Link Round Up: May 21 – 29

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Danika Ellis

AfterEllen posted Kate and Maggie team up to unmask [SPOILER!] in “Batwoman #20” and AfterEllen.com Book Club: Choices for June.

Autostraddle posted

Lambda Literary posted Bi Lines VI & Bisexual Book Awards: A Multi-Arts Celebration of Bisexual Writing (June 2, NYC) and Lambda Literary Awards Ceremony.

Queer Books Please posted

The Rainbow Reader posted The Lesfic Boomtown Foretold: A Cautionary Tale by Salem West and TRR Celebrates 100,000 Visitors.

Sistahs On the Shelf posted Top Ten Tuesday Freebie: Memorable Stud Characters.

Women and Words posted Amazon and fanfic.

Sarah Diemer posted

Malinda Lo posted Finalists for the 2013 Lambda Literary Awards in LGBT Children’s/Young Adult Books.

Catherine Lundoff posted Bisexual Book Awards – Finalist list and press release.

Damn Love by Jasmine Beach-Ferrara was reviewed at Lambda Literary.

The Selected Letters of Willa Cather edited by Andrew Jewell and Janis Stout was reviewed at Lambda Literary.

Dialectic of the Flesh by Roz Kaveney was reviewed at Lambda Literary.

Art on Fire by Hilary Sloin was reviewed at Piercing Fiction.

The Pyramid Waltz by Barbara Ann Wright was reviewed at The Rainbow Reader.

For even more links, check out the Lesbrary’s twitter page! We’re also on Facebook and tumblr.

This post has the covers linked to their Amazon pages. If you click through and buy something, I might get a small referral fee.

Jordan reviews Gay Pride and Prejudice by Kate Christie (and Jane Austen)

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Danika Ellis

Along my bookshelf, the possibility of seeing a classical book is actually really slim. About the only things I have are Little Women, a bunch of fairy tales, and a couple of somewhat old lesbian books. But the classics, like Melville and Pride and Prejudice are not something you’d find in my stuff, mostly because when I tried or had to read them around college, I nearly stabbed my eyes out so I wouldn’t have to read them. This isn’t to say that classics like those aren’t brilliant books, in fact I can recognize a lot of great things from them in other stuff, but the way books were written over even thirty years ago is vastly different from the majority of books written today.

That said, I will admit I enjoyed reading Gay Pride and Prejudice by Kate Christie (and Jane Austen) way more than I could say for Pride and Prejudice and I can point out exactly why. The whole reason I kept hanging on to getting through this book was because of the lesbian tones that Kate had weaved into the book, which particularly focus around Lizzie and Caroline. The original story, I managed to get through the first couple chapters before I gave up on it, because I’m a reader from the age of movies, to where if you don’t grasp me in the first chapter chances are I am not going to hang on very long to finish the book.

That doesn’t mean I didn’t know what happens in the normal Pride and Prejudice though, I actually know it quite well since I enjoyed watching things like ‘Lost in Austen’ and even ‘The Lizzie Bennet Diaries’. So I wasn’t going into this book totally blind in what was changed, in fact I could recognize a lot of the changes, such as the father of the Bennet girls inner monologues quite a bit about his own tendencies toward men, and that he only hopes his favorite daughter Lizzie, with her preference to her own sex can find some kind of same happiness too. And this is just one of the many things that changed for this book and really what made this book shine to me.

So, for consistency sake, I think I do need to talk about what the plot is, as I’m sure there are others out there who don’t know the whole plot of Pride and Prejudice either. The story still focuses on the daughters of Mr Bennet, with most of it being directed around Lizzie and Jane, the two eldest daughters. The whole story starts with a new man moving into town though, Bingley, which sparks the events and introduces Jane to Bingley and Lizzie to Darcy… or in this case… to Darcy and Bingley’s sister: Caroline.

Much like any romance specific story, Lizzie is at first revolted or turned away from Caroline, much in the same way she was Darcy, in fact, the author did an amazing job with realizing that a lot of the same reasons she doesn’t like Darcy in the normal book, could be said for Caroline too. And really this whole book shines because of how well the author was able to interweave the gay elements into a story that wasn’t even remotely gay and in different ways too. Charlotte and Lizzie weren’t just childhood friends they were also the first lovers for each other, but they also had drastically different views for their futures. The whole reason the Bingley’s had moved to the area where the Bennet’s were? Because Caroline was found out by the husband of a woman she was having an affair with so they left.

Really, I think the whole reason I loved reading this, was because it was essentially well crafted fan fiction, using non-gay characters and making them gay. So, for the story I don’t want to give away a lot, because the whole reason I kept sticking around was because I wanted to know HOW Caroline and Lizzie would end up together facing a society that doesn’t condone such a thing at all. And while the ending was technically expected, it was only to a degree that I had expected it. So there’s a bit of a few twists in the end that I found all the more interesting in terms of diversity, since I was thinking of the Bingley’s and Charlotte as Asian and a few characters as black, thanks to the Lizzie Bennet Diaries.

Overall, I have to say the story was decent, at least the areas that Kate Christie had manipulated. They were fun and kept me actually yelling at my kindle at one point as to why Lizzie and Caroline didn’t kiss. (Don’t worry it’s resolved later). But when it comes down to it, if you didn’t enjoy reading Pride and Prejudice then you probably aren’t going to like this one either, unless you can pretty much read anything lesbian, then the gay plots will probably pull you through it. In the same vein, if you loved Pride and Prejudice but don’t much care for gay romance plots, then it’s again something you’d want to avoid. But how could you not love gay romance plots?!

Either way, it was a fun read that unfortunately took me forever to get through, though that may not be the case with everyone and at least it wasn’t Gay Moby Dick… I don’t think I could have taken that.

Danika reviews Swans & Klons by Nora Olsen

Posted on May 26, 2013 by Danika Ellis

Teen dystopian is a huge genre right now, and I’m used to getting engrossed in giant trilogies contained in it (like The Hunger Games, Divergent, Chaos Walking–sadly, all nonlesbian). Compared to that, a 186-page novel is practically a short story. And Swans & Klons definitely has enough going on that it could have been stretched into several books with a little padding and expanding on concepts, but there is something refreshing about the conciseness of this book. First, we are introduced to the world. Rubric lives in a dystopian future society populated entirely by women (men of the past were all struck with “cretenism”). People are grown in vats in a laboratory, all picked from 300 “Jeepies” (from GP: genotype/phenotype), which are sets of DNA. Society is divided into further types, however: Pannas (women) and Klons: non-human slaves. The beginning couple of chapters set up the world, and then the action begins. This is definitely a quick read.

I’m still not sure exactly what I think of Swans & Klons. It sometimes felt like more of a parody or though experiment than a world to itself, especially the description of men. For instance, a description in a textbook is “The Barbarous Ones . . . [are] peopled by drooling, hairy Cretinous males.” At first I thought the idea of “cretinous males” was hilarious, like men just became more and more distasteful until no one wanted to have to have sex with them to reproduce. [mild spoilers] But when we are introduced to “Cretinous males,” they are men who have severe mental disabilities. The “Barbarous” society they live in don’t describe them or treat them in this way, but there is lots of ableist language and attitudes expressed in the book. Even when Salmon Jo is trying to be understanding, she says that she sees the value in these men because they help you discover more about yourself, and that’s why they’re an asset, it still seemed pretty dismissive of these people’s value in themselves. I’m not sure about their role in the “Barbarous” society, where all men have these disabilities. In some ways it did seem respectful, but I still felt a little uncomfortable–I guess because they’re still seen as a separate class, perceived as innocent, childlike, etc. I’d like to hear other people’s opinions about this aspect. [end spoilers]

I did like that Rubric and her “schatzie” (or “girlfriend”; there is a lot of slang in Swans & Klons, which for the most part I liked, other than “cretinous males” and “barbarous ones”, which doesn’t sound realistic) struggle with their newfound disgust with the way their society is structured. They wonder whether it’s worth fighting a seemingly impossible battle, whether things are really as bad as they think, whether the “other side” is really any better, etc. Revolution is not an easy or peaceful process. Even trying to imagine or work towards it is messy and exhausting. I liked that Swans & Klons didn’t offer easy answers.

There were a lot of things to think about brought up in this book, and because it’s so short, they aren’t addressed in depth. For example, everyone in Society is cloned from one of 300 sets of DNA, meaning that many people have identical DNA. It is assumed that this will determine your personality to a large extent. Once a Panna (woman, not Klon) turns 16, she is paired up with an older person of her same Jeepie. The older Panna mentors the younger one. Jeepies usually are grouped in the same jobs. Klons have the same Jeepies, but they are second-class citizens, altered to not be human, to be less intelligent, more hardworking, etc. They do all of the manual labour and child rearing, leaving Panna to artistic and prestigious jobs. Society definitely reinforces that your genes determine your future, but it is unclear to which extent the book as a whole agrees with that assessment. I do feel like Swans & Klons has a whole world imagined, but we do just see glimpses of some part of it.

[vague spoilers about ending, highlight to read] At first I really thought we were going to get a 1984-esque ending, which actually would have been pretty cool. Some part of the end might seem a little too neat for some people, but I was surprised. And at the very end, I liked the none-of-the-above, open-ended conclusion. It left some questions, and there is definitely a whole other story ahead of them (not one that’s going to be, or necessarily needs to be, written, but still), but I found it to be satisfying, especially considering how ambitious it is to fit a story about a whole dystopian society into such a slim book. [end spoilers]

Despite some reservations, I did enjoy this book, and I would recommend it with those caveats. I would love to hear other people’s opinions on this one! It is nice to have a lesbian teen dystopia, that’s for sure. Hopefully there are more on the way!

Rie of Friend of Dorothy Wilde interviews Mary of Queer Books Please!

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Danika Ellis

You may have noticed Queer Books Please showing up in the Link Round Ups a lot lately! My friend Rie over at Friend of Dorothy Wilde has done an interview with the person who runs it, Mary, and has kindly let me post it here! I’ve added in the covers of some of the books mentioned and linked them to their Amazon pages. Enjoy!

Friend of Dorothy Wilde: One day you sat down and decided to record a podcast about queer books–what inspired you to do this and what made you choose a podcast over a blog or tumblr or other media?

Mary: I’ve been working a pretty regular job that doesn’t have much creative output. I’ve always been interested in reading and writing, so in general I have been trying to find ways to keep my brain oriented on that kind of thing. So not just reading, but also thinking about how the books are written, what makes them successful, what makes me respond to them. What was really fullfilling was when I made a lot of time for reading–and reading lesbian type books in particular. The podcast came about when I realized that I wanted to keep doing what I loved the most, reading, but push myself to doing something constructive with the hobby.

I thought about doing a blog at first, but there are a lot of blogs all ready out there that are doing good work, and I wasn’t sure what else I might have to offer. I’d been listening to a lot of podcasts during my job and realized that I wasn’t finding a lot of good lesbian podcasts at all–let alone anything about books, which is what i really would have liked to hear! So I figured, why not do it myself?

I like the podcast because in some ways it’s more informal than writing, which suits me since I tend to look at books in terms of how they affect me personally rather than trying to present a definitive critical argument. And it’s also really challenging! Trying to stay funny and entertaining and not get stage fright really keeps me on my toes. I hope that the informal presentation of a podcast also helps me from editing my thoughts too much, so that I stay as close as possible to the truth of what I feel.

FODW: I know you have a good post about how you find queer books in general (linked here), but how do books for the podcast make the cut?

Mary: At this point I’m mostly just reading what I want to read. I’m using this as an opportunity to explore some older classics (still can’t believe I didn’t read THE PRICE OF SALT until a couple weeks ago) and really keep up with what’s newer as well. I’m trying to keep a balance of genres, partially because I want to be able to help readers with all preferences, and because I like most genres myself. I also see a lot of readers complaining about not being able to find enough lesbian books, but it seems like they aren’t exploring other genres, so I try to be inclusive because I think it’s a good way to keep your reading list robust.

I mostly only review things if I have positive stuff to say. I need to get so much reading done that I don’t really have to time to finish something if I’m not enjoying some aspect of it.

I will sometimes read romance fiction that might be a little low brow, and sometimes I might do a little gentle mocking, but if I read it, and I finished it, I probably had some fun with it, and so it might be worth something.

FODW: Sometimes, you just need a lesbian Harlequin romance!

Mary: Do you find yourself getting hustled a lot? There’s so much self pubbed stuff out there… I want to give it a look, but I get frustrated too if I catch too many duds in a row.

FODW: I don’t because I’m not actively reviewing at the moment–I do tend to hustle my friends though; my friend Lisa’s book (STARTING FROM HERE) came out last summer and I plug it all the time. Have you been contacted by authors/publishers for reviews?

Mary: Oh, I totally didn’t realize that your friend Lisa wrote STARTING FROM HERE. It’s such a sweet book, and a fresh take on some of the issues that queer kids struggle with. It didn’t feel overblown or overly message-y. The characters felt very real. And I’m a sucker for books with vets and dogs!

FODW: Have you been contacted by authors/publishers for reviews?

Mary: Not yet, but I’ve only been at it for a couple months.

FODW: Do you have a policy in place for when the time comes, or do you think you’ll just wing it?

Mary: No policy at this point. At this point, the podcasting is very much a natural extension of my usual reading habits. Once you’re talking to authors and publishers, I imagine that changes. So I would need to think about how it would affect my reading choices and if that would have any measurable improvement on the podcast itself.

FODW: That’s great–keep it fun and informative and not an obligation, no?

Mary: Exactly. And I think there’s a lot of great places for people to go find reviews of a specific book. I’m reviewing, sure, but for me the podcast is not just about reviews, but about the process of finding books, the experience of reading them, and making connections between different kinds of books.

FODW: How do you pick your themes? Do they happen naturally or do you brainstorm?

Mary: I have some that I know I want to get to. For example, I know I want to do an episode on books with sports in them sometime in the future. I’m thinking about doing a segment of someone of the books I’ve enjoyed that included gay males. So I have those ideas in mind. But one of the amazing things about this podcast is how the connections get made naturally. This week I read a couple different books that featured Lesbian Parenting/Pregnancy, and I realized, duh, of course I need to do a bit on lesbian mothers for Mother’s Day!

FODW: What were some of the first queer books you read, and how did you find them?

Mary: If you mean in my life, we’re going back to about 1999 or so in my very early teens. I think I may have simply typed in “lesbian” into the library catalog and looked for YA books. I read ANNIE ON MY MIND and GOOD MOON RISING from Nancy Garden. Also DARE TRUTH OR PROMISE by Paula Boock. I remember reading a lot of Francesca Lia Block, who didn’t really write about lesbians specifically but did include gay males in her books, and just had a magical sort of queer possibility in her books. Have you seen the cover of VIOLET & CLAIRE? I don’t think that book ending up being gay at all, but the cover featured two bare lady stomachs, and those two friends sure did love each other a lot….

Dorothy Allison was probably the first adult lesbian fiction I ever read, which means I really jumped into the deep end there.

FODW: (FLB is one of my roots, specifically “Dragons in Manhattan” in GIRL GODDESS #9)

FODW: What’s a book you loved that you didn’t expect to, maybe, from the copy? Alternately, is there any book that gets raved about that isn’t really your cup of tea?

Mary: I’m going to answer your second question first. I have yet to get into Jeanette Winterson. I tried reading WRITTEN ON THE BODY many times as a younger person, never got very far. I did read her memoir and ORANGES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT and found them both very good, but didn’t find myself particularly moved by them in any sort of emotional way. I know her books are much beloved, and I am going to do some reading of her work and see if I can get to the bottom of my reaction to her, but yeah, at this point, not my cup of tea.

I think the last book I was really surprised and pleased by was MAP OF IRELAND by Stephanie Grant. I thought, well, it’s a coming of age story but is anything going to happen? And 70s Boston isn’t exactly a time or place that I know about or have much interest in. But then I read it and was completely blown away. CARRY THE ONE by Carol Anshaw also surprised me. I went into knowing very little, and kind of being tired of contemporary literature, and then found it to be so deft and funny and sad.

FODW: What is your dream queer book? Like, this author writing about this subject in this genre

Mary: So many possibilities! Emma Donoghue writes another sweet, thoughtful romance–but this time in space!

FODW: love it! (mine is Stephanie Perkins writing a cute lesbian YA set in NYC and at a queer music festival)

Mary: I’d like to see Malindo Lo write an adult fantasy epic.

FODW: is there a genre you really like that you wish had more queer books?

Mary: I’d like to see science fiction and fantasy featuring more queer characters, but with strong focuses on the genre conventions rather than romance. Take lesbian mysteries in the late 90s. Ten years ago, when I was really starting to seek out lesbian fiction, I loved that there were a lot of mystery series that featured tough lesbian heroines, but didn’t focus too much on romance.

I’d like to see that happen in the other genres. You get a lot of stuff that’s hybrid romance/sci-fi/fantasy from Bold Strokes and the like. But the romance part has one crucial downside–it pretty much guarantees a happy ending. Which isn’t so good for generating excitement and suspense.

FODW: Would you ever try your hand at writing again, or is reviewing where it’s at for now?

Mary: I’d like to think so, but right now I’m enjoying the podcast so much that it’s hard to see when writing could be fit in There’s a possibility that some more nonfiction pieces by me about my life–stuff that isn’t strictly reviewing books–may pop into the podcast in the future. If it seems like listeners might enjoy it, anyway. Right now I like to think that I’m contributing to the field by encouraging talented writers to keep writing and getting there stuff out there!

FODW: do you want to share some possible upcoming themes, or let that be a mystery?

Mary: Yeah, I can give some hints as to what might be coming up. I’m just finishing up a crash course on Willa Cather and will share some of my thoughts on her and her letters. I’ve got a pile of great historical fiction novels that I’m working my way through. Hmm. I can also tease that I’m working on an exciting project that should start to trickle out in the next couple weeks.

And it’s related to lesbian vampires!

FODW: Fantastic! Any parting thoughts?

Mary: Thanks for doing this interview and thanks to everyone listening to the podcast. It’s really a pleasure to share my reading experiences with you. And I want to encourage old and new listeners alike to let me know if there’s anything they’d like to hear me talk about on the podcast. If you’re looking for specific recommendations or want to recommend a book to me, feel free to email me, hit me up on twitter, or leave a comment on the blog.

FODW: Fantastic! Thank you so much for the opportunity to interview you 😀

Mary: Thank you! This has been a lot of fun.

Danika reviews Lunatic Fringe and Hungry Ghost (Tales of the Pack Books 1 and 2) by Allison Moon

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Danika Ellis

Okay, can we take a minute for these covers? Is it ridiculous to say that my expectations for Lunatic Fringe were really high just based on this cover? Well, to be fair, they were also very high because a) Allison Moon seems awesome and b) lesbian werewolves. Feminist, lesbian werewolves (!!!). That was about all I knew about this series, but it was enough to get me very excited. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, probably a feminist lesbian werewolf utopia, but that wasn’t what I got. Which is fair, I just think I had the wrong expectations going in.

I don’t know if you’ve heard of the term “New Adult”, but I think this is a genre that at least the first two books of this series fit into. New Adult is a new genre that focuses on 18- to 25-year-olds or so. It’s like Young Adult, but a step up. It focuses on college age people and their struggles. I feel like these books fit really well in this genre not just because Lexie, our main character, is just heading off to college when we meet her, but also because she is really trying to find herself through these books. She is struggling to establish her own identity, struggling with her sexuality (some variation of queer, but not necessarily gay), and struggling with her family (her dad is distant and her mom left years ago).

But yes, werewolves! A whole lot of werewolves. I’m not sure how to talk about this without spoiling the first book for you, because it keeps you on your toes, so I won’t go into too much detail here. I do want to address the feminism, however. I have a minor in Women’s Studies and many of my friends are WS majors and really involved in activism and feminism, so I was really excited to read a feminist and lesbian werewolf book, to say the least. This is not a feminist utopia, however. The feminist group (The Pack) in Lunatic Fringe is one that is definitely flawed. There’s classism, bi erasure, and generally really simplistic, non-intersectional ideas presented. (Basically “men bad, women good”.) Now, these are addressed in the novel. You are supposed to think that there’s a problem here. So it’s not a problem with the book itself, necessarily, but do be warned that there are a lot of shitty things said in the first book, especially.

Another problem is that the big villains of this series, the Morloc, are bloodthirsty [spoiler for both books, highlight to read] rapist[end spoiler] animals who also happen to be an indigenous group. I mean, they are wolves, but they are indigenous to the area and predate settlers. They are discussed as an indigenous group in the books. The characters resolve that they don’t want to part of oppression of indigenous people, but they also don’t want to get killed. Fine, but why was a Native group made to be the villains in the first place? It reminds me of Twilight, where the Native people as werewolves are described by the vampires as smelly, dirty, dumb animals, etc. To be fair, there are also indigenous “good guys” in Tales of the Pack, but it still seemed really problematic to make the bloodthirsty, savage, animal villains indigenous.

I have some more issues that I’d like to discuss, but they are big spoilers, so. [spoilers for both books] First of all, I did not like Lexie with Sage. I guess I had assumed that Lexie was gay when it hadn’t actually been stated for sure–she has struggled with her sexuality throughout the books–so that is my own problem. But still! Her ex’s brother? That’s weird. That’s really weird. Also I don’t understand why Archer didn’t come back during the second book when they were all in danger. I’m sure it will be addressed in the next book.

Secondly, one of the minor characters, Jenna. I was also sort of annoyed that she seemed to do all the housework and cooking for no real reason. That didn’t seem fair at all. No one seemed to really acknowledge that she did all the work. Because, you know, women’s work isn’t real work. (Even in a feminist house.) AND THEN. She’s the one who dies! It’s like [spoiler for Buffy the Vampire Slayer] Tara’s death all over again! [end Buffy spoiler] Where the feminine character is killed as this innocent lamb, which totally erases her as an actual person versus just a symbol! I get that someone had to die, I just really didn’t like that the stereotypical feminine character was killed to show loss of innocence. It’s basically woman in a refrigerator, but the people’s plots that are being moved forward are also female. I OBJECT. But, you know, it’s probably Buffy that makes me so defensive here. [end spoilers]

There’s a lot more going on these books: the mythology of the wolves, Lexie’s mom’s story, Lexie’s multiple romances, the werewolves, the rape, the characters of Renne and Blythe… there’s a lot more that I could talk about, but mostly it wasn’t what I wanted from it. Even though there’s so much going on, I didn’t feel like there was the sort of depth that I was expecting. I say New Adult because it has a similar vibe to a Young Adult book. I think if you go in expecting a Young Adult/New Adult book with some really problematic elements, you would probably enjoy it more. I just had very high expectations for Lunatic Fringe, which probably weren’t fair and weren’t actually reflective of what the series was trying to do, but I was disappointed. Let me know if you’ve read it, and what you thought of these books!

Link Round Up: May 15 – 21

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Danika Ellis

Autostraddle posted Liberty Lit #20: Remember Library Lesbianism.

ELIXHER posted PREVIEW: Staceyann Chin and Baby Zuri Featured in ELIXHER Magazine.

LGBTQ Recs Month posted Sign-ups.

Queer Books Please posted Episode 18 – Pansexuality and the Fantasy of Manners.

Queer Zine Archive Project posted QZAP Frick-starter.

UK Lesbian Fiction posted Building Worlds: A Conversation between Jane Fletcher and Nora Olsen.

Women and Words posted 1 Question, Several Answers: authors answer which three books they’d take during a zombie apocalypse and A Conversation with Jane Fletcher and Nora Olsen.

Sarah Diemer posted Release Day: WINGED THINGS, the Sixth Project Unicorn eZine, is Out!

Andi Marquette posted Hoppin’ Against Homophobia and Transphobia.

An excerpt from Michelle Tea‘s Mermaid in Chelsea Creek was posted at McSweeney’s.

The Stonewall Riots the comic book has started an Indiegogo campaign.

Caty Simon at Emily Books wrote about Empathy by Sarah Schulman and “library lesbianism”.

Queer Lady and Lesbian Book Club of North Brooklyn is a thing, so you should participate if you can.

Astray by Emma Donoghue was reviewed at Santa Barbara Independent.

Love By the Numbers by Karin Kallmaker was reviewed at Lambda Literary.

The Summer We Got Free by Mia McKenzie was reviewed at Lambda Literary.

I am Your Sister: Season 2 by Ericka K. F. Simpson was reviewed at Sistahs On the Shelf.

For even more links, check out the Lesbrary’s twitter page! We’re also on Facebook and tumblr.

This post has the covers linked to their Amazon pages. If you click through and buy something, I might get a small referral fee.

Katie Raynes reviews Silhouette of a Sparrow by Molly Beth Griffin

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Danika Ellis

Silhouette of a Sparrow by Molly Beth Griffin is the story of Garnet, a teenage ornithology enthusiast who spends a transformative summer in a lakeside town. Set in 1926, Silhouette of a Sparrow combines captivating historical detail with realistic characters and emotions while keeping it all on a believable, relatable scale. I was drawn in immediately by the writing, which has a unique voice without edging into caricature. Garnet is very relatable: she considers herself to be a regular girl, even plain, but any threat of the boredom that sometimes accompanies these types of characters is averted by her intricately described interests. She’s passionately in love with birds, and she notices them everywhere, cutting silhouettes of them out of paper because her mother approves of that hobby over her childhood outdoor explorations.

Garnet has to navigate several things during her summer in Excelsior, Minnesota: the relatives she’s staying with consider her to be poor and low-class in comparison to themselves, but they have their own secrets; she left behind her father, a veteran who came home unable to adapt to life away from the war, and her mother, who is desperately trying to keep the family together; Garnet takes a part-time job in a shop, confronting both the bias against working women and environmental conservation issues that are close to her heart; and her drive to be independent and enjoy her last summer before graduating (and marrying) leads her to meet Isabella, a dancer who flaunts numerous social conventions. All of the subplots wind together to make a full story, and none of them are left hanging or unfinished.

Garnet’s developing relationship with Isabella is one of the highlights of the story for me (I admit I equally adore all the bird imagery, which has tendrils running through the whole book). Their courtship progresses slowly and sweetly. Garnet and Isabella get to know each other gradually, each revealing their fears and hopes as they grow more comfortable with each other. I love that Garnet doesn’t consider her romantic feelings for Isabella to be wrong – she’s worried about what her family would think, but she seems just as concerned that Isabella’s reputation, instead of her gender, will be the cause of the disapproval. Another thing that satisfies me with this novel is that the relationship between Garnet and Isabella isn’t the main focus – Silhouette of a Sparrow is about Garnet’s development from someone who doesn’t know what she wants to someone who does, and who finds within herself the strength to go after her dreams. Her relationship with Isabella is integral to this development, but it isn’t the core of the story. It’s a lesbian romance not simply for the sake of romance, but as part of the lives of what feel like real people.

Marcia reviews Dysphoria by Karelia Stetz-Waters

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Danika Ellis

Dysphoria by Karelia Stetz-Waters
Artema Press, 2013, 350 pp

Dysphoria. On its own, the word means simply the state of feeling unwell. It is a loaded term, however, especially in the queer community. Trans*-folk use the word to describe the feeling of incongruity between how the body exists and how the brain expects the body to exist. Since the mainstreaming of that definition, dysphoria has also come to indicate any incongruity between brain and body, including such movements as transethnics, some furry lifestylers (humans with the belief that they are or connect to a particular animal), and apotemnophilia — self-desired amputation. This last borrowed definition is one of the major themes in Karelia Stetz-Waters’s debut thriller of the same name.

The story follows protagonist Helen Ivers as she begins her new job as president of a small New England college in the town of Pittock. Ivers is cool-headed and utterly capable, but she is haunted by the memory of her sister and her gruesome suicide. That haunting begins to creep into Ivers life as the college is rocked by the discovery of legs, dismembered by nearby train tracks. Flanked on one side by Drummond, the well-kept elder provost at Pittock, whose desire seems to lie with keeping the controversy quiet, and on the other with wild card Adair Wilson, a strikingly handsome lesbian drama teacher who is instrumental in finding the body parts and unwilling to let the tragedy go unsolved.

I found Dysphoria to be well-written, especially in comparison to many books in both the lesbian detective and thriller genre. The characters, especially Ivers and Drummond, are fresh and full-bodied (pun intended). At times, Stetz-Waters lingers in more literary and even experimental places, playing with form and perspective in some truly unexpected ways. I also found the story to be something truly original. As a fan of true crime, procedural shows, and, obviously, lesbian lit, Dysphoria definitely borrows from aspects of each genre but pulls together into something quite fresh. I especially identified with Helen Ivers. Her behavior, namely engaging in unfulfilling and utterly unerotic heterosexual sex in an effort to escape her own mental space, was frustrating (and frequently unpleasant to read) but I saw echoes of her thought processes in my own life.

Aside from the straight sex, Dysphoria also offers truly disturbing POV segments from the killer. We learn about his history of abuse, about his obsession with creating amputees — and the sexual nature of his fetish. I understand, as a reader, why this POV is included. It certainly ramps up the tension and creates a few “ah ha!” moments later in the book. For those more sensitive to stuff of this ilk, however, this might be the ultimate turn off.

The other major issue I had with Dysphoria was with love interest and plot driver, Adair Wilson. Because the book stays in Helen Ivers’ perspective most of the time, and because Ivers herself does not know much about Wilson, the character is left largely undeveloped. Wilson seems to act mysteriously when the plot calls for tension, to explain herself when Ivers needs the relief. Even the descriptions of Ivers’ attraction to Wilson are spotty at best. Aside from Wilson’s shocking beauty, I had trouble understanding why Ivers was attracted to her. Some of the circumstances the two women are involved in are entirely unromantic and even disturbing — on a level completely different from that of a serial killer. I felt like I should be fascinated and enamored with Wilson, but was given no reason to. Sadly, much of the book’s success hinges on this.

I will also draw attention, once more, to the title. Dysphoria. As I don’t possess any expertise in psychology, I cannot speak to the legitimacy of any of those who claim the term as a method of expressing body/mind disintegration, but as an ally of the trans* community and best friend of a genderqueer individual, I found myself pausing on multiple occasions when the lives of “transexuals” were used to (perhaps) legitimize the dysphoria of amputee “wannabees” — and by more than one character! I doubt it is Stetz-Waters’s intention to marginalize people who may be a part of her audience, but given her reassurance to me as introduction that she was, in fact, a “gold star” lesbian, I don’t think Stetz-Waters is all too concerned with being inclusive.

My reservations aside, I found Dysphoria to be, for the most part, an engaging and even thrilling read. As an alternative to much of what is currently available in lesbian crime thrillers, Dysphoria is well written, edited, and plotted. Each reader may have to contend with the level of violence, disturbing content, and casual marginalization they are willing to endure for fiction. While mildly curious about the sequel reportedly in the works, I don’t believe I will be tuning in for more of Stetz-Waters’s thrillers.

Kit reviews The Daughter Star by Susan Jane Bigelow

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Danika Ellis

The Daughter Star / Susan Jane Bigelow

Candlemark and Gleam, release date May 28 2013 (e-ARC)

What a rotten way for everything to turn out. Freighter pilot Marta Grayline is grounded, trapped on her miserable home planet by an intrasystem war that’s separated her from her beautiful girlfriend, her career, and everything she loves.

When her sister Beth offers her a way out by enlisting in the Novan Emergency Fleet, Marta jumps at the opportunity to get back into space.

But when her ship is attacked and destroyed, she finds herself stranded on a mysterious space station with a crew that won’t answer her questions.

And, of course, then there’s the aliens – the planet-destroying Abrax that somehow seem to have a hold on Beth.

They’re coming for Marta, too.

She’ll have to face ancient forces, her own doubts, and the inside of an alien mind if she wants to get some answers, complete her mission, and unlock her own latent potential. The Daughter Star, the red beacon in the night sky, may yet be the key to the freedom and understanding Marta so desperately wants.

I jumped on The Daughter Star as soon as its galley showed up in my inbox (thank you, Danika and Candlemark and Gleam!) because Bigelow’s Extrahuman series has been on my TBR pile for months. After finishing this novel, everything else by the author has just moved up a few hundred notches, because The Daughter Star is one of the richest, most thought provoking SF novels I’ve read this year. Or last year. I haven’t actually felt this excited about aliens as a genre or construct since discovering (only a few decades late) Octavia Butler and Lilith’s Brood a couple of years ago.

Imagine that you have to leave Earth. That votes have taken place. That debates have gone on for over a year and that you, along with everyone else, have directed to a window that, you are told, opens out onto another planet. You have no choice. You—or your government—have already voted. One window–you don’t know which—will bring you to beautiful, peaceful Ad Astra. The other—and this is where you suspect you’re going, as you are neither rich nor influential, brings you to Nea. Nea. Where the gravity bites and all the plants want to kill you. Imagine the tensions that would exist between these two planets. New countries form. Bodies must change to suit new atmosphere, new gravity. Languages evolve. And, over the years, imagine asking why. Why these two planets? Why one Elysium to the other’s hell?

Now imagine that you’re long settled on Nea. Inhospitable country has led to strict borders and local governments, including one particular puritanical outpost on a rain drenched peninsula where you are, as a good young girl, expected to marry and produce enough offspring to flood the rest of your forsaken planet with the right sort of people. The aliens—the Abrax—are long gone. Earth is dead. You are frustrated, stifled, and the only gay in the village. You get out. You leave your sisters and parents and find a way out your country, off your planet. You join an interstellar trade fleet and do not particularly care about the inherent inequalities between planets, just so long as you can get off your own. You meet a beautiful woman. You can see the stars.

You are Marta Grayline, and you are going to have obscene, glorious amounts of character development before is done.

Marta moves from the rather flippant, naive, infuriating girl conjured up by The Star Daughter’s blurb into a questioning, determined, and often powerful woman by the time you see the last of her. I won’t spoil the plot—I can’t, it would go on too long. But watching Marta navigate her way through personal space, as well as the real kind, is a beautiful thing. Her relationships—with her siblings, with her planet, with co-workers and Abrax and the woman she is sure is the love of her life—are all so well drawn that I would forgive Bigelow if plot took a back seat. And it never does. I’m still left breathless by that. Every time I thought I had The Daughter Star figured out—and there were three distinct points where I was sure that I knew where this book was going—I, like poor Marta, was thrown something else. And does the twisting plot, character development, and the novel’s Serious Social Questions make for dull, worthy reading?

Like hell. The Daughter Star is often laugh out loud funny. Novans, as you might expect, have developed whole new avenues in gallows humour. Marta’s complete adoration for a girlfriend she barely ever gets to see—the way she can twist a memory to suit her longing–will touch many readers. Her relationship with Beth—the youngest and least known of her siblings, is also stunning. It was almost unfair that The Daughter Star had an ending to match of the rest of it: self contained enough for satisfaction, but still leading strongly to the other stories Marta has to tell.

Enough of this. Go read.

Link Round Up: May 9 – 15

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Danika Ellis

Autostraddle posted More Than Words: Dyke Pt. 2 — Dyke Dynasty.

Bold Strokes Books posted Building Worlds: A Conversation Between Jane Fletcher and Nora Olsen.

Gay YA posted If Only There Were a Gay [or Lesbian] Version of…

Housequeer posted Queer Young Adult Fiction To Curl Up With.

The L Fest (The Lesbian Music Arts & Comedy Festival) is happening July 19-22nd 2013 in Staffordshire, England.

Queer Books Please posted Episode 17 – Time Travel & Nuns & Willa Cather.

Sistahs On the Shelf posted Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books Dealing With Tough Subjects.

Women and Words posted Cool Stuff Coming Up.

Sarah Diemer posted 125,000 WORDS: Project Unicorn’s Six-Month Anniversary and 125K of Lesbian YA Fiction FOR FREE (Plus Cover Reveal!) and The Mermaid Rib, a Free YA Short Story — Part of Project Unicorn (A Lesbian YA Extravaganza).

Malinda Lo posted Why there’s no HUNTRESS sequel.

Catherine Lundoff posted Bisexual Book Awards info (June 2).

Harley Loco: A Memoir of Hard Living, Hair, and Post-Punk, from the Middle East to the Lower East Side by Rayya Elias was reviewed at Lambda Literary.

The Very Thought of You by S Anne Gardner was reviewed at Lesfic Insomniac.

The Summer We Got Free by Mia McKenzie was reviewed at Autostraddle and Lambda Literary.

I am Your Sister: Season 2 by Ericka K. F. Simpson was reviewed at Sistahs On the Shelf.

Relative Stranger by Barbara Treat Williams was reviewed at Lambda Literary.

For even more links, check out the Lesbrary’s twitter page! We’re also on Facebook and tumblr.

This post has the covers linked to their Amazon pages. If you click through and buy something, I might get a small referral fee.

The Lesbrary

Lesbian and Bi Book News and Reviews

Month: May 2013

Link Round Up: May 21 – 29

Jordan reviews Gay Pride and Prejudice by Kate Christie (and Jane Austen)

Danika reviews Swans & Klons by Nora Olsen

Rie of Friend of Dorothy Wilde interviews Mary of Queer Books Please!

Danika reviews Lunatic Fringe and Hungry Ghost (Tales of the Pack Books 1 and 2) by Allison Moon

Link Round Up: May 15 – 21

Katie Raynes reviews Silhouette of a Sparrow by Molly Beth Griffin

Marcia reviews Dysphoria by Karelia Stetz-Waters

Kit reviews The Daughter Star by Susan Jane Bigelow

Link Round Up: May 9 – 15