A faster read than I expected, and I loved it. There's so much in it for such a small book, and most of the characters are well structured. The settings are beautiful (plus well-done trans and ace rep).

I genuinely liked this novel a lot, but the time lapses were too confusing a lot of the time. Everything was made to be pretty readable despite the content surrounding physics philosophy (?) The characters were fulfilling and the story of anarchism (beyond time theory) was something I'd love to read more of.

The first two stories in this collection caught me up immediately. Elephants and Corpses leads you into a piece about body-jumping mercenaries – definitely the way to get me reading. It also offered a unique way to view gender dysphoria. There‘s a lot of non-normative families, which admittedly don‘t always work out for the characters, but I love how they exist in the tales.

Loved this and wish I'd taken pretty much everyone's advice to read it sooner. I was ready for a lot of the same tropes that YA novels go back to, but they skimmed over a lot of them really well to focus on the pair's more personal story, while still giving enough attention to the bias' in both their backgrounds.

Bookfest gets from Friday! I also got Daphne du Maurier's My Cousin Rachel and Diana Rowland's White Trash Zombie, ended up with a better haul than I expected.

I just decorated my laptop, and finished What If It's Us. I really loved it, as someone who kind of avoids romance novels, and I would love similar recommendations if you have any 💕

Queer YA fiction that my professor gave me. I almost cried, she just gave me beautiful books. I've read those in the smaller pile but now they're part of my library 🌈

Big recommend, and second book I've gotten through for pride month (ace, gay and lesbian rep) I love Felicity and the way she navigates her understandings of her 'place' and how to circumvent the odds stacked against her.

Not that it would've amounted to anything/contributed to the story itself, but would've loved to see more dialogue between the Doctor and Blount.

Ryan doesn't fall into the trap of just saying 'but they weren't gay back then'. We are given a better outline of why our modern terminology isn't sufficient. 'Gay' identities are centred, but also considers instances of trans identities and how these were blurred by concepts of inversion and the like - through military and naval life and their interactions with class and geography, the queer writer/poet/artists and entertainers of the periods.

Currently 3 hours into #8intwo on Instagram. Hoping to get my reading up and just finished Rukhsana Ali. I really loved it, as dark as it gets, especially looking at how badly family and familial communities can approach queerness.

Wanted to check out Jodorowsky and started with his comics. Cool story, some really beautiful colour palettes throughout, but didn't super love any of the characters.

Parable of the Talents was more terrifying than Sower, just because of the political aspect that's carries way too many parallels to today. I really loved reading it though. Butler was so good at capturing completely different personalities with different views and different voices, and make you believe each of them.

Man I love when fiction written 20 years ago is so horrifically on point today.

I have read a couple things since my last post, but recently finished this ARC and loved it so much. Austism isn't something I'm knowledgeable about, but queer stuff is, and learning about the intersection between the two from someone's personal perspective through this book has been eye-opening.

Super cheesy writing made it hard for me to get through, until about the halfway point where the true story kind of begins. There's a lot of set-up but a lot of it is more of the 'you should read go back and read the first book for more info' category. I ended up loving the book regardless of this, it incorporates a lot of issues into a brilliant story dealing with self-confidence, bullying and ultimately, navigating difficult relationships.

I love the feeling of isolation and urban decay that a book can often evoke better than most mediums when done correctly, and this fragment of writing delivers on both so well. The sense of discovery and of interacting with old, forgotten things, of survival and loss at the end of the world. At times the text is thick with long sentences that ramble - understandable from a child filled with wonder and curiosity, but the one thing I struggled with.

Dalia's reflections during her time in a Siberian labour camp, after her deportation from her native Lithuania under the Soviet rule in 1941, are horrifying, with small instances of hope. She idolises those who show compassion and any form of strength that doesnt prove detrimental to others imprisoned. Her writing is blunt when reflecting on her life at 14, and allows the reader to see this without the hindrance of complex language.

I haven't read that many novels in verse but, like the few I have, I loved this work. Following Jamie through questioning their identity and working up to coming out to their friends and family, I was worried it would become boring, following the same pattern as every other teen coming out story. To some extent it does, but the style helps to alleviate this, and expand on the important relationships and backgrounds of the protagonist.

I loved the way this book held everything solidly in the background of the protagonist's relationship. Moving through the end of Prohibition, the Depression and the changes in queer persecution, the focus remains on Vik and his acceptance of himself and his sexuality despite family, his place in the Russian mafia, and his cynical approach to lasting romantic relationships.

Started the Fables comics last year, and just finished 9 to start off 2019.

I despised all the characters, the character changes of the chapters seemed poorly thought out and the story overall seemed to try and blend the horror story always imposed on DID with the 'medical' ramblings of the psych. And I get it was 1950s but I dont really know why Jackson bothered with most of the doctor's chapter.

Done with my rereads, now trying to get through the full series reading one a month. I dont know if I even finished CoM when I first read through, but I still love the first two books, even knowing that most people seem kind of apathetic towards them after reading the rest (and that they get a little too soapy for me at times.)

Finished it and loved it all the way through.

Almost done with Crooked Kingdom and I'm so happy it keeps up the standard set in SoC. The character development rarely falters and I'm still in love with Jesper and Inej, my favourites of the previous novel 💕

A little less easy to follow compared to some of his other stuff. Or more, that the story seemed to encompass too many parts, while trying to establish that they were all actually connected. It's not an awful book, worth reading, but just not one that stands against his other works.

After reading House on the Strand and being kind of disappointed, it was suggested I try Rebecca by a LOT of people. Having watched the movie at uni a while back, I decided it was probably worth reading and it was. I loved this and the writing itself kind of just erased the issue of spoilers, it was so engaging and introspective that wasnt fully captured in the film.

Wasn't sure about this book for most of it. I loved all the themes it dealt with separately (and the historicity attached) but Monty's character grated on me. BUT finishing it was well worth it, and looking forward to reading The Ladies Guide(probably going to order it VERY soon.

Current read and TBR for this month 💕

Just finished up my reread of Throne of Glass and enjoyed it. Last time I read it I was in a completely different space and didn't really get to appreciate the stuff that was done well. There's a lot that doesn't appeal to me in these books, but I love the story at it's core, and there's some good writing that I'm told evolves in Maas' later work.

Reread (finally to completion) of Dorian Gray, since I got this beautiful copy I've been wanting for ages. It's always been such an interesting story to me, and covers a lot of morality questions in admittedly dramatic prose.

Not super sure what to think of Killing Commendatore; I loved it in places, but other things felt disconnected from the story. The wrapup felt too teen drama movie at it's conclusion, which didn't suit the rest of the book. And the thing...with his wife...wasn't really great. But the fantasy aspects and the interactions between protagonist and his fellow characters were well done.

This was intense, and I kind of wish it stayed in Ig's POV, because it gets hardcore. Big warnings for sexual assault+, which I was ill prepared for. It was good at creating the characters, especially when it did change perspective, but kind of loses you with some of the fantasy elements and the 'whys' of the protag's affliction.

I was a lot closer to finishing this than my ebook said, since it had Shelleys book tacked on aswell. But I really loved this retelling, and wouldve loved to see it go on longer. Seeing Frankenstein's childhood friend growing up with him, and giving her perspective to the tale, was interesting and while her character at the start almost made me stop reading, it was worth seeing it through.

I had too many problems with this book, but mostly because it felt like an edgy grimdark fanfiction, rather than a published novel. The writing style was naive and suited in that way, but should have been first person for it to work. And then rape...lots and lots of rape, with nothing to suggest that powerful women or women with any amount of fight really existed aside from Alice.

Some more Bradbury, and I love this for all the stories that could come from it. Continuations of the circus, the father's full fleshed musings, would be in themselves worth writing. But I love Bradbury's ability to create a mood (particularly seasonal moods) and hold it, without explicitly reminding what you're meant to be visualising.

A beautifully writting, weirdly haunting story of a girl living in her familys house after the death of her parents and brother. Weirdly haunting for the fact that, once you get to the end, you don't feel the horror you expect you should, but a milder strain of it.

I really love this, in a way I didnt expect to even halfway through. Its an enlightening book, even 60 years on, looking at childhood and the move from ignorance to awareness of mortality, cut up by small stories exploring this.

[Tumblr artist is vetyr] I loved this book so much, and so much of it was just directly out of my life is I'd been a highschooler now and not five years ago (and in America, and other differences but you get it). And seeing the how stuff continues on from Simon; the background characters and the relationships and general interactions between all the characters is really well done.

Not an incredible piece, but a cool little story with the context of the games (I've barely started the first game, and about halfway through both 2 and Inquisition). And Varric is a beautiful teller of tales.

Really weird little book. I vaguely remember parts of the 2002 movie (I was 7ish then?) and thought it was going to be closer to that. An interesting piece of speculative fiction, and particularly interesting for the reflections of the Time Traveller on his changing assumptions about futuristic humanity.

I now regret not seeing Gregory when he came to a library nearby to me to talk about this book. I hadn't read it yet but it sounded interesting, and now I'm glad I picked it up. It was a fucking heavy read, and I resonated a little more than I like, but reading about a guy who somewhat went the hermit life I often dream of has centred me a bit. Plus his achievements after dealing with PTSD and homelessness are incredible.

I was almost scared to start on this book. Got interested in it because Nnedi posted about how her original publishers tried to whitewash the cover, and so I picked it up when I found it at a book fest. Heavy stuff, bluntly stated in a way that most books don't do or else leave as backdrop from the proper story, and established within an incredible piece of speculative fiction.

A small collection poems, most of the best ones coming through in the second part 'Lost Planet' and all trying to find a space in the world where the outcasts strive to find their place. Moving between more free form poetry and slam-vibes, this collection offers a lot in the spaces it inhabits and the people it names.

Something that I expected to be pretty light ended up being pretty the opposite. A cool roadtrip novel that goes into depth, and tackles a lot of racist bullshit, a lot of youth problems, but also sees a lot of that carefree stuff that is meant to come with roadtripping.

I think this fell a little short for me, maybe because I prefer standalones, maybe because I read Borne before this story, but regardless I loved it. It offers a lot to both my love of scifi and introspection in fiction, and the worldbuilding, while only covering a few small spaces, sometimes only a page dedicated to placing them, is really well done, and hugely inspiring towards the writing I've been doing lately

Read this for uni and during a #readathon over on instagram and really REALLY loved it. It's subtle in its approach to sexuality and honest with how neurotypical people respond to mental illness, while recognising it as not great. Also the main characters avoidance issues are incredibly relateable, with issues in intimacies romantic and platonic alike, and using travel as an escape method every time it goes wrong.

This was just what I needed right now. A book dealing with the sharper beauty and endless use of poetry alongside life, in this case of X. Constantly sexualised in school and out, and reduced in a multitude of facets in her life, by parents and peers alike, she grows through the communication of her words, making herself heard. Also the first prosetry book I've read since I devoured most of Ellen Hopkins' work years ago.

And with this just finished my 50/50 book reading goal