#Bronwyn Fischer

[literatureaesthetic]

mini reviews / 2023 sapphic contemporary releases

— the adult by bronwyn fischer

'the adult' is a "sad girl", coming-of-age novel following natalie as she moves to university. she develops a relationship with an older woman. it's primarily about this toxic relationship and the power disparity between the two, all while natalie is navigating stepping into the world for the first time

it was gentle, tender, and intimate. with a soft but vivid style of writing, fischer depicts the all-consuming power of first loves and heartbreaks. she captures post-adolescent confusion and the clumsy awkwardness of entering adulthood perfectly

— big swiss by jen beagin

the only way i know how to describe this book is eccentric—odd but full of charm. in ‘big swiss’, beagin completely deviates from the blueprint for trauma plots. rather than a burdening and bleak look into female trauma, this book is a wry, witty, and sexy dark comedy that delves into queer desire, therapy and medical biases, and coping with formative wounds

beagin presents us with two women who function as opposite models for processing trauma. our protagonist, greta, struggles with a tragic childhood incident. the love interest, flavia (aka big swiss), was brutally assaulted by a man. where big swiss maintains a pedantic approach to life and refuses to play the victim, greta allows her past trauma to shape the present, causing her to live a life void of comfort. these two opposing perspectives clash, creating a seductive and confronting whirlwind of a novel that borders on the absurd. it won't be for everyone, but it was definitely for me!!

[fyrix]

“The Adult” by Bronwyn Fischer is incredibly poetic. The way that it’s written feels like a long form poem, as if nothing is said directly. It’s hard to stay engaged the entire time because of this, and it certainly feels like it targets a very specific age group: namely, younger than me. Beautiful beautiful book, though, and certainly worth the read.

4/5 💫

[lgbtqreads]

Fave Five: Literary Fiction About College Students

The Adult by Bronwyn Fischer Sirens & Muses by Antonia Angress These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever Old Enough by Haley Jakobson We Do What We Do in the Dark by Michelle Hart Bonus: Small Joys by Elvin James Mensah is about a college dropout

[toacheishuman-notpolite]

The Adult - Bronwyn Fischer

[dk-thrive]

Once she holds out her hand and asks, Do you mind if I sit, no other memory will exist without brushing backward or forward

After Nora meets me on the bench, it will be difficult to recall that in the beginning there were moments so plain and unconsumed that I felt I could watch them like a distant view. Like hills rolling away. Once she holds out her hand and asks, Do you mind if I sit, no other memory will exist without brushing backward or forward over the moment her eyes looked down at me. The soft and penetrable skull of the world will suddenly harden and everything will be seen through the damp and wilful light of our first meeting.

— Bronwyn Fischer, The Adult (Algonquin Books, May 23, 2023)

[mydarlinginej]

read my full review of the adult by bronwyn fischer here.

Eighteen-year-old Natalie has just arrived at her first year of university in Toronto, leaving her remote, forested hometown for the big, impersonal city. Everyone she encounters seems to know exactly who they are. Chatty, confident Clara from down the hall, who wants to be her friend; intense, determined Rachel from her poetry class, who is going to be a writer. Natalie doesn’t know what she wants. She reads advice listicles and watches videos online and thinks about how to fit in, how to really become someone, who that someone even is.

Just as she is trying to find her footing, she meets Nora, an older woman who takes an unexpected interest in her. Natalie is drawn magnetically into Nora’s orbit. She begins spending more and more of her time off-campus at Nora’s perfect home living in her beautiful, quiet world. She lies to her floormates about her absence, inventing a secret boyfriend called Paul, and carefully protects this intimate, sacred adulthood she is building for herself. But when it becomes clear that Nora is lying, too, her secrets begin to take an insidious shape in Natalie’s life, even as Natalie tries to look away. What, or who, is Nora hiding?

my review:

The Adult was an interesting read, in that I really enjoyed the writing but found the fast pace to be detrimental to the message of the book. This is saying a lot, considering that I am all for advocating for shorter books. However, after finishing the book and thinking about it, I think that’s my main issue with the story although I did enjoy it for the most part.

Natalie arrives at the University of Toronto from her small hometown, unsure of who she wants to be and how to find that out. Throughout her first couple of weeks, she meets so many people who seem sure of themselves, including Clara, the girl who lives down the hall from Natalie and insists on being her friend, and Rachel, a classmate and talented poet in her natural poetry class. When Natalie is approached by an older woman while sitting in the park one day, her life begins to change. She and Nora soon start a relationship, and Natalie finds herself happier or something similar.

I’ll start with the positives. I did like Natalie’s character and following her as our protagonist. She’s clearly struggling to come to terms with the fact that she’d be considered an adult now, especially since she has no idea what’s going on with her life. Everyone else seems so put together while she can’t even navigate a simple social interaction. I particularly liked the part where she goes to the dining hall with Clara and chooses apples and six packs of peanut butter as her first meal away from home; adulthood really is about feeding yourself everyday.

read my full review here.

[mothumn]

I think, everywhere, there is a hint of who you are becoming.

Bronwyn Fischer, The Adult

[jbbartram-illu]

A little something different!

I used to be a TOTAL bookworm as a kid, then sort of lost it for a decade or so, then in about 2016/17 I decided to start reading more (& also moved closer to a library & got in the habit of using it).

Fast forward 7ish years and I'm back in the habit of reading & am devouring stacks of books per year, with 2023 being my most ridiculous one yet. I somehow ended up reading 120 books? Mostly because I'm terrible at managing my library holds list & kept getting stacks of books I really wanted to read (I'm also lucky to be a really fast reader, which helps).

Anyways! All that to say - I compiled a top 22 + 19ish honourable mentions, as seen below:

My Top 22:

Tear – Erica Mckeen

Our Wives Under The Sea – Julia Armfield

The Vaster Wilds – Lauren Groff

Paladin’s Strength – T. Kingfisher

Paladin’s Grace – T. Kingfisher

Great Circle – Maggie Shipstead

Between Two Fires – Christopher Buehlman

Sisters – Daisy Johnson

How High We Go In The Dark – Sequoia Nagamatsu

Moon Of The Turning Leaves – Waubgeshig Rice

The Memory Police – Yoko Ogawa

The Night Ship – Jess Kidd

The Conjoined – Jen Sookfong Lee

The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter – Hazel Gaynor

If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English – Noor Naga

The Annual Migration Of Clouds – Premee Mohamed

Wandering Souls – Cecile Pin

The Only Good Indians – Stephen Graham Jones

Lone Women – Victor Lavalle

Ring Shout – P. Djèlí Clark

Lucy – Jamaica Kincaid

The Bookshop Of Yesterdays – Amy Meyerson

Honourable Mentions:

The Marigold – Andrew F. Sullivan

Five Little Indians – Michelle Good

Swordheart – T. Kingfisher…and all the other books of hers (9 of them in total) I read this year!

Even Though I Knew The End – C.L. Polk

Everything Under – Daisy Johnson

Fen – Daisy Johnson

The Animals In That Country – Laura Jean Mckay

A Prayer For The Crown-Shy – Becky Chambers

The Sea Captain’s Wife – Beth Powning

Hester – Laurie Lico Albanese

Tauhou – Kotuku Titihuia Nuttall

Ducks – Kate Beaton

You Made A Fool Of Death With Your Beauty – Akwaeke Emezi

The Hatbox Letters – Beth Powning

And Then She Fell – Alicia Elliot

The Adult – Bronwyn Fischer

Everyone Knows Your Mother Is A Witch – Rivka Galchen

Lute – Jennifer Thorne

Monster – Mariel Ashlinn Kelly

Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway Series (I read 8 books from this series this yr & loved all of them!)

If you want to go through my entire list for 2023, you can read it on my website!

[viola-bicolor]

Sapphic Summer: reading a bunch of lesbian and wlw books this summer

Recently, I've figured out that I am a lesbian, and not bisexual, as I had thought for a while. Additionally, I read a couple of wlw/lesbian/sapphic books earlier this month and I now have this insatiable thirst to keep reading wlw books. While I've definitely read other wlw books, most of the books I've read have not been sapphic, so it was kind of a breath of fresh air. So, this summer, I'm going to try to read as much lesbian literature as possible, while still continuing to read and center books on Palestine/by Palestinian authors (not that those two are mutually exclusive, hello intersectionality, but you get my meaning).

wlw/lesbian books I've read thus far this summer:

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat

Books in progress:

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown

TBR:

We Are Okay by Nina LaCour

This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar

Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth

Milk Fed by Melissa Broder

The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson

The Adult by Bronwyn Fischer

Some books I've read this summer that are by lesbian/queer authors, but that weren't necessarily sapphic/queer themselves:

Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Y Davis, Frank Barat, and Cornel West

Bad Cree by Jessica Johns

Let's see how much of this I can get through! please lmk if you have any suggestions for my TBR!

[leofrith]

9 books I plan to read in 2025

tagged by @aeide. twist my fuckin arm, why don't you!!

complete with storygraph links because fuck goodreads!!!

The Adult by Bronwyn Fischer - technically I am already 1/3 of the way into this one but I started it on January 1st so it totally counts.

Her First Palestinian by Saeed Teebi - a short story collection that I also read a few stories from last year but I would really like to finish soon.

Paladin's Hope by T. Kingfisher - third book in the Saint of Steel series which I have been mildly enjoying and would like to continue soon, I just needed to take a break from fantasy for a hot minute. Also the fourth book in the series, Paladin's Faith (did you know that this series is about paladins??).

Momento Mori by Eunice Hong - I am the worst bitch/friend on the face of the earth. I plowed through the first 40% of this book in August and then abruptly hit a wall in which I couldn't focus on anything that took more focus than staring at a wall. And also fell asleep anytime I wasn't in a standing position. Thanks covid! This is a long-winded way of saying I'm sorry and I did really like what I read and will be starting the book over from the beginning so I can finish it. 😭

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore - as a girlie who went to summer camp every year for about 10 years of my youth as both a camper and a counsellor, and who got to know the also wealthy family (and their ✨problems✨) that ran the camp pretty well in that time, the idea of not one but both of their kids disappearing is fucking bonkers. so this one piqued my interest.

The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie - a certified @mirendils favourite that I swear I will read this year for real.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin - I've heard good things about this one from most people (hi aeide), so I'll give it a try.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - feat. a bunch of other classics still embarrassingly unread by me. Don't look at me.

Shield Maiden by Sharon Emmerichs - I have a type.

tagging @mirendils, @woahpip, @variantoutcast, @winedark, @alethiometry, @pointesdulac and anyone else who wants so set some reading goals for this year i guess!!

[wakesirens]

reading wrapped 2024:

i ended up reading exactly 50 books this year not enough of them were good. bold are books i read for school and italics were rereads

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️:

white oleander by janet fitch

we have always lived in the castle by shirley jackson

the little friend by donna tartt

a dark and drowning tide by allison saft

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5:

some desperate glory by emily tesch

she who became the sun by shelley parker-tran

dune by frank herbert

an education in malice by s.t. gibson

the power of the dog by thomas savage

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️:

poor things by alisdair grey

carmilla by joseph sheridan la fanu

he who drowned the world by shelley parker-tran

perfume the story of a murderer by patrick süskind

mostly dead things by kristen arnett

inside out by demi moore

interview with a vampire by anne rice

⭐️⭐️⭐️:

the adult by bronwyn fischer

the damages by genevieve scott

my last innocent year by daisy alpert florin

dune messiah by frank herbert

annie bot by sierra greer

the outlander by gil adamson

the marrow thieves by cherie dimaline

deliver me by elle nash

slow river by nicola griffith

these violent delights by micah neveremer

mysterious skin by scott heim

lolita by vladimir nabokov

ghost wall by sarah moss

motherthing by ainslie hogarth

the viscount who loved me by julia quinn

when he was wicked by julia quinn

the illustrated man by ray bradbury

the night always comes by willy vlautin

⭐️⭐️:

alice sadie celine by sarah blakely-cartwright

a good happy girl by marissa higgins

the outer harbour by wayde compton

bad men by julie mae cohen

my darling dreadful thing by johanna van veen

the duke and i by julia quinn

an offer from a gentleman by julia quinn

it’s in his kiss by julia quinn

stone cold fox by rachel croft

⭐️:

maeve fly by c.j. leede

animals eat each other by elle nash

romancing mr. bridgerton by julia quinn

to sir phillip with love by julia quinn

on the way to the wedding by julia quinn

house of flame and shadow by sarah j. maas

DNF:

biography of x by catherine lacy (boring and i didn’t like the alternate history element)

organ meats by k-min chang (nauseatingly pretentious)

[yourqueerbookshelf]

The Adult, by Bronwyn Fischer

“And the warmth that spread against my chest felt so hot that I looked down to make sure it was just inside,” (p. 71). ——— New favorite book alert 🚨 (Do you hate it when people use emojis like that?) Natalie is eighteen, entering university in Toronto, coming straight from some place you’ve never heard of. She’s alone and learning how to be an adult in an environment so unlike the one she grew up in, and as a lot of us know, there is often nothing more lonely than the experience of becoming. Nora is an older woman. They meet in the park. She’s everything that Natalie seems to be missing, and for some reason, Nora finds something in Natalie, too. Natalie falls fast and hard, the way you do the first time; it’s all-consuming, feeding her and eating her from the inside out. She’s burning up. And of course, there’s something . . . off about Nora. She has a pocket full of secrets. ——— Reading The Adult was heartbreaking in a way that makes you yearn for it over and over again. It’s poetic not only in prose, but in its emotional evocation. It’s a story that I had to take in slowly - not because it was bad, but because it was real and I wanted to shove it in my mouth. Natalie’s love is the morning sun on the kitchen windowsill; it was the winter chill cutting through your jeans. And the whole time, you know exactly what is up with Nora. You’ve got it figured out almost from the beginning. But Natalie doesn’t know, and all you can do is trail behind her, waiting for her to fall. ——— “In the dark, when I’m back in my room, I see Nora by the window. She has collected where the blinds let in light,” (p. 298).

[toacheishuman-notpolite]

The Adult — Bronwyn Fischer, 2023

[lgbtqreads]

Hi there. I’m sorry if you’ve been asked this before. But can you recommend any wlw books center eg around longing and forbidden love? Thank you!

Never be sorry for that; things move quicky! And my faves are Body Grammar by Jules Ohman, where the main character is in love with her best friend, and We Do What We Do in the Dark by Michelle Hart, which is about a college girl who has an affair with a professor. (I haven’t read The Adult by Bronwyn Fischer or My Education by Susan Choi yet, but I’m assuming similar-ish vibes?) Though if you mean more like fun romance with pining, Meryl Wilsner does fun takes on this - Something to Talk About is super slow-burn between an actress and her assistant, while Mistakes Were Made is the exact opposite of slow-burn, and between a mom and her daughter’s best friend. 

[con-libros]

The adult: persona ensimismada se enamora

The adult - Bronwyn Fischer

calificación: 5/ ★ ★ ★  ★ ★

Género: contemporáneo / coming of age

Opinión y chisme: 👇👇👇

Este libro se puede describir perfectamente con 'no plot, solo vibras' o como un drama suave, porque la lectura es muy amena de principio a fin.

El estilo es sencillo y bonito, su particularidad es que no hay nada brusco, abrumador ni agresivo, es solo la perspectiva de una chica muy retraída y despistada, alguien que parece dejarse llevar por la vida sin comprenderla aún del todo y viviendo un tanto ensimismada, muestra sus primeros pasos a la adultez, solo que sin embrollos feos de por medio y sintiendo la confusión del descubrimiento del primer enamoramiento en las primeras etapas estudiando poesía en la universidad.

La prosa es sumamente descriptiva, la prota cuenta su cotidianidad, lo que hace, lo que pasa por su mente, como se relaciona, lo que siente al enamorarse de una mujer mayor que ella, y aunque parezca que le falta personalidad, es muy agradable la manera en que se cuenta todo, transmite una tranquilidad e intimidad confortante incluso en los momentos conflictivos.

Y tampoco es que no pase precisamente nada en la trama, por ahí hay cositas que causan drama y un desenlace que, no lo voy a negar, es predecible, pero que se desarrolla muy bien (el chisme aquí es realmente bueno).

En general, es un libro sencillo y tranquilo, conecté en automático con la protagonista, incluso no estando de humor para conectar con nada, ha sido una lectura agradable, una sorpresa que me ha encantado.

(Por cierto, me causa gracia que aquí la poesía sea importante para la trama, pero que a lo largo de esta se haya evitado mostrar alguna, jsjsjsjs).