I wasn't sure I was ready for a more 'general fiction' work from Emezi but this was great. Not my usual reading but I loved it, and the themes and prose (as always) were strong.

Love Butler's work. Rough to read but always important.

Picked this up because it was the most interesting title on the Stella Shortlist. An incredible collection of essays around the meat industry, and hugely confronting.

Loved this novella. Gothic mushroom based horror? Yes please. Plus the queer element is excellent.

Read them in the wrong order but loved all of these Wayward Children novellas as usual. Lost in the Moment and Found was particularly challenging for themes. But love, as always.

Really loved this one. Cool technonoir, and equity based communes (on of the main settings)are always interesting to me. All I'd want is more. The action rolls well, but I just want to know about the communities it touches on. There feels like a few gaps otherwise, but still, loved.

Reread. Hopefully catching up on the rest this year.

I love the narrator. I love the idea. I love half the dialogue and description. But something just doesn't pull it through. I got 80% the way through and just...don't care to finish it.

Always love a feminist retelling, and this one had a self awareness, with a kind of isekai quality that was fun. Wasn't what I was geared up to expect, more YA than the serious adult fantasy I thought, and while the overall was lukewarm for me, I'm excited for the next novella.

Haven't put that much thought into dating as a queer trans masc, but love that this shows the journey of it. Fear of rejection from men is always up there, but seeing the journey through coming out, dating and the doubled hazards of grindr, along with the stress of validation and the eventual happy ending made this such a good read.

Really cool adventure, loved how it blends short story with an ongoing narrative.

Interesting premise, and I love most of it, but it gets distracted and poorly executes some side concepts.

A trans man in a '78 manga. Not really something you read for the narrative, but was interesting to see an older, less common(?) media with any sort of rep, especially featuring an affirming medical professional 😅

Sibling pointed this one out to me, what I'm hoping will be a good intro to read more of her work and similar, a short collection of essay/speeches from a Black, lesbian, feminist poet.

Bookfest Day 2: not as impressive a haul, but I'm happy with what I did find.

Bookfest Day 1: found a few good books, have previously read Crimson and the Dubliners section of James Joyce

Mildly confusing throughout, but storywise it makes sense, and the way it all came together in the end was excellent. Excited for Nona and Alecto.

So good after reading Secret History, was worried about there becoming a dark academia formula, but while there's big parallels this was incredible itself. Painful, but managing to make me feel more than Tartt's novel, ESPECIALLY in that final Act.

Some of the action and narrative were rushed, I'm guessing to centre the romance more but would've loved to see it extended to fully explore the story itself. Enjoyed regardless.

An incredible collection of essays, written by queer people about their experiences, using cinematic horror as a parallel. Some mirrored the horror themes more closely, but regardless all the personal stories were interesting and came from a background of love for the genre.

Genuinely enjoyed this one. Don't think it needed to hinge of Peter Pan so much, but it does grab the attention. The dynamics made for an interesting spin, but did eek a little on the age stuff. And obviously the approach to queerness I loved immensely.

Went to the Byron Writer's Festival this past Saturday and it was incredible. Got to get books signed by both Bruce Pascoe and Gary Lonesborough, and sat in for a Gender Fluidity panel with Yves Rees and Dylin Hardcastle. Would recommend all of them, plus got access to the anthologies pictured, though i didn't get to see Mykaela Saunders, ed. of This All Come Back Now. And bought Unlimited Futures because of Claire G Coleman's contribution.

This was recommended by a regular at work. I fully understand why, the prose is interesting and there are definitely some stand out paragraphs, but if you're in it for an engaging story/world it's...alright?? Am definitely interested in reading more Hemingway now, but it won't top my reading list, possibly just because my taste deviates.

Realise I didn't review this. Worth reading, but it won't give you trans joy as I expected. It works through the author wrestling with oppressive social media spaces and dated popular media (that we grew up consuming despite the accompanying dysphoria) to eventually take a step back and try to approach transness with joy, even online, without the negativity of TERF twitter and Boys Don't Cry 'nostalgia'.

Wasn't sure about a novel from someone I'd grown to know as a poet, but this was excellent. A queer, Arab, Australian and muslim coming of age + extending into later life, it covered a lot of issues of family, friends, and finding your place in life. Definitely recommend.

Been considering getting this for a bit. Excited.

One of the first books this year that I didn't love at first but was well worth finishing. I'm actually invested and while I'm only planning on reading the Transitions trilogy for now, I think I might check some earlier Drizzt novels eventually.

In love with this. Had speculative aspect I did NOT expect after Red White and Royal Blue, and had so much queer love and references to intersections of queer history.

Forgot about the pacing of children's chapter books, but happy to have read this one. A great adventure story and while again, would have loved more immersive world building, it's a great children's tale, offering language and lore. Excited for the series to continue.

The Word for World is Forest was excellent, loved it in the same vein as Huxley's The Island. @RamsFan1963 can understand why it's your favourite LeGuin.

Refigured tbr for NAIDOC week. Also put a hold on Dark Emu audiobook but it'll be 2 months before I can read that one.

Mini tbr for July, partway through Malice and Ariadne but they're big so need to get my motivation up.

Should be require reading in Aus schools. A 'fiction' on the stolen generation and general colonisation of Australia, very blunt but well written. It shifts halfway through, a different perspective but a great way of teaching the risks and repetition of invasions.

A story with an Australian sex worker at the fore - the author herself being a sex worker- navigating her thoughts on social issues, including the nsw bushfires, the pandemic, and how her works influences her.

Two good books of women taking back their own (in some form). While break your glass slippers is a little too basic/made of platitudes it still sends a strong message, especially for the younger audience. And Galatea is brilliant, though sad, with a feeling parallel to the Yellow Wallpaper - and Miller's specific style of writing making me want to read Circe again.

Started this one thinking I had to read it before Young Mungo. They're not connected at all (so far as I can tell) but I did love it even through the pain. A fractured, working class family in Scotland just getting through life. Made me remember reading Angela's Ashes/'Tis

Been loving everything VtM lately and this was excellent. Was excited for Erika Ishii narrating. First and last story were great, second was fine. I think I just personally hate the heavy handed 'this man is an asshole!!!' trope. Would love to find some more Vampire the Masquerade style novels/stories.

Wasn't expecting this to go how it did, thought it was going to be a mockumentary type format but it was so good narratively, horrific/emotional in its content, and the navigation of slaughter...process(?) was intense.

Some of the rhyming schemes fell flat for me, but regardless the title is accurate and she fulfilled the expectations of incredible, overwhelming ardour.

A beautiful but heartbreaking novel centring a Chinese Canadian trans woman, largely dealing with the deaths of family - both blood and found - in her life, as well as converging identities.

Really cool concept and I loved where it ended up, but was ready to bail for the first half.

March wrap-up: Highly recommended Blackout and Under the Whispering Door.
Wild Seed is another difficult but important book from Octavia Butler.
Myth of Sisyphus was a miss, it just didn't speak anything important to me.
And Rolling in the Deep is a good, short prequel if you already enjoyed Into the Drowning Deep.

I binged this last month since my collection finally got completed (I waited 2 months for vol 4) and loved it. I haven't been this invested in a manga for a while, and it's been nice to finally have both the motivation and interest. Also watched the 0 movie when it came out and that was awesome.
Megumi is my fav.

The first few chapters were excellent and something I needed to read and can relate to, but the further I got the less I could focus? It still brings up important points but they were somewhat lost with the interspersal of a lot of religious anecdotes and mentions that ultimately distracted from the message.

I wish it was a little more cleaned up edit wise, but it seems to have been more a cathartic, vent project in light of both queer and covid issues, enjoyable regardless.

I understand why so many people have rated this middling, but I found it a good heist/found family narrative, and while it had some awkward characterisation and character interaction elements, for the most part it was enjoyable. Conclusion was abrupt but I think it was always intended to be a trilogy(?) series.

This is one I should've read ages ago when I was in the baby queer reading rush. Definitely a central piece for queer reading, especially in the way it draws on foundational texts.

💔

An anthology of Martian tales. While it seems to follow some chronology - Martians existing without humans, their first contact and eventually the last settlement - they vary enough to seem like either different takes on Mars, or of unreliable narrators. Interesting either way.

A brief and interesting novella exploring what it could mean to scientifically explore other planets with care and consideration of any potential existing ecosystem.