Iluka

by Cassie Stroud

'Knife sharp perception ... fiction that is an absolute pleasure to read,' Emily Maguire, author
This vivid, engrossing, beautifully crafted family drama from an exciting debut author charts the hurtful messes, complicated relationships and profound loves of three siblings.


After their grandfather's death, siblings Helen, Sylvie and Brendan, and Helen's daughter, film student Tig, are gathered together at Iluka, a typical fibro beach house in a small town on the south coast. Iluka is the house they grew up in when their troubled mother ran away to the bright lights of the city, leaving their grandparents to raise them.

As they slowly clear the house for sale and relive various memories, they find a bundle of letters addressed to each of them from their missing mother, Marguerite, that were sent long after they'd been told she died.

Their world shifts on its axis, as the siblings begin to question everything they have been told. Why did their grandmother hide these letters? Was their grandfather complicit? And could the mother they thought they had lost still be alive?

Viewed through the unsparing eye of Tig's camera, we watch a family first implode then reform around a new reality, a reality that brings with it profound change in the way they view themselves and each other.

Genres: Fiction, Family, Audiobook, Book Club, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Australia

336 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 1, 2026

About the author

Cassie Stroud is a writer, editor and fiction scout. She has worked as a bookseller at Brays Books, WellRead and Collins Booksellers.

Cassie lives in a 1950s house on Sydney’s north shore with her husband, son and their Siamese cat. Iluka is her first novel.

Reviews

[Phrynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this debut book by Aussie author Cassie Stroud. Set on the coast of NSW this is a family drama involving four generations. Grandfather, Paddy, has died and his family gather to clear the house out. Grandchildren Helen, Sylvie and Brendan who were raised in the house by their grandparents bring family with them, in particular Helen's daughter, Tegan. Two important people are not there - Iris the grandmother who has died and Marguerite, the sibling's mother.

Discoveries are made as the cleaning occurs to the background of stress that will occur when a group like this is brought together under one roof. The major issue which disrupts everything involves the truth about Marguerite, the missing mother. I really enjoyed the drama as the author presented chapters from different points of view and it became clear why each character acted the way they did.

My only problem is that I was enjoying the book so much that when it suddenly changed in the last part to using the POVs of Iris and Marguerite I felt lost. The purpose of course was to go back in time and let those characters explain themselves and bring the story to an end but it did not fully work for me. I think if the ending had been handled differently this would have been a five star book for me. As it is - four stars and I will certainly read another book by this author.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5*

Siblings Helen, Sylvie and Brendan arrive at their childhood home, Iluka, a beach cottage on NSW's south coast, in the wake of the death of their grandfather, Patrick. Over several days, they'll carry out the sad process of clearing the house, while reaching a decision as to whether to retain the idyllically-located property or sell.

In the course of sorting paperwork, the siblings come across a cache of letters kept by their late grandmother, Iris. The contents throw into chaos everything that Helen, Sylvie and Brendan had believed about their upbringing. They'd long been told by their grandparents that their mother, Marguerite, had abandoned them as children to Iris and Patrick's care, and that she'd subsequently died. However, the letters indicate that, not only did Marguerite continue writing to Iris long after they'd been told she was gone, begging for the opportunity to connect with her children, but that she may still be alive.

Each of the siblings bears different scars as a result of their childhood circumstances, and thus the revelation that their mother may still be alive and hadn't in fact given them up to enjoy an unfettered bohemian lifestyle, affects them in different ways. Helen, the eldest, remembers most about the chaotic life the children experienced while living in Sydney with Marguerite, and suffers a significant emotional breakdown in the wake of the news. Sylvie is the child who, on the surface at least, most resembles their mother in character, and has lived her life wary of making deep emotional connections. Brendan was only a toddler when they last saw Marguerite, and has internalised feelings of abandonment and a yearning for family connection. Complicating matters is the presence of several others at Iluka as the siblings try to come to terms with their discovery: Helen's 18-year-old daughter Tegan (Tig), who's undertaking a candid film project for her university course; Sylvie's French partner Léa, who arrives to provide emotional support, despite Sylvie's entreaties for her to stay away; and Brendan's new wife Nicole and her 5-year-old twin daughters, there to enjoy a seaside break, rather than to contribute to the hard graft of clearing the place out.

Iluka is a beguiling read, exploring the dynamics of family relationships, the varying recollection and effects of childhood events within the same family, and the ways in which trauma can be carried through to the next generation's sense of self and own approaches to parenthood. The coastal setting is evocative, and the fictional Beecham Head is recognisable as any one of many such small communities dotted around the Australian coast.

While I didn't identify particularly with any one of the three main protagonists, I did appreciate debut author Cassie Stroud's ability to convey the emotional turmoil each of the characters were experiencing, both before and after the revelations concerning their mother. The cast of supporting characters were deftly created to play their own roles in the development of themes over the course of the book, particularly the observant Tig and her newly made friend, local indigenous boy Dominic.

I'd recommend Iluka to readers who enjoy twisty family dramas, emotionally-charged character dynamics and quintessentially Australian settings.

My thanks to the author, Cassie Stroud, publisher Harlequin Australia, HQ (Fiction, Non Fiction, YA) & MIRA and NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review this title. Also a shout-out to artist Jon Doran, whose stunning painting Morning Swimmer 6 features on the cover.

[Jaclyn]

Things I love:
*Debut Australian novels
*Sibling dynamics
*Houses as characters (think The Past by Tessa Hadley, The Turner House by Angela Flournoy, The Dutch House by Ann Patchett)
*Compressed timeframes (one week in this case)
*Family secrets being revealed
*Beautiful prose
Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, big tick. Cassie Stroud knows fiction and I’m delighted by how beautifully she writes it herself. I’m really looking forward to talking to @bri.e.lee about this book on News & Reviews.

[Mel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m clearly in the minority here; I’ve totally missed what others have lauded, especially in the quality of the writing: the curious character traits; the inconsequential, laboured details, and; the underdeveloped (pivotal) moments - or blatant gaps - that could have given the story some emotional depth.
I did not find the story, characterisations or ideas to be explored in a compelling manner. The dynamics and tensions between the family seemed forced or overly dramatic and I found the representation of Tegan’s filmmaking to be a bit cringeworthy.

[Gloria (Ms. G's Bookshelf) · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️4 Stars⭐️
Iluka by Cassie Stroud is an incredible debut and a wonderfully powerful and gripping family drama.

The story centres around siblings Helen, Sylvie and Brendan and Helen’s daughter Tig who travel to Beecham Point on the coast of NSW to clear out their grandparents home, Iluka. The old beach house brings out their childhood memories and living there with their grandparents.

When they discover old letters from their mother it brings about confusion and a whole lot of pain, is their mother still alive?

The characters were so life like and believable, I was so intrigued with the dysfunctional family dynamics and the tension held between them all. Each character fascinated me!

I liked how the book was divided into different sections and different narrators.

Overall an absorbing and moving story with a fabulous Aussie setting that made me feel I was near that beach, smelling the sea salt, hearing the waves and walking the floorboards of the home. The writing is expertly crafted, has lots of depth and good pacing.

I wanted more at the end.

Highly recommend this debut and I am looking forward to the next book Cassie writes.

Publication Date 28 January 2025
Publisher HQ Fiction AU

I read this as part of the HQ Insiders team, thank you so much Harlequin Australia for my copy of the book.

[Michele (michelethebookdragon) · Rating 5 out of 5]

How is this a debut? We really do have some incredible writers here in Australia because this was such an incredible story.

Iluka is the house that Helen, Sylvie and Brendan grew up in. Not with their parents, but with their grandparents, Iris and Paddy. After being abandoned by their mother Marguerite when Brendan was a baby, they grew up in the idyllic seaside town of Beecham Point.

While they are cleaning out the house after Paddy's death their world is turned upside down and inside out when they discover letters to each of them from their mother dated well after they had thought her to be deceased.

With all of them carrying scars from their childhood, this revelation is devastating. Is their mother still alive?

The writing was so good. I got the feeling of Iluka and I could hear the ocean from the sunroom window, feel the creak in the floorboards, hear the gravel crunching on the driveway. I could sense the tension between these siblings that had long felt abandoned by their mother, then cheated of the chance of having a relationship with her.

There was such a range of emotions within these pages and the characters came to life so easily and quickly. Helen, the eldest, who remembers too much, Sylvie who is detached and stoic and Brendan who can only rely on what he has been told.

Another incredible debut by an Australian author. This story would translate to the screen so well and I would love to see that happen.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this family drama. Stroud gets the sibling relationship! This was her debut, so I'll definitely be watching out for what comes next.

[Kris McCracken · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kept waiting for “Iluka” to settle into something. It never really does. It drifts. The set-up is strong enough. A fibro beach house, a dead grandfather, siblings circling old wounds, then the discovery of letters from a mother who wasn’t meant to be alive. Memory gets unsettled, loyalties shift, the past starts leaking into the present. On paper, that’s a proper engine. In practice, it idles.

What works, at least for a while, is the space. The coastal setting lands with clarity, salt and dust and that particular Australian quiet that isn’t peaceful so much as loaded. More interesting still is the house itself. Iluka becomes a kind of pressure chamber, each room thick with inherited lies, every conversation echoing with what’s been deliberately left unsaid.

But the deeper you go, the more it feels like the book is withholding rather than revealing. The multi-perspective structure promises, but it keeps snapping back to the same sibling dynamic, which is solid enough, bickering, bruised, intermittently tender, yet rarely deepened. The detours into Marguerite and Iris should widen the frame. Instead, they feel like the scaffolding of a bigger, better novel that never arrives.

The real problem, though, is conceptual. If you’re going to build a family saga around absence, around men who’ve shaped the emotional landscape by what they’ve done or failed to do, then you actually have to write them. Here, the male characters are barely there. Not enigmatic. Not elusive. Just thin. It leaves a strange vacuum at the centre of the book, especially with Paddy hovering as an implied presence the novel never commits to. If you’re going to gesture at something, sexuality, secrecy, whatever it is, then explore it.

That hesitation shows up elsewhere. The letters from the supposedly dead mother should detonate the narrative. They do, briefly. Then the book steps back from its own questions, leaving things hanging in a way that feels less like ambiguity and more like evasion. The same goes for the time shifts, which fracture momentum without deepening anything. You’re left doing the work the novel should have done.

There are flashes of something sharper. Marguerite’s sections have a rawness that cuts through the fog, a sense of damage. Stroud is also good on motherhood, the improvised, fractured, sometimes catastrophic versions of it, and there’s real bite there. You can see the novel it could have been.

Then it slips again. Characters start to feel like collections of traits rather than people. Sylvie’s arc feels engineered. Side threads about authenticity and eco-morality clutter rather than sharpen. Tig’s constant filming is meant to add a contemporary layer, the camera as witness, as archive, but it mostly comes off as a bit obnoxious, another idea that isn’t pushed far enough to justify itself.

It’s hard not to think of someone like Anne Tyler here. Similar territory, family, memory, the slow grind of ordinary lives. Tyler makes the small stuff feel exact, necessary, quietly devastating. “Iluka” circles that same ground but never quite commits to the hard emotional excavation. It gestures at profundity, then pulls its punches.

There’s a decent novel in here. You can see it in the bones, in the house, in the older generations where the emotional register actually spikes. What you get instead is something more tentative, more familiar, a family saga that keeps hinting at depth it never quite earns. 2.25 stars.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to HQ Insiders for my ARC in return for a review.

Iluka is Cassie Stroud’s debut novel, due for release in February 2026.

The family drama, where 3 siblings are thrown back together after their Grandfather passes away and they have to clean the house out and get it ready to possibly sell or do with however they decide. However, we soon find out that all was never as it seemed and there’s a shift in dynamics for each family member involved & they struggle in their own ways to deal with it.

I did enjoy the novel to a certain degree, but found it dragging along at some points.

I do however look forward to reading Cassie’s future books

[Natalie M · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up for this debut author.

A genuine family saga that is told in such an authentic way I could envisage the issues. Unfortunately, I didn’t connect with the characters as much as I thought I would for the genre. It is not very common for me to say the book could have been longer, but this one would have benefited from more character depth. The three timelines to deliver the three protagonists POVs is where I lost my connection, it was jarring.

Beautiful writing, excellent setting and fantastic potential. I’ll definitely be on the look out for this author’s next book.

[Lisa Fleming · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cassie Stroud’s debut novel is a slice of Australian nostalgia - I felt I’d stepped back into the sounds, scenes and lifestyle of a coastal town and inner Sydney suburbs; eras in which I have my own lived experience.

Iluka highlights what it is for young women to yearn for freedom. Iris chooses to break away from the norms and traditions of her 1960s high society family to marry and move to the coast.
Margaret her daughter begins her quest for freedom with the lure of a boy and the stage, in the early 1980s; a changing, modern era but fundamentally her story is one of escaping family. It’s messy, a story of survival, struggle and loss.

Helen, Sylvie and Brendan,siblings, come together to clean out their deceased great grandma and grandpa’s home, Iluka. Stroud so beautifully reveals their shared experiences, trauma responses, survival mechanisms and hopes, as they navigate this time in their childhood home.

Throw into the mix letters from their absent/ presumed dead mother and emotions erupt. Tegan, Helen’s daughter, with her videos, captures what her family can’t plainly see - she’s family but distant enough to perceive so much. Will she share her candid video with her family? How might it be received, or will she decide it’s too damaging?

Definitely keep reading to the end, which may pose more questions than answers. I feel it masterfully brings threads together to create hope, clarity and opportunities for potential healing.

I’ve got to mention how gorgeous the painting on the dust cover by Jon Doran is; it creates a landscape for the beach cottage and its inhabitants to play out their lives in.

[Craig and Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Debut novelist Cassie Stroud releases her book Iluka out into the book world.
A family drama with mystery, secrets, emotion and everyday issues.
Introducing Iluka a welcoming and enigmatic beach house in a coastal town.
When their grandfather passes, siblings Helen, Sylvie and Brendan and their immediate family members gather there, a place the three grew up.
When their mother Marguerite fled they were raised by their grandparents.
As they begin to clear out the house ready for sale, they find a collection of letters from their mother.
Believing she was dead, the letters state otherwise.
What happened….
Why did their grandmother say Marguerite was dead…..
Is she still alive….
So many secrets and questions, can the siblings get the answers and heal from the past…
A delightful read full of melodrama, family dynamics, sibling rivalry and past history.
A bunch of sympathetic and likeable characters and a good plot written with compassion and honesty.
Enjoyable.

[Helen - Great Reads & Tea Leaves · Rating 3 out of 5]

Iluka is Cassie Stroud’s debut novel, a multi-generational family saga and their grandparents home in a small, classically Australian coastal town. The story follows the family across different time periods, uncovering long-held secrets, fractured relationships, and the emotional fallout of past choices.

Three siblings - Helen, Sylvie, and Brendan - return to their grandparents beach house on the New South Wales coast to settle their late grandfather’s estate. While clearing out the home, they discover a series of letters proving that their mother, whom they believed had died decades ago, was actually alive and writing to them for years. As they work through family secrets and deception, the novel explores inherited trauma and the fragile nature of memory, all captured through the lens of a granddaughter’s film project.

The Australian setting provides a real atmosphere to the novel. The jumping backward and forward between timelines can be a challenge at times, and while the family drama is intense, I didn’t personally connect with the characters.

Still, I do recommend Iluka to readers who enjoy emotionally rich family sagas filled with many emotions and complex dynamics.

[Annette Chidzey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel will form the basis of an upcoming group book club discussion and in many respects it should prove interesting and varied I suspect.

There were intriguing components of this family expose that invited the reader to speculate and continue reading with curiosity and anticipation.
That being said I found it somewhat disconcerting to have the account presented in quite separated time periods - for me it made it hard to fill in the periods in between in terms of what happened to whom and why.

The familial relationships were underpinned with complex attitudes and emotions- starting with the secrecy that resulted in the three siblings not being able to readily reconcile the actions of Iris and Paddy and the deception they maintained regarding their mother, Marguerite, for many years. It was further frustrating that the reasons why such deception continued so long, especially from Paddy’s perspective was not fully explored or explained.

The epilogue also felt rather rushed- a little disappointing in fact- almost as though matters had to be wrapped up in a hurry.

Certainly a 3 rating - maybe even a 3.5.

[Tabetha (tabsbooknook) · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC review : Iluka
2.5 rounded up to 3 stars
Thank you to HQ Insiders (Australia) for sending me an early copy.
After their grandfather passes, 3 siblings return to their childhood home of Iluka where there grew up after their mother dumped them there. While packing up their childhood home, the siblings discover something about their mother and it turns their lives upside down.
Unfortunately this book was just not for me. I can’t quite pinpoint what didn’t work for me, so I’m sure this was just a case of wrong book, wrong time.

[Anna Loder · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a debut!!!!! I could see iluka so clearly, ‘the cottage peering over the bush to the sea’..the setting was so well done! And what a plot..dead grandparents and a house clearing are just the beginning! What a character driven novel..I loved seeing the story playing out through Tig’s uni film assignment..I cannot wait to read whatever Cassie Stroud writes next! I agree with Emily Maguire it ‘is an absolute pleasure to read’

[Arabella Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of…underwhelming? Character development wasn’t really there and loose ends everywhere. Why was Brendan broke after claiming he was the wealthy sibling. Sylvia and Lèa just all of a sudden back together after a week apart, an affair and seemingly no communication. The sibling dynamic was never really addressed or came to any resolution. This was a weird read. I don’t recommend.

[Caroline Poole · Rating 4 out of 5]

The quote about tangled webs created by first being deceived comes to mind, particularly when it’s close family connections that are entwined here.
This novel takes you deep into the family dynamics of Helen, Sylvia and Brendan following the death of their grandfather.
There are different perspectives, opinions and emotions displayed which really makes you consider that each individual has their own unique experience to work through, and so don’t we all.
Great Australian setting, love the beach and small town backdrop, enjoyed the time and narrative changes also.
Thanks HQ Insiders for the advance copy from an exciting debut author.😊

[Linda Quatermass · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set on the south coast of NSW it’s an easy read with comfortable familiar family members dealing with a grandparents death and the host of memories that spring from that. I enjoyed how each family member had a different memory, a different reality to their siblings. A pleasant read about an uncomfortable topic.

[Karan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable audiobook.

[Carolyn Field · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of those books that introduces 17 characters in 34 pages and my small mind explodes! Once I had drawn a family tree and settled into the book I did enjoy it. I was left wanting for further info on Paddy’s life though.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A devastating reminder that families are complicated, grief is all encompassing and the sea heals

[RED. Rangareader · Rating 2 out of 5]

This fell pretty flat for me, unfortunately. There were moments where I was really starting to lean in, but I didn't quite get any emotional connection to any of the characters. It all felt pretty low stakes in the end.. I dont need complete chaos to enjoy a book but this just felt a little underdone.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three siblings grow up living g with their grandparents, thinking their mother passed away when they were young.
After their grandparents pass away they find a bundle of letters their mother wrote to them.
What happens when the truth you thought you knew wasn’t the truth?
Helen Sylvia and Bren work their way through this new reality with Helen’s daughter Tegan filming their interactions for her uni assignment.
How will each sibling deal with this news??

[Emily Salinas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pacing was strange. Didn’t like the start, liked the flashback chapters but then the story just finished…. Felt like a rushed ending with untidy, underbaked character developments.

[Patsy Bourke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had read very positive reviews from this first time author and was pleased to see it displayed in the local library and with the enticing cover was a welcome loan.

The introduction to the main characters was a bit clunky; as was some of the early prose. For example, when describing Sylvie's past lover '..had waist length-hair curtains of black, like silk...' and as a swimmer, some of those descriptions seemed more like a populistic magazine than a novel.

I became more engaged, then Part 1 finished and the POV changed, which did not seem to have the same flow.

Plot plausibility had some limitations when it is found that three adults in their 30's showed no curiosity about their mother (or indeed their father) until discovering information when cleaning out the house in which they were mostly raised by their grandparents.

It was an easy to consume with large, well spaced print - done in almost one session. It will be interesting to see what may follow this debut novel.

[Caitlin Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice, easy different read! Great imagery and emotive settings, split into four parts with five different narratives which was captivating

[Juanita Beck · Rating 4 out of 5]

This debut author served up a family saga with more than the usual drama. Thank you to HQ Insiders for the opportunity to read and review this soon to be published book by Cassie Stroud.

[Camille Booker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Iluka is an atmospheric exploration of generational secrets, perfect for readers who love evocative prose and richly drawn characters with lingering tension.

Having spent most of the summer holidays in various towns along the south coast, I adored the references to the NSW coastal setting, the fibro beach house, the salty air. Through vivid sensory descriptions Cassie fully immerses her readers in this place and, consequently, we become wholly invested in the mystery surrounding the characters and their family trauma.

At the end of summer, before one of those drives back down the coast I thought, perfect opp to start reading this book, so I threw it in my bag. On the way through Nowra we decided to turn off to find this little beach that me and the kids discovered in the national park a couple of weeks before.

We arrived, and imagine my delight when I noticed the sign of the beach right next to it was called Iluka.


Congrats on a stunning debut Cassie. Iluka will stay with me for a long time to come.

[Fiona Brebner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was unsure how to rate this book as I was really enjoying it until the end. It just left me with too many unanswered questions. Such a shame