Fireweather: Shortlisted for the 2026 Stella Prize

by Miranda Darling

A continuation of the acclaimed novel Thunderhead, Fireweather follows Winona Dalloway as she struggles to come to terms with the unrecognizable world around her.

Life for Winona Dalloway is not as it should be. Her husband is no longer her husband, her children are not at home with her, and the city in which she lives is besieged by fires. Black ash falls like snow, songbirds screech like dinosaurs, and the doctors are calling her mad …

In this looking-glass world, Winona is forced to prove she is a sane, rational human being. As the pronouncements of the professionals grow more insistent, so too do the voices crowding inside Winona's head. She seeks solace in the company of plants and animals, and begins to imagine an entirely other way of being ― one that might make whole her broken heart.

Genres: Fiction, Australia, Literary Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

Published May 12, 2026

About the author

Miranda Darling began her career as a fashion model in Paris and London, then went on to read English and Modern Languages at Oxford University. She travelled widely to countries such as Russia, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Namibia and Indonesia before returning to Australia to complete a Masters in Strategic Studies and Defence. She analysed new security threats for a think tank, where she published widely in newspapers and journals. She retains an interest in international intrigue and now writes full-time.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

It all began with the bird.
It all began with the fire.
It all began with the plant.
It all began when they started running away.
Also, this is a love story.

I read Fireweather by Miranda Darling straight after Thunderhead, which made for such an interesting contrast. Thunderhead was big and sweeping, while Fireweather is so much quieter and contained, but in a way that makes it even more unnerving. It’s the kind of story that creeps up on you, slipping into the small, everyday details of suburban life until you realise how much darkness is pulsing beneath the surface.

What I loved is that Darling doesn’t sensationalise any of it, she lets the quiet dread do the work, and that’s what makes it so effective. It’s one of those books that stays with you, making you glance twice at what “perfect” looks like and question what might really be going on behind closed doors.

Darling’s writing is so precise and layered, it almost sneaks up on you, and before I knew it I was completely pulled into this unsettling, thought provoking little world. It’s the kind of book you read slowly, letting the details prick at you, whereas Thunderhead had me racing through. I loved reading them back to back, they balanced each other out perfectly.

Both books lingered with me long after I turned the last page, in that way very few books manage to do.

I Highly Recommend.

Thank you Scribe Publications for my early readers copy of Fireweather.

Available Now!

4.5

[Suz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book for many reasons, however what threw me was the mixed-up feelings I had when I began to allow my busy—impossible to stay in the moment—brain to jump ahead, figuring out my star rating while I was reading the book.

Oscillating around the two star mark, I found myself reacting as Winona’s internal monologue and completely mixed-up brain was calling out in distress. Her utter and clearly deserved desperation grabbed me, desperately needing a reader’s understanding. She then morphed this confusion into empathy.

This is one of those stories that tricks you into a feeling of meandering about without clear direction, but as you stick close by it, alongside it, the reward pays off in kind for your patience and understanding.

Because, just like Winona, the story deserves a little bit of kindness to fully appreciate the depth of meaning and introspection to really understand what transpires.

While her ex-husband uses his trickery, gaslighting and predatory behaviour (all in equal measure) to gain full custody of the children, we watch as she uses all manner of friends (imaginary?) to help her push through and find love to fight for her boys.

I did hold onto the less literary portions here, where the story was more literal than not, yet I really did love watching her claw her way out of possibly descending into the parts of mental ill health that the father of her children was trying to prove that she was—when she was not.

Deftly managed writing in scenes involving police probing for perceived wrongdoings, where silence was necessary to ensure these were disproved. Inner dialogue was delivered in such a way that this story was conveyed with all manner of threads from all directions, interweaved delicately without tipping the balance into madness for Winona, and for the reader.

A beautiful rendition of an almost madness, with a nuanced glimpse into what it could be for a woman on the brink. This book is big, emotionally resonant and deeply affecting. What a shame I did not read Thunderhead first!

Thank you @scribepub and @mirandadarling13 🩵

[quillnqueer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't know this was a sequel going in, as nothing on the book states it. There's no vibe to the story that gave me any clues to this either. I appreciated that the author wanted to tell a story with emotional depth, but this often devolved into rambling about plants and stuff. I didn't really get it.

[Karyn M · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 / The long violent storm has passed, but the thunder still echoes. A few years on from where we left Winona, she is surviving in the fallout of her escape.

Miranda gives us a sense that Winona is going to come through this next stage. It will not be easy though, just as it was not easy to extricate herself from her house, that her husband would not give up.

We learn he is not good at letting things go, and Winona must be diligent. She has developed her inner voices to guide her survival, and they seem like a good balance to help navigate the years of gaslighting as the case he is building against her sanity continues.

Fireweather is a quieter, less erratic book than Thunderhead, but the mood and sense of oppression is filling the air like the smoke and ash from the fires.

Winona is trying to be the best mother to her boys while treading the thin trail of freedom and sacrifice; she is noticing things, all while trying to go unnoticed herself. These small things and little miracles are helping her keep going.

I really enjoyed Fireweather, the next step in her journey and I hope there is more of Winona’s story yet to come.

Below are a few of my favourites

“ I’m not ready to solidify from my liquid self.”

4 ⭐️ Audiobook read by Abbe Holmes

[Anne Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sequel to “Thunderhead”, “FIREWEATHER” depicts a later period in the life of wife and mother, Winona Dalloway. In “Thunderhead” we saw her trapped in a dysfunctional marriage, the victim of a callous and controlling husband. They are now separated and while she’s permitted limited access to their two children, her husband is contesting this because he claims she suffers mental instability of sufficient severity to make her an unfit mother. The book begins with her undergoing a brain scan to try and determine the cause of the seizures she’s recently been suffering, suggesting that, while he may have precipitated his wife’s condition, the husband’s complaint may be justified.

While it adopts the same stream of consciousness style as “Thunderhead”, again presumably in homage to Virginia Woolf’s novel “Mrs Dalloway,” Winona’s inner world in this iteration is considerably more chaotic. Sharing it with her are several other voices, who she’s christened the Poet, the Nanny, the Archer and Bruce, the latter being a dog, who seems to be real except for his gift of speech. Extreme weather conditions again background the narrative and intensify the sense of uncontrol. Raging bushfires in some unspecified adjacent area fill the air with ash and dust while a scalding wind sears everything in its path, making everyday life an ordeal of nightmare proportions.

Darling writes vividly. Her prose is evocative and disturbing, skilfully reflecting the protagonist’s state of mind. There are passages that are intensely moving, particularly those that sharply delineate the heart-rending emotions of a mother’s love and fear for her children. Relentless inner ruminating however, unsupported by the girding of story or resolution, demands a significant commitment of faith from the reader and I’m not sure that the unrelieved self-absorption of the protagonist’s voice, even extended as it is by imaginary ones, is enough to carry the book’s concept.

[nina.reads.books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miranda Darling’s Thunderhead blew me away with its creativity and unflinching way of approaching the difficult subject of coercive control. It was one of my favourite books of 2024. So, it absolutely pains me to say that Fireweather didn't quite land the way I hoped.

There was some astonishingly beautiful writing but it was hard to align it to a plot. Fireweather was even more fragmentary than Thunderhead. It was a continuation of Winona’s story and yet almost nothing happens. The ending was a beautiful scene but it left so much unsaid and unanswered.

I wanted to absolutely love this like I did Thunderhead but instead I feel mildly unsatisfied. Darling's ability to craft an exquisite sentence is undeniable. The interiority of Winona’s thoughts gave rise to some intimate thinking. But the voices she hears left me with a confused understanding. Are we meant to think that Winona is "crazy" or that she is a traumatised victim being made to feel that way?

Anyway I recommend Miranda Darling as an example of the great literary talent we have in Australia but Fireweather wasn’t my favourite. The writing was still beautiful so I still gave it 3.5 stars (rounded up).

Thanks so much to @scribepub for my #gifted copy.

[beautyandthebookworm_ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fire Weather isn’t my usual genre, but I found myself surprisingly drawn into it. Miranda Darling takes readers deep into the mind of a woman unraveling under the pressures of everyday life, and what I enjoyed most were the voices inside her head; sharp, chaotic, funny, and painfully honest. They gave such a vivid picture of her inner turmoil and made the story feel raw and real.

It’s one of those books that makes you pause and think about how fragile the line can be between holding it all together and completely falling apart. A clever, unsettling, yet strangely relatable read.

[Tonymess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shortlisted for the 2026 Stella Prize & very much a worthy inclusion, one I’d not be peeved if it won.

How a woman can be destroyed by a narcissistic gaslighting partner who seeks custody of the children but told in various voices, inside our protagonist’s head.

“Experimental” (hate that term), fully engaging, tragic but hopeful, a unique voice that speaks to the victims of psychological domestic violence.

[Chanel Chapters]

The writing is stunning, but the main character’s continued passivity frustrated me.

3.75⭐️

[Liz Robson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have no words.

[Kara · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book wasn't for me. It was devastating and lyrical, but I just couldn't understand the writing.

[maxbowerbird · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had some hopes after reading Thunderhead that this book would perhaps bring some level of closure to the story while maintaning the same atmosphere. I found Fireweather did neither of those things, with very little actually happening in the story, and with an increased level of poeticism and inner-world conflict that felt like it pulled away from what was interesting in the first book.

Winona's musings on the more-than-human world, on deep time and human time, her conversations with Bruce (a dog), felt overly philosophical and didn't add to any concrete sense of where her story was going. Where in the first book Winona's inner world was an interesting element in a story with multiple outside pressures, here it felt like she was wandering aimlessly around the neighbourhood to find things to comment on; the fires, a bowerbird, plants in need of rescuing. Much of what Winona has to say is relatable or interesting in some way - I love me some bird facts and thoughts about temporality - but it just had no direction to tie it to a wider story.

There are some things I liked here, but overall I couldn't find anything concrete to hold onto.

[Tracey Kirkland · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heart wrenching follow to her first book, where you are introduced to Winona’s struggle, and bravery. The consequences of that bravery, explored vividly in this book, are so real yet so unbelievable.

[Raz]

I don't know why Goodreads is saying this hasn't been published yet, I definitely bought a copy from a bookshop several weeks ago.

I actually abandoned this 61 pages in but I can't write a review unless I say I've read it, and people need to be warned....it's only 143 pages long so I thought I could grit my teeth and slog through it, but it turns out I don't hate myself that much.

This is the most infuriatingly pretentious narcissistic crap I have come across in a while. Just endlessly flowery descriptions of common everyday things which are intended to show how much our endless victim main character suffers (because she's a Woman, you see). The only meaningful conversations she has with literally anybody in this book are with her own ridiculously pretentious personality fragments (all named things like The Child, The Nanny, etc). Her ex-husband doesn't have a name or any personality outside of being Oppressive Angry Man. Her children don't have names or personalities at all. Almost the only time she ever interacts with any other human being at all is to discuss her medical condition or her custody battles.

She feels a kinship with murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya because just like Anna she too shops for groceries at a supermarket which is a symbol of determination and hope for the future.

This next passage is about making a shadow bunny with your fingers by the way:

"Shadow is both pure and impenetrable surface, and doorway to an alternative self or more radical Other, a being living a separate life, helping - often perhaps haunting - its owner." She then goes on to say that "there are Gateway Elements, and the shadows are one."

I'm sorry but this whole thing is so unnecessary lol

[Tori · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting follow up to Thunderhead as we follow Winnona once more past the ending of her marriage. The writing is beautiful but chaotic in its style. I feel like I was tossed around in an ocean never knowing what way was up but I imagine this as an echo of the characters mindset as she continues to be subjected to the coercive controlling nature of her husband.

[Hannah Trott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a *love* for me like Thunderhead was, but still a great novel. Miranda’s writing is gorgeous.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found 4 grammatical errors in this book, which pulled me out of the story each time and I was already working hard to stay in the story due to the experimental structure of the writing! The exploration of the inner workings of the main character was interesting and I appreciated the air of hope at the end following the awful experiences she went through with the ex husband. I was compelled enough to see it through but this wasn’t a favourite. 3.5 stars

[Amanda Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kaleidoscopic.

[Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

The longest shortest book I’ve ever read, which is to say it was short but it took me a long time to get through. I enjoyed the previous book by this author because it was unusual and had a sense of impending doom in the run up to the dinner party. But this was just unusual and dense, with lots of floaty philosophical thoughts that didn’t land with me.

[Shyuan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Right, if I had known this was a sequel to Thunderhead, I probably would not have borrowed it in the first place. I spent a lot of this book feeling confused, and I do wonder whether reading the first instalment would have helped.

The writing is lyrical, but at times it became so abstract that I struggled to follow what was actually happening. Whenever I thought I had found the thread of the story, it would drift elsewhere again. What I did manage to grasp was the story of a woman, Winona, who has already divorced her abusive husband, yet still finds herself tormented by him. He continues to paint her as hysterical and unfit to care for her children, which adds another layer of cruelty to what she is already enduring. I did appreciate the emotional side of her fight to get her children back, and that part of the book carried the most weight for me.

However, there were long sections where characters would suddenly go into facts about plants, birds, and nature. While some of it was interesting on its own, it did not always blend naturally into the plot. There were also many passages of inner monologue about surviving an abuser or stalker, such as not shouting for help but shouting fire instead, not reacting emotionally to communication, staying silent, hiding, and demanding nothing from the abuser. I could see what the author was trying to do, but it sometimes felt more like advice woven into the text than part of the story itself.

By the end, I was left feeling quite sad. Winona seemed so passive and trapped, as though there was little she could do except carry on surviving. It was bleak, and not in a way that felt especially rewarding for me as a reader.

I did not read the first book, so perhaps I missed some important context. Maybe this was meant to be a comforting or empowering read for women who have experienced abusive relationships, especially those who have lost confidence in themselves as mothers. If that was the intention, I can respect it. But for me, it was difficult to connect with the plot, and overall it was a hard book to fully get into.

[shareen khan [vacation : semi-ia] ☼ᨒ⁀જ✈︎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

❀ fireweather ؛✩°｡🧸𓏲⋆.🧺𖦹 ₊˚༊
──★ ˙🍓⋆.˚!!rate: 3.25 ★★★✩✩ /5 stars

〢"i surrendered to a force far greater than him, or hospitals; i surrendered utterly and completely to love. real love. i surrendered to the utter vulnerability that comes with it. nothing has been the same since."૮꒰ ˶• ༝ •˶꒱ა

🪼⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ what is fireweather about? after a brain scan, a looming divorce, and a city blanketed by bushfire smoke, winona dalloway finds herself fighting to hold onto her children while those around her increasingly question her sanity.

|| ˚˖𓍢ִ໋🦢˚ i'll admit upfront that i haven't read thunderhead, the novella that precedes fireweather, so i'm sure that affected my experience to some degree.

˚˖𓍢🌷✧ᯓpraise:˚.🎀⋆ what worked best for me was winona's voice. told in first person, the novel drops you directly into her thoughts, anxieties, observations, and spiralling inner world. miranda darling writes beautifully, and there were plenty of passages that made me pause and reread them. the bushfire backdrop and the conversations between winona and the various voices in her head created an atmosphere that felt both unsettling and intimate.

| "we’re just going to stress your brain..."('okay.; how will that be different???')

⋆˚꩜｡ that being said, i sometimes felt like i was joining a conversation mid-sentence. while i loved many of the book’s ideas, some of the philosophical tangents made me a bit apathetic—i suppose a novella has its limits. you can only say so much, which can drain the imagery that usually draws readers in.

𝜗𝜚 ࣪˖ ִ𐙚 still, it's a very quick read, and one i moved through with ease. fireweather is less interested in plot than in exploring grief, motherhood, mental health, and survival from the inside out.

⬩➤ date read: 8th june, 2026.

[Caitlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think my original Mrs Dalloway review is more appropriate here unfortunately.

“I floated in this state of delicious anticipation - the Italian phrase for it is dolce attesa, the ‘sweet waiting’.”

“Books are safety net and portal all at once, a reliable source of wonderment in a world out of control.”

“Our resurrection is birthed on the field of our demise.”

“The audacity thrilled me, a stolen key, a burglar bird - possibilities yet unexplored were begging, begging, to be set in motion.”

“The nurse asks if I’m ok. I nod. *I’m not okay, but there’s nothing you or anyone else can do about it. I thank you for asking.*”

Facts (unexpected)
🦆 Birds can probably see the earths magnetic fields (helping with migration) and also ultraviolet light
🍌 Bananas are blue under black light
💧 The Topography of Tears by Rose-Lynn Fisher - “trapped between slides of glass, the photographs had revealed each tear to be made up of unique crystals, like snowflakes or quartz deposits - an emotional topography that blew my mind and yet made perfect sense. The photographs had completely enchanted me and haunt me yet.” “The true miracle is that the salty residue formed by the tears takes on wildly different shapes according to the kind of tear that is shed; their topography depends on why we are crying.” 😢🤯 The Museum of Lace and Fashion did a collab - Tears & Lace. Turning the teary patterns into dresses 😍
☠️ “In Victorian times, when people in mourning stored their tears in bottles, the period of mourning was over when all the tears had evaporated.” (Actually apocryphal but a romantic notion)
🪦 Damnatio memoriae
🧬 There is quite literally a wanderlust / nomad gene - DRD4-7R

Words

Ineluctable - ‘unable to be resisted or avoided; inescapable’

Rapprochement - ‘(especially in international affairs) an establishment or resumption of harmonious relations’

Sehnsucht - ‘yearning; wistful longing’

Zerrissenheit - ‘a German noun referring to a state of inner conflict, fragmentation, or intense mental turmoil. Often described as "torn-to-pieces-hood," it represents the feeling of being pulled in different directions, or a lack of unity within oneself or a group. It captures the, sometimes, "shattering" feeling of being disconnected or overwhelmed’

[_booksagsm · Rating 3 out of 5]

(ARC courtesy of Scribe Publications | Releasing on May 12, 2026)

A big thank you to Scribe Publications for sending me an advance copy of Fireweather by Miranda Darling. This novel is the sequel to Thunderhead and continues the story of Winona Dalloway, a woman trying to rebuild her life after leaving a controlling marriage. The story is quiet yet deeply unsettling, showing how Winona’s ex-husband tries to prove her unfit as a mother while she struggles with her own sense of stability and strength.

What makes Fireweather unique is its stream-of-consciousness style, where readers are drawn directly into Winona’s mind. Her thoughts are scattered and raw, shared through different inner voices that reflect her confusion, humour, and pain. The writing is poetic, layered, and emotionally powerful, with Darling using the harsh Australian landscape and bushfires to mirror Winona’s turmoil. It’s a story about survival and mental strength told in a deeply personal, almost fragile way.

However, Fireweather is not an easy read. The fragmented structure and emotional intensity can feel overwhelming, and the story doesn’t offer simple resolutions. Still, it’s a brave and moving look at trauma, motherhood, and resilience. Trigger warnings: domestic abuse, coercive control, and mental health struggles. Fireweather lingers long after the final page—quietly powerful and beautifully written.

[Janine · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest, when I got to the end of this novella I felt a surge of relief that I don't have to live inside this woman's head any more. Fireweather is a follow-up to Miranda Darling's earlier novella Thunderhead, and it deals with the same characters, some months further down the track. By now, our main protagonist Winona Dalloway has left Him (her husband). She has found a new place to live, and is now battling over custody rights with her ex-husband who is trying to use Winona's mental health as grounds to deny access to their sons. It's high stakes for Winona.

Is this book really necessary? I wonder. I don't know what sense you would make of it if you hadn't read Thunderhead. I see that it has been short-listed for the Stella Prize, and I wonder if it's an (unsuccessful) attempt at a 'second bite of the cherry'? I think that its sequel nature would make it difficult to win, and I think that Thunderhead was the better, and more clever book. The issue of coercive control is important, but it becomes lost and almost pathologized in the noise in Winona's head.

For my complete review, please visit:
https://residentjudge.com/2026/05/30/...

[Kristine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stream of consciousness stories are always difficult to read and this one adds in the complexity of an ex-wife struggling from psychological abuse and overwhelm while she teeters on the brink of mental health collapse. Despite the challenges of reading disjointed ramblings, the story is surprisingly powerful and relatable. The homage to Virginia Wolfe is obvious, as are the references to feminist writers and literary troubled women, along with a scattering of other literary references ranging from James Joyce to poets. In fact, it almost becomes a game to 'spot the literary allusion'. I liked the authors use of humour and the absurd, as well as revealing the ongoing psychological abuse by the husband as incidental thoughts hidden amongst the myriad of other disturbing and overwhelming thoughts. I really didn't like the liberal use of pseudo-philosophy which didn't 'gel' with Winonas' chaotic, but intelligent, thought processes together with the four other competing internal voices. It was hard to read (the audiobook version was the only way I could make sense of the torrent of words), but parts of it rang with a startling clarity. It was only after I finished the book that I realised that I kept thinking about it and the themes of abuse, trauma and mental health. I was tempted to rate it as a 2, but there were parts that merited a 4, so in the end I settled on a 3 as my overall rating.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. A very good, absorbing novella about Winona Dalloway. The book is written as internal dialogues by Winona. Winona is divorced and has two children, however custody is being strongly contested. The children are with the husband. He has accused Winona of being mentally unfit to be a mother. Winona is forced to prove she is a sane, rational human being. The story is told solely from Winona’s perspective with few clues to just how reliable a narrator she is. She relates how the husband at the time, lashed out at Winona during the couples counseling session, with the lady counselor believing Winona to be sane. The husband, not happy with the counselor’s opinion, engaged a male counselor.

A very thought provoking, bleak read. Highly recommended. This novella follows on from Miranda Darling’s first novella, ‘Thunderehead’, published in 2024, which follows the day in the life of Winona Dalloway and her restrictive, very domestic marriage.

This book was first published in 2025 and longlisted for the 2026 Stella Prize.

[Natasha (jouljet) · Rating 3 out of 5]

When gaslighting is the theme of an abusive relationship and you start to question your health, your mental health, your ability to parent, and function.

The next phase of Winona Dalloway's spiralling life, post-divorce. She is without her children, and has been destroyed in important ways by her ex-husband. He has reinforced her health issues to the point she is questioning everything, especially herself.

Her life is shattered, and she is reeling. She is fragmenting, her self talk develops persona, chastising and guiding her through different issues and moments.

Not as impactful for me as the first, but unsettling and maddening. A lens to the dismantling of self a toxic and dangerous relationship can deliver.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just loved Thunderhead, the first book the best in the Winona series. Darling’s voice is so distinctive, her eye for the beauty in the everyday is incredible. I couldn’t put down vol 1 as we went on the journey with Winona on the day and she decides to leave her hideous husband.
I struggled with Fireweather, the follow up. Same evocative writing, but two years on from her divorce, bearing witness to Winona’s ongoing punishment and trauma at the hands of this manipulative arsehole was too much for me. Kudos to Darling for representing but warning this book is bleak.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this, the continuation of the novel Thunderhead, Winona Dalloway is living a different life. She is no longer married, but still very much controlled by her ex husband. Her children are no longer at home with her, and the world around her is under threat as the east coast of Australia burns.
Told again through a stream of consciousness we are party to the day to day life of a woman on the brink as she is visited by other characters and navigates her life.
I believe the author is writing book three which I eagerly await albeit with some trepidation as to Winona's fate.

[Jessie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book pretty miserable to get through honestly... it was more bizarre than the first one, and I thought the different 'characters' of the mind were very cringe and made it read like a poorly written screenplay. There were some good bits (the ending) and some interesting things worth thinking about (stealing something that isn't being cared for.. women being labelled crazy vs. women who are crazy vs. women who go crazy by being labelled crazy...) but overall I just didn't enjoy the book, found it hard to get into, and wanted it to be over as soon as I had started it.