This review contains spoilers. Countess by Suzan Palumbo is a short science fiction novel that is a love story to the West Indies and its people even lightyears and generations away from the islands of Earth. It follows Virika Sameroo, a soldier for the Æcerbot Empire that controls and subjugates people like Virika just as theRead More
A Brutal Colonial Horror Story: To the Bone by Alena Bruzas
To the Bone is the story of Ellis, an indentured girl in the Jamestown settlement of the Virginia colony. Ellis aspires toward little more than goodness; born poor in the late 1500s, she can neither read nor count, but understands the world as preachers sketch its edges. She works hard as a servant to the semi-prominentRead More
An Immersive Steampunk Mystery: A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark
A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark is many things: a steampunk mystery, an anti-colonial historical, an at once dark and whimsical fantasy, and more. But if I had to sum it up in one word, it would be fun. This book gives the reader plenty to chew on while immersing them in a rich world, anRead More
A Toxic Polycule on a Hostile Planet: This World is Not Yours by Kemi Ashing-Giwa
When The Lesbrary received an ARC of This World is Not Yours by Kemi Ashing-Giwa, I had to pick it up. This science fiction novella, which came out September 10, 2024, takes place on a colony world far in the future and involves space corporation politics, a planet with an unusual ecosystem that probably should not haveRead More
F/F Jamaican-Inspired YA Fantasy with Dragons: So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Any other Eragon girlies out there? Check out So Let Them Burn, a Jamaican-inspired F/F young adult fantasy that delivered from beginning to end! This moving and action-packed debut has made me a Kamilah Cole fangirl and I can’t wait for the second book inRead More
Creating Utopia in Love After the End edited by Joshua Whitehead
“Tomorrow will be kinder,” I whisper as I am swept into the rushing river of my dreams. —”The Ark of the Turtle’s Back” by jaye simpson Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction, edited by Joshua Whitehead, is a follow up to the anthology Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time. TheseRead More
Haunted by the Past: She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Horror is a very broad genre, and, I am inclined to say, a particularly personal one, seeing as what scares one person may not scare another, or, on the other hand, it might scare them too much. I myself love a good haunted house,Read More
Colonialism and Revolution in Fantasy France: The Faithless by C. L. Clark
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! When I finished The Unbroken by C. L. Clark, I wasn’t sure I was going to continue with the series. It was brilliant, yes: thought-provoking and gut-wrenching, with commentary on colonialism and a passionate, doomed F/F romantic subplot. The strengths of the book, though—theRead More
A Māori and Coast Salish Reimagining: Tauhou by Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttall
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link I am a white settler living on the territory of Lək̓ʷəŋən-speaking Peoples, and I’ve been looking to read more Indigenous books this year, especially ones by local authors. So when I saw this book, I had to pick it up. It’s by an author of Māori and W̱SÁNEĆ descent, and it reimaginesRead More
Swashbuckling, Time Travel, and Sapphic Romance: Isle of Broken Years by Jane Fletcher
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link The first thing I have to say about Isle of Broken Years is that I didn’t want it to end, and it’s been a while since I felt that way about a book. The second thing you should know is that this isn’t just a book about pirates, though the cover andRead More