Australian author Madeleine Gray returns with her compelling second novel, Chosen Family, a vibrant exploration of unconventional friendship, queer love, and the families we create for ourselves.
A Friendship Forged and Fractured
The narrative pivots around the intense bond between Nell Argall and Eve Bowman, which begins in 2006 during their first year of high school. For Eve, who is gay but has not yet admitted it to herself, Nell becomes a sanctuary from the bullying triggered by her queerness. Gray captures the brutal social dynamics of adolescence with sharp observation, noting “the absolute acid” of pre-teen cruelty.
The story unfolds across a dual timeline, punctuated by two profound betrayals. The first occurs in their youth, where Nell inflicts a deep wound. The second happens in adulthood, after the pair have reconnected and decided to build an unconventional family together, with Eve delivering a hurt that shatters their fragile unit.
Eve's Journey: From Isolation to Queer Family
By 2024, Eve is a single parent raising their daughter, Lake, marked by Nell's absence. Lake inherits Nell's quick wit, and Eve's parenting style—treating her child more as a peer—often puts her at odds with others. Having been victimised for her sexuality, adult Eve wears her queerness as armour, sometimes intimidating even other queer parents.
When first estranged from Nell, Eve finds solace and identity at university, immersing herself in a queer community—a wish-fulfilment escape from her traumatic, isolated teens. Gray uses these scenes to offer a refreshing narrative of queer joy and self-discovery, contrasting common tales of pain.
Complex Characters and Generous Humour
Eve is a richly flawed character. Her pain leads to spontaneous, often poor decisions and a defensive callousness that drives the novel's central conflicts. In the later timeline, consumed by shame over her betrayal, she views herself as a “poisonous medusa jellyfish” who destroyed Nell. This shame adds a compelling layer to her identity as a queer single parent, torn between her devotion to Lake and a conviction of her own monstrousness.
Where Gray's debut, Green Dot, applied a snarkier lens to love and desire, the humour in Chosen Family feels more expansive and generous. It acknowledges human cruelty without being defined by it, allowing the narrative energy to swell with adolescent desire and hurt before deepening into the complex notes of adult joy and grief.
Over an 18-year span, Gray masterfully examines the tipping point between friend and family, asking what we truly owe to the people we claim as our own. Chosen Family is ultimately a powerful ode to best friends, queer loves, and the intricate, savage, tender bonds that form our chosen kin.
Chosen Family by Madeleine Gray is out now in Australia (Simon & Schuster) and will be published in the UK on 29 January 2025 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £20).
