I read a lot of four stars books this month, good but not great books, but We Are Okay by Nina LaCour is the one standout. I thought this quiet queer YA story about grief, friendship, and leaving home to start again at university was absolutely stunning. Beautiful, perfect, couldn't be better. #ReadingBracket2025

What if you woke up to your last night's date dead, and a mistake you made might have killed them? This book dips in and out of being a thriller, also giving time to self-discovery/relationships. The genre mashup works for an entertaining and suspenseful read, poignant and full of insight. Incredibly funny, if you find bad gay sex and a 20s author and his 60s literary agent lugging around a dead body in NYC trying to get rid of it funny (I do).

While it was lovely to hear the Cree in this book spoken aloud, I don't think audiobook was the best choice for this, as the print copy is full of art! The book traces the literal beginning of time to 19th cent. from the perspective of a queer Cree shape-shifting immortal being. Often funny, very sexy, and scathing. Europeans come out looking, rightly so, as heartless idiots. I would have liked more content that didn't focus on colonization.

Beautiful picture book that captures a wild, nature-filled, imaginative childhood, of Tove Jansson, iconic Swedish author of the Moomins comics. It's inspired by Jansson's writing about her youth, and includes a short bio at the back, which I'm happy to say mentions her longtime woman partner and how unusual it was for her to be out at that time.

Absolutely gorgeous picture about colour and nature, wouldn't expect anything less from Jillian Tamaki. I love how she draws movement.

A page-turning mystery about five queer characters (plus token straight guy) taking part in a reality TV show. Often quite funny, it's sort of part of the reality TV genre but also laughing at it. Lots of #bisexual chaos! Feminist critique of "nice guys" is spot on as is interrogation of the controlling abusive guy who claims to just be setting boundaries. They are all terrible people, but which one killed the guy who died in the last episode?

The #bisexual choas in this reality TV crime thriller is delightfully ridiculous #QueerBooks

An atmospheric, tense historical mystery set in 1950s DC featuring queer and/or Black characters and investigating the complexities of passing. The setting is vivid, and there is an excellent twist (and a twist on the twist!). It opens with the aftermath of an apparent suicide (?) of one half of the novel‘s gay couple - or is it linked to the work of a serial killer the lesbian couple have been chasing? DEFINITELY read book one before this!

Fast-paced, very readable with an unpredictable plot, this book set in Ghana's capital Accra tackles the incredibly important topic of far-right American groups' involvement anti-LGBTQ bills/laws there. P.I. Emma is quite badass and tenacious in her undercover work looking for the murderers of two gay men and two trans women (violent, gruesome deaths, read with caution). Is this a bit melodramatic? Yeah. Is it also kind of devastating? Yeah.

A devastatingly sad but fiercely life-affirming book about an 18-year-old whose only family, the grandpa who raised her, dies the summer before she goes away to university. It takes place alternately in that summer and the Christmas after, where Marin's best friend/ex-girlfriend travels to her dorm to try to reconnect after Marin's grief has wrenched them apart. Absolutely beautiful, no notes. #QueerBooks #LesbianBooks

This incredibly atmospheric, historical setting (Tacoma / the Pacific NorthWest in 1880s) is really brought to life. The morally grey characters are a bit hard for me to root for and it is slow paced until the last quarter, where it really picks up. It's got a very interesting and nuanced take on gender fluidity and queer identity in a working class historical setting.

"I fall so deep into Camp, the Alma part of me feels far away"

Great ending!

Not my fav Lex Croucher, (I like their adult stuff better and am not really into YA books generally these days) but this continuation of the Robin Hood story featuring his granddaughter was a lovely adventure fantasy romance. The premise is the Merry Men have lost their way and are a bit too much like the bad guys. It has awesome found family vibes, as well as a great blend of humour and seriousness. The sapphic romance is very grumpy / sunshine!

Robin Hood doesn't figure very much in this book, as the main character is his granddaughter, but whenever he is mentioned, I have a hard time picturing him as a human, and not the sexy fox from the old Disney movie 😂

February was a pretty bad reading month for me, as I had the stomach flu and could barely watch TV, let alone read. Earlier in the month I did read this awesome queer feminist Japanese thriller though. It has an incredible twist as well as a great open-ended ending. Still though, my heart is with Murderbot, so my January pick goes on to the next bracket. #BookBracket2025 #Murderbot

In unsentimental, spare prose, Coetzee tells the story of two murders in a Cape Town neighbourhood called The Shadows. Coetzee is great at getting the distinct POV of each character from the friend group. The passages from Carl's perspective were particularly gutting: "I always wondered why grownups drank the way they did, until I became a grownup the day mom died." Coetzee originally wrote this novel in Kaaps, a spoken language in South Africa.

Armfield's writing is beautiful, but this is too sad and slow-moving for me right now. I'd say I'll try to return to it, but tbh I probably won't! The #audiobook narrator has a very sexy voice, so it does have that going for it.

This was a welcome change from Cleric Chih's wandering adventures, as this time the adventure comes home with them as they return to Singing Hills abbey. A lot here about memory, story, and grief. Beautiful and oddly soothing, for a book about returning home to find your mentor has died and their grandkids are beating down the gates with mammoths.

Great #audiobook performance by Cindy Kay!

A intense ride of a thriller with cinematic fight scenes. Full of striking images: Shoko is "like a crane in a landfill". Full of female rage and pulpy in vibes a la martial arts movies, this is violent, as you'd expect from a story about a young woman fighter being kidnapped and forced to work for the Japanese mafia, but not gratuitously so. Otani pulls off an incredibly well done twist and excellent character development. Unconventionally queer.

Not my favourite in the Singing Hills Cycle fantasy series, but I still thought it was beautiful and smart, with eloquently crafted characters and world-building, a big feat for a novella. I love how much these books are about story itself as much as they are full of tall tales themselves. Chih, the nonbinary cleric / historian / storykeeper, is a subdued delight as usual, especially in their relationship with the parrot who remembers everything.

Beautiful and gripping writing, the kind that makes me interested in topics I thought I wasn't interested in or had never heard about. I did get a bit lost in the nitty gritty of basketball stuff sometimes, but that also might be because Hanif Abdurraqib has a soothing voice that lulled me into losing focus. I do wish he'd discussed *my* favourite 90s (okay technically 2000) basketball movie, Love & Basketball though! 🏀 ❤️

These brackets always look so fun, so I'm joining in this year! Thanks @CSeydel for this cute graphic for #BookBracket2025. I loved all three of the #Murderbot books I read in January, but decided on Network Effect as my favourite. It really put Murderbot through the wringer, being kidnapped by its old friend ART who had been infiltrated by an alien remnant virus and needed its SecUnit expertise to get its crew back. As you do with old friends.

A wholesome, funny, lighthearted, and nostalgic cozy mystery starring a Gen Z (25-year-old) bi protagonist who's a former famous child detective a la Nancy Drew but not quite sure how to be an adult and still indulge her investigative tendencies. I think this book is doing a great job at what it's trying to do. Also: entertaining banter with friend group! New adult representation! Funny in queer specific ways!Cheeky old fashioned chapter titles!

The incredible art in this lesbian graphic memoir -- comics, painting, collage -- is arranged non-linearly and tells the stories of Spector's attempts to get pregnant, miscarriages, eventual kid, wedding, femme stuff, and death of her dad. It's challenging to follow sometimes, but always beautiful to look at, moving, and rewarding. "Death is coming but so is life...It's coming fast! It's already here! ...Hold open your ordinary arms and catch it."

A strange tale of a queer mountain lion living under the Hollywood sign and pondering the foibles of humans and its own personhood. Written in deceptively simple language that often hides profound insights and heartbreak. The kill sharer! The long death!

I wasn't in the right head space to make myself read this slowly and savour it; it's prose that should be read like poetry.

I'm looking forward to talking about this at an IRL queer book club!

Murderbot, you've grown so much! All the accolades to Kevin R Free, whose majestic #audiobook performance is absolutely perfect. He IS Murderbot, as far as I'm concerned. Can't wait til the next one!

Well I'm going to give an in-person queer book club a try, and this one is the read for February's meeting. I'm always a bit contrary with traditional style book clubs where everyone reads the same book, I don't know why, I just don't want to be told what to read at any specific time? Anyway, this book (told from the perspective of a queer mountain lion) is very weird so far, which is up my alley.
#QueerBooks

I gave this one a good go and read over a quarter of it. I'd heard it was a bit slow to start but had lots of positive reviews. Alas, my mind keeps wandering off while listening so I'm taking that as a sign I should bail. I absolutely loved The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and I see the comparisons, but these characters are not grabbing me like Evelyn and her people did. I find Cate Kay kind of passive and opaque.

Looking at the art in this book feels more like going to an art gallery than reading a graphic memoir!

#QueerBooks

What's not to love with a closed room murder mystery for Murderbot? I will say reading somewhere before I started this that it's set before Book 5 helped me not be confused about timelines, which I think I would have been otherwise.

I can't believe I only have one Murderbot book left! 😭

A surreal, cerebral, and lush collection. Using an unusual overarching conceit, Kwan‘s poetry debut fully commits, taking readers on a tour of motel‘s rooms, bar, back alleys, fire escape. It also investigates ghosts. The poems explore migration and placelessness, queer love and desire, music, and family. “That summer the knife slid so sweetly / into the navel orange on the chopping board / and our lips were so sticky / we kissed and they bled.”

What a goddamn delight to have a full length Murderbot book and to get to see ART and the Preservation crew again and to see Murderbot grow!! It even admits to having feelings!! The only thing better than one Murderbot is two Murderbots, which this book has! (Murderbot 2.0, love your work)

Incredible #audiobook performance by Kevin R Free!

The best reading view in the world 😍

This visually and narratively stunning work continues the story of Karen Reyes, baby dyke in 1960s Chicago trying to solve the murder of Anya, her upstairs neighbor and Holocaust survivor. She also meets her first gf and finds out a lot about her brother. The intricate art is done solely in ballpoint pen! Queerness as monstrosity and the reclaiming of that are central conceits, but Ferris also interrogates grief, memory, and sibling relationships.

Finished this novella in the bath tonight with chocolate and bubly water!

A revenge fantasy on a terrible man, a lesbian septuagenarian romance, and hilarious Victorian-esque insults about men being fetid and vile? Utter perfection.

#QueerBooks #Romantsy

A lovely contemporary sapphic romance with a not so great cover 🙃. I loved how this played with the celebrity/regular person and second chance romance tropes, which it sort of fits into but kind of doesn't, making it complicated and interesting. There is also career stuff going on for both women (lawyer and actress/director), complex secondary characters (their moms are BFFs!), and realistic hot sex scenes! Amazing #audiobook performance!

Excited to be starting this #audiobook of The Night Circus, which seems to be a favourite for a lot of people. I can't believe I haven't read it yet! Jim Dale performs the audiobook and I didn't realize his voice would remind me of Harry Potter so much!

A mix of body horror and environmental horror with a queer lens. One of those well-done books that was not for me. A series of linked short stories set in a wasteland where the water is killing everyone, the book works best as an allegory of the grotesque and darkness underneath Southern Ontario and humanity in general. For me it lacked strong characterization. CWs: child/baby death, abusive parents/partners, animal death/abuse, sexual assault.

I read 84 books this year, across 21 882 pages, including romance, poetry, science fiction, mystery, fantasy, lit fic, YA, horror, memoir, graphic novels/memoirs, essay collections, and one novel-in-verse (more please!). Almost all queer and trans books! I fell short of my goal of 100, but considering I gave birth to my 2nd kid this year and spent a lot of this year looking after two kids 3 and under, I think I did pretty good! Mostly audiobooks!

The art in this graphic novel is incredible! All done with ballpoint pens!! Look for the inscription on the left to see which 16th century painting it's a recreation of. The 10-year-old narrator and her brother like to go to the art gallery in Chicago and the kid draws this after seeing it.

I was expecting to maybe DNF this romance audiobook, as I've been having bad luck with sapphic romances lately, but I am actually liking it so far. I also think the cover is kinda ugly, so that didn't necessarily endear me to it.

🤞it stays good!

I mostly loved this. My beliefs include a) the British royal family are a bunch of colonizing shits hoarding wealth, b) ACAB, c) military service should not be glorified. It's not that this VERY sexy, funny, and romantic story about a royal bodyguard and a royal personal assistant is about those things, but they are in the background, not exactly condoned but neither are they questioned. Anyway, this couple is great, incredible chemistry!

What a delight! A story within a story, a story about stories, featuring Chih, a nonbinary story collecting cleric; weretigers; a mammoth upon which Chih rides up a mountain; sapphic love and poetry. Great #audiobook narration by Cindy Kay!

I actually think this book is doing what it's trying to do -- an authentic dive into a lesbian new adult feeling stuck and experiencing growing pains with old friends and doing stupid 21-year-old stuff -- pretty well, but I am just not very interested. Ha, maybe I am too old! Plus, I started this thinking it was a Christmas book, when apparently it is an American Thanksgiving book.

Fittingly, I finished this book last night while my baby slept on my chest. What a gift S. Bear Bergman's work is. I will refer back to this guide many times. Topics include transitioning from one activity to another, gender and heteronormativity, talking to kids about difference and diversity, key values to pass down to your kids, food, and replacing the idea of a family tree with a family garden. Practical, honest, vulnerable, compassionate.

These characters are not clicking with me. I find Birdie and Rafi borderline insufferable, actually. I loved the idea of three queer adult siblings gathering at their mom's house for Christmas and fixing their romantic / career lives but I have to care about the characters for it work. Oh well!

Actually made some progress in this gigantic book today while my baby slept. Only ...650 pages to go 😅

Well this was delightful, festive, and very gay. A teenager home for Christmas during the first semester of college -- where he is flunking his theatre classes, even though it's his dream to be an actor -- and applies for a job as a mall elf. The job entails a big competition with a cash prize to promote the mall, and one of Cam's fellow elves is a cute, very chipper guy named Marco. These two! Fun subplots too, called Cam's dad's secret romance.

Is the premise of this tri-holiday rom com totally unrealistic? Yes. Did I love it anyway? Yes. Uzma Jalaluddin is wonderful, as usual, but I was surprised to be just as interested in the other storyline by Marissa Stapley. Lighthearted holiday fun!! Funny jokes too, including an anachronistic nod to the characters of Frozen, even though the novel is set in 2000. Majestically performed by Ulka Simone Mohanty, a fellow Canadian like the authors!

I'm already in the middle of four books, but I have to start this one during the Christmas season right? 🎄❄️☃️🎅

Rosen does a swell job evoking classic 1950s film noir vibes while filling the story with a diverse queer cast and a complicated gay ex-cop P.I. reckoning with the implications of his past career. The themes -- book banning, government censorship, the utter importance of queer people seeing themselves reflected in books -- are beautifully evoked. Highly recommended as a puzzling mystery and a richly imagined 1950s San Francisco historical fiction.