From the award-winning author of The Marrow Thieves (2017) comes a novel about queer community, survival, and joy—with a twist. Cherie Dimaline’s VenCo (2023) is a compelling story about the (super)natural powers of women. VenCo follows orphan Lucky St. James, the daughter of a bad-ass Métis woman living with her grandmother, Stella, in Toronto. When Lucky discovers that the twoRead More
A Compelling Queer Indigenous Fantasy: To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose Review
I love a magic school book, and I love a dragon book, and I especially love a dragon school book. To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose was such a great entry to the genre. I couldn’t put it down, and I keep thinking about its innovative world-building. Anequs is the protagonist I didn’t know I’veRead More
A Lush Horror Novella Embracing Death and Renewal: Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris Review
“Why did people need to be in nature to process the things that happened to them? Maybe it was because what was thought of as wild did not require a veil—it saw you as you truly were: an animal skulking among animals.” Though I haven’t read a lot of horror, there is plenty of horrorRead More
Memoir of a Queer Coast Salish Punk: Red Paint by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! “I no longer wish to be called resilient. Call me reckless, impatient, and emotional. Even Indigenous. Call my anything other than survivor. I am so many more things than brave.” One of my favourite books I’ve read this year is Thunder Song, LaPointe’s newestRead More
A Sapphic and Metis Secret Garden: Into the Bright Open by Cherie Dimaline
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Into the Bright Open by Cherie Dimaline is part of MacMillan’s Remixed Classics series, which has diverse authors reimagine beloved classics through their own perspective. In this offering, Dimaline remixes The Secret Garden, setting it in Canada and filling it with Metis characters andRead More
The Song the World Needs: Thunder Song by Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! This was one of my five star predictions for the year, and I’m happy to say it lived up to that expectation. Thunder Song is a collection of essays about being a queer Indigenous women in the U.S. today. It begins with LaPointe talkingRead More
A Genre-Bending Haunted Bookstore Story: The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! I kept hearing people rave about this book when it was new. I heard it was a cozy read about someone working in a bookstore haunted by the ghost of a customer. So imagine my surprise when the book begins with the main characterRead More
A Māori and Coast Salish Reimagining: Tauhou by Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttall
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link I am a white settler living on the territory of Lək̓ʷəŋən-speaking Peoples, and I’ve been looking to read more Indigenous books this year, especially ones by local authors. So when I saw this book, I had to pick it up. It’s by an author of Māori and W̱SÁNEĆ descent, and it reimaginesRead 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
Til reviews The Stone Child by David A. Robertson
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link The Stone Child is book 3 in the Misewa Saga, following foster siblings Eli and Morgan, who discover that they can travel to another dimension when they put Eli’s drawings on a wall in their foster-home’s attic. Here, in Misewa, they meet animals who wear clothes and live inRead More