Series ✦ Penny’s Take
The Landing
Susan Johnson · 2015
72/100
👍 Worth It
Johnson's novel is a warm, witty comedy of manners about a 55-year-old man whose wife leaves him for a woman and who retreats to a lakeside community full of eccentric neighbors — the landscape writing is genuinely lyrical and the ensemble characterization is sharp. LGBTQ themes are central to the premise, which will matter to faith-conservative readers, and the pacing is deliberately unhurried in the literary Australian fiction tradition. For adult readers who enjoy community-of-characters novels with a strong sense of place, this is a pleasing and underappreciated find.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: LGBTQ relationship central to premise — wife leaves husband for a woman. We still scored it 72; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety68
substance70
craft76
originality68
accuracy74
hype68
age-fit65
human-eye74
Penny’s verdict72
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