The Bus on Thursday

Bursting with raucous energy, while anchored in seriousness, The Bus on Thursday is an intoxicating horror-humor romp
Barrett's brilliant second novel plummets headlong into a darkly funny tale
Funny, angry, feminist . . . [Barrett is] a masterly world-builder
[Eleanor] is an entertainingly sardonic companion on this blackly humorous journey into horror
This quirky tale is thrillingly original and wildly funny. A slippery narrative keeps you guessing what's really going on with a sharply witty narration
[A] bonkers, rather brilliant comedy . . . Savagely funny, The Bus On Thursday takes the nineteenth-century literary conceit of a woman going mad in the face of repressive social expectations and updates it with brio for the twenty-first century
Shirley Barrett has crafted a quirky, one-of-kind, wild ride of a novel with demons, kangaroos, a missing school teacher, a remote town where things are strangely off-kilter, and wonderfully bizarre cast of characters. The Bus on Thursday is a darkly funny and deeply unsettling novel you'll devour in one sitting
Fast, funny and downright weird, but a great read
A darkly funny story in the company of a riotous, jinxed heroine
Barrett's narrative rushes headlong forward in a crazy and exhilarating rush of emotion and plot . . . I fell head over heels for The Bus On Thursday for its plain bonkers plot
This quirky tale is thrillingly original and wildly funny
Hilarious . . . This witty, wise and rather demented novel occupies a strange, and possibly unique, space between screwball comedy, murder mystery and magical realism
It's a hilarious tale, and Eleanor is the perfect anti-heroine. One to brighten gloomy afternoons
Who would have thought horror-humour would be so fun? It's chilling, but so camp and perfectly paced that it works
It defies convention. I was hooked from the opening pages . . . it's laugh-out-loud horrible and
perfectly nuts - you'll never find anything like it again

This is a sharp, twisted, hilarious treasure of a book. Sort of Twin Peaks meets Bad Teacher that had me laughing, wincing and falling in love with the flawed and flawless narrator
'I was hooked from the opening pages . . . it's laugh-out-loud horrible and perfectly nuts' Guardian

'This is a sharp, twisted, hilarious treasure of a book. Sort of Twin Peaks meets Bad Teacher that had me laughing, wincing and falling in love with the flawed and flawless narrator' Jess Kidd

Eleanor arrives in Talbingo - population 241 - looking for a fresh start. But 241 has recently become 240, because the town's schoolteacher has gone AWOL - presenting Eleanor with a chance to start again.


Escaping a life turned upside down, recovering from a bad break-up and illness, Eleanor thinks Talbingo might offer a regenerative form of solitude. What she finds is a remote cabin with no phone service or wifi and an alarming number of locks on the front door, which someone keeps knocking on late at night.


A disconcerting story of small-town life, The Bus on Thursday is a wicked, weird, wild ride.

'Hilarious . . . This witty, wise and rather demented novel occupies a strange, and possibly unique, space between screwball comedy, murder mystery and magical realism' Wendy Holden, Daily Mail


'Funny, angry, feminist . . . [Barrett is] a masterly world-builder' New York Times Book Review

Shirley Barrett