Tag: LGBTQ

Review: Nightstrider by Sophia Slade

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A matcha latte over a money tree and Nightstrider cover

Alexis: 

It’s been 6 years since Anna and I started this blog! She’s actually pregnant and hasn’t been reading as much as usual, hence why she hasn’t been posting any reviews lately. But I’m looking forward to being an aunt, and I hope you enjoy another fantasy review from me.

Nightstrider is a dark fantasy with well-written characters, different POVs, and interesting magic/worldbuilding. ⁣

⁣One of my favorite aspects of this book is definitely the magic and worldbuilding. The dream magic felt so unique, as did the two different realms. 

I loved all of the main characters. Sometimes I struggle with books with a lot of POVs, but Slade balanced them well! I was interested in all of their backstories and motivations, and their dialogue and banter was great.

There’s a portal, an evil night creature/king who can cross the boundary between the dream and waking realms, LGBTQ representation, and hints of romance. There’s also some political intrigue and plenty of action. Nightstrider had everything I was in the mood for, and I’m looking forward to reading the sequel. 

To stop a vicious demon’s conquest, nightmares and humans will band together.

From Sophia Slade, stunning new voice in epic fantasy, comes this dark, romantic tale about a world split in two and the four misguided souls who must come together to save it, for fans of Holly Black and Hannah Whitten.

⁣VERDICT: 🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒/5 ⁣

Alexis: Last, Now, Next—June

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A library copy of both Yellowface and Winter's Orbit sit next to a Kindle copy of The Bone Shard War on a black bookshelf

Alexis: Last, Now, Next📚

Last: Yellowface by R.F. Kuang 

If you want to read a dark satire with an unlikeable main character that delves into the craziness of both the publishing and the writing world (especially online and on Twitter), this is for you. This book was crazy, timely, and easy to fly through!

Now: Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell 

I’m only about a quarter way through this one, but it’s an LBGTQ, political space opera with an arranged marriage. I’ve been getting back into space operas and sci-fi, and I like this one so far. It’s definitely a little slow-paced and heavy on the politics (as expected!), but I’m enjoying the worldbuilding and the two main characters. 

Next: The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart

I might have already started this one! I went out of town recently for the first time in a long while, and I started reading it on my plane ride home. I loved the first two, and even though I honestly don’t remember much of what happened in the second book, I’m excited to dive back into this final installment and learn how this trilogy concludes. 

Have you read any of these books, or are they on your tbr?

Review: The Buried and the Bound by Rochelle Hassan

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A library copy of The Buried and the Bound rests on a white marble table with a notebook, a gold pen shaped like a feather, and a candle in a tin.

Alexis:

Hello! 👋 I’m back! 

I feel like I haven’t posted a review in ages! (In reality it hasn’t been that long, right?)

I read a lot of books while recovering from lung surgery, but I didn’t have the energy or urge to review a lot of them. It doesn’t help that spring has sprung early, bringing my allergies in full force along with it.

However, I recently read The Buried and the Bound by Rochelle Hassan and enjoyed it.

Synopsis:

The story has three different main characters and POVs: Aziza, Leo, and Tristan. 

Aziza is a hedgewitch. She helps protect her town of Blackthorn, Massachusetts from all sorts of magical creatures and mischief. 

Leo is cursed. On his sixteenth birthday, he was cursed to forget his true love, and now he feels the absence in his life and spends his free time searching for answers. 

Tristan is lost. After being kicked out of his family home, he made a bargain with an evil hag, and now he finds himself not only doing her dirty work and bidding, but being a necromancer, as well. 

Review: 

This is definitely a very me story. It has a host of magical, whimsical creatures, but it also has a dark tone and deals with a lot of dark themes. It touches on topics such as homophobia, death, and memory loss. 

The main characters are all well-rounded and flawed. I love how this book has the found family trope but without feeling tropey at all. It has several plot twists that are well-done. And I like the LGBTQ representation.

My main critique is that the middle of the story dragged, and the slow pace meant that it didn’t do a great job of holding my attention. However, I really enjoyed both the beginning and the ending, and I think the ending set up for a fantastic sequel. I guess we’ll see!

VERDICT: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Review: A Song of Salvation by Alechia Dow

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A Kindle with A Song of Salvation rests on a gray blanket next to a READ notepad, a white hat with a puff ball, and a dilute calico cat

Alexis:

A Song of Salvation is my first Alechia Dow read, and umm, wow! I’m going to have to check out her other books!

A Song of Salvation is a YA space opera. It has two primary POVs. The first is Zaira, the last of her species known as nightweavers…oh, and she’s also the reincarnation of a god named Indigo. The second is Wesley, an empath and a smuggler who loves ditching school to fly his ship. When Zaira and Wesley’s fates collide, alongside a celebrity podcaster named Rubin Rima, the fate of the universe rests in their hands as they vow to help Zaira defeat the god of destruction named Ozvios and the tyrannical Ilori Emperor. 

This is such an adventurous and heartfelt read. The worldbuilding is honestly phenomenal. All of the different planets and species are so well fleshed out.

I love how it feels like a classic YA read, as all of the characters have tragic backstories and a lot of angst, but it also tackles colonization, genocide, and war. On top of the main theme of handling and embracing your emotions, this book focuses on love, togetherness, family and friendship, fate, and justice. 

A Song of Salvation has a found family, romance, including a gay romance, and plenty of song magic and space travel! It even has a cute octopus-like alien named Blobby. It was a fun, fast-paced story with lovable characters and a hard-hitting heart and soul. 

I know Dow’s other two books take place in the same universe and probably ease the reader into the world(s) more, so I’m looking forward to checking those out.

VERDICT: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to Inkyard Press and Netgalley for providing me an ARC for review!

Pub Date: July 11, 2023

Review: This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

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Anna: What would you do for love?

This is How You Lose the Time War is the most imaginative book I’ve read in a long time. It reminded me why sci-fi  is such an amazing genre that I need to explore more. It also has LGBTQ+ rep!

Summary: Red and Blue are change agents who work for rival time traveling agencies–Blue for the Garden, a vast organic consciousness. Red works for the Agency, a Technotopia. While traveling to different “strands” of history and time to change history, they start to write each other letters and slowly fall in love.

The actual rules and word building in This is How You Lose the Time War is super confusing at first and very slowly revealed to the reader. I didn’t know what was going on for a while, but that’s okay. This book is more about the lyrical writing and the vivid, visceral images of time traveling and Red and Blue’s romance that literally stands the test of time. This is ultimately a “star-crossed” lovers narrative, but it’s not tropey at all. This book takes work to get through, but it’s rewarding and worth it.

I also think it’s so cool that this book was co-written! As a writer, I can’t imagine creating such a complex world and story in the first place, but also doing it so seamlessly with another writer.

Verdict: 4 stars

Review: Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

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A paperback copy of Girls of Paper and Fire is being held in front of a pool.

Alexis:

Whew, this book was darker than I expected; it centers around sexual abuse.

As a member of the lowest cast, the Papers, Lei is human. But because of her golden eyes, Lei is stolen from her home to become a Paper Girl—a concubine for the Demon King. 

I liked the sapphic romance that developed, though it felt a little insta-love to me. The worldbuilding was interesting, but this book was definitely tough to get through at times because of the dark themes. That being said, the best thing about this book is how well Ngan handled the dark themes. She depicted the upper caste, called the Moon caste, well by making them grotesque and sometimes beautiful through Lei’s eyes. Reading about the demons/Moon caste was also uncomfortable at times, especially since they’re described as humanoid animals. But through the grotesque demons, the castes, and the horrors of the Paper Girls, Ngan hammered themes of survival, rebellion, and sexual abuse/violence.

While I liked the plot, some plot points would’ve worked better if revealed earlier. Because the main plot was introduced late in the story, the beginning felt a little slow and meandering in comparison.

If you can handle dark themes, and are looking for a sapphic YA fantasy with strong female characters, then I think this one will work for you.

VERDICT: ⭐⭐⭐/5

TW: Sexual abuse/violence/rape, sex trafficking, a forced medical exam, physical abuse, animal death, war themes

Review: Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

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Alexis:

Cemetery Boys follows Yadriel, a trans teenager trying to gain acceptance from his family. His family are brujos, a group of magical Latinos who can summon ghosts and help them pass on to the afterlife. When Yadriel’s cousin, Miguel, dies, Yadriel tries to prove he’s a real brujo by summoning his ghost, but he accidentally summons Julian, a fellow schoolmate, instead.

I really enjoyed reading this book. The characters and dialogue are Thomas’ greatest writing strength. I loved getting to know Yadriel and his family, and the energetic characters of Maritza (Yadriel’s cousin) and Julian were so much fun to read. It’s hard to find stories with fully fleshed out characters, but I loved Cemetery Boys’ main characters.

The overall story gives me Coco and Gods of Jade and Shadow vibes. I enjoyed reading about the history, magic, and culture of the brujos, as well as the Día de Muertos. The themes of family, acceptance, and love shine on the page.

That being said, the pacing was a little slow, and the climax felt rushed in comparison; most of the plot was thrown into the last couple of chapters, and the action scenes aren’t quite punchy enough. Since I prefer character-driven stories, this didn’t affect my overall rating. However, it’s something to keep in mind if you prefer plot-driven stories over slow-burn and character-driven stories.

It’s also worth noting that while Maritza plays an important role in the book, the women are literally told in the beginning to stay home and cook. Yadriel makes it clear that he does not approve of this; however, the healing and cooking role of the women characters does not change throughout the book. So while the story focuses on breaking gender roles/stereotypes, I found it a little odd that Yadriel breaks stereotypes, but Maritza and the other women are still forced to be stuck in their traditional roles.

But bottom line, this was a fun, lively, and heartwarming read. If you’re looking for snarky characters, trans and LGBTQ representation, with a heavy dash of magic and ghosts, then I recommend picking this up!

VERDICT: 👻👻👻👻.5

Review: Ghost Wood Song by Erica Waters

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Alexis:

Synopsis: Ghost Wood Song follows Shady Grove, a teenage girl living in rural Florida. Like her father before her, Shady can call ghosts from the grave by playing her father’s fiddle. When her brother is accused of murder, Shady decides to play the fiddle to figure out what really happened, straight from the mouth of the dead.

I really enjoyed the overall Southern gothic vibes of this book. It’s creepy and haunted, dealing with ghosts, an evil figure that rises from the dark, a haunted house, and plenty of death. But in between the dark sections, Waters writes about a teenage girl trying to figure out her feelings for one of her best friends, Sarah, and a boy named Cedar. While I’m not one for love triangles, I found that this one didn’t bother me too much. 

I also enjoyed how Waters wrote about music. All of Shady’s friends play music, too, and I liked hearing about their playing styles; I felt like I learned a lot about bluegrass music. Waters’ love for music shone on the page and through Shady’s character.

My one main critique is that I feel like I didn’t get to know some of the secondary characters as much as I wanted to. We’re told that Orlando is Shady’s best friend, but I feel like he rarely shows up in any scenes. Near the beginning, we’re told what Shady is like from Sarah’s mouth, before I felt like I really knew Shady as a character. Throughout the book, a lot of the characters are kept at a surface level, which is a shame, because I enjoyed all of the characters and wanted to get to know them better.

Despite this, I like Water’s writing style. I enjoyed her imagery and descriptions, and the way she writes about the setting really allows it to come alive on the page. 

If you’re looking for a murder mystery with themes of family, grief, love, and music, with LGBTQ representation, then pick this up!

VERDICT: 👻👻👻👻/5

Review: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

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Alexis:

What a beautiful love story. Because at the core, this is a love story. Because anyone who knows Greek mythology knows that Patroclus was Achilles’ lover, not “friend.”

Millers’ love for Greek mythology shines in this book. And she knows the ins and outs of it. She captures the Ancient Greek culture and society so well, including the Ancient Greek definition of honor, that I felt like I was being transported back to my three years of Latin class. Everything stays true to Homer, even her creative liberties.

And Miller’s writing is just beautiful, even when it’s brutual; she doesn’t sugarcoat the Trojan War. Even her similes are steeped in the culture, and Patroclus often compares things to olives (which makes my half-Greek self happy!)

I think writing from Patroclus’ POV was a brave choice, but it worked really well for the story as a whole. And I loved how Miller filled in the gaps of he and Achilles’s story. And their relationship is really the shining star of the book. Miller just poured emotion and chemistry and characterization into them.

The only thing that bothered me ***(small spoiler, but really, this story has been around forever) is that Achilles’ heel was taken from the story, and he dies in a different way. I understand why Miller changed it, but I think it’s such an iconic part of Achilles’ story that it felt a little off.

VERDICT: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonsky

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Book Review: Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonsky

Gracefully Grayson is a great example of the magic of middle grade fiction. Grayson’s parents died in a traumatic car crash, and he now lives with his aunt and uncle and cousins. Grayson has always wanted to be a girl. He knows that acting this way means getting in trouble and getting bullied, so he just daydreams. That is, until he tries out for the part of Persephone, the lead part in the school play.

This book is heartbreaking because Grayson feels lost both in his gender identity and an outsider in his adopted family. Grayson is caught between many adults who believe they are acting with his best interests in heart. When Grayson’s teacher, Mr. Finn, casts Grayson as the lead female role in the play, his Aunt Sally thinks Mr. Finn overstepped his boundaries. In their own household, Uncle Evan disagrees with his wife’s actions, and hints that Grayson’s aunt and uncle might know more about Grayson than they let on. There are lots of opinions from the adults in Grayson’s life about who he should be, which made me think critically about a parent’s role in their children’s identity.

At the end of the book Grayson is still using female gender pronouns, but wears clothes meant for girls. I can’t speak from experience of course, but I think this is a believable account of a young transgender child’s journey. I say this because I also recently read George by Alex Grino and it had hardly any conflict. Everyone was instantly accepting of George and her transition, which is great, but didn’t feel realistic.

This book is everything beautiful about middle grade fiction and more. Grayson faces bullying, he’s outcast by a friend, and he’s ridiculed for his identity. The end of the book also doesn’t wrap everything up perfectly but points Grayson in a hopeful direction, which I think is important in middle grade fiction for a slightly older audience, like this one.

VERDICT: 4 books