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
Feral Eldritch Ballerinas: I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me by Jamison Shea
Laure is a ballet dancer who has devoted herself entirely to her profession. She spends every waking moment honing her skill. And she is perfect. But as she soon learns, perfect is not enough. It doesn’t matter that she’s the best, because she’s fighting to rise up in an institution that sees her working classRead More
5 Sapphic Vampire Books that are Perfect for Spooky Season!
One thing that you need to know about me is that I love vampires! Whether it’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight, Interview with the Vampire, or What We Do in the Shadows, if a piece of media has vampires in it, then I want to consume it. Because of this, I figured that discussing someRead More
Queer Friendship and Active Shooter Drills: Fight + Flight by Jules Machias
Trigger warnings: anxiety, panic attacks, bullying, grief, gun violence in schools Fight + Flight has two main characters, Avery and Sarah, who take turns narrating. They attend the same school and each begins the book interested in the other. Bold, active Avery is openly pansexual; she knows she has a crush. And, as a middle schoolRead More
Cell Block Tango, the Thriller Novel: Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Rose Wilding’s Speak of the Devil is a thriller with a simple premise: seven women (three of them queer) had very good reasons to murder Jamie Spellman, but only one of them left his decapitated head in an abandoned hotel room. Which was it?Read More
A Brutal and Brilliant Space Opera: Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! I thought about reviewing Emily Tesh’s Some Desperate Glory on here last month, right after I finished reading it, but I decided against it because I couldn’t figure out how to talk about in any sort of coherent way. My initial Goodreads review was mostly swearingRead More
A Land of Gods, Monsters, and Talking Cats: Monstress Vol. 1 by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Oftentimes bleak but consistently awe-inspiring, Liu’s world of steampunk, art deco fantasy is a marvel to behold. This is definitely one to check the trigger warnings for. Set in a world where humans and Arcanics (a cross between humans and a mystical race calledRead More
Two Takes On Intersectional #MeToo YA Lit: What Works and What Doesn’t
Trigger warnings (apply to both books): sexual assault, grooming, minor instances of racism (mostly microaggressions) Trigger warnings (Missing Clarissa): kidnapping, gun violence Trigger warnings (For Girls Who Walk Through Fire): ableism, supernatural violence This past month, I read two books that struck me as remarkably similar. Both were multiple perspective YA books that dealt withRead More
A Blood-Drenched Queer Space Opera for the Ages: Redsight by Meredith Mooring
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Better buckle up your buttered biscuits, because you’re in for one hell of a ride. Meredith Mooring’s debut novel Redsight, freshly published February 27, 2024, arrived studded with blurbs. The two that ultimately pulled me were: “The heretical, genre-defying daughter of Killing Eve and Dune,” (Kemi Ashing-Giwa) andRead More
F/F Jamaican-Inspired YA Fantasy with Dragons: So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Any other Eragon girlies out there? Check out So Let Them Burn, a Jamaican-inspired F/F young adult fantasy that delivered from beginning to end! This moving and action-packed debut has made me a Kamilah Cole fangirl and I can’t wait for the second book inRead More