Woodworking by Emily St. James is a novel for mere mortals. It takes place in the shadow of the 2016 presidential election, and of all the goings-on of those few months, of all the things said and seen; Woodworking is set in rural South Dakota, against a backdrop of bad community theatre and doomed local progressiveRead More
Heart & Heist in Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto
The cover of Makana Yamamoto’s (they/she/he) Hammajang Luck boldly proclaims its niche as “Sci-fi Heist.” Yamamoto further delineates their novel as a “cyberpunk lesbian space heist,” so it’s safe to say that I was all the way intrigued. The first page yanked me in with the phrase, “Mother just grounded me for war crimes.” One unexpected snort-laughRead More
Social Bureaucracy as Utopia Building: Quill & Still by Aaron Sofaer Review
To read Quill & Still by Aaron Sofaer (she/her) is to discover a revolution fought not with swords or spells, but with intake forms and breakfast routines—a village where every stone house stands by mutual agreement (and where the enchanted toilets probably have union representation). Whatever Sophie expected, what she gets is smaller and stranger:Read More
Surprise and Delight Yourself with Silk & Steel: A Queer Speculative Adventure Anthology
This review is long overdue, considering how much I adore Silk and Steel: A Queer Speculative Adventure Anthology. Published in 2020 and edited by Janine A. Southard, this beautiful collection of seventeen stories contains “big names and bold new voices” (full author list in tags). The book features warriors and gentlewomen and centers queer women’s strength—andRead More
A Lush and Sensual Greek Myth Retelling: The Palace of Eros by Caro de Robertis
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! It’s no secret that Anne Carson has inspired many a sapphic love affair with ancient Greek myths, or that stories like Malinda Lo’s Ash, Sarah Diemer’s The Dark Wife, and a vast world of AU fanfiction showed that the threads from which most modern myths areRead More
When We Find Our Bodies in the Cornfield: What Stalks Among Us by Sarah Hollowell
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link I don’t know if this book will be for everyone, but it was a perfect read for me. The premise of this YA horror novel is that two friends get lost in an ever-shifting corn maze, and then they find their own dead bodies in the maze and have to figure outRead More
Danika reviews Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link I loved this book, but it’s such a tricky, contradictory one to recommend. It’s about aliens and demons and curses, but it’s also a grounded, realistic character study. It’s hopeful and comforting, but it also contains abuse, bigotry, and a lot of brutal descriptions of transmisogyny. This disparateRead More