I‘m not loving this book as much as Vermilion, partly because I read to escape the tourist trap where I live, and partly because the costume party portion was long and painful due to blackface and yellowface costumes.

This exchange is pretty great, though, and there aren‘t any references to the first book so it shouldn‘t be a problem to skip ahead to Slate.

If this book had been around when we were kids my brothers and I would have been obsessed. Beautiful art, fascinating world design, and great emotional storytelling.

I‘m always on the lookout for queer detective fiction and this fits the bill nicely. Despite the murder of a hustler and the crackdown on the queer community in Boston following the discovery of the body int he lawn of a notoriously homophobic politician, this book remains surprisingly upbeat without dismissing the violence and grief. Excellent banter and solid character have me craving the rest of the series.

The first 12 pages are Álvaro narrating a movie he wants to direct based on getting stranded on the highway ?

I‘m not a fan of body horror, so we‘ll see how this goes. At least I‘m not usually squeamish about it.

It‘s time!

Fuuuck. Maybe I worked too many years in customer service but this made me tear up.

Now for something a little different! I can‘t resist library romances.

I finished this six months ago but it still creeps up on me out of nowhere. Short term impact I had a couple of jumpy moments around our two dogs. Longer term, I‘m looking at people and feeling like I can dee the roadmap of scars that got them to the present, while having absolutely no concept of scale or quality. Messed me up.

HELL YES! Intrigue, swordplay, and a queer romance? This is going in the shelf with Swordspoint and Maledicte!

I‘ve had this sitting in my Kindle library for ages and never got around to reading. It‘s actually pretty damn engaging.

Gotta love the right thigh/hip agony rep in here, though I‘m fairly certain mine isn‘t demonic in nature.

I‘d been meaning to check this out and finally cracked it open. I‘m definitely going to have to hunt down a copy for my shelf of loaner kidlit books.

I absolutely NEED a spin-off novel(la?) focusing on our Renaissance vampires

Selkies and spinsters and sapphics, oh my!

My hold ran out on Libby before I could finish the book 😭2 weeks until it comes back around

This ghost girl story has lingered with me for tears, but I‘d forgotten it was from Inuyasha!

Eric and the girls just left the spite house to head for Eunice‘s and I have a fictional little old lady I‘d like to drop kick.

I bought and read the first 21 standard volumes as a teen and really loved them. Unfortunately my collection took a hit and most of them were unrecoverable. I saw the Vizbig editions on Libby and thought I‘d give them a shot for nostalgia‘s sake.

It‘s… very different reading them in your 30s. The story is still interesting and I‘d forgotten how many horror elements there were! But also Kagome is only 15 and some bits of the manga feel icky now 😭

Need a palette cleanser after my last couple of reads, so time to revisit Arianna and Ruadan.

Decided to look up Ira Levin to see if there was personal history that made him so keen to write about women being manipulated/gaslighted by their husbands and got distracted by his stage plays. AKA Guy‘s resume from the book.

I loved Lavender House, but The Bell in the Fog hits all the right notes. We‘re back in the city and Andy is finally making some friends when ghosts from his past complicate things.

“Need me to help you undress?” he asks, then looks horrified at himself. “I don‘t think I‘ve ever asked that without lewd intent before.”

Eventually, morning came instead of bad guys. That was the thing about mornings. No matter how fucked up your life got, how deep and black your despair, how sure you were that you just couldn‘t take another second of this shit, morning just kept on coming. Over and over. Morning didn‘t give a damn about your little drama.

Normally I‘m not a fan of devoting an entire book to retelling the story from an alternate perspective (unless of course it‘s someone redoing a classic) but this was exceedingly well done and really hit the spot.

I enjoyed the story itself and remained riveted, but I‘m most impressed with the formatting. THERE IS A PLAYLIST so you don‘t have to hunt down music, and the author includes a lovely little fact vs fiction section where he explains what he fudged for the sake of narrative.

I‘ve been wanting to reread the Lymond Chronicles since I finished them but those books are a COMMITMENT. Now I‘m listening to the audiobooks which, while not usually my preferred format, is very handy and entertaining in this instance!

Is it bad that I want a clit necklace now?

I will never look at my nephew‘s birthday the same again. On the upside, Barley Day counts as a non-Christmas holiday for #popsugarchallenge purposes, right?

Decided to reread the trilogy for the first time in years, and I‘d forgotten how funny it can be.

This one felt a little choppier than I‘m used to from Grant‘s writing (maybe it‘s the prednisone), but the ending of this book will stick with me for a long time.❤️‍🩹

I‘ve been wanting to reread the Chronicles of Prydain and so has my brother. Now we‘re buddy rereading along with his partner. I‘m so excited!

Right after I downloaded my hold from Libby it started snowing here. 🌨🤨❄️

Treating myself to a reread before Bloodmarked releases next week!

I am absolutely addicted to this series.

Got to craving gothic novels and tropes again, so after reading pulplibrarian‘s thread on Twitter, I pulled up the section in this lovely book. Now diving deep into Michael McDowell‘s The Flood!

I just need books with haunted houses and a comfy chair. #spooktember is here

This is a gorgeous, quick read with decadent prose. I‘m a bit ambivalent about the ending, but honestly I‘m never quite satisfied with how horror stories end so that‘s probably a personal problem.

Took a couple days off from reading (migraine and new nephew, respectively) and come back to see I‘ve done it again.

Turned the page and lo! the timing!

Just finished my reread so I can get started on the sequel!

Only about 50 pages in, but loving the vibe so far and feeling like I‘m about due to revisit Kat Howard‘s Roses & Rot.

Time to crack this one open!

Felt the burning need to cry my eyes out over something that isn‘t my own life, so back we go!

God, I missed these two! Just finished The Missing Page (can‘t find it on Litsy yet) and was delighted to spend some quality time with Leo and James.