There is a peculiar kind of sadness in telling a love story backwards, starting with its end. There’s the tenderness and domesticity of an established relationship, and the inevitable fact of its eventual nonexistence. This love story captures a relationship by chronicling its end. Our Wives Under the Sea, Julia Armfield’s debut novel, is a captivating tale told in alternating perspectives about a couple, Miri and Leah, the latter of whom goes out on a deep-sea exploration and comes back irrevocably changed. The book weaves Miri’s struggle to reconcile the slow slipping away of her wife, Leah, with Leah’s recounting of the events of the deep-sea submersible dive.
Resisting from the Margins in The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe et al.
As someone who enjoyed Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer album and accompanying film, I was thrilled to finally read The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer, an anthology of five stories cowritten by Janelle Monáe with Danny Lore, Yohanca Delgado, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Sheree Renée Thomas, and Eve L. Ewing. This book returns to the dystopian worldRead More
A Toxic, Surreal Roommate Relationship: Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval
Jo, a foreign exchange student from Norway, moves to Australia to study biology at a university. She’s a shy and socially awkward young lady looking for a place to live while studying abroad. Things seem to look up when Carral answers her call for a roommate, giving her a place to live on the outskirtsRead More
A Haunting Gothic About Family in (Climate) Crisis: Private Rites by Julia Armfield Review
As an avid reader of all of Julia Armfield’s fiction, I was eager to pick up her newest novel. From the author of Our Wives Under the Sea (2022), Private Rites (Fourth Estate, 2024) promised to be poignant, haunting, and literary. Set in a future world where environmental disaster has flooded much of the world with ceaseless rains, threeRead More
A Tough But Necessary Read: Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah Review
Content warnings for pretty much everything: violence, gore, racism, incarceration, solitary confinement, self harm, cutting At the time of writing this, it’s barely been three weeks since the 2024 presidential election in the United States, which Donald Trump won by a handy margin. Although Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah came out over a yearRead More
A Future of Dirty Computers: The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monáe Review
This is an entire collection of short stories, but I am only focusing on the titular short story for this review. “The Memory Librarian” follows Seshet, the Director Librarian of New Dawn who monitors citizens’ memories. In New Dawn, the government cleanses citizens of troublesome memories that cause pain, fear and confusion. It allows peopleRead More
10 Sapphic Books to Celebrate Latine Heritage Month & the Spooky Season
September 15th to October 15th is Hispanic/Latine Heritage Month. It happens to overlap perfectly with the spooky season. What better way to celebrate both than with some horror or speculative fiction novels starring sapphic characters? Check out some amazing picks below in no particular order. Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado I’ve reviewedRead More
Cult Leader, Zealot, or Savior?: The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Misery Nomaki (she/they) wields the power to manipulate holystone, an ability only saints or those void-touched have. She believes she is void mad, while the angel that guides her, Ruin, tells her she is the next Messiah. But regardless of what is the truth,Read More
A Meditation On Grief Through a Speculative Lens: Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link I’ve seen this book mainly categorised as horror but after reading it, it feels more like a speculative fiction with elements of horror and sci-fi in it. This book transcends genres: that’s the mark of a phenomenal read! I went into this story expecting an action-packed, horror-strewn plotline and found something muchRead More
Swashbuckling, Time Travel, and Sapphic Romance: Isle of Broken Years by Jane Fletcher
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link The first thing I have to say about Isle of Broken Years is that I didn’t want it to end, and it’s been a while since I felt that way about a book. The second thing you should know is that this isn’t just a book about pirates, though the cover andRead More