Emily M. Danforth’s Plain Bad Heroines is a dual-timeline horror that follows the mysterious happenings of Brookhants School for Girls. In 1902, two teenage girls fell in love, both with each other and with the scandalous writing of Mary MacLane, only to die tragically with the book by their side. More mysterious deaths follow, until the schoolRead More
Zombies, OCD, and Finding Good Where You Can: If We Survive This by Racquel Marie Review
Racquel Marie’s If We Survive This is in some ways a familiar story. Set in an alternate present where rabies has mutated into what is ultimately a zombie-fying disease, society has collapsed into an apocalyptic wasteland. Following the disappearance of their father, Flora and her brother, Cain, decide to follow him up to the cabin they vacationedRead More
Falling in Love in a Historic Theater: If We Were a Movie by Zakiya N. Jamal Review
When I read YA, particularly contemporary YA and most especially sapphic contemporary YA, I always approach it from the perspective of my sixteen-year-old self. If this book had existed when I was a teenager, what would I have thought of it? Zakiya N. Jamal’s If We Were a Movie would have caught my attention right from the Hannah MontanaRead More
Beyond Pride and Prejudice: The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet by Lindz McLeod
Despite what the title suggests, Lindz McLeod’s The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet (out April 29th) is in fact a Pride and Prejudice retelling that centers Charlotte Lucas, Lizzie’s best friend, who marries the dull Mr. Collins. Set four years after the original novel, McLeod’s story begins with Mr. Collins’s death, a rather somber start that quickly brightens upRead More
The Little Things that Add Up: The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite Review
Olivia Waite’s The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows is the second book in her Feminine Pursuits historical romance series, and although they are connected loosely, one can easily start here. Waspish Widows centers on beekeeper Penelope and printer Agatha, two women in their 40s who form a deep friendship through caring for a colony of bees that happenedRead More
Separated Sisters and Warring Gods: The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart Review
Andrea Stewart’s The Gods Below is the start to her new Hollow Covenant trilogy, which follows two sisters in the aftermath of a war between gods. The sisters are not gods—they are ordinary people, forced to flee their home before the prevailing god could change it, and them, into something unrecognizable. While Hakara, the oldest, makes it intoRead More
A Chilling YA Horror: What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould Review
Courtney Gould’s What the Woods Took is a creepy YA horror that follows a group of teenagers who are sent on a hike through the woods as part of an experimental wilderness therapy program: an abusive, exploitative practice with very little oversight. Even before the supernatural horrors began, we have teenagers getting kidnapped out of theirRead More
A Fiery Finale: The Lotus Empire by Tasha Suri
In 2021, three brilliant, yellow-covered epic fantasy books came out, all of them with sapphic leads, and thus the Sapphic Trifecta was born. I have read and loved them all (and talked about them here, along with several other Lesbrarians), but I think if I were to pick a favorite, I would have to say TheRead More
All of the Sapphic Vampires, None of the Victorian Homophobic Overtones: An Education in Malice by S. T. Gibson
Like many queer women, I’m sure, I have a strange relationship with the original Carmilla. On the one hand, sapphic vampires are objectively sexy. On the other hand, the way the danger she poses is framed as inextricably linked to her queerness (and her foreignness) is, well, unpleasant, to say the least. I always say thatRead More
A Small-Town Haunting: The Dark We Know by Wen-yi Lee
Wen-yi Lee’s The Dark We Know follows Isadora Chang, an art student who left her small hometown after the deaths of two of her best friends. Two years later, she returns for the funeral of her abusive father, where she encounters her last surviving friend, Mason. Mason tells her that he suspects their friends were in fact murderedRead More
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