A movie lover's feast that spirals in and out of control…

Adam Robinson gives his life 2 stars. On paper it should be a box-office hit, but it hasn’t lived up to the hype. He wants to recast the whole thing, starting with himself.

Heading back to Sydney after an eventful business trip, Adam discovers an app that allows him to enter the world of his favourite films. No longer typecast as ‘married man, father of two’, he can be whoever he wants.

From playing action heroes to rom-com leading men, it’s a dizzying ride and the greatest experience of his life. Until he tries to log out...

With fast-talking narration and pop-culture obsession, Viewer Discretion Advised is a genre-hopping adventure rom-com, reminiscent of great modern classics like High Fidelity and Ready Player One.

'Wry, disarming, and ruefully told, Viewer Discretion Advised is a novel of considerable charm and warmth. More than a Gen X nostalgia trip, this is a journey into the heart and mind of a middle-aged everyman – a story that moves from wit to hard-won wisdom without missing a beat.'

-Geordie Williamson, Chief Literary Critic of The Australian.

"I took one book on the flight to LA with me - and lucky I did. My phone was out of charge from last minute emails and calls, and the inflight entertainment on the fritz for 3 of the 14 hours.
A couple of weeks ago I was at the launch @betterreadbookshop in a room groaning with devotees to the author, Angus Stevens (who I affectionately refer to as "Boy-Gus" and know from vinyl fair fossicking and beer drinking and concert going with my mate Kain).
Viewer Discretion Advised is (appropriately) not what it may originally appear to be.
Confidently self aware, it calls out it's place in narrative history - the realm of self-conscious GenX white men nerds of Sydney Australia who are intoxicated by the bravado and excessive masculine expressiveness and adventure inherent in American films. There's much to be said on that topic of shame-driven masculinity and the tedium of monogamy. But neither of those ideas are the driver of this book.
Nor is this a book relying solely on gleeful film reference name checking and nostalgia. And while that's fun and relatable and helps the pages turn, there's more going on.
Stevens is playful and exploratory with the form of this novel. Dialogue rattles along, scenes told with a filmmakers eye click easily from one to another. It's important to pay attention. He's being clever, but not wanky - the best way to describe the experience of reading it is that this is a novel which flips between internal observations of self splashing up against compassionate observations of the external world.
I sat as my fellow flight-passengers slept under thin blankets, encountering my own muffled chuckles of recognition and blinking through the blur of my tears at tender revelations revealed.
This book is about the return of love and returning to life. And I recommend it to anyone who is in need of a reminder what life is all about." 

-Augusta Supple, feminist arts advisor and panelist at the NSW Writers Centre, Australia Council and Art Gallery of NSW

Nominations