I was given Of Beasts, a novella written by M. Jane Worma, as an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher for my honest opinion on the book. It was tagged as horror and LGBTQIAP+, and my thoughts were that this might very well be up my alley.
This book is set in the US state Texas, and we have two main characters. There’s Dante, a young man of Protestant Christian faith, and Jude, the pastor of the small church Dante attends. The two has a very passionate relationship, but since they’re two men, they have to keep it secret.
One night their god starts to speak to them through visions in dreams. It turns out that Dante is the Antichrist, sent to Earth to kick off the apocalypse, and Jude is the loyal man of his god, who will do what his god tells him, even though that means taking the life of the person he loves.
The book started with a bit of a bang. To be frank, it started with a very spicy sex scene. Normally I’m not too crazy about sex scenes, but in this book it actually had a function. I don’t want to go into too many details, as I really don’t want to spoil it.
I was curious to see how I liked this book, as it’s very heavy on Christian mythology. I’ve talked on my YouTube channel previously, as well as here on the blog, about how I often feel like Christian mythology tend to be very overdone. It’s something I rarely am able to connect to, especially if there are a lot of deamons, possessed people, and such things. In this book, however, it worked really well. It was done in a way that was a bit different to most other books and films I’ve seen. Also, I much prefer it in horror, rather than in fantasy books.
As this was a novella, it wasn’t very long. That being said, I didn’t mind the length, it actually felt like the perfect length for the book. The pacing was well done. Also, I quite liked the writing style. I’m curious to what the author will come up with in the future.
The book is a debut story, and is to be published 10 February 2026.
Motheater, written by Linda H. Codega was given to me by Netgalley and the publisher for an honest review. I don’t know what I expected when I was given this book, but I was very intrigued by the description. To be honest it being a queer fantasy book was enough to intrigue me, and I was not disappointed!
This story is set in the Appalachian Mountains in the US. We meet Bennie, whose friend passed away, and in her effort to uncover what killed her friend as well as other miners on Kire Mountain, she loses her reputation and her relationship. Then one day she finds a half-drowned white woman in a dirty mine slough, and rescues her because she feels it’s the right thing to do, but also because she feels it may help her in some way. The woman calls herself Motheater, and says she’s a witch, and Bennie feels drawn to this mysterious woman.
This was such a delightful read! I fell in love with the characters. It’s diverse, and deals with important themes like what we’re doing to the planet we live on. I’m so happy I got to this gem!
June is actually not that far away, and it’s time for the Queer Lit Readathon. I can’t believe it’s round 13! As usual, this is the readathon I’m most excited about through the year, and I hope I manage to cross off at least some of the squared of the bingo board.
Since I know people might be looking for some recommendations, I’m hoping to find the time to write some blog posts with mine. In this post, I’ll recommend some graphic LGBTQIAP+ graphic books. And to make it really simple, I’m going to use the publisher’s book description.
Us, by Sara Soler
Us is Sara and Diana’s love story, as well as the story of Diana’s gender transition. Full of humor, heartache, and the everyday triumphs and struggles of identity, this graphic memoir speaks to changing conceptions of the world as well as the self, at the same time revealing that some things don’t really have to change.
Written, drawn, and colored by Sara Soler, with English translation by Silvia Perea Labayen and letters by Joamette Gil.
Key words: Memoir, transgender, Spain
The Tea Dragon Society, by K. O’Neill
From the award-winning author of Princess Princess Ever After comes THE TEA DRAGON SOCIETY, the beloved and charming all-ages book that follows the story of Greta, a blacksmith apprentice, and the people she meets as she becomes entwined in the enchanting world of tea dragons. After discovering a lost tea dragon in the marketplace, Greta learns about the dying art form of tea dragon care-taking from the kind tea shop owners, Hesekiel and Erik. As she befriends them and their shy ward, Minette, Greta sees how the craft enriches their lives—and eventually her own.
Key words: Magic, MtM, disability
Coming Back, by Jessi Zabarsky
Preet is magic.
Valissa is not.
Everyone in their village has magic in their bones, and Preet is the strongest of them all. Without any power of her own, how can Valissa ever be worthy of Preet’s love? When their home is attacked, Valissa has a chance to prove herself, but that means leaving Preet behind. On her own for the first time, Preet breaks the village’s most sacred laws and is rejected from the only home she’s ever known and sent into a new world.
Divided by different paths, insecurities, and distance, will Valissa and Preet be able to find their way back to each other?
Key words: Magic, sapphic
Heartstopper, by Alice Oseman
Vol. 1 – 5
Charlie and Nick are at the same school, but they’ve never met … until one day when they’re made to sit together. They quickly become friends, and soon Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn’t think he has a chance.
But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is more interested in Charlie than either of them realised.
Key words: MtM, The UK
Cheer Up!: Love and Pompoms, by Crystal Frasier
Illustrated by Val Wise / Letterer Oscar O. Jupiter
Annie is a smart, antisocial lesbian starting her senior year of high school who’s under pressure to join the cheerleader squad to make friends and round out her college applications. Her former friend Bebe is a people-pleaser—a trans girl who must keep her parents happy with her grades and social life to keep their support of her transition. Through the rigors of squad training and amped up social pressures (not to mention micro aggressions and other queer youth problems), the two girls rekindle a friendship they thought they’d lost and discover there may be other, sweeter feelings springing up between them.
Key words: Transgender, sapphic, USA
Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe
In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears.
Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.
Key words: Non-binary, ace, memoir, the US
Paper Planes, by Jennie Wood
Illustrated by Dozerdraws
Former best friends Dylan Render and Leighton Worthington attempt to successfully navigate their way through a summer camp for troubled youth. They both need a good evaluation at the camp. Otherwise, they’ll be sent away, unable to attend high school with their friends. While participating in camp activities and chores, Dylan and Leighton rexamine the events that led up to the incident that sent them to camp, the incident that threatens their futures and their friendship with each other.
Key words: Ace, non-binary, the US
Bloom, by Kevin Panetta
Illustrated by Savanna Ganucheau
Now that high school is over, Ari is dying to move to the big city with his ultra-hip band—if he can just persuade his dad to let him quit his job at their struggling family bakery. Though he loved working there as a kid, Ari cannot fathom a life wasting away over rising dough and hot ovens. But while interviewing candidates for his replacement, Ari meets Hector, an easygoing guy who loves baking as much as Ari wants to escape it. As they become closer over batches of bread, love is ready to bloom . . . that is, if Ari doesn’t ruin everything.
Key words: MtM, the US
Mooncakes, by Suzanne Walker
Illustrated by Wendy Xu
A story of love and demons, family and witchcraft. Nova Huang knows more about magic than your average teen witch. She works at her grandmothers’ bookshop, where she helps them loan out spell books and investigate any supernatural occurrences in their New England town. One fateful night, she follows reports of a white wolf into the woods, and she comes across the unexpected: her childhood crush, Tam Lang, battling a horse demon in the woods. As a werewolf, Tam has been wandering from place to place for years, unable to call any townhome. Pursued by dark forces eager to claim the magic of wolves and out of options, Tam turns to Nova for help. Their latent feelings are rekindled against the backdrop of witchcraft, untested magic, occult rituals, and family ties both new and old in this enchanting tale of self-discovery.
First of all: Representation matters. I think it’s very important for kids to read books where they can see themselves, no matter what age. I’m really happy there are now more middle grade books with more diversity around, and I’ll hopefully get around to read more at some point. That being said, in this blog post I will recommend three English language middlegrade books with LGBTQIAP+ representation. (There definitivle exist some Norwegian ones, but there could have been more).
This books tells the story of Bug, a kid who lives in a haunted house, and tries to understand a message a ghost is trying to send. Even though it may sound a bit scary, it wasn’t scary at all, but really cute. I don’t really want to give too much away, as it could spoil the reading experience.
We meet Sam, who is very in touch with their own queer identity. They’re nonbinary, and their best friend, TJ, is nonbinary too. Sam’s family accepts them for who they are, they still need to do chores, do their homework, and try not to antagonize their teachers too much. Showing the teacher respect can be hard, especially when it comes to their hostory teacher. Their teacher seems to believe that only Dead Straight Cis White Men are responsible for history. So when Sam’s home borough of Staten Island opens up a contest for a new statue, Sam finds the perfect non-DSCWM subject: photographer Alice Austen, whose house has been turned into a museum, and who lived with a female partner for decades. It doesn’t take long before the project becomes more than just winning the contest. Sam discovers a rich queer history, one that they’re a part of: A queer history that no longer needs to be quiet, as long as there are kids like Sam and TJ to stand up for it.
This is truly a feel good read, with lots of diversity.
Aster is 13 years old, and in his family, all the girls are raised to be witches, while boys grow up to be shapeshifters. If you dare to cross that line, you will be exiled. Unfortunately for Aster, he still hasn’t shifted. To top that off, he’s really fascinated by witchery. When something is threatening Aster’s family, he knows he can help – by using witchcraft. By the help by a new, and very non-magical friend, he is encouraged to practise his skills, and must find the courage to save his family.
This is a a sweet graphic novel, and the first in a series. I still haven’t gotten around to read more that the first.
I was given this digital copy of «Paper Planes», by Jennie Wood (writer), Dozerdraws (artist), and Micah Myers (lettering), from NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review.
Leighton and Dylan are best friends, and spend all their time together. After an incident, they have to spend the summer at a camp for troubled youth, and they both need to get a positive evaluation at the end not to be sent to an «alternative high school». They both try to figure out who they really are, and they need to explore their friendship.
This was such a lovely story to read. I loved the illustrations, and how Dozerdraws has used different colouring to display different aspects of time. I also enjoyed the diversity of characters, and I can mention that Dylan is non-binary, and Leighton is ace.
This was my second read for the Trans Rights Readathon. The graphic novel is due to be published 16 May 2023.
This is a vlog/reading vlog from my celebration of Oslo Pride 22 – 25 June 2022. Due to the events happening on the night before the big Pride Day, things did not turn out as planned…
24 May is Pansexual Day of Visibility! 💖💛💙 Here are some books I own that has a pansexual main character (I haven’t read them all yet, though). 📚
📖 Crownchasers, by Rebecca Coffindaffer
📖 Dead Space, by Kali Wallace
📖 Once & Future, by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy
📖 The Library of the Unwritten, by A. J. Hackwith
📖 The Witch’s Heart, by Genevieve Gornichec
📖 In the Ravebous Dark, by A. M. Stricland
Tuesday greeted me with sunshine! From experience, sunny April spring days with +19⁰C isn’t exactly common in London. And I must say, it was really pleasant.
My first stop was one of my favourite coffee shops in London, Origins. They serve high quality coffee, of a light roast. I had a pour over, i.e. made with a V60. Sitting inside, looking out the window and reading was really nice.
After having had some coffee, I picked up a light breakfast at a grocery shop, that I had outside on a bench at Bloomsbury. It was nice and relaxing, and a nice way to get ready for some book shopping. The bookshops I was planning on visiting were all close by.
The first bookshop to visit was Skoob Books, where I spent quite a bit of time. I love second hand books, and if you’re lucky you might find some really nice books. Not only did I end up buying two books that look pretty much brand new, but I also found some cheap postcards I’m planning on using for postcrossing. Score!
Next bookshop on my list was Gays the Word, an LGBTQ+ bookshop. It was quite small, and the selection was quite good, but they didn’t have the books I was looking for. I did end up buying some other books, though, as well as a couple of postcards.
I had just one more bookshop to browse before I wanted to head back to the hotel: Judd Books. This bookshop unfortunately came across as a bit chaotic to me. Also it was hard to navigate around, as there wasn’t much room for movement. I didn’t end up buying anything there, nor did I spend much time. When I left the shop, I headed back to the hotel for a rest.
In the afternoon/evening I met up with @lovedreadingthis and @always_need_more_books, bookstagrammers I’ve been following for a long time on Instagram. It was really nice to meet them, and having a wonderful conversation of books and more. We had a meal at Art Yard Bar & Kitchen, which turned out to be more of a hotel restaurant than any of us expected, I think, but that’s OK. The vegan burger I had, though, wasn’t great. A bit bland and dense. The chips were lovely, though, so I kind of wish I just had chips.
After dinner I went back to the hotel. I was shattered tired, and just wanted to relax and get some blogging done. I stopped at Tesco on my way, though, and got some sweets and a strawberry beer that actually tasted OK. It was nice to have a quiet night, and very much needed. I think I pretty much passed out when my head hit the pillow.
