Welcome to Litsy!

I tried but maybe it‘s not the right time. Will try again later and if I still can‘t get into it then I know it‘s not me

"We painted the woods that night. We gave it the colors we were and the colors we borrowed. We were opening our hands. We were giving up the stories we thought we already knew. We were becoming."

NEED HELP!

I own this book and haven't read it yet. It's not listed in Common sense media.

Does this book have sex in it? Or heavily religious?

Just finished "Blanca & Roja" by Anna-Marie McLemore
⭐⭐⭐
McLemore's writing transcends expectations. She uses imagery, metaphors, and personification in ways I couldn't have imagined. That alone kept me reading. However, she kept the suspense going for too long and lost my interest after 100 pages.

"Girls like me were not allowed ??, not by boys like this. Girls like me were allowed silence and ???, meant to be our whole language"

This quote hit me hard.

This is a magical realism and a Snow White rose red retelling. It is also LGBTQIAP as a character is genderqueer and the love story between this character and another is so beautiful.

All of their stories intertwine and create such a chaotic but heart wrenching situation for all of them. They are all fighting together and against themselves at the same time. Full review on blog, link in bio.
#bookreview #bookblogger

Love that this book begins with part of my favorite fairy tale ❤️

When you are supposed to be on a library ban and reading through the books you own...
But at least most of these are on my goodsreads want to read shelf so that‘s going down? 🤷‍♀️🙄📚📚
#libraryhaul #goodreadstbrtakedown #tbr

Definitely try reading this, if only so you can admire the book cover for a while beforehand! I nearly DNFed this until the plot started moving, but it‘s worth sticking around for the last quarter, which brought tears to my eyes with the emotional rollercoaster. I love fairy tale retellings and this one was perfect, blending together multiple fairy tales and amazing characters. Blanca, Page, Yearling and my poor baby Roja deserve only the best!

Went to the library today and got a crap ton of books. Starting with Blanca and Roja tonight!

Finished this book last night while snuggling the dogs and really enjoyed this twisted fairy tale. Looking forward to reading the author‘s first book Wild Beauty next. #dogsoflitsy

This was a highly imaginitive and amazing. I really enjoyed everything about this book. The characters the plot, the setting and especially the fairytale element. I really want to read more books by this author and the original fairytale "Snow white and Rose Red" I really enjoyed the queer elements to this book as well. This isn't your normal fairytale retelling.

1. About to start Blanca and Roja as well as Pippi Longstocking on audio.
2. Looking forward to Wild Beauty as well for June.
3. just recommended The Rook to my husband. 😊

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

I didn't want this one to end!! 😭 I just fell in love with all of the characters, and the plot was a great twist on some classic fairytales
I would say though that the end could have used a bit more explanation/resolution- everything happened so fast.
But overall definitely recommend!! 💖

When an author you love follows you back on Twitter 😍

I may make small changes, but I'm mostly if not entirely done with my queer lineage project for my writing class. I've added Anna-Marie McLemore to the Western Mass Queer & Trans Writers directory hosted by MHC, and no joke, as I was writing this, Anna-Marie replied to my tweet about this audiobook 😲😍 Oh right and, this isn't some other platform that doesn't allow links: https://commons.mtholyoke.edu/westernmassqtwriters/anna-marie-mclemore/

I had experienced so many truly lovely feelings while listening to and reading this book, much as with When the Moon Was Ours, the first of hers that I read. Wild Beauty was a bit of a miss for me, but I think McLemore has really hit her stride here. Still writing for a YA audience, her cadence has remained lyrical without so much purple prose.
I was thinking, will she get pigeonholed for writing characters whose gender is explored and (cont‘d)

I love witnessing Anna-Marie‘s young femmes swooning over the boys in their lives. #queerbooks

“I had gone into the woods already broken, and now I had collected so many other ways of being broken, I could barely carry them all.”

Study date this evening 😊 @brandybear22 is working on a paper about social work theory, I‘m reading a book by one of my favorite authors. I feel like I got the better end of this deal? Hey, at least I made the guacamole. 👩‍🍳

♥️
#queerbooks #ownvoices

I‘m adding Anna-Marie to the directory of queer and trans writers from/connected to Western Mass that my instructor started with last year‘s QTW class, so this is actually homework. 🤓 #queerbooks #ownvoices

By no means my favorite McLemore novel, this one still showed off her talent for infusing fairy tales into reality, her beautiful prose, and her passion for representation. However, unlike her other novels, the plot felt scattered and hard to pin down. The events of the novel didn‘t tie well to each other. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ #Netgalley
My pick for #booked2019 Fairytale Retelling (Snow-White and Rose-Red).

McLemore continues to write enchanting and heart wrenching magical realism. I‘m catching back up with her last couple titles and will dive into Wild Beauty sometime soon.

This book was amazing! The writing was beautiful and I just loved all the characters.

Modern fairy tale retelling that blends Snow White & Rose Red with Swan Lake and The Bear Prince. Blanca and Roja are sisters in a cursed family. Each generation has two daughters, one of whom will not only be taken by the swans but also transformed into one. As the sisters are trying to find a way out of the curse, they are joined by two boys who had previously been lost the woods and had been transformed themselves.

When daycare is open, but you‘re still off work. To the book nook!

This is an interesting introduction to both Roja and her father.

Christmas book pile! The TBR grows space.

I really enjoyed this unusual melding of two different fairy tales. The characters are beautifully and intricately drawn and I loved reading from the POV of a genderqueer boy and also the girl who loves her. However, I think the four-person narration took away from the book; I sometimes felt disconnected from the plot, missing important character moments in the quick jumps. Parts of the ending felt too easy and didn‘t ring true for me. #queerbooks

The rest of my Junior Library Guild delivery! I love the cover of In Another Time, and I have several middle school students who have been waiting *very impatiently* for Grenade.
#bookhaul #newbooks #schoollibraries #librariansoflitsy #litsyloveslibraries

This. Book. Broke. Me. Ugh it is so good. Seriously. If you like fairytales, loves stories that make sense, rivalry, secrets and sad/happy endings, GET. THIS. BOOK. queer representation, female representation, sisterhood representation, friendship representation. So very good.

‪“Sometimes what a story needed was not a girl who would do what the prince told her. It needed the girl who took the prince‘s orders and crushed them between her back teeth, who bound his wrists if that was what it took to set him free.” #BookQuotes #WNDB

Currently reading!

I‘m really enjoying this so far—I love the sisterly relationship, I‘m intrigued about how it will follow the fairy tale, and I think it might be the first published book I‘ve read with an explicitly genderqueer character.

This #libraryhaul is 100% #blameitonlitsy.

One from Boston Book Festival that I‘m especially looking forward to. This is a mash up of Snow White and Rose Red and Swan Lake, but with Latinx characters… that also tackles colorism, homophobia and ablism. It sounded ambitious. I‘m excited to see how McLemore does it.

Listening to the podcast I recorded on Sunday.

Complicated families, secrets, and magical realism. I loved this book (and Roja). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

New #UppercaseBox! I'm so excited for this book. SO EXCITED. And the earrings are darling!

Another stunningly lovely story from this author—leave it to her to write a book where I feel a little bit lost while reading it but still somehow understand and love it. Like her other books, this is definitely slow-paced; it‘s kinda the epitome of a character-focused story. It‘s more like a novel-length fairy tale all her own, with a Latinx twist and a beautiful exploration of gender identity and all kinds of love and family. Very moving. 4/5 ⭐️

💖💖💖

Had a ton of fun discussing Blanca & Roja for my friend @TeachNouvelle ‘s Podcast.

💗💗💗

I AM A HAPPY PANDA BECAUSE I FINALLY HAVE THIS BOOK IN MY HANDS OKAY GOODBYE READING TIME YAY #nowreading