I picked up But Not Too Bold by Hache Pueyo because I heard it was a fun sapphic horror novella, and because I’m always eager to read more genre fiction in translation. (This was originally published in Portuguese and was translated by the author.) At barely over 100 pages, it’s a quick sprint, perfect to read inRead More
Vampires, Murder Mysteries, and Loneliness: The Midnight Shift by Seon-Ran Cheon, Translated by Gene Png
At its core, this is a book about the kind of loneliness that persists even in a life filled with relationships. I read it on honeymoon—almost a year late because of a cancer treatments—and understood immediately what Seon-Ran Cheon’s vampires were hunting. Cancer ghosting taught me: you can be most alone with a contact listRead 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 Sapphic & Sanguine Vampire Gothic to Satisfy All Your Cravings: Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk
Are you searching for a spine-tingling sapphic read to round out your October TBR? Look no further! Thirst is a gorgeous Gothic novel that follows two women across two different time periods as they grapple with their seemingly insatiable desires. Written by Marina Yuszczuk (she/her) and translated by Heather Cleary, Thirst is told in two parts. In Part One, aRead More
10 Sapphic Books to Celebrate Latine Heritage Month & the Spooky Season
September 15th to October 15th is Hispanic/Latine Heritage Month. It happens to overlap perfectly with the spooky season. What better way to celebrate both than with some horror or speculative fiction novels starring sapphic characters? Check out some amazing picks below in no particular order. Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado I’ve reviewedRead More
We Have Always Been Here: 3 Essential Historical Sapphic Reads
As Pride Month draws to a close here in the states, here are three historical fiction books that blend insightful writing with action/adventure, twisty thriller tension, and bon-mot brilliance, respectively. So much of history is about teaching us what has been possible, about what sorts of lives have survived, been mythologized, codified, recognized as worthyRead 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
Tove Jansson: Life, Art, Words by Boel Westin, translated by Silvester Mazzarella
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! A queer, iconoclast, anti-fascist, anti-war comic artist, and joyfully adventurous woman, the Tove Jansson brought to life by Boel Westin’s considered pen is a complicated, innovative creative in resolute pursuit of independence—in both her art and romances. Meticulously researched but rarely dry, this isRead More
Scattered Shreds of Sapphic Poetry—If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho by Anne Carson
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! My girlfriend’s and my 10-year anniversary was this month, and I figured it was well past time we bought our own volume of Sappho. For those who don’t know, Sappho was a poet from the island of Lesbos who lived around the turn ofRead More