Caitlin Starling’s Yellow Jessamine is the novella to reach for on a dreary day. It was gray and rainy in late October when I read it, so the setting was perfect. Starling’s novella is a thoroughly gothic horror with light sapphic undertones, so if the yearning™ isn’t your thing, this may not be the title for you. Read More
Mushrooms, Magic, Pirates, and More: The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach
The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach is a Maori-inspired, queer, biopunk fantasy novel. It’s pitched as Gideon the Ninth meets Black Sun, so be prepared for very expansive and detailed world-building that doesn’t really stop to explain as you dive into it. That world-building is incredibly unique. In the port city of Hainak, metal is taboo,Read More
Traumatized, Angsty Bisexuals: 6 Times We Almost Kissed (and One Time We Did) by Tess Sharpe
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Penny and Tate’s mothers have always been best friends—but the same cannot be said about the daughters’ relationship. Having clashed their entire lives, they must now put aside their bickering when Penny’s mom agrees to become a liver donor to Tate’s mother, as bothRead More
A Memoir of Medical Bias—Bless the Blood: A Cancer Memoir by Walela Nehanda
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Bless The Blood: A Cancer Memoir is a striking book that gets under your skin and stays there for days afterward. Though billed as a YA book, the writing and story hold a depth of feeling and insight that will engage far older readers, too.Read More
Decadence and Decay: Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk, translated by Heather Cleary
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk, translated by Heather Cleary (March 5, 2024) is a considered, sorrowful, masterfully atmospheric story about mourning and the costs of surviving outside of society’s protective frameworks. It is also the story of two women in conflict with their inherited and inherentRead More
anna marie reviews Salt Fish Girl by Larissa Lai
Salt Fish Girl by Larissa Lai is a gooey treat of a book, full of nauseating smells, intoxicating feelings and so much juicy/murky/enticing fluid. In other words it was really great, even better than The Tiger Flu (2018) in my opinion, which I read last year and enjoyed immensely too. Both novels in fact shareRead More