#5 Star Reads

[thereadingchallengechallenge]

Review: Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White Rating: 5/5

I said to someone recently that I never think I'm going to like Andrew Joseph White's books based on their synopsis but once I'm actually reading them, I can't turn away. Well, we're 3 for 3 on his books being favourites of mine so I think I can throw that doubt out the window next time. 

This was fantastic. It's about class warfare and growing up trans and disabled in a rural town. It's about how family history can follow you around but also how it can liberate you and give you something to connect with. It's about the absurdities of capitalism and "democracy". It's about the wonders of community and activism. I loved every page.

If you are despairing about Trump right now, read this. It will make you feel better.

[reedreadsbooks]

Book Review: Dreadnought by April Daniels ✨🏙️⚡️

rating: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕

(5/5)

After Dreadnought, the world’s greatest superhero, is killed in combat, closeted trans girl Danny Tozer inherits his powers and is transformed to have the body she’s always wanted to have. Now she has to deal with having superpowers and being an out trans woman, all the while hunting down the supervillain who murdered her predecessor.

This book was phenomenal, and I’m kind of at a loss for words to describe how much I liked it.

To start, I love the world of this book. This is such a classic superhero story. Daniels uses the conventions of the genre without making things feel like a parody and subverts tropes just enough to make the story distinct.

I also really love Dreadnought as a trans narrative. This book doesn’t shy away from transphobia. Between Danny’s parents, kids at her school, and other heroes she meets, we get a pretty broad and realistic representation of the types of abuse a young trans woman might face. There’s also so much trans joy in this book. It was really nice to see Danny come into herself, and it was cathartic to watch her realize that no one could take her transition away from her. This is the type of story that will give trans kids hope for the future.

I would recommend this book to literally everyone. In fact, I plan on recommending this book to literally everyone. But because that’s not helpful, I’ll be more specific and say I highly recommend this book to fans of Andrew Joseph White. Obviously, it’s very different from his work, genre-wise, but I think the themes are really similar. If you like Hell Followed with Us and The Spirit Bares It’s Teeth, I can definitely see you liking Dreadnought.

[homerjacksons]

5 star reads of 2024 ↳ bookshops & bonedust by travis baldree

[allthesebooksblog]

six of crows appreciation post

this is the duologoy that rekindled my love of reading and it will always be a firm favourite of mine 💕

[crispapples]

“When the world owed you nothing, you demanded something of it anyway”

-Crooked Kingdom

(Leigh Bardugo)

Crooked kingdom was so so good!!! I don’t know if this is an unpopular opinion but I actually loved crooked kingdom way more than six of crows. Not that it matters, I loved them both very very much 🖤

[aneternalglower]

just finished reading: american psycho by bret easton ellis (399 pages)

-

every chapter in this book is titled something innocuous like “Laundromat” or something like “Eating a corpse out of a dumpster on 42nd street” and every paragraph in this book goes like: “Jim Johnson walked over the table, he was wearing a navy blue wool double breasted coat with brass buttons from Armani with some hardbody, blonde, big tits, next to him. Something, something, Donald Trump, Fisher account, Ralph Lauren, Les Miserables, Dorsia, Videotapes, something, I killed a Laotian man yesterday, something, something.”

it’s good though.

-

favorite quotes:

“edwin? edwin who?”

“if the midgets wanna sing, let ‘em sing”

“It’s called Dorsia.” “Yes, My brain explodes.”

“He is unusually short, Evelyn. Are you sure he wasn’t at your christmas party?”

“My pain is constant and sharp and I do not hope for a better world for anyone. In fact, I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want no one to escape“

-

Rating: 5/5 ★★★★★

[wakingupnexttoyou]

Just finished these two and OMG why do I not hear more about these???? This series was sooooo amazing. Much better than the shadow and bone series!!! I don't understand how they haven't been made into big movies yet!!

5⭐ for both of them!

I fell in love with the characters. I literally cried over them. Jesper and Wylan deserve happiness forever because they are sweet babies ❤️

The actual story was so great. All the elements that go into a big heist with a lit of moving parts. The political aspect of the story. The risks of working with other people. It was just absolutely amazing!! 10/10 would read again.

[leiaorganicsolocup]

i don't often use the star system to rate books or movies unless i feel incredibly strongly and even then it's a toss up

i'm happy to say that out of the 20 books i've read this year so far, i've had four 5 star reads and they're all queer:

Ode to My First Car by Robin Gow

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe

The Prospects by KT Hoffman

Meeting Millie by Clare Ashton

[pagesandpothos]

☀️  Summer 2024 Reads 🍉

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer

I loved this author's first book, The Wishing Game, and this one is even better!

This book is magical! Cozy fantasy, portal fantasies, and fairy tales are some of my favorite genres and this blends all three together into a delightful and fun story. This book is perfect for those of us who grew up wishing we could fall down a rabbit hole or step into a magic wardrobe!

The characters in the book are great and I loved the found family dynamic among the group of friends. I also loved the (queer!) romance and thought it was incredibly sweet.

This is one of my favorite books of the year and I can't wait to read it again soon!

[jessreadswithpride]

It would have made me being a lesbian make wayyyyy more sense and my coming out a lot easier

[thereadingchallengechallenge]

Review: Metal From Heaven by August Clarke Rating: 5/5

I received an ARC of this title through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Marney Honeycutt works in the Yann I Chauncey Ichorite Factory but when their sister leads a workers' strike that turns into a massacre, they are suddenly all alone. Touched in the head by the metal they worked from birth, Marney has to get out of the city. They fall in with a gang of thieves who whisk them away to a mansion high in the hills by the sea. But Marney will come back. Because they are going to kill Chauncey and they're going to marry his daughter to do it.

August Clarke has done it again. I was captivated from the very first page by Clarke's signature dizzying, dazzling prose. I was utterly immersed in this rich world that blends fantasy and science fiction absolutely perfectly. I loved the different cultures, I especially loved the way Clarke emulated butch/femme lesbian culture, I loved that trans-ness was just part of the world and Marney never had to fight to be who they were.

The queerness really was my favourite part. It was so nice to finally read a book about a trans stone butch that feels like the trans stone butches I know. Marney felt and talked and behaved like so many of my friends do and that representation is so sorely needed. I have a list of friends a mile long to recommend this book because I know they ache to see themselves and their lives represented in media. I'm very grateful that August Clarke is able to do that with their books.

And the prose! Clarke has such a specific way of writing that just latches into your brain and doesn't let go. It flows so beautifully but has a staccato edge that I can't get enough of. I especially enjoyed how Clarke intermittently used second person to elevate how Marney was telling the story and the reason why they were doing that became so satisfying as the story went on. It was utterly brilliant.

If you are looking for a truly unique speculative fiction story that centres queerness and working class people in a story of revenge, I implore you to pick up Metal From Heaven and allow yourself to be swept away in this enthralling book. It's an absolute masterpiece.

Metal From Heaven releases October 22nd, 2024!

[princessofbookaholics]

[bookbuffoon]

“She was smiling, and for the first time, the building, the city, this place… felt like hers. A place she’d still be tomorrow, the week after, next season, next year…. Home.”

Travis Baldree

Legends & Lattes

[allthesebooksblog]

someone stop me from listening to the captive prince audiobooks again

that series has me in a chokehold

[crispapples]

Under the earth, over the sky

By Emily Mccosh

Genres: Fantasy, Fae, Fiction, Magic, Mystery, Angst, Comfort, Cozy

5⭐️/5⭐️

This book >>>

Under the earth, over the sky is gorgeous. No other word could describe how amazing it is.

With beautiful art alongside language that perfectly captures the fantasy genre, I just couldn’t stop myself from loving this book.

It’s narrative matched what was promised on the cover, which can be rare for this genre.

Brief description of the book:

An ancient Fae king finds a dying baby and takes it into his care. As he grows to love his new found son he must also uncover his past, unknown shadows and the monsters of his realm. A book filled with lots of comforting family love.

The plot is simple, cozy and made me wish for a Fae family.

My final thoughts:

This book is not perfect, nor is it my favourite. But it is very much worth your read assuming you love the fae/fantasy genre. If you’re looking for wholesome found family, then here you go!

Overall, it was warm and kind to the heart. It was angsty at parts, but all it’s somber moments were matched with warmth later on.

If you want to read a book about a Fae kings devotion to his human son, perfect- this book is for you. If that doesn’t sound right, maybe skip this one.

As someone who sometimes feels like I’ve read all the fantasy genre has to offer, finding this was a real treat.

I hope that if you choose to pick this book up you enjoy it just as much as I did.

[kenzie-eli-reads-books]

Silver Nitrate

Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Horror | Fantasy | Historical (90s)

★★★★★

In Silver Nitrate, we follow Montserrat and Tristán, two messy best friends working in the entertainment industry in Mexico in 1993. The two of them strike up a friendship with a retired director whose final film was never completed and may or may not be cursed. He persuades them to help him finish the movie and things get a lot out of control when the film's history with nazi occultism is revealed.  

One of the most amazing things about Moreno-Garcia’s writing is how her characters are flesh and blood. Montserrat and Tristán are two deeply flawed and deeply real people. They make bad decisions; Montserrat is stubborn, Tristán is self-centered, and they don’t always treat each other kindly. There were moments where I genuinely wanted to throttle one or both of them and yell at them to stop being a dick for fuck’s sake, but I loved them nonetheless. 

Montserrat is extremely passionate about film and sound, and I was thrilled every time she info-dumped about a process or a director that I was unfamiliar with. This may not appeal to every reader, because there is quite a bit of technical jargon, but I think Moreno-Garcia does a good job of explaining what needs to be explained while also not inundating the reader with so much information that you get bored. 

There’s also, at the heart of this book, an important discussion of the post-war Nazi presence in Mexico, and the colorism and racism that pervades through colonization and persistent European influence and oppression. Moreno-Garcia shows how insidious and seductive language can be, and how these perverse systems of white-supremacy, aryanism, nazism, etc. are built on stolen knowledge and stolen ground.

I enjoyed this book so much! I consume a lot of horror media, and I’m always excited to learn more about niches and facets that are unfamiliar to me; and this book is a wealth of information with a lot of heart.