The Decadence by Leon Craig review – queer haunted house tale fails to chill

Privileged university friends retreat to the countryside, in a gothic novel mostly made up of vibes

The Future of Truth by Werner Herzog review – profound, or just a prank?

The director’s provocative seventh book takes in toupees, AI and a pig in a sewer. Should we take him seriously?

Motherland by Julia Ioffe review – the matriarchs who built mother Russia

A journalist uses family and political history to paint a portrait of a country in turmoil through its women

Night of the Zoopocalypse review – Clive Barker story becomes zombified animal caper for horror-hungry kids

Perhaps the first animated animal adventure based on a story by Hellraiser writer Barker, with commendably scary baddies and a lemur who is a horror-movie buff

The Devil Book by Asta Olivia Nordenhof review – a Danish series that burns with purpose

This incandescent novel takes in lockdown, the devil, bad investments, erotic thrills and the deadly fire on the Scandinavian Star ferry

The Elements by John Boyne review – intertwined tales of trauma

Four novellas about damaged people weighed down by the crimes they have suffered draw you efficiently in, but the cumulative effect is numbing

The Boundless Deep by Richard Holmes review – wild times with young Tennyson

A masterful account of the poet’s early life during the tumultuous early 19th century crisis of faith

Rebecca review – Nikki Shiels is magnificent in confused Daphne du Maurier adaptation

Melbourne Theatre CompanyThe performances are rich and compelling in Anne-Louise Sarks’ take on the famed and haunting 1938 novel, but some aspects fail to land

The best recent poetry – review roundup

So Far So Good by Ursula K Le Guin; Thrums by Thomas A Clark; Sculling by Sophie Dumont; Magadh by Shrikant Verma

On Friendship by Andrew O’Hagan review – ties that bind

The novelist on the relationships that shaped his life, from schoolmates to the Stone Roses and Edna O’Brien

Night Waking review – sleepy take on Sarah Moss’s novel about parenthood

The 2011 book about a mother’s struggle to pursue a career while looking after her children becomes a very routine drama

Gravity Let Me Go by Trent Dalton review – ocker crime caper plagued by more than a beleaguered ballsack

The bestseller’s fourth novel could have tackled timely questions about true crime – but instead it offers a bleakly retrograde fable about being a good bloke

I Regret Almost Everything by Keith McNally audiobook review – the life of a hospitality legend

Richard E Grant narrates the restaurateur’s candid memoir about his life’s highs, lows and biggest regrets – including barring James Corden

The Curse of Frankenstein review – Hammer horror with Lee and Cushing shows how it should be done

Terence Fisher’s crisply told 1957 classic is unencumbered with good taste and delivered with absolute conviction

The Finest Hotel in Kabul by Lyse Doucet review – a monument to Afghan resilience

A sweeping social history of Afghanistan is seen through the lens of Kabul’s InterContinental hotel, where staff endured the horrific realities of life in a war zone