Review: Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

Categories: Contemporary Fiction, LGBTQIA+

First Publication Date: xx

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Synopsis: Reese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she didn’t hate. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of: a life of mundane, bourgeois comforts. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. Now Reese is caught in a self-destructive pattern: avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men.

Ames isn’t happy either. He thought detransitioning to live as a man would make life easier, but that decision cost him his relationship with Reese—and losing her meant losing his only family. Even though their romance is over, he longs to find a way back to her. When Ames’s boss and lover, Katrina, reveals that she’s pregnant with his baby—and that she’s not sure whether she wants to keep it—Ames wonders if this is the chance he’s been waiting for. Could the three of them form some kind of unconventional family—and raise the baby together?

eARC Review: Permafrost by Eva Baltasar, trans. by Julia Sanches

Permafrost by Eva Baltasar, translated by Julia Sanches

Categories: Literary Fiction, Translated from Catalan

First Publication Date: 6. April 2021

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I received an advance copy via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

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Synopsis: Permafrost’s no-bullshit lesbian narrator is an uninhibited lover, a no-hope employee, and a some-time suicidal student of her own dislocated self. As she tries to break out of the roles set for her by a controlling, overprotective mother, a relentlessly positive sister, and a society which imposes a gut-wrenching pressure to conform, she contemplates the so-called will to live when that life is given, rather than chosen. Attempting to bridge the gap between the perennially frozen reaches of her outer shell and the tender core of her being, watching her relationships with family fracture and her many lovers come and go, the protagonist’s reservations about staying alive become ever more pressing.

Mini-Resenha: Canções de atormentar por Angélica Freitas

Canções de atormentar por Angélica Freitas

Categorias: Poesia

Data de Publicação:  5 de Agosto de 2020

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Este livro me pegou totalmente de surpresa. Canções de atormentar é meu primeiro contato com o trabalho de Angélica Freitas, e eu imediatamente quero ler Um Útero é do Tamanho de um Punho e Rilke shake! Esta coleção tem um humor seco, um estilo vibrante e forte e cheio de ritmo, abordando uma grande diversidade de temas, sejam assuntos sérios, ou contando como foi crescer no Rio Grande do Sul, ou escrevendo um ode emocionante a Ana C., e até mesmo sobre sereias. Como em todas as coleções de poemas que li até agora, com alguns poemas eu simplesmente não consegui me conectar; alguns são muito curtos, outros eu muitas vezes não entendi. Mas ainda assim, vários se sobressaltaram o suficiente para que a minha impressão geral dessa coleção fosse muito positiva. Cada poema é tão único e diferente que eu imagino que cada leitor consegue encontrar um com que se identifique. Deve ser um livro incrível de escutar – eles têm uma certa cadência hipnotizante e, pelo que li, a autora já apresentou vários desses poemas juntos com a artista Juliana Perdigão. Uma obra incrível.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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eARC Review: The Split by Laura Kay

The Split by Laura Kay

Categories: Contemporary Fiction, LGBTQ+

First Publication Date: 18 Mar 2021

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I received an advance copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Synopsis: Brutally dumped by her girlfriend, Ally is homeless, friendless and jobless… but at least she has Malcolm. Wounded and betrayed, Ally has made off with the one thing she thinks might soothe the pain: Emily’s cat.

After a long train journey she arrives home to her dad in Sheffield, ready to fold herself up in her duvet and remain on the sofa for the foreseeable. Her dad has other ideas. A phone call later, and Ally is reunited with her first ever beard and friend of old, Jeremy. He too is broken-hearted and living at home again.

In an inspired effort to hold each other up, the pair decide to sign up for the local half marathon in a bid to impress their exes with their commitment and athleticism.

Given neither of them can run, they enlist the support of athletic, not to mention beautiful, Jo. But will she have them running for the hills… or will their ridiculous plan pay off…?

Resenha: Tupinilândia por Samir Machado de Machado

Tupinilândia por Samir Machado de Machado

Categorias: Mistério, Representação LGBTQ+

Data de Publicação: 7 de Junho de 2018 

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Sinopse: O autor vira de ponta-cabeça os clichês dos romances de aventura e ação, e reflete sobre temas como nostalgia, memória e nacionalismo. No início dos anos 1980, com o Brasil rumando para a abertura política, um industrialista constrói em segredo um parque de diversões. Batizado de Tupinilândia, o parque funcionaria como uma celebração do nacionalismo e da nova democracia que se aproximava. Todavia, durante um fim de semana em que se testavam as operações do parque, um grupo de militares invade o lugar e faz funcionários e visitantes de reféns. Duas décadas depois, um arqueólogo especialista em nostalgia, e desde a infância obcecado pelo mito de Tupinilândia, recebe autorização para mapear o local, que está prestes a ser alagado pela hidrelétrica de Belo Monte. Ao chegar com sua equipe, descobre um terrível segredo, e a partir daí as duas pontas do romance se unem numa aventura literária pelo passado recente do Brasil e pela memória dos anos 1980.

eARC Mini-Review: Bestiary by K-Ming Chang

Bestiary by K-Ming Chang

Categories: Literary Fiction, LGBTQIA+, Magical Realism

First Publication Date: February 4th 2021

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I received an advance copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Bestiary tells the story of three generations of women of the same family, their history of violence, magic, love and queerness. On the surface, Bestiary is everything I love in a book: a family saga, poetic writing, magical realism, and Sapphic main characters are always a plus, but in the end I had mixed feelings about this book. I ended up giving it three stars but that doesn’t mean I thought it was a meh book. Rather, it was beautiful, brilliantly, viscerally written and just whimsical enough to make it unique but not over-the-top… but sometimes I was so annoyed with it. While very lovely, the writing is also very crude and frankly, gross. I have never read a book that mentions farts, anuses and penises /mostly as metaphors) so much before, and it’s the kind of thing I don’t really like reading, I guess it offends my delicate sensibilities. For example:

“When my mother farts in her sleep, I shape the steam with my hands and release it outside as fog.”

If you don’t mind reading quotes like that all the time, then you will probably like this book. The pacing of the book also threw me off a bit, and I felt that this was much longer than 280 pages. I had to force myself to finish reading it and, while I did really like the ending and several aspects of the book, it still felt like a chore to read it. This will be a brilliant read for some readers, but I suspect its writing style will not work for many – Bestiary is more of a feeling than a proper story.

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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eARC Review: The Unbroken by C. L. Clark

The Unbroken by C. L. Clark

Genre: Fantasy

Published Date: March 23rd 2021

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I received an advance copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Synopsis: Touraine is a soldier. Stolen as a child and raised to kill and die for the empire, her only loyalty is to her fellow conscripts. But now, her company has been sent back to her homeland to stop a rebellion, and the ties of blood may be stronger than she thought.

Luca needs a turncoat. Someone desperate enough to tiptoe the bayonet’s edge between treason and orders. Someone who can sway the rebels toward peace, while Luca focuses on what really matters: getting her uncle off her throne.

Through assassinations and massacres, in bedrooms and war rooms, Touraine and Luca will haggle over the price of a nation. But some things aren’t for sale. 

eARC Review: They Never Learn by Layne Fargo

They Never Learn by Layne Fargo

Categories: Thriller

First Publication Date: 13th October 2020

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I received an advance copy via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

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Synopsis: Scarlett Clark is an exceptional English professor. But she’s even better at getting away with murder.

Every year, she searches for the worst man at Gorman University and plots his well-deserved demise. Thanks to her meticulous planning, she’s avoided drawing attention to herself—but as she’s preparing for her biggest kill yet, the school starts probing into the growing body count on campus. Determined to keep her enemies close, Scarlett insinuates herself into the investigation and charms the woman in charge, Dr. Mina Pierce. Everything’s going according to her master plan…until she loses control with her latest victim, putting her secret life at risk of exposure.

Meanwhile, Gorman student Carly Schiller is just trying to survive her freshman year. Finally free of her emotionally abusive father, all Carly wants is to focus on her studies and fade into the background. Her new roommate has other ideas. Allison Hadley is cool and confident—everything Carly wishes she could be—and the two girls quickly form an intense friendship. So when Allison is sexually assaulted at a party, Carly becomes obsessed with making the attacker pay…and turning her fantasies about revenge into a reality.

Review: Kept Animals by Kate Milliken

Rating: ★★★★☆

Categories: Contemporary Fiction, Coming-of-Age Fiction, F/F

It’s 1993, and Rory Ramos works as a ranch hand at the stable her stepfather manages in Topanga Canyon, California, a dry, dusty place reliant on horses and hierarchies. There she rides for the rich clientele, including twins June and Wade Fisk. While Rory draws the interest of out-and-proud June, she’s more intrigued by Vivian Price, the beautiful girl with the movie-star father who lives down the hill. Rory keeps largely separate from the likes of the Prices—but, perched on her bedroom windowsill, Rory steals glimpses of Vivian swimming in her pool nearly every night.

After Rory’s stepfather is involved in a tragic car accident, the lives of Rory, June, and Vivian become inextricably bound together. Rory discovers photography, begins riding more competitively, and grows closer to gorgeous, mercurial Vivian, but despite her newfound sense of self, disaster lurks all around her: in the parched landscape, in her unruly desires, in her stepfather’s wrecked body and guilty conscience.One night, as the relationships among these teenagers come to a head, a forest fire tears through the canyon, and Rory’s life is changed forever.

eARC Review: My Heart’s in the Highlands by Amy Hoff

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Categories: Historical Romance, F/F

I received an advance copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lady Jane Crichton is a scientist, one of the seven women to have gone to the Edinburgh University, even if they weren’t given diplomas for their graduations. She is smart and beautiful, happy in a marriage of convenience with David, who gives her the means and the support to pursue her career, and for whom she guards a secret. When Jane creates a time machine and travels to the 13th century, the last thing she expects is that the people she thought of as “savages” may be, in many ways, far more civilized than 1888 Edinburgh. She meets Ainslie, the daughter of the clean chief, and slowly finds herself realizing she might be falling in love for the first time in her life.