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Aster's Next, Good Thing
Things have changed in Aster’s life, and she’s really not okay. Her dad is the one person who has always been there for her, but now Aster feels like she’s being pushed out—like the space that used to be hers is getting smaller and smaller. The good, right things – she did them because she was scared of not being seen, of being left, but they don’t work anymore. Instead of waiting for someone else to do the leaving—like her mum did—Aster decides she’ll be the one to make that change. Overwhelmed, she makes a decision that could have awful ramifications for two families, not just hers. Facing up to what she’s done is hard—but doing the right thing is very different to doing the easy thing. Change can be scary and family life can be tough. But as Aster discovers, the very thing you fear may actually be the gift that brings love and light into your world …
- GenresYoung Adult
192 pages, Paperback
Published June 4, 2025
About the author
Kate Gordon
31 books132 followersKate Gordon grew up in a small town by the sea in Tasmania. She is the author of numerous award-winning picture-books and novels for younger readers, including Aster’s Good, Right Things, published by Yellow Brick Books in November, 2020, which won the CBCA Book of the Year for younger readers in 2021, and was shortlisted in the Tasmanian Literary Awards in 2022. The companion novels, Xavier in the Meantime and Indigo in the Storm were published in 2021 and 2023. Whalesong was published by Yellow Brick Books in 2022, following Kate’s residency at the Maritime Museum of Tasmania. Kate continues to write novels and picture books from a cottage overlooking the river and the mountain on the Eastern Shore of Hobart. She has two daughters, an elderly cat and a very silly labradoodle.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 12, 2025
WARNING: Emotional, rambling 'review' follows...
This is the final book in the Aster's World series - the fifth and final story of one of the most heart-breaking, heart-warming and soul-touching series I have ever read. If I had these books when I was eleven, they would have changed my life. And now at 28, they have not only changed my life, my perspective, my outlook and my heart - they have made me even more confident than I already was of the ability children's literature has to touch us, connect us, and SEE us.
Mental health, friendship, becoming who you are meant to be - and knowing it is OKAY to be who you are - these are the themes that run through the series and through this final book, 'Aster's Next, Good Thing.'
I just loved it. Reading snug in bed at 12:47am, my eyes almost closing, but desperate to read the last thirty pages (my heart was THUDDING in my THROAT in the last few chapters as the tension built. 'Oh no, oh no, please don't let something bad happen!' I said aloud when I reached THAT page. That spare, one sentence-only page. No spoilers from me, you'll have to read it.)
Kate has, with this book, like with its four preceding sister books, tapped into an emotional well that lives inside her - and lives inside me. And lives inside so many of us. Aster's Next, Good Thing shows that though change can be scary, life can be scary, and sometimes our own thoughts the scariest thing at all, hope lies within reach - if we just light up the lamps in our life to help guide the way. Friends are lamps in life and family is lamps in life. This beautiful, incandescent story comes to a close and knowing this is the end made the book even more of a bittersweet read for me. I cried reading this. Three times.
It packs a wallop - a good wallop, a needed wallop. Emotion is good - it is healthy - and Aster helps us all see that.
I am a reader all my life. And Kate Gordon knows just how to touch her readers - her words are ripples in a pond, reaching far and wide, further than Kate can possibly see where they end. They end with us, the readers. Because when you read Aster's Next, Good Thing, you shall feel those ripples and be touched by them.
Aster's Next, Good Thing demands time to think and contemplate when you close the final page. It's not only brilliantly written, and full of expressive imagery and literary beauty, it is a true healing balm. You'll need to take in the scope of the story, of what Aster goes through, and you cannot help but, when you close the book, think about how your own life might parallel with Aster's world. Or, if not parallels your own, it gives you the empathetic insight into a life of a person you will be better off for having read about.
Thank you to Kate, thank you to Riveted Press, thank you for writing and publishing this book. Thank you for publishing the whole series - the Aster series has changed my heart, opened it up, and made a difference.
Read Aster's Next, Good Thing - and you too will feel the impact. Feel the difference.
Good stories teaches us and entertains us. They bring hope and light. They make us feel understood, they make us feel not so alone.
Aster's Next, Good Thing is a good story.
A good, right story. x
I can't recommend this book enough.
This is the final book in the Aster's World series - the fifth and final story of one of the most heart-breaking, heart-warming and soul-touching series I have ever read. If I had these books when I was eleven, they would have changed my life. And now at 28, they have not only changed my life, my perspective, my outlook and my heart - they have made me even more confident than I already was of the ability children's literature has to touch us, connect us, and SEE us.
Mental health, friendship, becoming who you are meant to be - and knowing it is OKAY to be who you are - these are the themes that run through the series and through this final book, 'Aster's Next, Good Thing.'
I just loved it. Reading snug in bed at 12:47am, my eyes almost closing, but desperate to read the last thirty pages (my heart was THUDDING in my THROAT in the last few chapters as the tension built. 'Oh no, oh no, please don't let something bad happen!' I said aloud when I reached THAT page. That spare, one sentence-only page. No spoilers from me, you'll have to read it.)
Kate has, with this book, like with its four preceding sister books, tapped into an emotional well that lives inside her - and lives inside me. And lives inside so many of us. Aster's Next, Good Thing shows that though change can be scary, life can be scary, and sometimes our own thoughts the scariest thing at all, hope lies within reach - if we just light up the lamps in our life to help guide the way. Friends are lamps in life and family is lamps in life. This beautiful, incandescent story comes to a close and knowing this is the end made the book even more of a bittersweet read for me. I cried reading this. Three times.
It packs a wallop - a good wallop, a needed wallop. Emotion is good - it is healthy - and Aster helps us all see that.
I am a reader all my life. And Kate Gordon knows just how to touch her readers - her words are ripples in a pond, reaching far and wide, further than Kate can possibly see where they end. They end with us, the readers. Because when you read Aster's Next, Good Thing, you shall feel those ripples and be touched by them.
Aster's Next, Good Thing demands time to think and contemplate when you close the final page. It's not only brilliantly written, and full of expressive imagery and literary beauty, it is a true healing balm. You'll need to take in the scope of the story, of what Aster goes through, and you cannot help but, when you close the book, think about how your own life might parallel with Aster's world. Or, if not parallels your own, it gives you the empathetic insight into a life of a person you will be better off for having read about.
Thank you to Kate, thank you to Riveted Press, thank you for writing and publishing this book. Thank you for publishing the whole series - the Aster series has changed my heart, opened it up, and made a difference.
Read Aster's Next, Good Thing - and you too will feel the impact. Feel the difference.
Good stories teaches us and entertains us. They bring hope and light. They make us feel understood, they make us feel not so alone.
Aster's Next, Good Thing is a good story.
A good, right story. x
I can't recommend this book enough.
March 1, 2026
I spent my time reading this book in a state of confusion, because it felt like I should know the characters and yet, this is the first book in the series... isn't it?
I did some research on completion and eventually found out that this is the FIFTH book in the series and the first book (Aster's Right Good Thing ) is the one which must set up a lot of what is going on! Duh!!
To be fair, you COULD read this book first - it still hit home hard in the most powerful way that a good book does. But now I am obsessed with reading the others, although I see Indigo in the Storm is out of print. Hmmmmfff....
Aster's world feels like it is falling apart. Her dad has found a girlfriend and Aster feels like she is increasingly on the outer. Her good, right things (which she is compelled to do to stop people leaving her) are not working like they used to, so instead of waiting for people to leave her, she decides she is going to leave first.
This is a beautifully written, front row seat, insight into someone suffering from OCD. It is gentle and sad and hopeful all at once. I am fascinated with Aster's friend Xavier and will be looking out Xavier in the Meantime next!
I did some research on completion and eventually found out that this is the FIFTH book in the series and the first book (Aster's Right Good Thing ) is the one which must set up a lot of what is going on! Duh!!
To be fair, you COULD read this book first - it still hit home hard in the most powerful way that a good book does. But now I am obsessed with reading the others, although I see Indigo in the Storm is out of print. Hmmmmfff....
Aster's world feels like it is falling apart. Her dad has found a girlfriend and Aster feels like she is increasingly on the outer. Her good, right things (which she is compelled to do to stop people leaving her) are not working like they used to, so instead of waiting for people to leave her, she decides she is going to leave first.
This is a beautifully written, front row seat, insight into someone suffering from OCD. It is gentle and sad and hopeful all at once. I am fascinated with Aster's friend Xavier and will be looking out Xavier in the Meantime next!
July 13, 2025
I was delighted to discover the fifth book in Kate Gordon’s series of companion novels centring around Aster and her friends. Yet another delightful, deep and well written tale around family, friendship and compassion.
October 10, 2025
Love a good book that can make you cry!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews