As a librarian, my TBR (to-be-read) shelf is never ending. Every time I think I am going to crack down on my whole bookshelf of unread books, something amazing comes through the returns chute, or my VERY well-meaning coworkers share something that they think I will love (most times they are right on the money)Read More
An Open Wound of a Novel: Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah Review
This is a book I respect, and it’s one I struggled to get through. The subject matter is difficult—not only is it set in a near-future dystopia where prisoners fight each other to the death for a chance at freedom, but it also includes footnotes about the real-life atrocities of the prison-industrial complex. I canRead More
The Three Queer Books That Broke My Reading Slump
I will be completely honest—I have been burnt out, to the point where I have been struggling to find joy in reading and even finding reading books for my job a burden. I am sure a lot of you have been feeling the same way. But as I went searching for ways to engage withRead More
Separated Sisters and Warring Gods: The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart Review
Andrea Stewart’s The Gods Below is the start to her new Hollow Covenant trilogy, which follows two sisters in the aftermath of a war between gods. The sisters are not gods—they are ordinary people, forced to flee their home before the prevailing god could change it, and them, into something unrecognizable. While Hakara, the oldest, makes it intoRead More
A Wicked Wonderland: Off With Their Heads by Zoe Hana Mikuta Review
It’s been five years since young witches and lovers Caro Rabbit and Iccadora Alice Sickle were both sentenced to Wonderland, the dark forest where monsters called Saints lurk, for a crime they didn’t commit. In the process of escaping, they break one another’s hearts. Now Icca will stop at nothing to exact her revenge onRead More
Pacific Rim Meets Crier’s War: Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta
Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta is one of those books that somehow passed me by when it came out in 2021. It follows two teenage girls, Sona and Eris, as they try to destroy the Godolia empire from the inside: Sona as one of the students from the Academy who earns a spot as a frighteningRead More
A Fiery Finale: The Lotus Empire by Tasha Suri
In 2021, three brilliant, yellow-covered epic fantasy books came out, all of them with sapphic leads, and thus the Sapphic Trifecta was born. I have read and loved them all (and talked about them here, along with several other Lesbrarians), but I think if I were to pick a favorite, I would have to say TheRead More
A Lush and Lesbian Political Fantasy: The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri
In honor of The Lotus Empire being released on November 12th, I decided to reread The Jasmine Throne and actually continue with the series past the first book. I first read it back in 2021 when it came out and I remember enjoying it, but aside from that, not much stuck in my head. I never got around toRead More
Colonialism and Revolution in Fantasy France: The Faithless by C. L. Clark
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! When I finished The Unbroken by C. L. Clark, I wasn’t sure I was going to continue with the series. It was brilliant, yes: thought-provoking and gut-wrenching, with commentary on colonialism and a passionate, doomed F/F romantic subplot. The strengths of the book, though—theRead More
Gory Bisexual Horror/Fantasy: The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! One thing about a Cassandra Khaw book: I never know what I’m getting into. Even two-thirds of the way through this, completely invested in the story, I still kept thinking, “What genre is this? And also, what’s the plot?” Julie is a 30-year-old exorcistRead More