Wrap-up: December 2022

Welcome to our final wrap up, and not just for 2022! From now on, if you want an insight into what we’ve read/watched/listened to, we’ll be sending out a newsletter every month. We’re also planning on posting a bit less often on here, in part to give ourselves a bit of a break between posts, and in part because after 4 and a bit years, we’re finally running low on new ideas. With luck, longer breaks means more time to read books for rec posts and, consequently, more ideas. We hope.

And, just so you know, you have until 10AM GMT tomorrow to get your nominations in for the awards! You can do that here.

What we read

Anna

There Is A Light by Ban Gilmartin (biracial Indian Scottish gay mc with depression and anxiety, bi mc, Black trans side character, nonbinary side character) – 4 🌈 tw alcoholism, past drug use, past suicide, suicidal ideation
Winter Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and Poems by Mary Oliver (poetry) – 4 🌈
When Angels Speak of Love by bell hooks (poetry) – 3 🌈
Ghosted in L.A., Vol. 3 by Sina Grace, Siobhan Keenan & Cathy Le (bi Jewish mc, sapphic li, Black side character, gay side character) – 3 🌈
A Charmed Christmas by Alison Cochrun (Indian American gay mc with depression, gay demi mc with generalised anxiety disorder, OCD & a panic disorder, LGBT side characters) – 2.5 🌈

Goldie Vance, Vol. 4 by Hope Larson, Jackie Ball, Elle Power & Sarah Stern (Black lesbian mc, Japanese American lesbian li) – 3 🌈
Goldie Vance: Larceny in La La Land by Jackie Ball, Mollie Rose & Hope Larson (Black lesbian mc, Japanese American lesbian li) – 3 🌈
Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Díaz (poetry) – 4 🌈
When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen (poetry) – 4 🌈
🔥 Crush by Richard Siken (poetry) – 5 🌈

Charlotte

The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley (achillean mc, sapphic mc, genderfluid mc, nonbinary side character) – 3 🌈 cw gore, violence, rape, self harm
Drew Leclair Gets a Clue by Katryn Bury (bi mc with asthma, gay side character) – 1 🌈
The Necessity of Fire by Caitlin Scarano (poetry) – 4 🌈
Losing Face by George Haddad (Lebanese Australian gay mc) – 4 🌈 cw drug use, rape
Masters in This Hall by K. J. Charles (gay mc & li) – 3 🌈

This Nowhere Place by Natasha Bell (lesbian mcs) – 3 🌈 cw racism, suicide, self harm, violence, sexual assault
The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar (Syrian & Syrian American cast, achillean trans mc, gay li, sapphic mc, sapphic & trans lis, Black Muslim nonbinary side character) – 3 🌈 cw misgendering, stillbirth
Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake (bi mc, lesbian mc) – 2 🌈
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (lesbian mc, gay characters, nonbinary characters) – 3 🌈 cw radicalisation, homophobia, misogyny, rape, sexual assault [review]
Vampires of Portlandia by Jason Tanamor (Filipino cast, gay mc & li) – 1 🌈

Treasure by Rebekah Weatherspoon (Black lesbian mc, Black lesbian mc with ADHD) – 2 🌈 cw past attempted suicide
The Rental Heart and Other Stories by Kirsty Logan (sapphic mcs, achillean mcs) – 3 🌈
Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow. by Noor Hindi (poetry) – 1 🌈
By Any Means Necessary by Cam Montgomery (Black cast, gay mc, Afro Latino American bi li, lesbian side character) – 3 🌈
City of Vengeance by D. V. Bishop (gay mc, Jewish gay li) – 3 🌈 cw violence, gore, period typical homophobia, period typical antisemitism, sexual assault

Séance Tea Party by Reimena Yee (Malaysian sapphic mc, Black achillean side character) – 2 🌈
Not Guilty by Sue Elliot & Steve Humphries (nonfiction) – 3 🌈
A Rake of His Own by A. J. Lancaster (gay mc, bi li, sapphic & nonbinary side characters) – 2 🌈
Scorpica by G. R. Macallister (sapphic mcs) – 3 🌈
Home by Cailean Steed (lesbian mc, trans side character, Nigerian Irish sapphic side character) – 2 🌈 cw child abuse, sexual assault, misogyny, homophobia, torture, violence [review to come]

My Brother and His Brother by Håkan Lindquist (gay characters) – 4 🌈
The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon (achillean mc & li, nonbinary side character) – 2 🌈

What we watched (and listened to)

Charlotte

Brokenwood Mysteries (S6) cr. (lesbian characters, gay character)
Smiley cr. Guillem Clua (gay mcs, lesbian mc, Chilean lesbian li, gay, bi & lesbian side characters) – 3.5 🌈 cw suicidal ideation
His Dark Materials (S3) cr. Jack Thorne (gay characters)
Glass Onion dir. Rian Johnson (gay mc) – 3 🌈

Anna

Benedetta (2021), dir. Paul Verhoeven (lesbian mc, sapphic li) – 2 🌈 tw torture, blood, immolation, misogyny, self harm
Looking for Her (2022), dir. Alexandra Swarens (lesbian mcs) – 2.5 🌈