Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Brooms is a YA graphic novel created by Jasmine Walls (writer) and Teo DuVall (illustrator) and published in 2023 by Levine Querido. It is set in an alternate 1930s Mississippi where magic flows all around, but is heavily restricted. Only certain people are allowed toRead More
Shakespeare, Fae, and Orisha: That Self-Same Metal by Brittany N. Williams
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link At the age of sixteen, Joan Sands possesses exceptional craftsmanship skills that she employs to create and maintain the stage blades for The King’s Men, a theatrical troupe led by William Shakespeare. Joan’s remarkable blade-crafting ability is rooted in her magical power to manipulate metal, bestowed upon her by her guiding deity,Read More
Ungovernable Gender Chinese Fantasy: The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link When a book is described as being about ruthless bandits with unseemly femininity and ungovernable gender, let’s just say that I had little to no choice in devouring every single page of The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang. It’s a queer martial arts political epic fantasy retelling of a Chinese classic called Water Margin. ButRead More
A Queer Indigenous Fantasy with Dragons: To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link The people on the remote island of Masquapaug have lived out of the eye of the colonizers, the Anglish, for many years. That is, until fifteen-year-old Anequs is selected by a dragon hatchling, quickly gaining the ire of the Anglish authorities who have strict parameters around who and how someone might possessRead More
A Bisexual, Magical, Asian American Take on Gatsby: The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo, Narrated by Natalie Naudus
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link In this retelling of The Great Gatsby, Jordan Baker narrates the story from the perspective of a queer, Asian woman adopted by a white couple. Although she runs in elite circles with Daisy and Tom, she is treated as an exotic pet, left on the outside even whenRead More
Vic reviews The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link I will be completely honest—I really do not care very much for The Great Gatsby. This book, however, far exceeds its source material (*gasp* sacrilege!). This is everything I want out of a retelling of a classic novel, and I am so glad I read it. Nghi Vo’s The ChosenRead More
Maggie reviews Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link With a frenetic, Roaring Twenties-type vibe, Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May is set in a post-WWI society where half of society is trying desperately to recover from the devastation of the Great War, and the other half is trying desperately to party hard enough that they forget thereRead More
Carolina reads The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link Buckle up, old sport! The Great Gatsby has entered the public domain, leaving the door open for any author to submit their take on Fitzgerald’s classic. A myriad of sequels, prequels and retellings of the novel have already been published in 2021, or are slated to be releasedRead More
Meagan Kimberly reviews “Every Exquisite Thing” by Cassandra Clare and Maureen Johnson
This story is part of a collection called Ghosts of the Shadow Market, another installment that takes place in Clare’s Shadowhunter universe. For those unfamiliar with this world, the short version is this: A race of people with angel blood running through their veins, known as children of the Nephilim, keep demons at bay workingRead More
Audrey reviews Maplecroft: the Borden Dispatches by Cherie Priest
Lizzie Borden took an axe, and then she killed her father and stepmother, and then she used her inheritance to buy a big house called Maplecroft. Parts one and three of that sentence happened in Fall River, Massachusetts, in the 1890s. Part two is debatable. She was acquitted. In Cherie Priest’s world, there are strangeRead More