Hoods Landing

by Laura Vincent

Rita considered the dead. Shut her eyes. Rolled their names around her brain. Stacked each person in order like folded laundry, warm and crisp from the sun. She wondered how her name would sound amongst them.

In the rural reaches of Auckland, the women of the eclectic Gordon family gather for Christmas. They may push each other’s buttons, but know precisely when to offer tea (or a tipple). Rita, the 50-year-old baby of the family, is planning to tell them she has cancer. Drifting between past and present, she considers the lives of women in their community and reckons with what it all means for her future and her family.

Featuring elderly lesbians, twins who aren’t twins, and several dogs named Roger, Hoods Landing is about shoddy pasts, ambiguous futures and the imperfect bonds that tie family together.

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2025

About the author

Laura Vincent (Ngāti Māhanga, Ngāpuhi) is an author whose work spans fiction, poetry, and food writing. She has written the food blog hungryandfrozen.com since 2007, and, in 2013, her debut cookbook was published by Penguin Random House. Laura’s poetry has appeared in anthologies published by Āporo Press, Auckland University Press, and Muswell Press. Born in Waiuku, Laura currently lives in Tāmaki Makaurau.

Hoods Landing is her first novel, published by Āporo Press.

Reviews

[Kate McLeod · Rating 5 out of 5]

My best friend wrote this book, but even if she hadn’t I would give it 5 stars. When I finished it I wanted to weep that it was over and I’d have to leave the world of these characters! I’m excited to reread it over the holiday period because it’s a perfect summer book.

[Devon Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

How is this a first novel?? it is so carefully crafted and beautifully written. I saved it for my christmas holiday, and it has been such a treat to read.

[lucy black · Rating 4 out of 5]

Family on family on family stacked up like the trifle on the trestle table. This multilayered family saga is a whole little world with its own sayings, cadences and inside jokes. Rita has found out she has cancer and it has got her thinking about her ancestors and her family and how will they react if she dies? She reflects on cancer deaths in her community as she tries to come clean with those who love her.

The story is told from Rita’s point of view but the reader also intimately gets to know her mother and grandmother, her stepmother and her sisters. There are men in the story but they don’t feature much. So many women! And they’re similar but different, they’re all brassy and bolshy, they’re queer in all ways and most of them are all chat.

My mum died of cancer one holiday season, some of the worry and heartache is familiar to me. Rita’s family are very different to mine but also very recognisable, they remind me of family friends and I think most readers will know people like the Gordon’s- annoying, hokey, witty, dorky, slightly mean, insecure, brave, loyal and deeply loving.

This is a brilliant debut, it’s so realised and packaged up, a complete vibe. It’s also the first novel for Āporo Press, so pretty and perfect. I can’t wait to see what Laura Vincent does next and what Āporo Press puts into the world in 2026.

[Rowena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't normally write reviews but this book deserves one. I bought this book on a trip to NZ with my best friend and read it while visiting my parents, sister and nieces for Christmas. It was the perfect setting to read such an incredibly moving book about family and togetherness. I felt all the emotions. I laughed, I cried, I rolled my eyes along with the characters that felt like friends. Thank you for writing this book. It will now be sent on to my mother and my sister to read, it's too good to sit on my shelf!

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful but bittersweet story of love and family. highly recommend

[Ruby · Rating 4 out of 5]

charming and vivacious with characters that leap off the page and sights that blur under your eyelids and smells that start to surround you. the writing is so detailed and evocative, but more than that it’s so grounded in reality that every image can easily be conjured. the perfect balance of whimsical and weird and strange and beautiful and warm; i often felt overwhelmed at times by the chorus of voices because they were all there, blurring into each other the way voices blur together in a room—what an amazing feat of talent to pull off! i loved the inter-looping of past and present, these chapters marked by a death. so clever, so off-kilter in an endearing way. Perfect Xmas book!

[Joan Druett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every American recovering from a Thanksgiving Dinner will relate to this ...

Anyone could've told you with their eyes shut what food they'd eat: Marlon's potato dish, a roast chicken and Bufty's bread, its cosy scent reaching out to greet you; Judy's rice salad; Rita's tabbouleh, flecked with mint and parsley from the garden; splintered wedges of Sissy's spinach and mushroom filo pie; minted new potatoes; sliced cucumbers in white vinegar; tomato wedges, red as the approaching sunset.

This is not America. It is New Zealand in the Spring, not the Fall, and this is Hood's Landing by Laura Vincent, a writer who is creating waves Downunder.

The setting is a festival dinner, arranged and organized by the family matriarch, a ritual that is going to reveal hidden secrets as plates are removed and more food set out on the table. The family is relaxed ... except for one, who is bracing herself to confide her diagnosis of cancer. Thus, while she waits, the idle chat and lazy debates turn into something more meaningful. Gradually, as the story evolves, much is revealed. In Hood's Landing shoddy pasts, ambiguous futures and the imperfect bonds that tie family together come to light, sometimes with shock effect, other times with humor.

There is much about food, which for me was an outstanding feature of the book. Laura Vincent is a very popular food blogger, and the author of a book, Hungry and Frozen, that features most grabbable recipes. (All of them have ingredients translated into the American version, if that helps!) Hood's Landing is her debut novel, and is reaping rave reviews in her home country.

Well worth a read. Laura Vincent loves her words, and casts them at her readers like a shower of rose petals. Enjoy.

[Rosie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book, it was poetic and queer and kiwi. Perfect read for this time of year.

[Ryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

notgood/10