• All Reviews,  Literature

    ARC Review: Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor

    7 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.

    Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor

    Xiran Jay Zhao

    Goodreads

    Rep: Hui Chinese American Muslim gay mc
    Release: 10th May 2022

    Read More
  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    In the Intersection: LGBT Lit and Faith

    22 June, 2021

    The penultimate rec list in this series is one that covers LGBT lit in which faith and religion play a big role (but isn’t always the sole focus, mind). We’ve done our best here to feature as many religions as possible, but, as you might expect, some are (as ever) easier to find than others. The sections are sorted alphabetically (with a miscellaneous section which represents books covering multiple religions) so are easily searchable.

    The series so far: Black, African & Caribbean lit, East Asian lit, West Asian lit, South Asian lit, Southeast Asian lit, Latine lit, Indigenous lit, neurodiversity & disability in lit.

    We didn’t find much more examples (outside of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism), but here, have this documentary about a lesbian Taoist priestess and her daughter.

    Read More
  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: YA Contemporary That Isn’t About Coming Out

    18 December, 2020

    Books which features coming out scenes are all very well and good — we do, after all, need to see a wide range of those and there are areas where that story still hasn’t been told — but sometimes you just want to read a book where the fact that the main character is gay is wholly incidental to the story. That is, not a coming out story, nor really a romance.

    So, here are 10 books which (hopefully) suit that remit. Yes, some do feature romances, but they aren’t romance books, in the sense that it’s central to the story. (Oh, and they’re all contemporary, because it doesn’t really make sense to make my task easier by including other genres, since obviously they wouldn’t have coming out scenes.)

    But anyway. On with the list.

    Read More
  • All Recommended,  Film & TV Recs,  Film & TV Shows

    Film & TV Recs: LGBT Romcoms

    16 December, 2020

    Okay, before we start: yes, there’s only one movie with trans rep and it’s a short feature at that. I know. (I made the list 11 titles long instead of the usual 10 to counterbalance that.) I was going to include Boy Meets Girl (which features a trans actress in the main role, in case you didn’t know), but frankly I have very mixed feelings about that movie. It feels a lot like a film for cis audience and not at all for trans people, and I really, really don’t understand why they didn’t go the sapphic route all the way.

    I will tell you about an upcoming romcom with a trans main character played by a trans actress, though! Right now it’s called Re-Live: A Tale of an American Island Cheerleader and it stars Rain Valdez in the main role. Look out for that in 2021!

    Read More
  • All Recommended,  Film & TV Recs,  Film & TV Shows

    Film & TV Recs: Movies with two QPOC leads

    26 October, 2020

    I’m sure y’all noticed that weird trend in Hollywood where if one half of a gay couple is POC, the other, without fail, is white. Yeah, we can have some diversity, but just not too much.

    So that’s why this rec list came to be. Here you will find ten gay and lesbian movies where both the main character and the love interest are QPOC. Turns out, it’s not impossible to achieve!

    Read More
  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: LGBT YA books with supportive parents

    22 September, 2020

    If there is one thing I care about deeply when it comes to YA literature, it’s supportive parents. I firmly believe that at least in fiction, LGBT kids deserve only the best. And nothing can be more formative than your parents being perfectly fine with who you are (as they always should be!) & allowing you to grow up with love and confidence.

    So this is why this rec list got made. Because as much as I personally adore supportive parents, it’s still not the opinion shared by majority and books featuring them are scarce. All the more reasons to appreciate them!

    Read More
  • Book Club,  Literature

    Book Club: February Read

    26 January, 2020

    February brings us both Black History Month (and associated readathons) and #FFFeb. So, obviously, it made most sense for us to pick an f/f book with Black MCs, by a Black author.

    And also we heard this one would make us cry, and who doesn’t want a good cry over a book.

    So, without further ado, the book.

    Read More
  • All Reviews,  Book Club,  Literature

    Book Club: The Disasters

    11 November, 2019

    Took us a hot second to write down the reviews, but come on guys, it just be like that sometimes… The important thing is that we’re here and we’re ready to talk about the book! Hopefully you have read it with us and we can actually have some fun chatting!

    And don’t forget: for November we chose three novellas! They’re so short, you have no excuse not to read at least one of them!

    Read More
  • Book Club,  Literature

    Book Club: October Read

    30 September, 2019

    This month, we asked something different in choosing our read. Instead of genre, we wanted to know a trope you wanted to read. (And also because Anna wanted to read contemporary because they’re picky about genre like that.)

    And the trope you picked was found family. At which point, me and Anna realised we don’t actually know any contemporary found family books that we haven’t yet read, so we ended up instead going for sci fi.

    But this is all just an incredibly rambly way of saying, we have picked our October book, and are very excited for you to join in!

    Also, don’t forget to take part in our Orientation twitter chat happening tomorrow at 4pm GMT if you read the book!

    Read More