Punchy and uncompromising ... may be fictional, but there’s no doubting the emotional truth and grit at the core of these stories. It’s a potent collection by an author who mined the richness of both his ancestry, his work within the Aboriginal community and his island home for tales about black and white relations, colonialism, class friction, racism and the despoilment of heritage and environment ... Indigenous culture and politics – all the blurry nuances of categorisation and identity – are explored with forensic delicacy that belies the power behind the hand ... Tonally, Born Into This moves with fluid versatility, from righteous anger to sly satire ... With its wit, intelligence and restless exploration of the parameters of race and place, Thompson’s debut collection is a welcome addition to the canon of Indigenous Australian writers of the calibre of Tony Birch, Melissa Lucashenko, Tara June Winch and Ellen van Neerven ... It serves as a salient reminder that there is no monolithic Aboriginal Australian; the book thrums with a cacophony of voices and experiences. Some of his characters hide their vulnerability and loss amid fronts of machismo, others are more like tinnies bobbing in a raging ocean beyond their control. Like the native trees being razed, they were 'born into a hostile world and expected to thrive'. This book bears witness to their struggles.

This remarkable debut crackles with wit, swagger and rage –- as entertaining and affecting as it is thought-provoking -– and assuredly introduces Aboriginal (pakana) writer Adam Thompson as a fresh new voice to follow in the Australian fiction landscape ... These 16 tight and punchy stories are distinctly Tasmanian ... Every encounter in this collection is charged with tension and energy; Thompson’s dialogue sparks on the page. Yet while the stories in Born Into This are all driven by their human conflicts, each protagonist’s relationship to their environment (both urban and natural) is deeply considered and fully realised. Thompson leaves the reader with a profound sense of what we’re losing when it comes to both the damage and disappearance of our native environment and the cultural practices that rely on its survival ... not only stands out as an engaging short-story collection from an exciting young writer, but will open readers’ minds to the diverse lived experiences of First Nations people. I hope we are all approaching the year ahead with a strengthened resolve to listen deeply and actively to First Nations Australians so that we may better advocate for justice and equality in this country. This is vital storytelling that we should all be reading, and I couldn’t recommend it more highly.

... one of the strengths and pleasures of the collection is the evocation of the landscape and climate of the islands ... These stories are by turns fierce, lyrical, suspenseful (‘Aboriginal Alcatraz’), whimsical (‘Morpork’) and poignant (‘Jack’s Island’, ‘Sonny’). They can be unabashedly political (‘Invasion Day’, ‘Kite’), but also explore the complexities of relationships both within the Aboriginal community and between black and white ... Adam Thompson writes with passion and verve, and Born into This brims with insight and hard truths in stories that are vividly drawn and frequently compelling.

Thompson mines the intricate relationship between place and memory in many of the stories found in Born into This, plumbing intriguing depths ... Thompson inhabits a diverse range of characters ... This strength in form explores a wide array of experiences and emotions relating to identity ... Identity conflict is never presented as a dichotomy, however. Thompson approaches identity in a nuanced and complex manner, and the inner turmoil of his very contemporary characters can’t be reduced to simplistic polarities ... Thompson is good at exploring frustration, pain, simmering resentment and anger ... Even though there is a strong element of social critique throughout the work, this book is about distinct, ordinary and flawed characters and their relationships ... Thompson’s writing is very much rooted in Tasmania, and Tasmanian landscapes and social worlds are strongly present throughout the work. The publisher indicates that this work emerges from the author’s life-long immersion in the social and cultural worlds being depicted, and it offers a compelling glimpse into these worlds.

... a striking collection of hard-edged, penetrating stories ... Every story features Aboriginal characters, generally in the central role; the various experiences and complexities of this identity (which the author shares) form the heart of the stories' combined impact ... Some stories lead with forceful blows, others sneak in to nag at the back of the reader's mind ... The lives and attitudes of these characters vary, offering a revealing set of perspectives on the contemporary landscape ... contains as well dark humor and even slim strands of hope. Thompson's prose style appears blunt at first glance but shows nuance. His 16 stories are unyielding in terms of their values, yet somehow deft, even delicate in their storytelling and various voices. The overall effect is understated: simple, unglamorous lives and events crescendo toward a thought-provoking and memorable whole. Even (or especially) in its quietest moments, this is a haunting debut collection by a skilled writer.

In these natural, ethereal tales, characters’ moral struggles and victories are highlighted, as is courage, even in the middle of heartache ... The stories’ unpredictable plots and unapologetic revelations are realistic and imaginative ... each story is also steeped in Palawa culture and colloquial language, with descriptions that are forthright and immersive ... With elements of history and current affairs, the short stories of Born Into This take on the gravity of Tasmanian colonization in an artful and entertaining manner.

That mordant, edgy humour is one of the collection’s strengths, especially when combined with a touch of the fantastic ... Not everything in this vein is a success...this faux-woke couple are so awful that white readers can let themselves off the hook: they will find it easy to not see themselves ... If the stories share a weakness, it is one that short stories in general are prone to: they sometimes end before reaching their potential. That’s a criticism, but it’s also a way of saying Adam Thompson is a writer I’d like to see stretch his wings.

... riveting ... The author movingly describes their resilience, whether facing aggressive storms or the terror of colonization. At the heart of these stories is the natural world, which serves as a constant symbol of survival ... Thompson’s strengths are in his exquisite descriptions of nature, as well as his memorable voice. This shows great promise.