“Well this is annoying. Bri Lee—whose nonfiction debut Eggshell Skull revealed a fine mind and a stout heart—turns out to be a brilliant novelist as well. This novel isn’t just good; it’s superb. Assured, and powerful, and intelligent, and very, VERY hard to put down. Bri Lee has an established knack of articulating human confusion, pain and the cracks that open up in the systems we design to govern ourselves. And in The Work, she brings all her thrilling intelligence and her journalist’s eye to the art world, and its awkward historic dicta about who gets to make art, and how badly they can behave while they're making it. Also it’s a love story. And a story about growing up in the country and moving to the city, observed with a perfect degree of spiky tenderness. I consumed it in a passion.”
Annabel Crabb

“The Work is a glamorous and dirty capitalist fever dream, highlighting the individualistic tensions and ambitions rife within the art world. This dynamic novel is complex, opulent and horny.”
Ella Baxter

“Lee’s debut novel is like Caoilinn Hughes’ The Orchid and the Wasp meets Andrew Lipstein’s Last Resort. A smart, sexy page-turner, The Work cleverly traces the flow of cultural capital in the international art world, bringing sizzle and romance to the age-old tension of art versus commerce.”
Madeleine Gray

“Pacy, racy and high-octane, The Work delves into the volatile world of contemporary art, forcefully exposing it as a bedfellow to the world of high finance.”
Caoilinn Hughes

“A thoroughly modern love story, The Work is Rooney-esque in how it handles the collision of our ideals, our ambition and our feelings. A brilliant meditation on the gap between the person we wish to be and who we actually are. I was completely gripped.”
Bridie Jabour

“Bri Lee has an uncanny, remarkable and refreshing way of drawing you in quickly. By the first chapter, I felt like I personally knew the characters and was LIVING the moments with them. Bri’s style of writing is comfortable even during uncomfortable moments in the story. Work, power, passion, intimacy and vulnerabilities collide, and best of all, SMUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Lillian Ahenkan aka Flex Mami

“Smart, witty and super steamy, The Work oozes intelligence and pulses with energy. I devoured it!”
Emily Maguire

“A thoroughly modern romp through the complexities of love, family, class and gender. The kind of novel that has everyone at book club talking over one another.”
Jamila Rizvi

“A completely exhilarating, powerful, mesmerising novel, filled with ALL my favourite things: sex, art and New York City. This is a searing story about artistic labour, ambition and the endlessly exhausting pursuits of our ideal self. I already knew Lee to be an exceptional writer. Now, I know she is also an exceptional novelist.”
Jessie Tu

“Bombastic, libidinal, and even vulgar, The Work hurtles the reader through bright lights, big cities, and even bigger questions about art and life—all the while beating with a warm Queensland heart.”
Jessica Stanley

“A dazzling meditation on the economy of taste-making and the contradictory cast of affluent, idealistic and predatory people that make it go round. An ambitious and meticulously modern fable about art, sex, money, power and the perils of self-curation.”
Gina Rushton

“A punchy, pacey and powerful interrogation of the politics of love and art. Bri Lee writes sex like Sally Rooney and critiques capitalism and privilege like Bri Lee. I couldn’t stop reading this daring and dazzling book.”
Paige Clarke

“What is art and who gets to make it, champion it, sell it, buy it? A fresh and compelling answer to timeless questions. Urgent, sexy and deliciously cynical, The Work interrogates the unholy marriage of art and capitalism.”
Neela Janakiramanan

“About exclusions and inclusions, old and new art and the spoken—and unspoken—rules governing privilege and class, The Work covers so much ground impressively without being laboured or weighty. I’ve long admired Bri Lee’s non-fiction and investigative writing but her fiction work is wholly its own—I couldn’t put it down.”
Zara Wong

Who Gets to be Smart
2021

Interrogating the adage, 'knowledge is power', and calling institutional prejudice to account, Bri Lee once again dives into her own privilege and presumptions to bring us the stark and confronting results. Far from offering any 'equality of opportunity', Australia's education system exacerbates social stratification.

Praise for Who Gets to be Smart:

“Debate done with absolute verve, with eloquence and generosity”
Christos Tsiolkas, author of Damascus

“Fascinating, eye-opening . . . a sharp wake-up call”
Lillian Ahenkan aka Flex Mami, author of The Success Experiment

“Thoughtful, surprising and exquisitely written. Bri Lee once again challenges us to confront the structures that shape, and restrict, our understanding of the world.”
Maddison Connaughton, editor of The Saturday Paper

Beauty
2019

“You were either fit and trim or you weren't working hard enough. Your body was how you conveyed wealth and status to your peers, it was a personality trait, a symbol of goodness and values: an ethical ideal.”

In recent decades women have made momentous progress fighting the patriarchy, yet they are held to ever-stricter, more punishing physical standards. Self-worth still plummets and eating disorders are more deadly for how easily they are dismissed.

In Beauty Bri Lee explores our obsession with thinness and asks how an intrinsically unattainable standard of physical 'perfection' has become so crucial to so many. What happens if you try to reach that impossible goal? Bri did try, and Beauty is what she learned from that battle: a gripping and intelligent rejection of an ideal that diminishes us all.

Eggshell Skull
2018

EGGSHELL SKULL: A well-established legal doctrine that a defendant must 'take their victim as they find them'. If a single punch kills someone because of their thin skull, that victim's weakness cannot mitigate the seriousness of the crime. But what if it also works the other way? What if a defendant on trial for sexual crimes has to accept his 'victim' as she comes: a strong, determined accuser who knows the legal system, who will not back down until justice is done?

Praise for Eggshell Skull:

“Bri Lee’s story of standing up for herself and braving a biased, underfunded, incompetent legal system to demand justice is beautifully written, tender and powerful. Accompanying Lee through her transformation from a frightened girl into a blazingly formidable adult - whose courage comes from her determination to stand up for all women – was moving, gut-churning, and ultimately triumphant.”
Charlotte Wood

“Eggshell Skull is not an easy read. But it's an important reflection of the reality we live in. If you struggle to understand what rape culture is, this book will give you a clarity that might shock you.”
Clementine Ford