Mesmerizing, sickening, echoing-hole-in-your-stomach, roller coaster lurch of a creeping inferno: Vincent Tirado’s We Came to Welcome You: A Novel of Suburban Horror is all that and more. Released in the last quarter of 2024, to the tune of “The Other Black Girl meets Midsommar,” the book takes the banal normalcy of racism and colonialism and twists it until itsRead More
An Engaging and Realistic Queer Coming of Age: Middletown by Sarah Moon
Content warnings: alcohol abuse/alcoholism, sexual harassment by an authority figure, parental neglect, bullying Middletown by Sarah Moon is a middle-grade/on-the-cusp-of-YA novel about 13-year-old Eli, whose mom’s stint in court-ordered rehab leaves her and her 17-year-old sister alone. Eli and her sister Anna are desperate not to be split up, so they lie. They claim their auntRead More
Secrets, Sororities, and Sobriety: Thirsty by Jas Hammonds
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! What would you be willing to do if it meant finding your flock? Jas Hammonds explores this age-old question in their young adult novel Thirsty. Incoming college freshmen Blake Brenner has been with her girlfriend, Ella, since freshman year; they are voted “The CoupleRead More
A Small Middle Grade with a Big Punch: The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James by Ashley Herring Blake
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Sunny St. James has a new lease on life. In her case, this is literal after she receives a heart transplant and finally, finally has a chance to have something close to a normal summer. Swimming in the ocean, staying up late to watchRead More
A Literal Dead Poets’ Society: All That Consumes Us by Erica Waters
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! The days have started getting shorter as darkness takes up more and more space every day. The evening air isn’t quite cold enough to keep you inside, but every gust of wind chills to the bone, and the woods behind my apartment are filledRead More
Susan reviews My Alcoholic Escape From Reality by Nagata Kabi
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link Nagata Kabi is back with My Alcoholic Escape From Reality! The mangaka behind My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness and My Solo Exchange Diary returns with another memoir, this time about being hospitalised for acute pacreatis resulting from her alcoholism. My Alcoholic Escape From Reality feels a lot moreRead More
Meagan Kimberly reviews The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link Detective Roxane Weary is hired to prove a man’s innocence before his death sentence is completed for a crime he’s been claiming he didn’t commit. As she investigates what seems like an open and shut case, she starts to unravel a web of crimes that have gone undetectedRead More
SPONSORED REVIEW: Middletown by Sarah Moon
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link Eli and Anna know the routine. The cops come to the door in the middle of the night, Eli tries to look as young and adorable as possible, then Anna puts on eyeliner, grabs a beer from the fridge, and tries to sweet talk them into looking theRead More
Landice interviews Anna Burke about her book Spindrift
Anna Burke is not just one of my favorite lesfic authors—she’s one of my all time favorite authors, period. I love her dystopian lesbian pirate debut novel so much that I’ve convinced 6+ different friends to read it, essentially turning my Sapphic Bookstagram group chat into the unofficial Compass Rose fan club, and I creditRead More
Mars Reviews Stray: Memoir of a Runaway by Tanya Marquardt
Content warning for child abuse, alcoholism, incest, domestic violence, dissociation. This review does contain spoilers. Tanya Marquardt was sixteen years old when she ran away from the home she shared with her mother, stepfather, and assorted siblings in the small Canadian town of Port Alberni. Her flight was strategic, timed right for when Tanya becameRead More