Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits of Aotearoa writers, and guests. This week: Amber Curreen, director of WET, which premieres in Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival 2026.
The book I wish I’d written
Deborah Harkness’s A Discovery of Witches – the entire All Souls trilogy actually. I wish I could own the genius of writing a Twilight for grown-ups. A thoroughly captivating “written in the stars” love story between a middle-aged academic witch and a vampire told with enough maturity, history and science to feel like you’re not a gushing teen.
The book everyone should read
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller because it’s beautifully written, with so many passages that made me sigh. In a time of grand heroes it captures a very human experience of Patroclus’s enduring, unreasonable love for someone destined to always be beyond his reach.
The book I want to be buried with
I’ve had this Dr Seuss ABC book since I was a kid and I read it with my kids; we all have favourite letters – mine is O: “Oscar’s only ostrich oiled an orange owl today”. I think that pukapuka would still make me chuckle in the afterlife.
From left to right: the book Amber Curreen wishes she’d written; the book she thinks we should all read; and the first book she remembers reading by herself.
The first book I remember reading by myself
The first grown up book I think I got into after The Babysitters Club and Goosebumps was The Clan of The Cave Bear series – too young for book two onwards if you know what I mean!
The book I wish I’d never read
Blimmin’ Fifty Shades Of Grey! I actually only got half way through the first chapter. I was so excited to see what all the fuss was about but I simply could not get past the writing to get to the juicy bits.
The book I pretend I’ve read
More like one I pretend I’m reading – Te Ruānuku, The Alchemist in te reo Māori. It’s incredible. It sits beside my bed, bookmarked so I feel like I’m making progress, but I’m really not. I’m still getting used to reading novels in te reo Māori so every page is a beautiful reo lesson that sends me back and forth to Te Aka Dictionary. Eventually I’ll get there!
Utopia or dystopia
Utopia – let me escape to a happy place.
Fiction or nonfiction
Fiction – but I love works that are real people, places and times reimagined. Kāwai by Monty Soutar is an incredible Aotearoa coming-together of real tupuna and their imagined lives.
It’s a crime against language to
Underdeliver on the final book in a series. If you’ve built a world and invited people into it for years, setting up all this plot intrigue then you’ve made a big promise to deliver on that last book. Don’t make me question my life choices at the end of the series please.
From left to right: the book Amber Curreen pretends she’s read; the book she wishes would be adapted for film or TV; and the book that haunts her.
The book that haunts me
The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton – I mean, a world of candy floss would be great but the risk of getting stuck up there for an indeterminate amount of time used to haunt my dreams.
The book I wish would be adapted for film or TV
The 10pm Question by Kate De Goldi and The Trespass by Barbara Ewing.
Greatest New Zealand writer
Witi Ihimaera.
Best food memory from a book
I love Anthony Capella’s books which are all about Italian food and love stories. There’s a scene in The Food of Love where there is a suckling pig being roasted in the village of a hillside town – the aroma alone brings him back from heartbreak. That whole book had my mouth watering, even the milk-soaked calf brains from Rome sounded divine.
What I’m reading right now
Research articles as I finish a Masters in Māori and Indigenous Leadership with University of Canterbury and of course the wonderful script WET by Tūī Matelau which I’m looking forward to directing next year!
WET by Tūī Matelau premiers at Auckland Arts Festival 2026. Tickets are on sale now.