reviews, releases and recommendations of LGBT media
If you hadn’t heretofore been excited about Maya Deane’s upcoming retelling of the Iliad where Achilles is a trans woman, don’t worry, we’re here to make sure you become so! It’s out in just about a week and a half so plenty of time to preorder still. In the meantime, though, we have an interview with the genius mind behind the book herself!
Don’t forget, too, that you can follow Maya on twitter.
A long time ago Charlotte made a rec list of her favourite love confessions in LGBT books, and I decided it’s high time for me to make one as well. Let’s be honest, don’t we all read book just waiting for characters to make a beautiful romantic speech? Give us reasons to happy-cry!
Also, I just want to be clear that I absolutely agree with all of Charlotte’s choices (the ones from books I’ve read, that is), and especially The Pursuit Of… & Midnighter and Apollo. They would be on my list, as well, but I don’t wanna repeat her.
We’re switching it up a little with the graphic novel rec posts now. Anna’s taken care of the previous three, so now it’s my turn to rec you a few things that they haven’t read (yet). If you want to take a look at what they put in those posts, you can see them here: one, two, three. And if you’re interested in what I have to add to that, scroll on!
Thriller fans listen up: if you haven’t had Summer’s Edge on your radar before, now is the time to rectify that. Looking for the kind of thriller that thrills you? Gets your heart pumping and your blood racing? Well, you’ll want to have your eye on this one. Don’t believe me? Let me explain why…
And of course, you should follow Dana on twitter.
I Know What You Did Last Summer meets The Haunting of Hill House  in this atmospheric, eerie teen thriller following an estranged group of friends being haunted by their friend who died last summer.
Emily Joiner was once part of an inseparable group—she was a sister, a best friend, a lover, and a rival. Summers without Emily were unthinkable. Until the fire burned the lake house to ashes with her inside.
A year later, it’s in Emily’s honor that Chelsea and her four friends decide to return. The house awaits them, meticulously rebuilt. Only, Chelsea is haunted by ghostly visions. Loner Ryan stirs up old hurts and forces golden boy Chase to play peacemaker. Which has perfect hostess Kennedy on edge as eerie events culminate in a stunning accusation: Emily’s death wasn’t an accident. And all the clues needed to find the person responsible are right here.
As old betrayals rise to the surface, Chelsea and her friends have one night to unravel a mystery spanning three summers before a killer among them exacts their revenge.
Dana Mele
Rep: lesbian mc, bi mc
Release: 31st May 2022
Another exciting guest post to help celebrate a book release today! K.D. Edwards’ The Hourglass Throne, the third book in the Tarot Sequence, is out now and K.D. very kindly wrote us a post about how he first came up with the idea of the series.
So, get yourself comfortable, and have a read!
Fans of fantasy series hold onto your hats because we have a very exciting post for you today. If you’re looking for: a. more indie publishers to support, b. more sapphic adult fantasy, and c. a whole lot of fun to have, then you won’t want to miss out on the Black Crown series. Your luck is in today, too, because we have the exciting task of revealing the cover of book two and a little sneak peek at what’s to come! Strap yourself in and let’s go!
But before we start, remember you can, of course, also follow Cate on twitter.
It’s Friday, it’s the end of the week (for some…), which means it’s time to meet the author you’re going to spend the weekend bingeing! Trust me. But don’t just take my word for it (although it’s good if you do), take hers as well! Let this interview convince you.
Don’t forget, too, that you can follow Isabella on twitter.
If you’ve followed us on the blog for a while, you probably noticed that we’re fans of Nicole Melleby’s books. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that we very much wanted to read her latest as soon as possible. And like always, Nicole did not disappoint! Read our review to learn why you should buy yourself a copy, if you haven’t preordered it before!
And of course, follow Nicole on twitter.
Eleven-year-old Joey is angry. All the time. And she doesn’t understand why. She has two loving moms, a supportive older half brother, and, as a triplet, she’s never without company. Her life is good. But sometimes she loses her temper and lashes out, like the time she threw a soccer ball—hard—at a boy in gym class and bruised his collarbone. Or when jealousy made her push her (former) best friend (and crush), Layla, a little bit too roughly.
After a meltdown at Joey’s apartment building leads to her family’s eviction, Joey is desperate to figure out why she’s so mad. A new unit in science class makes her wonder if the reason is genetics. Does she lose control because of something she inherited from the donor her mothers chose?
Nicole Melleby
Rep: sapphic mc with anger management issues, sapphic li, lesbian parents
TW: blood, bullying, panic attacks
Release: 10th May 2022
Buckle up folks because Xiran Jay Zhao is back with another book, their middle grade debut, and they’re back with a bang! If Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor wasn’t on your radar before, make sure it’s there now. If you like books in the vein of Percy Jackson, this is one for you.
And don’t forget, you can follow Xiran on twitter.
Zachary Ying never had many opportunities to learn about his Chinese heritage. His single mom was busy enough making sure they got by, and his schools never taught anything except Western history and myths. So Zack is woefully unprepared when he discovers he was born to host the spirit of the First Emperor of China for a vital mission: sealing the leaking portal to the Chinese underworld before the upcoming Ghost Month blows it wide open.
The mission takes an immediate wrong turn when the First Emperor botches his attempt to possess Zack’s body and binds to Zack’s AR gaming headset instead, leading to a battle where Zack’s mom’s soul gets taken by demons. Now, with one of history’s most infamous tyrants yapping in his headset, Zack must journey across China to heist magical artifacts and defeat figures from history and myth, all while learning to wield the emperor’s incredible water dragon powers.
And if Zack can’t finish the mission in time, the spirits of the underworld will flood into the mortal realm, and he could lose his mom forever.
Xiran Jay Zhao
Rep: Hui Chinese American Muslim gay mc
Release: 10th May 2022
Spring has a lot to offer, and frankly I’m sure any walks you have planned will turn out better with a brand new music soundtrack. With that in mind, here are ten April LGBT songs I chose to spotlight, and a playlist linked at the end of the post with over 100 songs in total.
That’s still not enough music for you? Try all my previous monthly posts right here!
For May’s book of the month, we picked one we’re both excited for. I mean, who wouldn’t be highly anticipating a book about a boy, the genie who grants him three wishes, and a romp around the world in search of his boyfriend? You know I’m right.
So have a look at the book below and don’t forget to follow Naz on twitter (and, obviously, preorder)!
Hope everyone had a good April, a month which I keep referring to as either March or May. As you can tell, Anna got back to watching more than me (& I feel I should mention they did read more than one book, it’s just the others were straight, in an unusual turn of events). But anyway, here’s what we read, watched and listened to!
Lesbians rejoice because, with purely coincidental and yet purely perfect timing, we have possibly the most exciting post we could have uploaded on Lesbian Visibility Day! Yes, that’s right, a chat with the author of the upcoming The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School! As massive proponents of, you know, using the word lesbian in YA literature, this book is high on our anticipated reads list. So it’s with great pleasure that we can post today’s interview with Sonora Reyes.
And, before you read, don’t forget to follow them on twitter!
With no clue what new rec list to possibly do, I turned back to an old(er) one to refresh. I last did a high fantasy rec list back in March 2021, and before that, April 2019, both of them before a number of books I now consider favourites were even released. So, what better time to do an update than now? And here we are, with 10 high fantasy recs for your delectation and delight!
And hey, a lot of those titles are available on Scribd, so if you want to check out that service but don’t have an account yet, use my invite code to get 2 months for free! (This also gives me one free month.)
It’s been three years since Charlotte has done the original post, and we decided that’s long enough for me to update her recs a little bit. Actually, it is always interesting to see which books for any given topic she recommends vs. me. There’s a lot of overlap, but our tastes aren’t identical.
Anyway, if you’re craving some gay magic? Enjoy!
And hey, a lot of those titles are available on Scribd, so if you want to check out that service but don’t have an account yet, use my invite code to get 2 months for free! (This also gives me one free month.)
