I’d been in a reading slump. Few things caught my interest, and an overwhelmingly churlish fog dissuaded me from the more enthusiastically underlined titles on my extensive TBR. (I didn’t get a literature degree just to pompously say “I was being too big of a jackass to read a book I might love”, but theRead More
Shakespeare, Study Hall, and Secrets Worth Killing Over: This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki and Nicole Goux
Wilberton Academy takes its theater seriously. Members of the elite Wilberton Theatrical Society are revered by the student body, and beautiful, talented Elizabeth Woodward is a shining star among them. The whole school is abuzz over the production of Romeo and Juliet that Elizabeth is starring in as the tragic leading lady—until she’s found dead the morningRead More
A Queer and Feminist Murder Ballad: The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar Review
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone is a modern sapphic classic, but I somehow I ended up reading El-Mohtar’s new novella first. It did not disappoint—in fact, it was the final push I needed to finally pick up This is How You Lose the Time War, andRead More
A Deliciously Toxic Sapphic Gothic Thriller: A Slow and Secret Poison by Carmella Lowkis
You know when a bunch of factors work together in your favour to make a book particularly immersive for you? This was my experience, earlier during a holiday weekend (late October), when I read Carmella Lowkis’s sophomore novel A Slow and Secret Poison (February 10, 2026). A wonderfully atmospheric and twisty, somewhat slow-burn sapphic horror thrillerRead More
This Title is Not a Legal Defense: No Body No Crime by Tess Sharpe Review
No Body No Crime by Tess Sharpe is about being gay and doing crime—the crime in question being murder. In it we follow Mel Tillman, a rural PI, who has been tasked with finding the whereabouts of Chloe Harper, who was her girlfriend when they were teenagers and has been missing for years. On Chloe’s sixteenthRead More
A Bloody Gothic Love Story: My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna Van Veen
Roos has been kept small her whole life. First, when she was five years old, hiding under the floorboards to help her mother fake seances. Then, when she got older and began participating in these seances herself, she was kept underfed to appear younger and more delicate. But while her abusive mother kept her isolated,Read 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
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
A Cozy Sci-Fi Murder Mystery: Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite Review
I was quite excited to get an ARC for Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite (on sale March 18!), because I am already a huge fan of her queer romances (Hen Fever is a DELIGHT). So when I heard her newest novella was not only sci fi, but a cozy murder mystery (two genres that I think need moreRead More
A Fresh, Queer Take on Crime Fiction: Behind You by Catherine Hernandez
Amazon Affiliate Link In her new novel, Catherine Hernandez weaves gripping suspense and affecting emotion into a story of trauma, survival, and healing against the backdrop of one of Canada’s most terrifying historical events. Behind You (HarperAvenue 2024) follows Alma, a Filipina woman working as an editor for a true crime series called Infamous, which features sketchesRead More