Month: June 2012

Alyssa reviews everafter by Nell Stark and Trinity Tam

Posted on by

everafter by Nell Stark and Trinity Tam is an urban fantasy, vampire-and-shifter novel centered around a committed lesbian couple. Valentine is a rich, androgynous medical student whose parents are opposed to her lesbianism, and her girlfriend, Alexa, is a strong-willed, femme law student. They are in an established relationship at the opening of the novel; Valentine is preparing to propose to Alexa when she is attacked and turned by a vampire. everafter takes the science-fiction route to vampires and shifters: they are caused by a parasite and a virus, respectively. Valentine and Alexa work with both police and this universe’s secret vampire organization to track down the vampire who attacked Valentine, while simultaneously fighting to keep their relationship together through the challenges of vampirism, post-traumatic stress, and later the change Alexa goes through to better feed her lover.

What immediately impressed me about everafter is that it balances two strong-willed characters, two halves of a relationship, very successfully. Neither of the two is overshadowed by the other—both have agency in the novel, and they work as a team to face their challenges. Both Valentine and Alexa are distinct, well-rounded characters who carry the story together, and they are also seriously in love and lust with each other. The novel is well-peppered with sex scenes, most of which involve vampiric biting and blood-drinking.

While the world-setting for this story is not very divergent from vampire-and-shifter urban fantasy in general, I personally consider that a sub-genre, and thus don’t see this as a problem. My main criticism, story-wise, is that while the action rises and there is a pivotal fight at the climax, I was never very worried about the characters’ chances of survival. My other criticism is that while there is a single side character of color, besides her, the cast is fairly white, which is unrealistic, considering the novel takes place in New York City.

everafter is, overall, a strong story that I enjoyed reading, with full characters that you will want to see win their battles. It leaves some important questions unanswered at the end, which I hope to see resolved in its sequel, nevermore.

Danika reviews The Horizontal Poet by Jan Steckel

Posted on by

The review copy of this book came with a business card from the publishing company, Zeitgeist Press, and the tagline on that card is “Poetry you can actually read”. And that is true with The Horizontal Poet, to some extent. Some of the poems are very easy to  read and straightforward, while other are more abstract and difficult to follow. Many, however, are medical, describing life inside a hospital. Some of these include medical terminology completely lost on me, which made that tagline a little odd in relation to The Horizontal Poet.

There is a lot of variety in this collection, and some of my favourites are great little encapsulations of a situation, including emotional poem about a hospital during Hurricane Katrina. The author is bisexual, but there isn’t a lot of references to sexuality in The Horizontal Poet. There were a few instances that made me hesitant, however. One poem, “On the Street”, seems to be almost entirely a “transvestite” joke, and another poem refers to “MTV hos”. On the other hand, The Horizontal Poet does occasionally reference disability (the title is a reference to this) and sexuality activism.

I still feel conflicted about this collection, mostly because of the “transvestite” poem, but there were other poems that I wrote down quotes for the Lesbrary’s tumblr.

Link Round Up

Posted on by

      

AfterEllen posted Terry Moore will publish a full-length “Strangers in Paradise” novel in 2013.

Bella Books posted Best Lesbian Romance Lammy – Taken by Surprise and Best Lesbian Memoir Lammy for When We Were Outlaws.

Bonjour, Cass! posted Review & Giveaway: The Letter Q edited by Sarah Moon.

Elisa posted

GLBT Promo Blog posted an excerpt from The Submission (a lesbian BDSM romance) by D. F. Kriger and Sonia Hightower and June is Pride Month!.

      

Kool Queer Lit posted Tigra-Luna LeMar Lesbian Erotica?

Lambda Literary posted

Over the Rainbow Books posted May 2012 Nominations.

Queer Women of Color Media Wire posted Middle Eastern Magazine Celebrates LGBT Arab Voices: “We Give You the Voice of Your Silence”.

Shelly’s LGBT Book Review Blog posted Finding Great LGBT Non-Fiction Books to Review and Top 10 Gay and Lesbian Kindle Fiction as of June 1st, 2012.

Sistahs on the Shelf Literary Promo Blog posted New Book: Living With 3 Strikes Against Me: Life Through My Eyes as Black, Female, and Gay.

      

“Lesbian Novels? More Like….Yeah, No, Lesbian Novels” was posted at Reading Rambo.

“Utah school pulls picture book about lesbian parents from shelves” was reported at LA Times and The Republic.

Carol Anshaw posted here’s a radio interview where shelagh shapiro asks me fascinating questions and I respond boringly and sound like a frog but I’m putting it up anyway.

Sarah Diemer (aka Elora Bishop) posted SEVEN: A Lesbian Snow White–RELEASE DAY! and The Very Big, Epic Post of Lesbian Fairy Tales and Awesomeness: Sappho’s Fables, Volume 1 and the Novellas of Volume 2!

Jae posted Interview with a new publisher.

Catherine Lundoff posted

Malinda Lo posted

Rachel Spangler posted Summertime Fun.

      

The Difference Between You and Me by Madeleine George was reviewed at Bildungsroman.

The Smuggler, The Spy and The Spider by Diana Rivers was reviewed at Lambda Literary.

Camptown Ladies by Mari SanGiovanni was reviewed at The Rainbow Reader.

Danika reviews Eat Your Heart Out by Dayna Ingram

Posted on by

I really wanted to like this book, because I have been looking for lesbian zombie apocalypse books for years (luckily, there are more than just this one now, but still). Luckily, this book is just as good as it sounds. First of all, it’s hilarious. I kept reading out passages to my partner, but I’d only get another sentence in before I wanted to read out more. This is mostly because the main character, Devin, is sarcastic and funny herself.

The zombies appear pretty much from the first sentence, and Devin is already in a lesbian relationship from the beginning, so there’s pretty much no build up to getting to the meat of the story. The zombie action has some of its own mythology, and there is definitely enough gore for a zombie story. In fact, it gets pretty sickening, and Devin sustains a realistic amount of injuries for being a random, untrained person caught in a zombie apocalypse.

What I wasn’t expecting, however, was that the book is pretty much one long lesbian zombie apocalypse Michelle

Rodriguez fanfic. She goes by a different name in the book–Renni Ramirez–but the book is dedicated to Michelle Rodriguez, and it’s a pretty obvious substitution. Renni and Devin fight off the zombies together, using Renni’s movie-gained zombie-fighting skills, and attempt to rescue Devin’s girlfriend.

This is definitely a book I’d recommend, and I look forward to more from this author.

Also, check out the awesome inscription by the author.

Danika reviews The Miseducation of Cameron Post by emily m. danforth

Posted on by

If you follow other les/bi/etc book sites, or have been skimming the link round ups at the Lesbrary, you may have already heard of The Miseducation of Cameron Post. In fact, you may have already heard about it from a mainstream source, because Cam Post is published by a large publishing company (HarperCollins), and it’s been getting reviews all over, including in large newspapers. And that’s exciting, because there are not a lot of lesbian teen books, and it’s the demographic that is probably most in need of books that represent themselves. Not only is this a lesbian teen book that is getting publicity and therefore has a chance of making it into the hands of people who need it the most, it has been getting good reviews. Very good reviews, in fact. Needless to say, I have been really excited to get the chance to read and review it myself.

Cam Post is a big book, especially for teen lit–it’s pushing 500 pages–but I ended the book desperately wishing it was longer. Most of the book is paced pretty slowly, meandering through Cameron Post’s adolescence. It’s less of a coming out story and more of a bildungsroman: a coming-of-age story. Cameron struggles to come to terms with her parents death as well as her sexuality, while being raised by her conservative, religious aunt in a small town in Montana in the early 90s. The strength of Cam Post lies mostly in its protagonist, Cam, a film buff who decorates her childhood dollhouse with small, stolen tokens–weaving miniature gum wrapper rugs and wallpapering with used stamps–while drinking and exploring an abandoned hospital with the guys. Quirky enough to be interesting, but not so much to seem unbelievable, you can’t help but cheer Cam on.

Part of the appeal of Cam is emily m. danforth’s writing. She has a talent for establishing scenes, including all these tiny details that make the book come alive. Cam’s whole world is fleshed out to seem utterly believable–even characters that only appear for a few pages seem well-rounded and interesting. danforth establishes Miles City especially well.

It’s about half way through the book that the main tension of the book appears, and it only really comes to head near the end of the book. When I began to get near the end of Cam Post, I kept wondering how it was going to be wrapped up. And it isn’t, really. But in retrospect, I realized that the end really did fit the arc of the book. But I definitely would have been happy to have more, hundreds of pages more. I think it is unlikely that danforth would write a sequel, but I look forward to her future books either way.

Two small side notes: one is that I enjoyed that Cam Post was not just focused on one relationship. Cameron (minor spoiler) has several relationships throughout the novel, and they are not treated–as lesbian relationships in teen books often are–as if they are the defining relationship of her life. Each is significant, but Cam Post is about her as a person, not as half of a couple.

The other note is that I was pondering the meaning of the title when walking to work (I’ve actually been reading Cam Post while walking the last couple days, unable to put it down, but I got to a pedestrian-heavy spot), and I thought about how universal that “miseducation” is for queer people. We almost all have to first learn a version of the world that doesn’t include us, or that portrays us incorrectly, and then we have to relearn ourselves. The Miseducation of Cameron Post shows a more extreme/literal version of this, but I think it touches on something that speaks to most queer people.

The short version of this is that I adored The Miseducation of Cameron Post. I spent the day counting down when I could read it, reading it while I walked to and from work and on my breaks. I would definitely put it in the hands of any les/bi/etc teen, and I would also recommend it for anyone looking for… well, for a good book! It’s compelling, interesting, and frankly beautiful.

Danika reviews Drawing Love by Juli Jousan

Posted on by

Drawing Love by Juli Jousan treads a fine line. It could easily seem overwrought or juvenile. Drawing Love alternates between the present and a description of the main character, Mo, having a dramatic high school relationship. By relating that in flash backs, and showing that Mo has moved on and grown up since then, it avoids being completely mired in the drama of the situation. Throughout the book are Mo’s drawings, which I don’t really feel comfortable commenting on, because I don’t really know enough about art to critique it. They are mostly line drawings.

Some of the writing, like the dialogue between Mo and her mother, seems a little stilted, but it manages to avoid that most of the time. Drawing Love offers a brief glimpse into a life, mostly showing a college relationship with the flash backs to provide context. There are lots of drawings, large font, and wide spacing throughout the novel, making it an easy 2 hour read.