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 Pressure Cooker of a Childhood: Hiding Out by Tina Alexis Allen
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Usually, I review novels for this blog, ideally young adult or middle grade speculative, and that’s representative of my reading choices. This adult memoir is outside the norm for me. I can’t very well review it as an expert. So take my dabbler’s opinionRead More
Join the Henchfolk Union: Strictly No Heroics by B.L. Radley
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link Strictly No Heroics is a YA urban fantasy novel that treats “super” as an adverb as much as a noun. It introduces a world of supers—superheroes, supervillains—who are super dangerous to normies (non-powered humans) and super helpful to the forces of gentrification. Main character Riley has simple desires: earn enough money for therapy,Read More
The Complexity of Being a Queer Refugee: From Here by Luma Mufleh
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link Trigger warnings for this book: suicide attempts and ideation, homophobia, violence Like a lot of Westerners, when I hear about countries with laws against homosexuality, I respond with instinctual aversion: “What a terrible place! I hope any queer people there can leave!” I imagine impediments like the law and its enforcers, economicRead More
A Cult in the Woods—Or Worse? The Wicked Unseen by Gigi Griffis
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link Audre doesn’t fit well in the conservative small town to which she’s moved. She’s from New York City. She’s a lesbian. She’s a determined skeptic. And she’s the daughter of an occult researcher and a mortician. So when the preacher’s daughter, Elle, disappears, suspicion falls on Audre’s family. She works to findRead More
Sapphic YA Romance in a Haunted House: The Girls Are Never Gone by Sarah Glenn Marsh
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link The Girls Are Never Gone by Sarah Glenn Marsh is a YA supernatural horror novel. Its protagonist, Dare, is just beginning her summer internship restoring an old house and recovering from a breakup with her boyfriend. She plans to use the summer to launch a podcast about the house’sRead More
A Not-So-Magic Sapphic YA Romance: Improbable Magic for Cynical Witches by Kate Scelsa
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link Content warnings: homophobia (from antagonists), drug abuse (marijuana, alcohol) My experience with Improbable Magic for Cynical Witches stems from a core misunderstanding about what this book is. The summary explains that Eleanor doesn’t believe in magic, but her life will be changed by mysterious forces, that magic will arrive. It’sRead More
Concentrated Adorableness in a Queernorm World: The Tea Dragon Society by Kay O’Neill
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link The Tea Dragon Society is a short graphic novel composed of the most concentrated adorableness I have ever encountered. It centers around Greta, an outgoing, compassionate girl training to become a blacksmith—though she sees the profession as somewhat outdated. Rescuing a tea dragon brings her to tea brewersRead More
Til reviews The Gathering Dark edited by Tori Bovalino
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link The Gathering Dark is a collection of folk horror short stories. I went into this book expecting the folk horror short stories. The queerness of those stories came as a delightful surprise. I will own outright that whether or not this counts as a sapphic read is debatable. To me,Read More
Til reviews Into the Bloodred Woods by Martha Brockenbrough
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link Trigger warnings: gore, torture, death, mutilation, sexual assault, child abuse, violence, harassment… and likely others I’m forgetting. This is a relentless work. Imagine a story that understood the true horror of the old fairy tales, the depths of yearning and human pain that crafted them, and the wonderRead More