Nona broke my heart.
Like any fan of the Locked Tomb Series, my gaze was focused on Alecto, the anticipated final book of the trilogy with its shifting publication date and promise of answers to all our questions. I did not expect Nona with her enormous heart, her love of dogs (all shapes and sizes!) and her gang of school friends. Nona with her vaguely familiar features, extremely familiar “family,” disturbing dreams and shocking role to play in all this.
When I thought I could not care more about Gideon, Harrow and the others, I met Nona. And she broke my heart.
Pizza Girl, a pregnant pizza-delivering eighteen year old, is nonchalantly trying to blow up her life despite the support from her golden retriever boyfriend and her Korean mother living the American Dream (through her). With the ghost of her alcoholic father haunting her off her own cliff, she grabs on to the last branch of safety: a crush on a middle-aged housewife. Ugly & uncomfortable, unwinding & gripping, set against the backdrop of the lazy, hazy suburbs of Los Angeles. Takeaways: tender but sharp writing for a debut and, screw pineapples on pizza, let's talk about pickles on pizza.
Hard to put down! Very readable like chips are very eatable; you can't have just one. It tickled my behind-the-scenes of the Bachelor itch and hit me in my PNW heart. Allen really brought out the stops for this horror comedy with just the right amount of camp and believability. Come on, this lady sasquatch just wants to cuddle.
I'm so glad this amalgamation of the editors' and writers' work of re/unlearning Helen Gurley Brown's 1962 Sex and the Single Girl is alive and waiting for readers. The source text, while titillating for its time, is very much outdated for our time so these writers expand past the white, heteronormative, cisgendered, ablebodied, monogamous way of sex and relationships clogging up the information pipeline for single women. These essays do more than just advise you to be sexy for the sake of a man. Female pleasure, queer dating, transitioning, polyamory, celibacy, IVF, not getting married, not having kids - it tackles so much and is definitely worth your time.
I can hear the untold depths whispering now and it's this book's fault.
A slasher, on the set of The Bachelor, plus a host of morally questionable lesbians. I loved every single one of these terrible girls, and then I loved watching their terrible fates unfold.
I've seen some criticism of this book that the characters are unlikeable, and I would argue that that is what makes this book so fun. Six hot-headed, arrogant, morally gray (and sometimes morally corrupt) candidates are invited to join a secret society of magical academicians, a place where the mega-wealthy and powerful congregate to acquire knowledge hidden to the rest of the world. It's sexy, funny, thought-provoking, and contains a number of gasp-out-loud moments that left me a super fan. Book 2 is out on October 25th, 2022!
The cover caught your eye, didn’t it?
Here’s the rundown: Trans kids fight a cult in a post-apocalyptic world. Here’s a little more: queer rage, religious trauma, “eat your oppressors”, body horror elucidating the trans experience, visceral and atmospheric descriptions of body mutilation and gore, gender dysphoria, and religious zealots trying to destroy the world. This story is for anyone who has felt queer, trans, or autistic rage, the kind of rage from being told you shouldn’t exist because the system told us so. Despite all its dark moments, it is powerful and hopeful, with completely unforgettable characters that make you feel like they are your found family.
Holy cow, this book is fantastic! It's beautiful and terrifying and brilliant. When Frida has one very bad day, she is in danger of losing her baby daughter. To regain her parental rights, Frida is enrolled in "The School for Good Mothers".
This is absolutely my favorite book of 2022.
I am in awe of the story Chan spins as it provides a profound insight into just how far we'll go for our children. The book is astonishing, fast-paced, and deeply moving.
I'm not much of a YA reader, I couldn't say they last time I read one. That said, I very much so enjoyed this! A tender, sweet and often times hilarious story of young queer love. I recommend this to anyone looking for a light, heartwarming read to sit in the sun with.
