Caitlin Starling continues to wow with The Starving Saints, a dizzying yet lush horror novel set during a siege of a fantastical medieval fortress. At the start of the novel, the siege has run long. Provisions are depleted, water is short, and even the resident order of nuns cannot conjure up enough of a miracle toRead More
An Utterly Strange and Utterly Beautiful Murder Ballad Retold: The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
The River Has Roots, Amal El-Mohtar’s highly anticipated solo debut novella, was released in March 2025. Like a ravening beast, I fell upon my preorder package and tore through the novella in a single sitting. It’s 100 pages exactly, from the very first beautiful linocut print to the last, so it isn’t a Commitment. I’llRead More
Power, Politics, and Passion: Black Salt Queen by Samantha Bansil Review
Black Salt Queen had everything I want out of a fantasy novel right now. It’s a story steeped in political intrigue, lush world-building, and dynamic characters who feel as real as they are formidable. At the center of the story, we’ve got Hara Duja Gatdula, the aging queen of Maynara who can literally move theRead 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
Lush, Atmospheric Queer Historical Fiction: A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland
A lush, atmospheric queer historical fiction for fans of Portrait of a Lady on Fire and The Birth House, Rose Sutherland’s A Sweet Sting of Salt (Dell 2024) is the perfect read to cozy up with this fall. Sutherland’s queer retelling of the folktale The Selkie Wife follows Jean, a midwife in a Nova Scotia village who is as renowned for herRead 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
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