The cover of Makana Yamamoto’s (they/she/he) Hammajang Luck boldly proclaims its niche as “Sci-fi Heist.” Yamamoto further delineates their novel as a “cyberpunk lesbian space heist,” so it’s safe to say that I was all the way intrigued. The first page yanked me in with the phrase, “Mother just grounded me for war crimes.” One unexpected snort-laughRead More
Cozy Meets Eldritch Horror in Direct Descendant by Tanya Huff
A force to be reckoned with, Tanya Huff has been writing books for nearly forty years. I grew up among her worlds, inhaling words and dreaming of places that would welcome me one day. I still have tattered copies of No Quarter (1996) and Summon the Keeper (1998) on my bookshelves. So, it’s not much of a surprise thatRead More
Meet Your Next Fantasy Comfort Read: Walk Between Worlds by Samara Breger
Samara Breger made her debut in 2021 with Walk Between Worlds, a funny, relatable, fantasy romance that gently soothes the little broken part in all of us. The book is widely advertised with the tagline that it “will make you laugh even as it keeps you on the edge of your seat,” and I’ll enthusiastically secondRead More
Queer, Revelatory Joy in The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag
Already a fan of Molly Knox Ostertag’s The Girl from the Sea, I had a good feeling about the weighty tome that is The Deep Dark. Friends, this poignant graphic novel delivered and then some. It’s like someone translated the sensation of waiting for the other shoe to drop and described the steps someone would take toRead More
Horror that Lingers: We Came to Welcome You by Vincent Tirado Review
Mesmerizing, sickening, echoing-hole-in-your-stomach, roller coaster lurch of a creeping inferno: Vincent Tirado’s We Came to Welcome You: A Novel of Suburban Horror is all that and more. Released in the last quarter of 2024, to the tune of “The Other Black Girl meets Midsommar,” the book takes the banal normalcy of racism and colonialism and twists it until itsRead More
Surprise and Delight Yourself with Silk & Steel: A Queer Speculative Adventure Anthology
This review is long overdue, considering how much I adore Silk and Steel: A Queer Speculative Adventure Anthology. Published in 2020 and edited by Janine A. Southard, this beautiful collection of seventeen stories contains “big names and bold new voices” (full author list in tags). The book features warriors and gentlewomen and centers queer women’s strength—andRead More
A Bittersweet Supernatural Romp: Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk Review
At the close of 2024, I offer up my favorite read of the year: C.L. Polk’s Even Though I Knew the End. This novella catapulted me through five acts in the span of 133 pages, and it hurt in the best possible way. Settle in for a gritty noir detective story: January 1941, Chicago. The coldRead More
Finally, the Canonically Queer Lady Knight We Deserve in The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond
Charlotte Bond’s dark fantasy novella, The Fireborne Blade, is a beautifully straightforward dungeon crawler until it isn’t. Protagonist Sir Maddileh is a rarity as a knighted woman and she’s in dire need of a truly spectacular feat to reclaim her honor and restore her standing at court. Enter her current foolhardy quest to retrieve the Fireborne Blade. The onlyRead More
Dark Academia Ft. Sapphic Longing: In the Roses of Pieria by Anna Burke
Before we embark on our journey, a disclaimer: Anna Burke is a former professor and a friend, which is why I hesitated to write about In the Roses of Pieria. But who am I to second guess optics, and why should I let that get in the way of sharing one of my favorite moody OctoberRead More
Stories About Brave Women Who Don’t Take Shit from Anyone: The One Hundred Nights of Hero by Isabel Greenberg
Amazon Affiliate Link We all have our preferred coping methods. Mine is returning to comforting favorites: books that changed me, those old familiar stories that still move me, no matter the intervening years. These last seven years, Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel The One Hundred Nights of Hero has been waiting quietly for me to pick it upRead More