Also, CONGRATULATIONS to The Safekeep for winning the Women's Prize for Fiction 2025!
This book is special.
Eerie, erotic, moving, unsettling... it was one of my absolute favourites of last year and I'm thrilled to bits that it won 🥰
pickA dark and beautiful fable, this graphic novel follows the orphaned daughter of witches whose debt to a magical well requires she fulfill three of the wishes cast into its depths. Recommended for fans of K O‘Neill!
so-soThis was a bit of a disappointment. I have read Kann before and really like her book Romantic Agenda, but this time around I was just annoyed with most of the characters. Our MC felt super juvenile - she is in college but I am reading an actual YA of boys set in HS and they are acting more mature than this.
I thought everyone around her was awful including her best friends & love interest which is always a bummer
Overall this just wasn't for me.
pickThat was fucking weird (complimentary). BUT NOT TOO BOLD is sapphic monster mystery romance with a strong Gothic undercurrent. Normally I find the "all vibes" for hundreds of pages of gothic fiction tedious, so this novella length was perfect for me. Do not read if you're afraid of spiders, or, conversely, if you love them so much you'd be distraught to hear of them being deep-fried and eaten. #QueerBooks #LGBTQ
so-soI actually finished a #RiseUpReads before the end of the month!
I listened to this one, and I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I had read it. The voice actress made the main character sound very immature at times, or else I am way too old to appreciate the tone used. However, I enjoyed the family story, the growth of the MC, and the relationship side of the story. It also made me really hungry for falafel!
pickI‘m usually not a fan of sequels but this one was nice. And I would read a third book with these characters. I really got to like Darius.
Friday #Pride book recs!
Ace and Intersex books are not very common. Here are three each I recommend.
Ace = A-sexual this is such a scale! Angela Chen's nonfiction book Ace helped me so much to understand that range. I really recommend it.
**I originally added a book that after more research (I read it years ago before I knew better) appears to be harmful. This is an updated graphic.
pickCompletely lovely YA adaptation of Northanger Abbey with perfect gothic parallels and a sweetly real young love story for our two leading lads. I don't always love a graphic novel but this one captured me, and while it deals with more serious themes than the original (homophobia, racism, poverty, illness), it still feels like an A+ successor to Austen's novel. I have a feeling I'll be coming back to this one. #PemberLittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow
pickThis was a really lovely middlegrade read. Ellen is on a class trip to Barcelona. She's Jewish, she's autistic, & she has a great dad. But she feels like her best friend is pulling away from her. When they get put on different teams for a group project, she has to learn how to make new friends & set boundaries in her relationships. There's also a new classmate who uses they pronouns, who makes Ellen think outside the binary categories shes used to
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