reviews, releases and recommendations of LGBT media
After going slightly rogue last month and picking three books of the month, for September we’re back to usual, with just a single book. We had no trouble looking through our releases list and choosing this one because, in all honesty, it’s one we’re incredibly excited for.
But anyway, read on to find out more!
I don’t know about you, but somehow August seems to have simultaneously lasted forever and also been as short as anything. It’s some kind of magic trick, I’m sure.
Also can you believe it’s autumn already?
But anyway. Enough of that. Have a scroll through our August summary to see what we enjoyed!
September is a monster month for releases (there are 100+ in this post alone, not to mention any that we might not know about just yet). And also one where, every time I felt I had the list down, I found yet another release. (Not that I’m really complaining, apart from having to edit and re-edit the damn thing so many times…)
So, get yourself a cuppa, and have a scroll!
As ever, you can find all our previous releases posts here and the rainbow emoji indicates an author who id’s as LGBT.
A little while back, I touted the possibility on twitter of doing a rec list of Arthurian retellings, but gay (obviously). Now, I thought this would be a pretty niche rec list, but apparently not, which is why I’m here today with 10 gay retellings of Arthurian legend.
First things first, I haven’t read any of these myself, and a fair few are upcoming because, as it turns out, gay Arthurian retellings aren’t that big a market (shamefully, let’s be real). So I have dispensed “why should I read it” sections, since all I can really say is it’s gay, it’s Arthuriana, why aren’t you as excited as I am already.
One last thing before we start though. You will probably notice one book in particular missing and I just want to say, before people start mentioning it in the comments, I do know about it. I didn’t get along with it. That’s why it’s not on this list.
P.S. if you want more than this post, I made a list on Goodreads of everything I could find.
The end of August brings us an interview with Sidney. They chatted with us about how basically everything in the world inspires them, how they use music while creating, and how ambitious with their writing they were as a six-year-old.
Don’t forget, you can also follow them on twitter.
Some time ago I said on twitter that I want to make a music rec list & asked what vibe should I go for. Hannah Abigail Clarke gave me “songs at the midsection of 🌈 and ☠️🦷🦇”. (And by the way, if you still haven’t, you should totally preorder Hannah’s book, The Scapegracers. Teen gay witches!)
I’m not going to lie. I was pretty liberal with that theme, and so my choices might not be the most obvious. All of them are by LGBT artists, of course, so all of them cover the rainbow part, really. But I treated the death and scary, monster-ish part in a few different ways.
So there are songs that talk about dying & suffering (Die Alone, Martyr) of people, but also places (Tayf (Ghost). There are songs celebrating life (BL, Gaia). There are songs which vibes made me think of a dark night. And more! Hopefully my choices are self-explanatory, but please don’t ask me to give my reasoning in actual words.
(The title of the mix comes from Tayf (Ghost) by Mashrou’ Leila.)
When I wrote up the schedule for this month’s posts, I was initially planning for this rec list to be a continuation of that sapphic series. But, at the eleventh hour, I changed my mind, and went with adult sci fi recs.
Sci fi is, in all honesty, one of my favourite genres. And particularly sci fi that leans towards being hard rather than soft (as such, if you don’t like hard sci fi, you may not find a whole lot on this list for you, for which I apologise). And when that sci fi is gay? It just makes it all the better.
So, here are ten of my absolute faves.
Sometimes love finds you when you least expect it.
Morgan Donovan had everything she ever wanted: a dream job as a large animal veterinarian, awesome friends, and a loving and supportive fiancée. But it all comes crashing down when her fiancée dumps her after realizing that Morgan’s job will always come first. And, while Morgan still has the job and friends, her heart is broken into a million tiny pieces.
Emilia Russo is a burned-out shelter vet. When the unexpected death of her father triggers a mental breakdown that hastens the end of her relationship, she retreats to his house in Seal Cove, Maine. She plans on spending the summer renovating it while she figures out how to pull the pieces of her life back together. But when she runs into Morgan at the dock where her father’s sailboat is moored, her plans for a quiet summer of healing and reflection sink like a stone—the attraction is immediate and obvious, and Emilia finds herself slipping seamlessly into Morgan’s world.
Each woman knows this fling will end when Emilia returns to Boston at the end of the summer, but they’re unprepared for the intensity and depth of their attraction. And, as the gales of fall begin to drive leaves like spindrift upon Seal Cove, Morgan and Emilia must each come to terms with how much they’re willing to give up to stay together.
Anna Burke
Published: 25th August 2020
Goodreads
Rep: lesbian mc with depression, lesbian mc, bi and lesbian side characters
CWs: past suicidal depression, death of a parent (off page), mentions of animal euthanasia
The other day Charlotte made for you guys a rec list of adult fantasy books, and so here I am, trying to maintain my brand, reccing YA books.
Specifically, sapphic YA books. I don’t have a particular reasoning here, I’ve just read a bunch of them this year, so it seemed quite obvious. I want to say right away, though, that I didn’t include Crier’s War here, despite it being one of my favourite books. I just figured y’all know about it anyway, so there’s no point! But this is your reminder that it exists, and that Iron Heart comes out next month.
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.)
Okay, let’s go!
Full disclosure, this year has been bad for me in terms of reading and loving YA fantasy. Yes, I have loved some, but also I’ve been bored as anything by others. So I’ve turned a fair bit to adult fantasy — mostly avoiding all the white cishet men writing it, of course.
This is not a definitive list of all the LGBT adult fantasy novels I have loved, of course. I went to write down possible entries to this list and ended up with about twice as many that I loved, and maybe three or four times as many that I would rec. But these are ten of my favourites.
So, dive in, and I hope you find something to enjoy here!
Let me start by saying that my definition of “coming of age movies” is pretty loose & basically any movie featuring teens who learn something about themselves & grow up, is welcomed here.
Now that we cleared that up, let’s go. There are some comedies here, some dramas, some movies somewhere in between. Hopefully a little something for everybody.
It’s August which means it’s time for PART TWO of 2020’s sapphic releases (part one here). These are all the sapphic releases that I know about from July to December this year (so, usual disclaimer of it not being on here generally means I don’t know about it. Sometimes means I completely forgot even if I did know).
As ever, 🌈 means the author identifies as LGBT. Apologies if I have screwed up a date somewhere — they’ve changed so often I know I haven’t kept track of them all.
For clarification: I have included in this list books where the sapphic character is either the main character/protagonist, has a POV, or is a major character who affects the plot.
So let’s go!
We have a whole new, and very exciting, interview for you today. We spoke with LGBTQ SFF writer E. M./Elisabeth Hamill, author of the Songmaker and Dalí Tamareia series. So sit down, get a cuppa, and have a read!
Don’t forget, you can also follow her on twitter.
First week of August is over so that’s a high time for me to let you guys know what songs released last month by LGBT artists did I love the most. Hold on tight, because the whole mix is basically 50 songs long (it’s available at the end of the post), even if I only included the 10 absolute faves in the post itself!
And perhaps you need more music? Check out all my previous monthly posts right here!
This month’s feature is a little different, in that, both me and Anna looked at our releases list, and couldn’t decide which book to pick, since there were three books we thought, hey we’ve not seen that talked about very much. And we definitely hadn’t seen them being talked about as being gay.
Hence why this post contains not one but three books.
