Wrap-up: September 2021

Yet another month seems to have flown by at the speed of light, leaving us ever closer to the end of 2021 (ha. haha). We have an exciting (and spooky) month planned for October, so you’ll want to stick around, but before we can get to that, here’s how our September looked.

What we read

Anna

The Girl from the Sea by Molly Ostertag (East Asian (Korean?) lesbian mc, sapphic li) – 3 🌈 tw outing, drowning
The Witch King by H.E. Edgmon (trans gay mc, Black achillean li, Native American bi ace side character, nonbinary lesbian side character, sapphic side character, side polyam relationship, side sapphic relationship) – 3.5 🌈 tw transphobia, abuse (verbal and physical), blood, gore (chapter 14 & 15), panic attacks, fire, burning, mention of past sexual assault
The Lost Arabs by Omar Sakr (poetry) – 5 🌈
Payback’s a Witch by Lana Harper (bi mc, Russian American bi li) – 3 🌈 [review]

Charlotte

This Wound is a World by Billy-Ray Belcourt (poetry) – 3 🌈
The Girl From the Sea by Molly Ostertag (East Asian lesbian mc, sapphic li) – 2 🌈 cw outing
She Never Left by C. M. Harris (lesbian character) – 3 🌈 cw gore, stalking, past child sexual abuse, past paedophilia, past domestic abuse, animal death, necrophilia, suicide, self harm, past drug addiction [review]
That Green Eyed Girl by Julie Owen Moylan (lesbian mc, lesbian li) – 3 🌈 cw period typical homophobia, lesbophobia, implied sexual assault (in police raid at bar), electroconvulsive therapy (implied as “cure” for lesbianism, later as treatment for mental illness) [review]
Vanished by E. E. Cooper (biracial Indian American bi mc with OCD, bi side character) – 1 🌈 cw racism & microaggressions (unchallenged), ableism (unchallenged), suicide

It Takes Two to Tumble by Cat Sebastian (gay mc, dyslexic gay mc) – 4 🌈 cw past adult-minor relationship
Two Rogues Make a Right by Cat Sebastian (gay mc with chronic illness, bi mc with PTSD, gay side characters) – 4 🌈 cw past drug addiction, past abuse
The Fox’s Tower and Other Tales by Yoon Ha Lee (sapphic, nonbinary & achillean mcs) – 4 🌈
Two Wings to Fly Away by Penny Mickelbury (Black sapphic mc, sapphic li) – 2.5 🌈 cw period typical racism, racial slurs, violence, descriptions of past slavery
The Ever Cruel Kingdom by Rin Chupeco (lesbian mc with PTSD, lesbian mc, bi side character) – 4 🌈

Meet Me in Madrid by Verity Lowell (Black lesbian mc, Afro Latina lesbian mc, bi & gay side characters) – 2 🌈 [review]
The Companion by E. E. Ottoman (bi trans mc, bi trans li, trans li, f/f/m polyamory) – 3 🌈
Rughum & Najda by Samar Habib (Persian cast & setting, lesbian mcs) – 2 🌈 cw homophobic violence, inc. murder
Her Countess to Cherish by Jane Walsh (bi mc, bi bigender mc, gay, lesbian & gnc side characters) – 2.5 🌈
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue (lesbian mc, sapphic li, gay side character with PTSD) – 4 🌈 cw child birth, stillbirth, institutional abuse, physical abuse, past child sexual abuse, mentions of suicide, mentions of domestic abuse, blood, gore

The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle by Matt Cain (gay mc, gay side characters) – 2 🌈 cw past homophobia, casual racism
Encore by Eden Finley (bi mc, gay mc) – 2.5 🌈
Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw (Chinese Malaysian bi mc) – 2 🌈 cw gore [review]
The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (sapphic mcs) – 2 🌈 cw misogyny, anti-Indigenous racism, burning, drowning, torture
Ghost Wood Song by Erica Waters (bi mc, lesbian side characters) – 3.5 🌈 cw past sexual assault, past child abuse, violence, murder

Sidelined by Kara Bietz (gay mcs) – 2 🌈
Goldie Vance: Larceny in La La Land by Hope Larson (Black lesbian mc, Japanese American lesbian li) – 4 🌈
Things We Couldn’t Say by Jay Coles (Black bi mc with anxiety, bi li, Black sapphic side character) – 2 🌈 cw religious homophobia, alcohol abuse, parental abandonment, mentions of suicide
There Goes Sunday School by Alexander C. Eberhart (biracial Mexican American gay mc, gay li, lesbian side character) – 2 🌈 cw religious homophobia, homophobic slurs, internalised homophobia, attempted murder, car crash
Our Favorite Songs by Anita Kelly (gay mc, bi mc) – 4 🌈 cw death of a parent, past animal death

A Winter’s Earl by Annabelle Green (gay mcs) – 3 🌈 cw period typical homophobia, outing, implied rape, attempted suicide [review]
A Dark and Starless Forest by Sarah Hollowell (bi mc with anxiety, pan nonbinary & trans side characters) – 1 🌈 cw physical abuse, emotional abuse, blood, murder
Both Can Be True by Jules Machias (genderfluid mc, achillean mc, gay, trans, nonbinary, lesbian side characters) – 5 🌈 cw mentions of transphobic bullying & past violence, misgendering, transphobia, threatened outing, animal euthanasia mentions
Blood of the Chosen by Django Wexler (lesbian mc, gay & bi side characters) – 4.5 🌈 cw gore [review]
Briar Girls by Rebecca Kim Wells (bi mc, sapphic li, nonbinary side characters – 2 🌈 cw gore, immolation, amputation, magic requiring blood/self-harm

Poesía en el Campus by Carlos Bousoño (poetry) – 3 🌈
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams (gay mc) – 3 🌈 cw alcoholism, terminal cancer, internalised homophobia
City of Spells by Alexandra Christo (sapphic mcs) – 3 🌈 cw torture, violence, murder
Covenant by LySandra Vuong (Korean gay mc, Vietnamese bi li, lesbian mc, achillean side characters) – 4 🌈 cw blood, gore, violence, torture
Devotion by Hannah Kent (lesbian mc, lesbian li) – 5 🌈 [review]

What we watched (and listened to)

Charlotte

Soulmates: Little Adventures (2020) dir. Marco Kreuzpaintner (bi mc, bi li, polyamory) – 2 🌈 cw biphobia
Soulmates: Layover (2020) dir. Marco Kreuzpaintner (gay mc, Black gay mc) – 4 🌈
Breaking Fast (2020) dir. Mike Mosallam (Muslim gay mc, gay li, Muslim gay side characters) – 3 🌈
Dating Amber (2020) dir. David Freyne (lesbian mc, sapphic li, gay mc) – 4 🌈 cw homophobia, homophobic slurs
Ellie and Abbie (& Ellie’s Dead Aunt) (2020) dir. Monica Zanetti (lesbian mc, lesbian li, Maori lesbian side character, lesbian side character) – 3.5 🌈 cw past homophobic violence, outing

Spring (2020) dir. Alexandra Swarens (lesbian mcs, sapphic & achillean side characters) – 4.5 🌈
Uncle Frank (2020) dir. Alan Ball (gay mc, Saudi Muslim gay li) – 4 🌈 cw vomiting, drug use, alcohol use, homophobia, homophobic slurs, suicide by drowning, outing, casual homophobia & racism
The Brokenwood Mysteries (7.04) cr. Tim Balme (nonbinary character) – 3 🌈 cw misgendering