyncratic Greta & Valdin Alice Slater With its beautiful prose and authentic frankness about the issues faced by today’s youth, Greta and Valdin is a must-read, and I’m sure Rebecca K Reilly’s future releases are awaited with bated breath. Reilly makes modern romance exciting and compelling in a way that reminded me of Sally Rooney. . . . Greta and Valdin is an amusing and vivacious romantic drama led by two hilarious and engaging queer main characters, and I don't think you could ask for much more from a novel in 2021.'—Josie Shapiro, ReadClose

Valdin is in love with his ex-boyfriend Xabi, who left the country because he thought he was making Valdin sad. Greta is in love with fellow English tutor Holly, who appears to be using her for admin support. But perhaps all is not lost. Valdin is coming to realize that he might not be so unlovable, and Greta, that she might be worth more than the papers she can mark.It's easy for a book to be funny, but hard for it to be funny and passionate and stylish and insightful. Greta & Valdin nails it. It introduces the reader delightfully to its world, which resembles an international convention of fabulous cranks; it trusts us to see the beauty in them, and it rewards our trust. They should invent a lesbian Wes Anderson so that she can film it." —Isaac Fellman, author of Dead Collections

Some would argue the novel requires a more adept suspension of disbelief—it’s somewhat utopian, so my critiques based in a material reality are moot—but Greta and Valdin’s world is unfortunately very real, I live in it, surrounded by bohemian layabouts, queer relatives working in media; the friends of mine who do have jobs don’t have ones I would describe as sensible or normal.

Messy and Relatable: A Review of Greta & Valdin

An absolute delight. . . a gloriously picaresque celebration of messy, complicated love." —Emma Hughes, author of It’s Complicated Greta and Valdin follows the titular siblings, Greta and Valdin Vladisavljevic (yes I did misspell that many times even with the book open beside me) as they navigate social and personal issues which are all too relatable for the audience in a world deeply familiar to New Zealand readers. Just like Greta, I “know someone who has an art exhibition coming up,” dislike the employees at Unity Books, and frequent Xi’an Food Bar

The book follows the lives and loves of Greta and Valdin, alternating chapters between them as they try to navigate aforementioned crushes, and pining, but also worrying about their careers, and their relationships with other members of their family. To be honest, I didn't think I particularly liked either of them in the opening chapters but by the end I was cheering them both on as they try to find the stability, groundedness, and love that they both need to be happy. These are much more serious moral transgressions than disagreeing with a critic engaging in un-PC ad hominem – ie, last year’s case of Nicholas Reid’s poorly thought-out gripe with essa may ranapiri I laughed, I cried, I cheered with Greta and Valdin. This is a novel that tastes like life Margaux Vialleron Greta and Valdin is a complete world. I was totally captivated. It is warm and funny, inventive and charming, with a genuine and earned tenderness at its heart.' —Kate Duignan, author of The New Ships and Breakwater THIS BOOK IS INCREDIBLE! I can't remember the last time I read something that was so genuinely and uniquely funny. Thank YOU for sending this wonderful book my way. I look forward to talking about it with everyone I know!Everything reads and sounds the same…You’ll never read a story about a pro-lifer or someone unvaccinated”