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Lonely Mouth
From the bestselling author of The Truth About Her comes Lonely Mouth, a delicious, clever, tender and vivid novel about the conflicted way women think about their bodies, their appetites, and themselves in the world.
'Lonely mouth ... It's a Japanese expression. It means, like, you feel like you want to eat something, but you don't know what it is. You're looking for just the right thing. But maybe there is no right thing. Maybe you don't need anything at all.'
Matilda and Lara are half-sisters who share an unreliable mother and a chaotic past. In every other way, though, they are very different from each other. Lara, ten years younger than Matilda, is a model, living and working in Paris—for her, life is expansive, carefree, beautiful. Matilda's life, in contrast, is solitary, contained, ordered. She works in one of Sydney's buzziest restaurants, Bocca, with an unrequited crush on her boss, celebrity chef Colson. If she's careful—and she always is—she can keep everything in its proper place. Hold the balance between hunger and satiation.
But when Lara's father, the long-absent, erratic Angus Dante, comes back into the sisters' lives to make amends for his past misdeeds, Matilda's compartmentalised life goes seriously awry. As everything blows apart, Matilda is forced to come to a reckoning with who she is, and how to satisfy the hunger she wants to deny.
From bestselling author Jacqueline Maley, Lonely Mouth is a tender, vivid and fiercely relatable novel about the conflicted way women think about their bodies, their appetites, and themselves in the world, about the loneliness of girls and women, and the way we believe ourselves to be worthy—or not—of love.
PRAISE FOR LONELY MOUTH
'Maley's writing is exquisite—lyrical, detailed and deeply immersive. Her ability to capture the smallest moments and intricate and character details make the world feel vivid and authentic ... Captivating.' Books+Publishing
'As a novelist, Maley turns her journalist's eye—sharp, steady—on the subcutaneous currents that pulse within women. Daughters, mothers, lovers, helpers, helped. She writes with such tenderness and care, it makes the heart ache, and her characters feel as touchable as skin. I loved this book.' Annabel Crabb
'Tender, acute, searing and funny, I devoured this novel. It's a coming-of-age novel and a Bildungsroman all at once—about the enormous effort of finding yourself when you start with bad odds—being abandoned as a child by your mother under the Big Merino at Goulburn. Maley's characters are so gloriously alive I felt I knew them. A beautifully structured novel about how desire—for food, for love, for meaning—can shape a life, if you can just be whole enough to tap into it.' Anna Funder
'Lonely mouth ... It's a Japanese expression. It means, like, you feel like you want to eat something, but you don't know what it is. You're looking for just the right thing. But maybe there is no right thing. Maybe you don't need anything at all.'
Matilda and Lara are half-sisters who share an unreliable mother and a chaotic past. In every other way, though, they are very different from each other. Lara, ten years younger than Matilda, is a model, living and working in Paris—for her, life is expansive, carefree, beautiful. Matilda's life, in contrast, is solitary, contained, ordered. She works in one of Sydney's buzziest restaurants, Bocca, with an unrequited crush on her boss, celebrity chef Colson. If she's careful—and she always is—she can keep everything in its proper place. Hold the balance between hunger and satiation.
But when Lara's father, the long-absent, erratic Angus Dante, comes back into the sisters' lives to make amends for his past misdeeds, Matilda's compartmentalised life goes seriously awry. As everything blows apart, Matilda is forced to come to a reckoning with who she is, and how to satisfy the hunger she wants to deny.
From bestselling author Jacqueline Maley, Lonely Mouth is a tender, vivid and fiercely relatable novel about the conflicted way women think about their bodies, their appetites, and themselves in the world, about the loneliness of girls and women, and the way we believe ourselves to be worthy—or not—of love.
PRAISE FOR LONELY MOUTH
'Maley's writing is exquisite—lyrical, detailed and deeply immersive. Her ability to capture the smallest moments and intricate and character details make the world feel vivid and authentic ... Captivating.' Books+Publishing
'As a novelist, Maley turns her journalist's eye—sharp, steady—on the subcutaneous currents that pulse within women. Daughters, mothers, lovers, helpers, helped. She writes with such tenderness and care, it makes the heart ache, and her characters feel as touchable as skin. I loved this book.' Annabel Crabb
'Tender, acute, searing and funny, I devoured this novel. It's a coming-of-age novel and a Bildungsroman all at once—about the enormous effort of finding yourself when you start with bad odds—being abandoned as a child by your mother under the Big Merino at Goulburn. Maley's characters are so gloriously alive I felt I knew them. A beautifully structured novel about how desire—for food, for love, for meaning—can shape a life, if you can just be whole enough to tap into it.' Anna Funder
336 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2025
299 people are currently reading
4883 people want to read
About the author
Jacqueline Maley
3 books86 followersJacqueline Maley is a columnist and senior writer for the Sydney Morning Herald and Age newspapers, where she writes about politics, people and social affairs. She has also worked on staff at The Guardian in London and at The Australian Financial Review, as well as contributing to numerous other publications including Gourmet Traveller and Marie Claire. In 2016 she won the Kennedy Award for Outstanding Columnist. She lives in Sydney with her daughter and partner.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 238 reviews
June 2, 2025
An enthralling yet difficult read. Our MC is bulimic, yet she works at a high end Italian restaurant in Darlinghurst in Sydney. Matilda spent her teenage years in foster care after her mother abandoned her and her ten years younger half sister under a giant sheep in Goulburn when she is 13. So, we are talking about dysfunction of family and many people in Matilda's life.
Hard going to say the least, but the writing was crisp and kept me onside. My second book by Ms Maley, I loved her first book, The Truth About Her, this one grew on me. It helped that it was located close to where I live and where I worked for a few years and her restaurant was most likely based on Beppi's and old Darlinghurst institution where I ate once many years ago.
Four stars, library ebook. Some quotes from the story follow.
'Books, I decided, were humanity’s greatest pro-social endeavour, even more so than good food, which I would come to know at a later stage.' pg 20
'But – and this was the crucial bit – I was part of something. I was not forced to stand outside, on a street, looking through a window. I was not forced to sit alone in an office looking out of a window.
Being at Bocca saved me from having to stand alone, just me, by myself, as the only person making up the whole.' pg 155
Hard going to say the least, but the writing was crisp and kept me onside. My second book by Ms Maley, I loved her first book, The Truth About Her, this one grew on me. It helped that it was located close to where I live and where I worked for a few years and her restaurant was most likely based on Beppi's and old Darlinghurst institution where I ate once many years ago.
Four stars, library ebook. Some quotes from the story follow.
'Books, I decided, were humanity’s greatest pro-social endeavour, even more so than good food, which I would come to know at a later stage.' pg 20
'But – and this was the crucial bit – I was part of something. I was not forced to stand outside, on a street, looking through a window. I was not forced to sit alone in an office looking out of a window.
Being at Bocca saved me from having to stand alone, just me, by myself, as the only person making up the whole.' pg 155
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May 31, 2025A stunning study of the way childhood experiences reverberate.
Matilda is working in the bustling Sydney restaurant scene when her estranged stepfather contacts her as part of his rehabilitation. This brings her unhinged mother and glamorous sister back together, reopening old wounds.
An incredibly nuanced, heartfelt look at complex relationships with family, food and trauma. I was deeply moved by just how respectful and realistic the portrayal of mental illness felt. One I’m still meditating on.
*no star rating as I read for work*
Matilda is working in the bustling Sydney restaurant scene when her estranged stepfather contacts her as part of his rehabilitation. This brings her unhinged mother and glamorous sister back together, reopening old wounds.
An incredibly nuanced, heartfelt look at complex relationships with family, food and trauma. I was deeply moved by just how respectful and realistic the portrayal of mental illness felt. One I’m still meditating on.
*no star rating as I read for work*
May 14, 2025
Lonely Mouth by Jacqueline Maley is a considered and deep exploration of the long-term effects that being abandoned as a child has on a person. There are other aspects of trauma explored, and it probes into mental illness, specifically eating disorders, but at the beginning of all this, the catalyst so to speak, is a mother leaving her children at a service station and both of these girls subsequently being raised in care.
Matilda and Lara are half sisters aged ten years apart. The novel is told, with the exception of the prologue, from the perspective of Matilda, however her closeness with Lara, and the use of texts and emails between the sisters throughout the narrative, give the reader a solid grasp of the adult Lara has become. She is a lot more settled in life than Matilda, who struggles with bulimia and has dependent control issues. She is, to me, also suffering from being the eldest, shouldering the burden of checking on their mother, and feeling responsible for the happiness of her younger sister. She excels within her job, but the environment in which she works is exacerbating her mental illness and is holding her back.
Maley's writing is exquisite, a glorious blend of humour, deep introspection, and philosophising between characters, as well as blunt force where required. I really ached for Matilda, I was so concerned at her downward spiral, desperate for her to stop, just stop, and change direction. Lonely Mouth is a realistic and hopeful story, an ode to the love of literature and the power of books as a comfort and balm for the soul. It's a terrific read. I had a little listen to the audiobook partway through for a couple of hours and recommend that also. Another five-star read.
Thanks to HarperCollins Australia for the review copy.
Matilda and Lara are half sisters aged ten years apart. The novel is told, with the exception of the prologue, from the perspective of Matilda, however her closeness with Lara, and the use of texts and emails between the sisters throughout the narrative, give the reader a solid grasp of the adult Lara has become. She is a lot more settled in life than Matilda, who struggles with bulimia and has dependent control issues. She is, to me, also suffering from being the eldest, shouldering the burden of checking on their mother, and feeling responsible for the happiness of her younger sister. She excels within her job, but the environment in which she works is exacerbating her mental illness and is holding her back.
Maley's writing is exquisite, a glorious blend of humour, deep introspection, and philosophising between characters, as well as blunt force where required. I really ached for Matilda, I was so concerned at her downward spiral, desperate for her to stop, just stop, and change direction. Lonely Mouth is a realistic and hopeful story, an ode to the love of literature and the power of books as a comfort and balm for the soul. It's a terrific read. I had a little listen to the audiobook partway through for a couple of hours and recommend that also. Another five-star read.
Thanks to HarperCollins Australia for the review copy.
May 19, 2025
As a reader, I am, unsurprisingly, asked regularly with curiosity or excitement what my favourite genre is: and with overbearing indecency, I struggle to answer eloquently each and every time. “Hmm, uhh, well, sort of contemporary, I guess? Fiction? But not fantasy. Or romance. Or crime. Just… normal stuff? Daily life?”. This is usually met with further confusion or a polite “Ahh, okay, cool…”, much to my shame.
So, you can imagine the goosebumps and tingles that crept when I, just ten or so pages in, got struck: this is my genre. This one book is THE Nicola genre. There is now a Before and an After of Lonely Mouth, a new trajectory for my taste in books. I was on a flight when I began and, cliché, I felt like I was levitating with the plane.
Lonely Mouth has a cold open which absolutely winded me, and it never ran out of tactical punches to throw. It dealt with deeply heavy topics in a very considered and unglamourised way. I particularly fell in love with the intimate, inner workings (and failings) of the restaurant Matilda worked in, and the diurnal parallel of Matilda’s crumbling personal life.
This review truly is a love letter to a book that has helped me to find and define my favourite genre: warm, Australian nostalgia. Healing and hurting families. Mistakes, choices, and their never-perfect consequences. The modern balance, trying to do it all, but really just trying to get by. Women just like me.
Thank you to Harper Collins Australia for this gifted review copy.
So, you can imagine the goosebumps and tingles that crept when I, just ten or so pages in, got struck: this is my genre. This one book is THE Nicola genre. There is now a Before and an After of Lonely Mouth, a new trajectory for my taste in books. I was on a flight when I began and, cliché, I felt like I was levitating with the plane.
Lonely Mouth has a cold open which absolutely winded me, and it never ran out of tactical punches to throw. It dealt with deeply heavy topics in a very considered and unglamourised way. I particularly fell in love with the intimate, inner workings (and failings) of the restaurant Matilda worked in, and the diurnal parallel of Matilda’s crumbling personal life.
This review truly is a love letter to a book that has helped me to find and define my favourite genre: warm, Australian nostalgia. Healing and hurting families. Mistakes, choices, and their never-perfect consequences. The modern balance, trying to do it all, but really just trying to get by. Women just like me.
Thank you to Harper Collins Australia for this gifted review copy.
March 29, 2025
Ahhh what a stunning, beautifully written novel. Lonely Mouth follows Matilda and her younger sister Lara, moving between their chaotic childhood and the present - where Matilda works in Sydney’s restaurant scene. Their shared history with their unreliable mother Barbara and stepfather Angus is revealed, and the impact of their upbringing is felt deeply through every part of Matilda’s life.
This book offers such deep insight into how trauma shows up - through control, repression, restriction, and the complicated relationship we have with food, desire, and the body. Maley’s prose is exceptional: thoughtful, precise, and full of life. Her writing lingers, not just in the emotional moments, but in the smallest observations and details.
Matilda is such a well-developed, complex character. Through small, carefully placed pieces of her story, we build such a full and layered understanding of who she is and how she’s trying to cope and survive. Her relationship to food and her body - paired with a constant desire to keep things controlled and suppressed- is both heartbreaking and completely human.
TW - this book explores disordered eating and purging behaviours, as well as childhood sexual assault. These themes are handled with care, not romanticised or neatly resolved, but written with empathy and honesty.
Tender, poignant, and emotionally intelligent. One of the most beautifully written books I’ve read this year.
This book offers such deep insight into how trauma shows up - through control, repression, restriction, and the complicated relationship we have with food, desire, and the body. Maley’s prose is exceptional: thoughtful, precise, and full of life. Her writing lingers, not just in the emotional moments, but in the smallest observations and details.
Matilda is such a well-developed, complex character. Through small, carefully placed pieces of her story, we build such a full and layered understanding of who she is and how she’s trying to cope and survive. Her relationship to food and her body - paired with a constant desire to keep things controlled and suppressed- is both heartbreaking and completely human.
TW - this book explores disordered eating and purging behaviours, as well as childhood sexual assault. These themes are handled with care, not romanticised or neatly resolved, but written with empathy and honesty.
Tender, poignant, and emotionally intelligent. One of the most beautifully written books I’ve read this year.
September 2, 2025
3.8 stars. This is such a hard book to review, because it was so inconsistent in quality. The last third was absolutely amazing - I stayed up late at night completely gripped by the storyline. The complex relationship dynamics between Matilda and Lara were expertly explored, and I really enjoyed the reflections coming from a blended family myself. But the first 2/3rds were structurally chaotic. This book is a classic case of the author being very talented, and the editor doing a terrible job at…editing. I find this often happens after an author has enjoyed a successful debut, which is the case here. There was so much good stuff in here, it had the potential to be an outstanding novel. But the end product had a lot of content that the editor should’ve cut, rearranged, or rewritten. The writing style definitely aligns more with the ‘tell’ rather than ‘show’ format, which I didn’t really like. The hunger metaphor also became quite repetitious (again - where are you editor?). If you’re half way through though, persevere, because the last 1/3 is very rewarding.
August 4, 2025
Stunning. It felt intimate being inside Matilda’s mind. A tender exploration of the ways in which human’s cope in order to keep the simmering, painful memories of the past at bay.
The final lines in the book were worth noting here in my opinion: “if I have a girl, I will tell her to take up all the space in the world that she wants. I will tell her: tear through life like a wolf. Tear through it with your teeth.”
Naturally, as an Aussie, another element I loved was the Australian setting. A flawless read. Highly recommend!
The final lines in the book were worth noting here in my opinion: “if I have a girl, I will tell her to take up all the space in the world that she wants. I will tell her: tear through life like a wolf. Tear through it with your teeth.”
Naturally, as an Aussie, another element I loved was the Australian setting. A flawless read. Highly recommend!
June 21, 2025
Adored this. Kind of like an Australian version of Blue Sisters. I felt like topics of addiction and mental illness were really beautifully dealt with, and the writing gorgeous. Extra points for the Darlinghurst setting.
August 23, 2025
If I wanted to feel bad about my body I would just call my family members instead of spending $35 for the usually free experience of being subjected to trite depictions of disordered eating and fatphobic diatribe
May 7, 2025
My Book of the Year so far. Brilliant.
July 23, 2025
it's been a WHILE since a book gripped me like this. it felt almost designed in a lab specifically for me to enjoy it. i don't necessarily think it would be a 5-star read for everyone, but it was an incredibly easy 5 stars for me.
September 20, 2025
Utterly exceptional storytelling! LONELY MOUTH is an Aussie gem!
I picked this book up because I was curious about the premise, and I was immediately pulled inside Matilda’s world. I didn’t want to stop reading & devoured this story in just a couple of days.
To me, LONELY MOUTH was a book about hunger in several senses. There’s Matilda’s disordered eating and her desire for control of something within her life, alongside a yearning for connection which stems back to childhood abandonment and abuse.
The many childhood traumas live deep within Matilda and the ways they reverberate in her adult life and her complex family relationships are executed beautifully.
LONELY MOUTH made for an absolutely terrific read & I highly recommend it.
Note - There’s a few triggers in the book that may make for difficult reading, so I do suggest you check content warnings if you have concerns.
I picked this book up because I was curious about the premise, and I was immediately pulled inside Matilda’s world. I didn’t want to stop reading & devoured this story in just a couple of days.
To me, LONELY MOUTH was a book about hunger in several senses. There’s Matilda’s disordered eating and her desire for control of something within her life, alongside a yearning for connection which stems back to childhood abandonment and abuse.
The many childhood traumas live deep within Matilda and the ways they reverberate in her adult life and her complex family relationships are executed beautifully.
LONELY MOUTH made for an absolutely terrific read & I highly recommend it.
Note - There’s a few triggers in the book that may make for difficult reading, so I do suggest you check content warnings if you have concerns.
November 17, 2025
Blue sisters meets love and virtue- great read that explores complex family relationships, disordered eating and trauma. Recommend!!
August 27, 2025
If my book club is reading this, just know that I don’t have Sorrow and Bliss-level of opinions on this book, I just thought it was super boring
Read
September 25, 2025Trials and tribulations of family binding and being a girl delivered so earnestly and casually, good read.
May 14, 2025
There was a lot going on in this book but I quite enjoyed it!
July 16, 2025
Good but not great 3.5/5
It kept me entertained but there wasn’t actually much that happened and I like a book with plenty of action vs characters
It kept me entertained but there wasn’t actually much that happened and I like a book with plenty of action vs characters
September 17, 2025
That was a very pleasant surprise. I don’t know how I stumbled across this book but I loved it.
Kept forgetting I was reading a book set in Sydney then suddenly Chatswood or stopping in Glenbrook would pop up and I’d be like wait what.
Loved the relationship between sisters. Loved the whole family dynamic. It was sad without being soppy. A lot of the hard/traumatic themes in the book were very matter of fact without needing to go into great depth which I kind of loved because it’s me to a T. It felt really real having all these awful things happen but just moving on quickly or not going into great depth about them because it wasn’t needed- it just felt like real life.
I also loved that there were no chapters which initially freaked me out… because the limit did not exist for when to stop a reading session hahaha
Kept forgetting I was reading a book set in Sydney then suddenly Chatswood or stopping in Glenbrook would pop up and I’d be like wait what.
Loved the relationship between sisters. Loved the whole family dynamic. It was sad without being soppy. A lot of the hard/traumatic themes in the book were very matter of fact without needing to go into great depth which I kind of loved because it’s me to a T. It felt really real having all these awful things happen but just moving on quickly or not going into great depth about them because it wasn’t needed- it just felt like real life.
I also loved that there were no chapters which initially freaked me out… because the limit did not exist for when to stop a reading session hahaha
October 13, 2025
4.5 stars! Really enjoyed this read and all parts set in Sydney. The characters I also loved and was really immersed in their relations to each other. The plot was good however I felt right at the end it wrapped up a little quick - like the book could have been an extra 50-100 pages. For example, the main characters wasting disorder recovery was very much glossed over and her ongoing romantic relationship left untouched. Otherwise I really liked this book!!
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June 2, 2025I have loved so many books that start with a woman waking up and running away from her life. Those books follow where she goes and what she does next. This book starts in the exact same way but then follows the two children she leaves behind at a petrol station. Maley is an excellent storyteller and she immediately situates the reader in Matilda and Lara’s lives of disordered eating, abandonment issues and loneliness. Familial betrayals accumulate until Matilda is at breaking point and the tension is nicely held.
August 14, 2025
Tw - CSA early on in the book, eating disorders, people who are shit
I had a reading break, busy with life admin and planning and scrolling through a depression. Today I was home sick and I read this hungrily and it was exactly what I needed.
Its so god damn Australian, and its so sad, and occasionally funny. I loved it. I felt seen, so seen in fact, I had to stop to have a smoke break on the balcony (sorry to my landlord xx).
🤌🏽Borrowed from the library 🤌🏽
I had a reading break, busy with life admin and planning and scrolling through a depression. Today I was home sick and I read this hungrily and it was exactly what I needed.
Its so god damn Australian, and its so sad, and occasionally funny. I loved it. I felt seen, so seen in fact, I had to stop to have a smoke break on the balcony (sorry to my landlord xx).
🤌🏽Borrowed from the library 🤌🏽
September 28, 2025
As always, I’m munging for a half star.
This is good! It’s quite painful to read in lots of parts, but I did like it. Do I hate when books give the main character a complete, happy ending? Yes. But I’m okay with this one. Overall, a great book
This is good! It’s quite painful to read in lots of parts, but I did like it. Do I hate when books give the main character a complete, happy ending? Yes. But I’m okay with this one. Overall, a great book
December 21, 2025
I adored this story and the writing. An intense and thoughtful insight into themes of family, trauma and identity.
August 19, 2025
This is an extraordinarily well written Australian novel about 2 half sisters, Matilda and Lara, whose mother abandoned them when Lara was a toddler. Matilda is the main character and the novel deals with their later life and always in the background is Matilda’s relationship with food and obsession. I read every word of this novel and felt completely invested in Matilda and the wide array of peripheral characters. The title itself is evocative. A Japanese expression, literally the desire to eat but the inability to find the perfect food you seek. This is metaphoric of Matilda’s life. The novel deals with heavy subject matter in a deft sensitive, never oppressive way. I loved it.
August 29, 2025
I did not love Jacqueline Maley's second novel, Lonely Mouth. It is a very 'current' novel with the main characters estranged, ever-bickering and confused about their place in the world.
Modern day concerns relating to healthy attitudes to body image, reliance on alcohol and other drugs to provide 'answers' to problems and toxic working environments all make an appearance in the novel.
As my rating indicates, I was not taken with the novel.
Modern day concerns relating to healthy attitudes to body image, reliance on alcohol and other drugs to provide 'answers' to problems and toxic working environments all make an appearance in the novel.
As my rating indicates, I was not taken with the novel.
September 18, 2025
I read this book so quickly because it was very good, but also because it distressed and upset me so much that I needed it to be over. Ultimately I think that is a good thing but I am emotionally distraught now!
July 26, 2025
This was an unexpected 5 ⭐️ for me.
June 3, 2025
A mix of Sweetbitter & The Bear but placed within an Australiana esq. scene - paired with very vivid memories of growing up in Sydney. Loved.
October 3, 2025
This one started out intriguing, then was repetitive and quite boring (with lots of big words I don’t know thrown in) then quickly had a happy ending.
July 14, 2025
Some lovely plotlines explore the inner workings of a fancy Italian restaurant and teenage love in the foster care system. Still, unfortunately, Maley just bit off more than she could chew in three hundred pages.
In her attempt to unpack a woman's childhood trauma, she tries to balance too many characters and flashbacks. We never sit long enough in the kitchen or the dining room. Good writing becomes a structural mess.
Also could have done without all the explicit SMH references...
In her attempt to unpack a woman's childhood trauma, she tries to balance too many characters and flashbacks. We never sit long enough in the kitchen or the dining room. Good writing becomes a structural mess.
Also could have done without all the explicit SMH references...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 238 reviews