book review

Juliet Takes a Breath

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Book Review (more just a pile of my personal opinions from my personal experiences)

Title: Juliet Takes a Breath

Author: Gabby Rivera 

Year: 2016

Genre: YA fiction, personal growth, coming of age, coming out/queer

Queer shit: Lead (female) is gay, has a girlfriend, and is trying to come out to her family. Lots of support queer characters, lesbians, poly.  

Vibe Check: jumping into the deep end before you are ready and being fine

Pile of Opinions: LOVED THIS BOOK. I needed more of this book the second I finished. Juliet is a lesbian about to go on summer break during her college years in 2003. She reads a book by a lesbian feminist in Portland Oregon who opens Juliet’s eyes to a world of queerness and body positivity that is new for her. She lands an internship with the author, decides to come out to her parents, and heads off to Portland for the summer. This book was empowering and human and made me want to up and go somewhere new and meet new people. This book covers the complexities of being gay in the early 2000’s, family dynamics and varying responses to queerness, intersectionality, white privilege, polyamory, and meeting your heroes only to find out they are human. This book is one I will reread soon and suggest to anyone who will listen (already sent a copy to someone so they’ll read it and we can talk about it). This book felt so real and personal and human and i just loved how Juliet builds relationships with the people she meets, how the characters love and make mistakes, and how the author addresses body image and the intersectionality of Juliet being a queer woman of color. The author portrays whiteness in a way that is both disappointing and incredibly accurate. Rivera uses a character to address white fragility and how queer white women cannot represent queer women very well because the experiences of queer women of color are not only different, but something white queer women cannot understand because they are not queer women of color. This book was light and enjoyable while touching on heavy and complex topics, the author balanced all of this brilliantly. 

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The Love Hypothesis

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Book Review (more just a pile of my personal opinions from my personal experiences)

Title: The Love Hypothesis 

Author: Ali Hazelwood

Year: 2021

Genre: Romance. Academic

Queer shit: none? If there was any it was like random side characters that didn’t really matter other than being fillers. Maybe there was none? If it was, it was subtle enough to not be memorable. 

Vibe Check: Academics and grad school, fake dating, gender roles. 

Pile of Opinions: I both loved and felt really icky about this book. I read this book because it was recommended by many people and I kept seeing it pop up on social media. I loved the idea of a love story while someone is in grad school, I enjoyed that this felt like smart people making out of character decisions like faking a relationship. The story is about a grad student who decides to get a fake relationship to convince her best friend that she doesn’t have feelings for the boy her best friend likes. The man she picks at random is the faculty who is harshest on his students and least liked among her peers. I felt like the connection between the two leads felt believable and I enjoyed watching them fall for each other for realsies. I did not like the jokes about Title IX, especially when it became a real concern with a side character. I did not enjoy how heterosexual this was not only being a cis man and a cis women but how much it enforced gender roles and stereotypes. The male lead was often described by how large of a human he was and the female lead was often talked about as small and petite. Yes, she was smart and a hard worker, but the sheer number of times he rescued her was frustrating by the end of the book. He’s already faculty and she is a student (not his student) so there is already a power dynamic to be aware of and I felt that was leaned into rather than treaded lightly near. The sex……more about how small she is and how large he is, weird and unnecessary virginity or inexperience shit (I super hate this tactic with adults because it is almost never done in a way that isn’t sexist). By the time they were done having sex I actually started admitting I disliked the book as it was sort of the nail in the coffin of a lack of queerness, continued reinforcement of gender roles, and I was happy when I finished the book but sort of wished the whole sex part was left out and I could just enjoy the rest of it without feeling icky about gender roles and just write this off as likely too straight for me. I later found out this started out as Reylo (Rey and Kylo Ren) fan fiction and I really disliked it with commitment after that. Star Wars is sacred and I have strong opinions about Rey (because I will fight Kylo for her, I mean, only if she loves me back and wants me to fight him. She may want to fight her own battles and that is one of the many reasons I love her). Anyway, I probably would not have read it had I known it started as fanfic for a couple I don’t ship. It wasn’t bad, just not for me and arguably perpetuating damaging stereotypes. Not gay enough haha 

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Not Here to be Liked

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Book Review (more just a pile of my personal opinions from my personal experiences)

Title: Not Here to be Liked 

Author: Michelle Quach

Year: 2021

Genre: YA fiction/feminism/crush-worthy/identity 

Queer shit: Feminism. I know the leads weren’t queer but I cannot for the life of me remember about side characters. I seriously got so sucked into the lead (which doesn’t usually happen) and forgot to pay attention to the other people…. 

Vibe Check: VIBES! My teenage self was cheering this entire book. I want this book to be required reading in high school English so people can analyze the characters and their decisions and then also have a feminist uprising and also all get matching sweaters and boba. I don’t even like boba and this book made me want to change my ways.  

Pile of Opinions: I honestly ordered this book because an author I like recommended pre-ordering because they knew the author and this was Michelle’s first book. I was not prepared for this book to be everything I didn’t know that I needed. It starts off with our lead (female) having paid her dues and done her time and excelled on the school paper but when it comes time to elect the new head of the paper for senior year, she loses the spot to a boy who only joined the paper this year because he had an injury that took him out of the sport he was playing. Discussions of being likable, being pretty, does she deserve the position more than him (yes.)? Understanding complexities of feminism as well as maneuvering senior year. I want to go back in time to my high school years and hand me this book. I needed it. This book is on my list to reread this year (2022), join me?

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Forestborn

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Book Review (more just a pile of my personal opinions from my personal experiences)

Title: Forestborn

Author: Elayne Audrey Becker

Year: 2021

Genre: YA fantasy fiction/super adventure/siblings 

Queer shit: gay characters in main circle, character in passing described as ‘androgenous’ and ‘they’ pronouns used (it was like 4 sentences and it mattered so it is here)

Vibe Check: Wow. just wow. This book is an amazing adventure and I now care too deeply for all the characters and need more people to read this book so I can talk through my feelings and cry with someone about it.

Pile of Opinions: This is book one, book 2 comes out this year (2022) maybe in the fall? The story is about a magical plague making people sick and a brother and a sister getting caught up in the king’s court trying to help solve the problem since no one really knows what the disease is or why it’s happening. The siblings are shape shifters but can’t shift into just anything, they each have a specific set of options that show up throughout their lives. I think this book has a really interesting way of acknowledging trauma in a fantasy context which I really appreciated. Trauma happens in like every fantasy book (‘like every’ is not a statistical measurement, merely an observation based on my own experience reading books) and is rarely talked about. I understand characters are usually in the middle of a whole situation and don’t really have time to stop and be like “wow, you just went through a lot and it may be impacting you, do you want to talk about it?” because they often still have stuff to get done before they are safe. This author did a really amazing job of describing characters’ reactions to traumatic experiences in a way that is honest and human (I know they are magical creatures but you know what I mean). Giving character reaction to trauma in a fantasy novel without interrupting the flow of the story or adventure does not sound like an easy task and I love how this author handled it. I found myself rationing out the pages of this book because I was enjoying it and didn’t want it to end. When I found out there was a part two I finished the book very quickly, taking comfort in the fact that my new friends will be back with more stories. I also love books about siblings who (mostly) get along because I also like my siblings and if we were sent on a quest we would absolutely get into arguments but we would also not have it any other way and we would make a great team. Please go read this so we can talk about it.

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Meet Cute Diary

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Book Review (more just a pile of my personal opinions from my personal experiences)

Title: Meet Cute Diary

Author: Emery Lee

Year: 2021

Genre: YA Fiction/Romance/coming of age

Queer shit: non-binary, ace (asexual), pronouns, trans, gay

Vibe Check: This book is as cute and sweet as the title and cover imply

Pile of Opinions: This book was handed to me the first time I finally got the guts to ask the bookstore experts for a book with a non-binary character since I was still new to being out of the non-binary closet. Shout out to The Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle for not only having a book ready but being so queer friendly always. This book is about a trans character and his journey to coming out, coming of age, but also the journey of how complex coming out is. Living fully into himself while visiting his brother out of state. Balancing freedom and independence, he is the author of a blog that tells the happily ever afters of trans people and his views of what type of boyfriend he wants are challenged as he finds out the difference between stories on a website and real life people. This book does a beautiful job of discussing pronouns (including a conversation that is an amazing example of how to respond to someone sharing their pronouns and I definitely cried). This book was the cute trans love story I hoped it would be and it made my heart happy.

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Edie in Between

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Book Review (more just a pile of my personal opinions from my personal experiences)

Title: Edie in Between

Author: Laura Sibson 

Year: 2021

Genre: YA Fiction/fantasy? grief/loss, magic

Queer shit: Lead character is a a queer girl who likes girls

Vibe Check: witchy stuff, cursed house, boats haha 

Pile of Opinions: The short summary is a girl loses her mom and when someone in their family dies their ghost still hangs around. Edie has to move in with her grandma and learns about her family’s history with magic and the family home that is a little (a lot) cursed and the adventures that go with learning where you come from and who you get to be. I liked how this book approached grief and I read the book as a bit of a metaphor for grieving. I’m not sure if that’s what the author intended but since I had just recently lost someone close, grief was heavy on my mind. I really connected to Edie’s grief and how losing someone so close can rock your identity and also create a push to take root in who you are. The magic was throughout the book, though the fantasy was really only in the last hundred pages. I did like the cursed house though and am possibly too intrigued by it. It’s best I stay home as much as I do, my radar for danger is not great haha If my life were a book I would be making smart ass comments about my decisions regularly. Ok, I already do. I also really loved the cover of this book a lot!

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The Witch Haven

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Book Review (more just a pile of my personal opinions from my personal experiences)

Title: The Witch Haven

Author: Sasha Peyton Smith 

Year: 2021

Genre: YA Fantasy? Paranormal Fiction (according to google), witchy, historical fiction

Queer shit: Supporting character is implied lesbian

Vibe Check: Kinda murdery, very witchy, nice and empowering. Don’t read before bed.

Pile of Opinions: This is a book I chose purely based on about 80% judging it by its title and cover and 20% actually reading the description and being interested. I’ve found I like doing it this way sometimes, knowing nothing about the book or the author other than what the book’s sleeve tells me. This book was dark and sad and had way more murder than I was comfortable with or prepared for. I also could not put this book down! I connected with the characters quickly and it was no time at all before I was speaking out loud my smart ass commentary of whether or not I think someone is trustworthy or up to no good and asking why people make stupid decisions. This is when you know I am sucked into a book. The quick summary is that this book is about a school for girls who find out they have magical powers. The school works to help them train their skills and of course people get into some adventure and shenanigans. Book 2 (I think there are only two books) comes out later this year (2022) and I am looking forward to it. Maybe #2 will be less murdery? Haha I doubt it. I enjoyed the storylines of finding our community and nurturing friendships through whatever life throws at you. I found this a very sweet and authentic view of the complications of friendship.

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