Perfect queer/trans horror featuring a haunted film!! Absolutely no notes 👻🦇🩸🎞🎬🏳️‍🌈🔪

Such an interesting book with often beautiful writing and little nuggets of truth and wisdom. Lacey wanted to write about the dissolution of an emotionally abusive relationship but her UK publisher told her what she wanted to write would not fly with the libel laws there. So she wrote two accounts: one fiction, one nonfiction. Here they're published together in one book, where you can start with either story, neither of which are "the truth".

I think as a short story or novella I would have really loved this, but as a novel it didn't grab me plot-wise. I think the cannibalism as metaphor maybe doesn't work for me in a sustained way. Beautiful writing about grotesque subjects.

My first KJ Charles, but definitely not my last! A truly excellent historical murder mystery where the killer is revealed but someone else emerges as the true villain. Wonderfully drawn characters and themes, including class, race, disability, abortion, and queerness as they play out in a group of friends attending Oxford in the 1890s. Ten years later, after an unsolved murder, our protagonist Jem sets out to finally find whodunnit. 🔥🍂🌧

Forgot to take a picture of this science fiction graphic novel before I returned it to the library. Very smart dystopian world building with a distinctly anti-facist bent and a compelling main character who is an anthropologist who "goes native" while visiting an off-grid survivalist society called "Simplicity." Mattie Lubchansky is very funny and her art is very fun, cartoonish but also emotionally compelling. #TransBooks #QueerBooks

Gorgeous artwork, super interesting story set in 16th century Netherlands featuring a Dutch and Korean woman who connect over shared experiences of misogyny. The cartoonist says she's a "lover of all things ambiguous and ambivalent" and that certainly shows in the characterization and themes like sex work, colonization, slavery, science, and marriage. Queer, but as in sapphic longing and binary blurring, not two ladies falling in love with an HEA.

"Amélie was a brilliant girl. She looked at the land. It was taken by men. She looked at the sea. It was also taken by men. So Amélie turned her head to the sky."

This graphic novel set in 16th century Netherlands. Beautiful art!

A carnivorous, homicidal plant! Bisexual chaos! A creepy, crumbling old Irish mall! What more could you want?

I loved this, especially the dual POV #audiobook adaptation. #QueerBooks #Horror #QueerHorror

I love Nalo Hopkinson's imagination

Wow. So good. Amber Dawn is really killing it. These are funny, sad, erotic, painful, very queer. Such an abundance of strange images, such generosity in sharing experiences of pain, such clever play with mythology and form.

"At least my cunt / and her cunt / have mutual respect / for each other's sadness."

"Fact: There are more trees on earth than stars in the milky way. / I am alone and searching for a lover made of stardust: Fiction."

So funny, so smart, and extremely readable. This story is about a 30-year-old trans woman named Max and her new relationship with Vincent, a cis guy who has a secret about another trans woman he dated during his gap year before university. I loved Max's voice, her wry observations, and her relationship with BFF Simone, a cis queer woman. I don't know how I feel about the ending ... I think I wanted Max to make a different decision re: Vincent...

Spooky reading season is here! 🎃🦇🧛‍♀️🩸👻😨

Didn't like this as much as I hoped I would, got a little bored at times. Should have DNFed!

A lovely Regency romance with sapphic and non-binary representation! I love how much history is in here, shades of Anne Lister and general strong queer ancestor vibes. The dad was a great villian who deserved much more of a comeuppance than he got imho. Also, I could have done with more sex scenes! #Queer #Romantsy #QueerBooks

"Some trans women serve cunt, in that they're quite rude, because when the world shits on you it's easy to be a little mean, but she sent a Negroni back for having too thin an orange slice on the rim. No amount of pain excuses that." ?
#TransBooks

WOW WOW WOW. Lee Lai knocks it out of the park with this beautifully drawn and deftly realized story about queer friendship set in a hot humid Montreal summer. Two queer Anglophone Chinese Canadian kids who met in high school are still friends in their late 20s, but are growing apart. Is Lucy aka "Luce Cannon" finally going to live up to her nickname and stop taking shit from her BFF, her boss, her girl? Well, YES and it's beautiful to watch.

Wow, one of the best books I've ever read, beautifully imagined, wonderful sister relationship, and an intriguing story that feels timeless and like it's been around forever, like an old fairy tale (but make it queer). The audiobook, with harp music, singing, and background sounds like running water and party chatter, is truly next level. #QueerBooks

#BookBracket2025 for August was easy! The tagged historical queer romance was by far by favourite in an otherwise meh reading month. If you like your historical romances with real, interesting historical details and context, with bonus feminist and trans characters, A Shore Thing is for you!

Martyr! was an easy win against the two it came up against though. Can't beat how beautiful the writing is.

Indicative of my meh attitude that I forgot to take a pic of this book before donating it. Very readable but ultimately superficial. This book wouldn't make sense to anyone who wasn't already familiar with Buffy and Kristin/Jenny as minor celesbians. It doesn't have enough compelling commentary on Buffy and their story -- they got divorced while making a podcast together and kept doing so -- isn't written in a super compelling way either. 🤷‍♀️

I pretty rarely pick books just based on the cover when I'm scrolling through Libby, but this one caught my eye. I lucked out! This was a great story of falling in love with yourself and someone else, with subplots about learning to take care of yourself. It also made me laugh. I wanted to stab their two villainous exes in the eye with a sharp pencil. Slow burn but eventually spicy! Somewhat sappy near the end but did that bother me? Not a bit.

You know, YA is not my thing these days, but this queer royal romance is a real good one. It's smart, it's got a lot of heart, and it has great sort-of-but-not-quite-villains and complex lovable leads, one lesbian, one bi. There's a realistic teen sapphic sex scene! There's also ice skating and playing the piano! Also, thoughtful representation of bullying. #QueerBooks

This is a well done multimedia memoir, but just not for me. I'm going to donate it to the library book sale and hopefully it will find its reader! #QueerBooks #Asexual

This was quite good as far as celebrity memoirs go! I think it worked really well for the book to alternate between Kate and Leisha's perspectives (narrated by them in the audiobook of course). There were a lot of fun details about the original L Word, particularly about the friendships the actors had behind the scenes and Kate's coming out story. Kate really didn't hold back about how dirty they did Shane in the reboot. I agree!

Somehow during a post-apocalyptic flood:

"Their cat Smarty Pants ... was bone-dry as God's sense of humour."

?

Oooh this is so nostalgic!! The L Word was such a big part of my queer coming of age in the early 2000s. Also, I can't believe Leisha Hailey first auditioned for Shane and then initially turned down the role of Alice! 👭🏳️‍🌈

This is one of the best queer historical romances I've ever read, definitely the best trans historical romance I've come across. For all you queer history nerds who like real historical details and a strong sense of the time period but also adorable queer love and a wonderfully drawn trans man and cis woman character, this is for you. Those sex scenes!! 🔥🔥🔥 Plus, late 19th century bicycles, botany, and painting! Just lovely lovely lovely. 😍

#BookBracket2025 was very hard for July! I read six 5-star books, including two audio adaptations of all-time favourites, Anne of Green Gables and Dykes to Watch Out For, plus TJR's 1980s lesbian astronaut book and Alison Bechdel's brand new graphic novel. I decided Martyr! was the winner because it's so beautiful/complex, but I had to sneak in DTWOF as a wild card because it was so well done. It was so fun seeing my old comic friends in new form!

You know, I was expecting heart-wrenching space adventures and lesbian love in the 80s, but the queer parenthood angle hit me totally unprepared. 😭😭😭 Made me cry a few times. Just as good and beautifully gay as The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I want an epilogue though!!

Okay that trip out to look at the stars, learn the constellations, eat chicken salad sandwiches, and drink beers was like the perfect first date ever right? Too bad Joan didn't know it was a date, but I think Vanessa was wondering...

Don't know how to describe this except as a masterpiece, one of the best books I've ever read. It's got the most beautiful, insightful, poetic writing and deep feeling for its characters and their crises (material, spiritual, existential, relational). Reading this only once feels like just scratching the surface of its meaning and beauty. Also: queer love!!

"Love was a room that appeared when you stepped into it. Cyrus...stepped."

"Ugh, the pain of being ordinarily terrible," writes Febos, insightful and thoughtful as always. I love her writing and ability to look critically at herself. The subtitle is false advertising, though, this book mostly about why Febos needed to be celibate, ie about her history of toxic and otherwise harmful relationships, not about other types of pleasure she discovered while celibate. Missed opportunity to discuss asexuality/aromanticism too.

A delightful work of autofiction! I read an interview with Bechdel where she said her original idea for this book was a straightforward memoir about her relationship with money but that she decided a graphic novel about her trying to write that book was more fun. Indeed! I love how she skewers and adores leftist communities and the inclusion of the cast of the Dykes to Watch Out comics. Also: Bisexual polyamory! Trans activist work! Goat farming!

Really enjoyed this collection of poetry, although a few poems were a bit too academic for my taste. These Indigiqueer poems are about grief, trans and Indigenous identity, desirability, myths, hunger. Unusual and interesting play with form, format, and spacing. "Let's not lie to one another; / i have come to quench my thirst / & you look oh so refreshing, / a decision i would sooner like to regret / but here i am, parched & petty"

One of the smartest, sharpest books I've ever read. I can't say I enjoyed it, but it's not meant to be. It's a vicious satire of corporate DEI discourse and the edutech industry. Its protagonist, Osman, is a self-loathing failed academic working for an edutech company bent on evsicerating in-person higher ed. The antagonist is a white woman who disguises her self-interest as progressive politics. Incredibly well done, appropriately depressing.

I'm gobbling up a few Audible originals before my free trial ends (I refuse to give Amazon money!) and this adaptation was delightful. Great Canadian casting choices, especially Catherine O'Hara who is absolutely perfect as Marilla. This is more of a radio play than an audiobook, as material has been cut / moved around, but there is still a nice narrator aka Sandra Oh. Does anyone else have any #Audible originals / only from Audible to recommend?

This audiobook adaptation of the early DTWOF comics is perfect, except that it's only available from Audible aka evil Amazon. Mo would NOT approve! That said, I'm glad their money went to a bunch of excellent queer actors (Jane Lynch! Carrie Brownstein! Roberta Colindrez! Roxane Gay!) who did such a great job bringing these 1980s sapphists to life. A great piece of lesbian herstory and a hilarious, politically smart, and heartfelt story. No notes.

Okay I'm currently reading five (!) other books right now, but I just can't help myself because my hold for the new Alison Bechdel book came!! I heard this one features her characters from her original comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. (I finally signed up for a free trial at Audible so I could listen to the audiobook adaptation of DTWOF and revisit the characters). It is really incredible, but especially Roberta Colindrez as Lois. *swoon*

Reading this book kind of makes me feel drunk? In a good way.

"are we just the consequences
of mispronounced love?
(i mean, am i a body or am i a human lost
in an ocean of hungry grey squares stark
raving mad to carve my flesh from my
bone?)"

Ooh two choices this time in #BookBracket2025, both were tough!! In the end, I went with Time's Agent as the winner twice. It's a super unique queer science fiction novel about "pocket worlds," aka small alternative universes, wherein time is either slowed down or sped up. It's a beautiful and smart meditation on motherhood, climate collapse, grief, capitalism, colonization, and the nature of time itself. And a great ending!

Seems fitting to start this book while breastfeeding my snotty 16-month-old to sleep...

Uzma Jalaluddin has outdone herself: fascinating characters, excellent mystery plot w/ many threads, and a lovingly rendered setting. An aunty returns to Toronto when her daughter's landlord has been found murdered in her store. Gentrification, police incompetence/bias/immorality, grief, marriage/divorce in Muslim communities, friendship, family. I absolutely loved this, as thoughtful as it is page-turning. Standout #audiobook performance!

Such an amazing book! It's set in the Dominican Republic in a science fiction universe where "pocket worlds" aka small alternative universes have been discovered. Time is either slowed down or sped up in these PWs. An archeologist and her biologist wife explore them with enthusiasm, until one day things go horribly wrong. A beautiful and smart meditation on motherhood, climate collapse, grief, capitalism, and the nature of time itself. #QueerBooks

I just started this book yesterday, after it sat on my shelf for more than a year. I'm sorry I didn't pick it up sooner, it's fantastic! As the blurb on the front cover says, "all at once a meditation on motherhood, grief, war, environmental collapse, and the nature of memory and time". Set in the Dominican Republic, a science fiction universe where "pocket worlds" aka small alternate universes have been discovered, lesbian protagonist. So good!

That was fucking weird (complimentary). BUT NOT TOO BOLD is sapphic monster mystery romance with a strong Gothic undercurrent. Normally I find the "all vibes" for hundreds of pages of gothic fiction tedious, so this novella length was perfect for me. Do not read if you're afraid of spiders, or, conversely, if you love them so much you'd be distraught to hear of them being deep-fried and eaten. #QueerBooks #LGBTQ

I had great fun with this queer science fiction cozy mystery, although it felt like it went by too quickly! A vividly realized detective character, unique world-building, and a twisty puzzle: what else could you want? How and why does someone commit murder, when humans have been living in a spaceship for centuries, immortal due to their minds being saved in 'books' in the library until it's time to put them back in a new body, memories intact?

Really excellent, especially Evaristo's seemingly effortless ability to convey different voices and experiences. Complex, fascinating characters who undergo some heartbreaking stuff (pregancy/infant loss, intimate partner violence / abusive relationships, sexual assault, among others) all presented so straightforwardly but compassionately. What a wonderful ending. And very queer! Great as an #audiobook!

Lots of things were done so well in this novel -- the understated but powerful prose; the insights about gender, class, mental health, books; the kernel of the relationship and connection between Marianne and Connell -- but the depiction of BDSM, and abuse/trauma struck me as one by someone who doesn't understand the complexities, or is ignoring them for the sake of using BDSM as a literary vehicle. I loved the first third though and the ending!

This incredible collection of #queer #poetry is my May pick for #Bracket2025!

"Oh girlhood. i cut crop tops out of sunsets / made scrapbooks of bleached hair & pretty scars / all to please you. / Please, stay a little longer."

"If we grow up to be boring , love me / back into wildness"

"sometimes i think about marrying a woman just to piss off my mother / i'll wear a scarlet leather dress & let vengeance trail my back like a veil"

#LGBTQ

"Generally I find men are more concerned with limiting the freedoms of women than exercising personal freedom for themselves...I mean, when you look at the lives men are really living, it's sad...They control the whole social system and this is the best they can come up with for themselves? They're not even having fun."