From the first line this was glorious and beautifully tender. A lyrical Gothic tale with strong fairytale elements about loneliness and love, and how From the first line this was glorious and beautifully tender. A lyrical Gothic tale with strong fairytale elements about loneliness and love, and how the two intertwine.
"Loneliness can be something other people do to us, and something we do to ourselves."...more
From the first line, I knew Godkiller was going to be enchanting, and it was. A gorgeously intricate 'Her father fell in love with a god of the sea.'
From the first line, I knew Godkiller was going to be enchanting, and it was. A gorgeously intricate world populated by humans and gods, led by engaging characters (a godkiller! a baker-knight! a noble! a god of white lies!) and bound with the compelling underlying theme threaded throughout of what people will give up for the ones they love.
Kat Delacorte really went 'I am going to write a book filled with so many hot people'
Set in the remote Italian hilltop city of Castello, a place soakeKat Delacorte really went 'I am going to write a book filled with so many hot people'
Set in the remote Italian hilltop city of Castello, a place soaked in history and isolated from modern society, With Fire in Their Blood is a decadent Gothic tale about discovering your past to unlock your future . . . and falling in love with many beautiful people.
(I mean, that scene in the bathtub? iykyk but oh my god I am aggressively Team Liza. Sorry Christian and Nico. I love you both too.)
(rep: bisexual heroine; both M/F & F/F relationships)...more
I am emotionally WRECKED - Lies enchanted me through and through, and beyond being without a doubt one of my favourite reads of This book. This book!!
I am emotionally WRECKED - Lies enchanted me through and through, and beyond being without a doubt one of my favourite reads of the year, I think it'll stick with me for a long time. The writing style and narrative voice alone has me enthralled, and I thought it an accomplished debut.
It's also left me epically depressed but in a very poignant and bittersweet way so that's fine <33 I will now look at daffodils and cry <333
Taking the narrative thread of Penelope's twelve hanged maids and weaving a new story set generations later (so, not a retelling of The Odyssey), Lies is about balances of power and how a curse borne of grief and anger can echo through centuries, creating cycles of sorrow. There is also romance, and there is love and desire, and there is a beautifully tragic man and two wrathful women!! There is bisexual rep!! I am truly in love with this book, and I will be pushing it everywhere.
� 5 stars �
"We are more than our actions," said Leto. "We are the way we love others, and the way they love us back."
'Because I am the last of my kind at the beginning of hope'
Being a relative newcomer to Vuong, I was pulled into his orbit by Andrew Garfield's procla'Because I am the last of my kind at the beginning of hope'
Being a relative newcomer to Vuong, I was pulled into his orbit by Andrew Garfield's proclamation of wanting to marry him after hearing Vuong on a podcast (and Vuong's great response). So I put in a pre-order for Time Is A Mother and picked this up for prose study. I'd seen On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous displayed in the windows of every bookshop a few years earlier, but never fully jumped onto the ship until the beginning of this year (to note, yes, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is now on my bedside table, waiting to be read). Time Is A Mother is a beautiful collection, tenderly rooted in the relationship between a mother and son. Evocative, compelling and filled with striking imagery that I've heard is a hallmark of Vuong's, I'm looking forward to diving into his backlist.
'Everyone knows yellow pain, pressed into American letters, turns to gold'
'Because the fairy tales were right. You'll need sorcery to make it out of here'...more
Darkly comedic and so so funny, Dial A For Aunties was a treat. I'm glad Netflix has already picked up film rights, because this will work SO well on Darkly comedic and so so funny, Dial A For Aunties was a treat. I'm glad Netflix has already picked up film rights, because this will work SO well on screen. The hilarity of the mess Meddy gets into, and how the situation ends up increasingly tangled, really had me cracking up. Plus the strong familial bonds between Meddy and her aunties, and then Meddy and Nathan's sweet relationship . . . not to mention the little sapphic side surprise at the end!
Dial A For Aunties is a perfect laugh-out-loud summer read, and I utterly recommend. ...more
I loved this. I've really been craving a light YA rom-com book, and this fit the bill exactly. I flew through it in twenty-four hours and had a reallyI loved this. I've really been craving a light YA rom-com book, and this fit the bill exactly. I flew through it in twenty-four hours and had a really good time doing so. Sugiura's writing style is really engaging, and I loved how the fake dating trope was subverted? I also loved the slow buildup of the relationship between Nozomi and her love interest, and became quite invested in the two of them. Sugiura also engages with cultural attitudes to queerness in a really interesting and thought-provoking way.
Would definitely recommend if you're looking for a YA sapphic novel featuring the fake dating trope.
> 4 stars
Thank you to the publishers for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review!...more
This is a light and quick contemporary YA featuring sapphic horse girls that's a great summer read. I really liked the whole idea behind this one and This is a light and quick contemporary YA featuring sapphic horse girls that's a great summer read. I really liked the whole idea behind this one and it did feature some key rom-com tropes. Plus I quite liked the two narrators, Piper and Kat.
For those thinking this is a YA rom-com, it's not really - it's more a YA contemporary. There are rom-com tropes like misunderstandings and I'm-going-to-set-you-up-except-now-this-has-backfired-because-I-have-feelings-instead, but for most almost half the book, the characters are focused on different people. There's light-level yearning but it's not sapphic yearning (or it is in theory, but it's not the exquisitely classic top-tier sapphic yearning that goes on absolutely forever).
I did notice, however, that a large portion of the supporting wlw characters are rather . . . intent when it comes to intimacy, and it feels like it could be tied into the negative stereotypes about queer people being promiscuous and players. And Kat thinks she could be demiromantic (which is great, yay for demi rep!), but there was some casual acephobia from some characters. Furthermore, Kat's thoughts about being demi do seem to discarded in the latter half the book.
Overall I did enjoy this one, because it was about horse girls and it fits really nicely into that little horse book niche whilst also adding a little LGBTQ+ rep. It's nothing necessarily amazing or impactful, but it's light and I sped through it quickly. It's a good companion to the horsey books I read when I was in my early teens.
Look, at the end of the day . . . publishing, if you start releasing more sapphic horse girl YAs (riders falling in love on the show circuit! girl falling in love with cute stable girl at her new colorado riding retreat! rivals to lovers cowgirls trying to save their ranch from being bought out! equestrian sapphics competing for the olympics! sapphics at boarding school doing equestrian extracurricular! heartland but gayer! etc!) I will read.
rep: lesbian heroine; demiromantic lesbian love interest; lgbtq+ side characters
*
finally . . . representation for sapphic horse girls
Thank you to the publisher for a copy in exchange for a honest review!...more
I'm not sure what exactly it was about this novel, but I loved it so so much. I very nearly rounded up to 5 stars.
Maybe it was the way Cho masterfullI'm not sure what exactly it was about this novel, but I loved it so so much. I very nearly rounded up to 5 stars.
Maybe it was the way Cho masterfully evoked Malaysia, from the soup-like heat to the chatty gatherings of aunties to the local deities. Or maybe it was Jess' own character arc, balancing post-university joblessness and an unsurety of where to go next with being a lesbian unsure how to come out to her parents.
That said, this novel was also very dark in places! It does have a fair deal of violence (death, physical abuse, one (?) incident of near sexual abuse), so heads up to anyone wanting to read.
So there's a whale that calls at a 52-hertz frequency, and it's called the world's loneliest whale because no other whale uses that frequency to commuSo there's a whale that calls at a 52-hertz frequency, and it's called the world's loneliest whale because no other whale uses that frequency to communicate. That's how I feel about this book: it has a specific frequency and it will resonate deeply with readers who are also on that frequency. Specific individuals will find a home in this book.
Honey Girl is a novel about love. It's much more than the 'got married to a girl in Vegas' pitch, though that pitch is very effective at reeling people in. I expected a rom-com and it's actually a story about discovery. It's about the love your friends provide you with, the love you can get from a found family, the love you receive from your significant other, and most importantly: the love you show to yourself. It's about how plans can be derailed, and how happiness isn't always in the form of the best-paying job at the most esteemed company, despite what society would have you believe.
Grace Porter is an incredibly human character. Many readers have related to her feelings of loss and confusion and her unsurety of where she belongs (furthered because of the fact she's a Black academic in the highly-white field of astronomy). The feeling of being at a crossroads is extremely common in many individuals currently because of the entire pandemic, but you can experience that confusion of 'where do I belong' at any stage of your life. I've been experiencing over the last few months, trying to decide where I want from life, looking over two paths that lead in different directions. As a reader, I appreciated Honey Girl for letting me see my own problems from a different perspective and I think many others who are grappling with the same thing will too.
Yet interestingly enough, it wasn't Grace I related to the most but her love interest Yuki Yamamoto. Mainly it's because Yuki is desperately trying to support someone she loves, but she also knows that person needs to look inward before they can look outward. It's a tough situation to be in, and it's a long and arduous process where there is nothing you can do but be patient and kind and wait for the other person. But Yuki, with her effusive optimism and her late-night radio shows beamed into the darkness of the night . . . she's such a slice of solace, a girl with the most infinite patience. (I will also admit I think there could've been a good opportunity for her to be called 'Hoshi' or have it has a middle name - hoshi meaning star - but yuki, meaning snow, also works in a different way. Also, not as catchy without that alliteration.)
Morgan Rogers is an incredibly talented writer of character and prose. For sure, some people won't like their writing style. In the acknowledgements, Roger's literary agent Holly Root puts it along the lines of it being like a blue house that others will want to inhabit and others won't. And there were points where I thought to myself surely no one talks like this when reading Yuki and Grace's extremely literary and beautifully-written texts and thoughts. But you know what, it's a style choice and it's extremely beautiful writing that serves the book's overall theme well. Also, I have written some extremely dramatic and purple-prose-y messages in my time.
I think many readers will find comfort in Honey Girl. There's so much I could write about this book that I've barely touched on here - the wonderful side characters, the wonderful range of rep, the use of late-night radio stations and orange farms as background settings to emphasise themes like loneliness and happiness. It's a good book to muse over, and captures the feelings of discontent and unsurety so many people struggle with but never know how to handle, because society has taught us all to just keep pushing on. Honey Girl shows that it's okay to step back and breathe - and that we should prioritise ourselves more, before we burn ourselves out to a husk. Morgan Rogers is incredibly talented, and I cannot wait to see what they write next.
I'm in the middle of a five-star book streak and it's honestly wild but I CANNOT STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS BOOK AND MY LOVES ZOSIA AND MARYNKA <3
AliciI'm in the middle of a five-star book streak and it's honestly wild but I CANNOT STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS BOOK AND MY LOVES ZOSIA AND MARYNKA <3
Alicia Jasinska really came through here. I utterly loved her first book (The Dark Tide), but this is hands-down my favourite so far. She's developed upon the strengths of her first book, as well as the weaknesses, and it's resulted in a really strong second novel. I breezed through this - The Midnight Girls really filled the sapphic cat-and-mouse rivals-to-lovers hole that was started by Killing Eve, and has character dynamics which reminded me a lot of The Untamed.
You'll absolutely adore The Midnight Girls if you like:
- rivals to lovers playing cat-and-mouse (as mentioned) - monstrous girlfriends who really are pretty monstrous - everyone is arguing, all the time - characters who cause chaos and just flirt shamelessly - dual protagonists who are like chalk and cheese: one is reckless, brash and flirtatious; the other is pensive, calculating and withdrawn. - gorgeous, wintery worldbuilding with Polish influences. - witches, the kind with iron teeth and claws - 'I don't like her at all, don't be silly' - aka denial - side M/M relationship which is best friends to lovers to enemies except obviously they still have tortured feelings for each other <3
The ending also allows room for a companion novel (I'd love to see Beata get her own story/romance, especially as she's a very cool character and I loved the dynamic between her and Marynka, but bless her she was often a third wheel) so I'm going to focus on manifesting that.
Honestly, absolutely a title I'll be recommending to everyone.
*
ALICIA JASINSKA SERVING CHAOTIC SAPPHIC VILLAIN ENEMIES TO LOVERS THANK YOU SO MUCH <3333...more
a collection of queer gothic short stories from an British indie publisher, with some really talented authors who I'd love to see more work from!a collection of queer gothic short stories from an British indie publisher, with some really talented authors who I'd love to see more work from!...more
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