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
Beware the Fae (Even When Gay): The Pale Queen by Ethan M. Aldridge
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! I just want to bask for a moment in the reality that we live in a time where an author can go to a major publisher and say, “Here’s my pitch for a book: a sapphic gothic romance graphic novel for middle schoolers” andRead More
A Sapphic Nova Scotia Gothic: A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! I couldn’t tell you why, but I am obsessed with sapphic selkie stories. There are very few of them out there, but I leap on the chance to read any that I stumble upon. Don’t get me wrong: I like sapphic mermaids, too, butRead More
A Lush Bisexual Vampire Gothic: Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk, originally published in 2020 and translated this year by Heather Cleary, is a dramatic and lushly gothic novel about two women who a string of circumstances going back over a century bring together in modern day Buenos Aires. Yuszczuk revelsRead More
A Southern Gothic Coming of Age: Something Kindred by Ciera Burch
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! When I picked this up, I was expecting a horror novel. And that makes sense, because it does have a lot of ghosts in it. But the ghosts are more a part of the setting than the plot; while they’re literally present in theRead More
Gothic Horror Infused with Queer Rage: Grey Dog by Elliott Gish
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Elliott Gish’s debut queer Gothic novel, Grey Dog (ECW Press, 2024), is one of my most anticipated releases of the year. Intense, foreboding, and atmospheric, Grey Dog is the latest in queer horror, and it’s a must-read! Set in 1901, the novel is structured as the diary ofRead More
Gorgeously Gothic Sapphic Vampires: An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! After sinking my teeth into A Dowry of Blood early last year, I was ecstatic to learn we were going to get more queer, gothic vampires from S.T. Gibson. Once again we are thrown into a sumptuous tale of power, secrets, and blood, this time setRead More
An Obsessive, Erotic, Vampire Gothic: An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! I feel as though all my adult life I have been wishing for a Carmilla retelling that really illuminates the heart of the original novella—the obsession, intensity, eroticism, and power struggle between Carmilla and Laura that makes the text one of the most lasting examples ofRead More
A Feminist, Latin American Vampire Gothic: Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk, translated by Heather Cleary
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Recently translated into English, Marina Yuszczuk’s queer vampire novel, Thirst (Dutton, March 5, 2024), is partly what I’d hoped for in a vampire fiction, and at the same time, it was nothing like what I’d expected. Although it’s a Gothic, vampire novel on the surface, ThirstRead More
Decadence and Decay: Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk, translated by Heather Cleary
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk, translated by Heather Cleary (March 5, 2024) is a considered, sorrowful, masterfully atmospheric story about mourning and the costs of surviving outside of society’s protective frameworks. It is also the story of two women in conflict with their inherited and inherentRead More