This book feels like a teen holiday romcom movie in book form—if those movies ever starred queer Black main characters. We switch between two points of view: Dominique, who took off to New York City to chase his influencer dreams; and Andy, his cousin, who stayed in their hometown and is pursuing her career goalRead More
Love and Rocket Science: To the Moon and Back by Eve Noble
Finally, someone taps the vast romantic potential of mathematics and physics. To The Moon is a historical fiction novel set during the Space Race following two NASA employees: Katrina Ivanova, a mathematician and Soviet turncoat, and Gloria Johnson, a brilliant Black physicist stuck working as a secretary for her white peers. Katrina fled from the SovietRead More
A Lesbian Vampire Classic: The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez
I picked up The Gilda Stories a few years ago after it was published as a Vintage Classic in 2023: 32 years after its release. I was curious to see what book had been blurbed by Sarah Waters and excited by the fact it was a black lesbian vampire story. To describe it with thoseRead More
Falling in Love in a Historic Theater: If We Were a Movie by Zakiya N. Jamal Review
When I read YA, particularly contemporary YA and most especially sapphic contemporary YA, I always approach it from the perspective of my sixteen-year-old self. If this book had existed when I was a teenager, what would I have thought of it? Zakiya N. Jamal’s If We Were a Movie would have caught my attention right from the Hannah MontanaRead More
A Must Read for Fans of Carmen Maria Machado: Sympathy for Wild Girls: Stories by Demree McGhee Review
This is a collection of stories about queer Black women that is going to live in my head for a long time. The opening story is about a young woman who has been raised on stories about violence and murder of Black girls like her at the hands of men. She’s consumed by this narrative,Read More
Sci-Fi as Protest: Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson
I don’t think I’ve ever been so pulled into a novel by the dedication, author’s note, and epigraph. (The epigraph to Part One is “i did not come to preach of peace / for that’s not the hunted’s duty.” -Danez Smith.) In the author’s note, Johnson explains the inspiration behind this book coming from her time participating in the 62-day sit in at Nashville’s Tennessee State Capitol. I found myself writing down multiple quotations, including…
A Noir Mystery with Angels and Demons: Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk Review
In 1940s Chicago, a serial killer known as the White City Vampire spreads fear as everyone wonders who his next victim will be. Helen Brandt, an exiled magician deemed a warlock for her crimes against the Brotherhood, is on the case. But as the mystery unfolds, her past comes back to haunt her, and sheRead More
A Triumph of Sapphic Sci-Fi Romance: No Shelter But The Stars by Virginia Black Review
My first love was science fiction. I was raised in a Star Trek family, my favorite video game is Mass Effect, and The Expanse is my favorite TV show. However, it’s taken me a while to combine my love of science fiction and my love of romance in the books that I read. I have recently rectified this with VirginiaRead More
An Open Wound of a Novel: Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah Review
This is a book I respect, and it’s one I struggled to get through. The subject matter is difficult—not only is it set in a near-future dystopia where prisoners fight each other to the death for a chance at freedom, but it also includes footnotes about the real-life atrocities of the prison-industrial complex. I canRead More
Resisting from the Margins in The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe et al.
As someone who enjoyed Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer album and accompanying film, I was thrilled to finally read The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer, an anthology of five stories cowritten by Janelle Monáe with Danny Lore, Yohanca Delgado, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Sheree Renée Thomas, and Eve L. Ewing. This book returns to the dystopian worldRead More
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