Last month, I was listening to Book Riot’s All the Books! and Vanessa Diaz recommended I Make My Own Fun by Hannah Beer (she/her). Vanessa described the main character as an A-list actor who is viewed as the golden child of the movie industry, but is actually a raging sociopath. The A-lister has a one-night stand with a bartender and becomesRead More
Obsession and Betrayal in Academia: Seduction Theory by Emily Adrian Review
Short, punchy, and dramatic, Emily Adrian’s Seduction Theory (Little, Brown 2025) is a character-driven novel about obsession, devotion, and manipulation set against the backdrop of academia. Adrian’s novel is structured as the MFA thesis of Roberta “Robbie” Green, who becomes embroiled in the betrayals and intricacies of her thesis advisor’s marriage. Simone is the enigmatic and beautifulRead More
Grief, Obsession, and Isolation: One’s Company by Ashley Hutson Review
Content warning: this review includes discussion of suicide, violence, and rape. Ever since I heard the premise of One’s Company, it’s been on my TBR. So when I was choosing the first book to read in 2025, this seemed like the perfect kind of weird, thought-provoking literary fiction I was in the mood for—and itRead More
All of the Sapphic Vampires, None of the Victorian Homophobic Overtones: An Education in Malice by S. T. Gibson
Like many queer women, I’m sure, I have a strange relationship with the original Carmilla. On the one hand, sapphic vampires are objectively sexy. On the other hand, the way the danger she poses is framed as inextricably linked to her queerness (and her foreignness) is, well, unpleasant, to say the least. I always say thatRead More
If Shirley Jackson Wrote Severance: Last to Leave the Room by Caitlin Starling
The first thing you’ll notice when reading the blurbs for Last to Leave the Room is that every reader seems to think it’s a different genre. Isaac Fellman says it “reads like Shirley Jackson writing an episode of Severance.” Apparently, this is a technothriller sci-fi speculative gothic horror novel, which I can’t say I’ve ever seenRead More
Blood, Sex, and Poetry: An Education in Malice by S. T. Gibson
“She kissed me with a martyr’s agonized desperation, like I was the only sword she ever wanted to fall on.” I’ve been eagerly anticipating this book since it was announced: I loved Gibson’s queer polyamorous take on Dracula’s wives in A Dowry of Blood, and I have written several times about my complicated relationship withRead More
An Obsessive Female Friendship Turns Dark: Girls on Fire by Robin Wasserman
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Two teen girls, Hannah Dexter and Lacey Champlain, become obsessively attached to each other in their rebellion and vengeful agenda against Nikki Drummond. Then dark secrets about what happened to Craig, the boy found dead at the beginning of the novel, begin to unravel,Read More
An Obsessive, Erotic, Vampire Gothic: An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! I feel as though all my adult life I have been wishing for a Carmilla retelling that really illuminates the heart of the original novella—the obsession, intensity, eroticism, and power struggle between Carmilla and Laura that makes the text one of the most lasting examples ofRead More
A Sapphic Space Opera of Smoldering Obsession: These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! If you’re looking for a queer space opera chock full of complex politics, smoldering obsession, and ever escalating revenge, These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs is a worthy entry into the field. Renowned hacker Jun “Sunstep” Ironway has gotten her hands on a piece ofRead More
Mermaid Obsession Story Treads Water: Chlorine by Jade Song
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link In their debut novel Chlorine, Jade Song (she/they) draws upon her twelve years of lived experience as a competitive swimmer to craft the dark and complex inner world of Ren Yu, a Chinese American teenager coming of age in Pennsylvania and stepping—or rather, swimming—into her true destiny: becoming a mermaid. While Song is clearlyRead More