Avery Curran’s Spoiled Milk is a gothic tale of a girls’ boarding school in 1928. After the tragic death of golden girl Violet, Emily, Violet’s best friend, knows this was no accident. Emily is desperate to prove she was murdered, so she enlists the help of the other girls in her year, including even prim and properRead More
A Sapphic Boarding School Gothic: Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran
By turns haunting, compelling, and illuminating, Avery Curran’s new novel, Spoiled Milk, is perfect for fans of queer Gothic horror and historical fiction. Set in England in 1928, Emily Locke is in her final year at the Briarley School for Girls, an isolated boarding school designed to provide middle- to upper-class girls with accomplished educations. WhatRead More
Shakespeare, Study Hall, and Secrets Worth Killing Over: This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki and Nicole Goux
Wilberton Academy takes its theater seriously. Members of the elite Wilberton Theatrical Society are revered by the student body, and beautiful, talented Elizabeth Woodward is a shining star among them. The whole school is abuzz over the production of Romeo and Juliet that Elizabeth is starring in as the tragic leading lady—until she’s found dead the morningRead More
Hey, Princess: Nobody in Particular by Sophie Gonzales Review
Nobody in Particular (published 2025) is a YA boarding school story about Danni, the scholarship student at a prestigious boarding school in a fictional European country, and Rose, the princess she falls in love with there. Danni keeps her bisexuality hidden due to an intense desire to blend in and avoid the bullying she sufferedRead More
A Queer Boarding School Gothic: Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran Review
Everything about the summary to Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran (out March 10, thank you to Doubleday for the ARC) made me so unbearably excited to read it. “The untimely death of a student at a girls’ boarding school turns out to be the first in a haunting series of escalating supernatural events. A thrilling debut novel aboutRead More
Remember to Remember the Yellowjackets: Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth Review
Emily M. Danforth’s Plain Bad Heroines is a dual-timeline horror that follows the mysterious happenings of Brookhants School for Girls. In 1902, two teenage girls fell in love, both with each other and with the scandalous writing of Mary MacLane, only to die tragically with the book by their side. More mysterious deaths follow, until the schoolRead More
Not-So-Dark Academia: The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
I was very excited to get an ARC for The Incandescent by Emily Tesh, because Some Desperate Glory was one of my top books of 2023. Magical boarding school is a jump from space dystopia redemption arc, but Emily Tesh continues not to disappoint. The Incandescent is a zippy, fresh perspective of a boarding school story that sucked me from the beginningRead More
A TBR Shame Spiral in Six Titles
As a librarian, my TBR (to-be-read) shelf is never ending. Every time I think I am going to crack down on my whole bookshelf of unread books, something amazing comes through the returns chute, or my VERY well-meaning coworkers share something that they think I will love (most times they are right on the money)Read More
5 Sapphic Vampire Books that are Perfect for Spooky Season!
One thing that you need to know about me is that I love vampires! Whether it’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight, Interview with the Vampire, or What We Do in the Shadows, if a piece of media has vampires in it, then I want to consume it. Because of this, I figured that discussing someRead More
A Very Queer Gothic Ghost Story: The Narrow by Kate Alice Marshall
When I got a promotional email about this book, I asked the publisher if there was a queer main character, because I couldn’t tell from the description. It’s funny that I had to clarify, because this is a very queer book: the main character is bisexual, there’s an F/F romance, and there are several queerRead More