I have been eagerly awaiting this book since the moment Jake announced it on Instagram as a YA (arguably, New Adult) novel about a cross-country train journey (shoutout to the Amtrak Empire Builder, which I’ve never ridden anywhere near the distance the route actually spans, but have caught a leg of), an ex-Mormon (samesies), and aRead More
Grief, First Love, and the Power of a Really Good Meal: This Feast of a Life by Cynthia So
This Feast of a Life by Holden So, writing as Cynthia So, explores grief, identity, first love, and the power of a really good meal. Spanning a year and some change, the story follows Auden, who has only recently begun to explore their nonbinary identity, and Valerie, who is still reeling from the death of herRead More
It’s All in the Cards: Saturn Returning by Kim Narby
Saturn Returning centres around three friends (Trace, Silvia, and Jordan) who we follow in two timelines, past and present. In the past, we see how they first meet at college, how Jordan begins to come out of her shell and explores her sexuality; how Trace is a sucker for girls and falls hard when she fallsRead More
A YA Paranormal Romance with Wings: On the Wings of la Noche by Vanessa L. Torres Review
I love shapeshifter characters for the many dualities they can represent, and I also like reading about lonely, troubled girls, so my paranormal pick for this October was the young adult novel On the Wings of la Noche by Vanessa L. Torres. Estrella (Noche) Villanueva straddles two worlds. At school, she’s a science whiz who keeps toRead More
The Redemption of Daya Keane by Gia Gordon Review
This book is so delightfully, perfectly messy. Titular character Daya lives in a small, conservative town in Arizona, surrounded by small-minded, conservative classmates and a small-minded, conservative mom. It’s a tough place to be queer. When Daya begins a friendship that turns to something more with megachurch poster-girl Beckett Wild, she might be making moreRead More
A Romp through New York City: Roaming by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki
In July, my fiancée and I had an opportunity to go to [words] Bookstore in Maplewood, New Jersey. I hadn’t been to [words] in several years, but we were in the area on a Saturday and stopped by on a whim. It was just as beautiful as I remembered. After wandering through the store for a while, I sharedRead More
Jane Austen Meets Queer History: I Shall Never Fall in Love by Hari Conner Review
This Pride Month, I wanted to highlight I Shall Never Fall in Love by Hari Conner, a YA historical romance graphic novel that is one of my favorite comics I’ve read this year. I feel that it’s important to recognize that we have always been here, and not without opportunities for love and personal expression. George, theirRead More
Sugar, Spice, and Suffragettes: When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O’Neill
I admit, I am tired of feminist retellings. Or rather, books marketed as powerful treatises on female rage, when in reality, they are often little more than palatable, watered-down morsels of women’s empowerment, lacking any nuance. Unfortunately, even fictional empowerment remains a privilege usually afforded to classically beautiful, relatively upper-class white women, who enjoy maximumRead More
An Exploration of Queer Muslim Diasporic Identity: The Last One by Fatima Daas
I snagged Fatima Daas’s The Last One because someone—I forget both where and who—mentioned it had won France’s Prix de Flore. Look, I’ll admit it, I’m a magpie for any book that makes the French literary crowd uncomfortable enough to shower it with accolades. What blindsided me? Three hours hunched over the book in my café’s corner,Read More
A Quietly Mythic Coming-of-Age Novel: The Archer by Shruti Swamy Review
The Archer moves with the methodical, recurring, and emotionally controlled intensity of mastered movement. In this debut novel, Shruti Swamy resists spectacle in favour of scrutiny—of the body, of memory, and of the hidden labour of becoming someone you were assured you couldn’t be. Set in mid-century Bombay, The Archer follows Vidya, a girl drawn to kathak dancingRead More
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