Dami is a genderfluid demonio who wants to become human, in order to do that they have to cancel every deal they ever made as a demonio. And they’ve gDami is a genderfluid demonio who wants to become human, in order to do that they have to cancel every deal they ever made as a demonio. And they’ve got them all but one, the deal they made with a frustratingly cute boy named Silas. Silas agrees to cancel the deal if Dami agrees to help them break a family curse. What could go wrong?
I loved seeing the inclusion of trans and genderfluid characters in a historical story and have it not focus on pain and misery. I love that authors are finally being allowed to tell stories of queer joy and especially stories of queer people of color in a historical setting. Yes, there have been many periods of history where being queer meant you would endure a lot of abuse from other people, but queer people have always been here and have not always lived lives of unending grief and pain.
Read This If You - like a grumpy/grumpy dynamic, enemies to lovers, supernatural beings, happy queers in historical settings, redemption arcs, hidden treasures, curses and curse breaking, trans girls who save the day...more
DNF this one. I just got really fed up with listening to Snowman/Jimmy whining about things and being a general garbage person. And I was SO done withDNF this one. I just got really fed up with listening to Snowman/Jimmy whining about things and being a general garbage person. And I was SO done with him demanding details of trauma from Oryx. He was just such an unlikable protagonist that I stopped caring about what happened to him.
Life is too short to read books about people you hate....more
When Edwin finds his friend missing and a new government employee in his place he is more than a little put out. When the replacement, Robin, turns ouWhen Edwin finds his friend missing and a new government employee in his place he is more than a little put out. When the replacement, Robin, turns out to know nothing about magic or magicians, it’s even worse than he though. Robin takes the whole ‘magic exists’ thing in stride and intends to give up his seat as soon as a more appropriate replacement can be found.
Unfortunately for both of them, before anything happens to fix the situation a shadowy figure places a curse on Robin and since the curse was a result of Edwin’s friend’s investigation he feels obligated to try to help Robin find a way to lift the curse.
Cue to them spending time together at Edwin’s family estate in the English countryside with his elitist and much more magically gifted family. This delightful mystery solving romance features such tropes as grudging colleagues to lovers, found family, coming into your own power, and discovering that the patriarchy is full of shit and magic is more than the idiot cis men decided it should be. There is an amazing magical library, facing peril together, idiots in love, ancient mysteries, semi sentient houses/estates, and some truly awesome diverse ensemble cast kicking some major ass. I really enjoyed this adventure/mystery/romance and I’m looking forward to the next book! ...more
I'm not sure what I think of this book. I picked it up for an Indigenous queer story and I was interested in the sort of ghost story part of it as welI'm not sure what I think of this book. I picked it up for an Indigenous queer story and I was interested in the sort of ghost story part of it as well. But the narrative was so scattered across so many points of view that I found it hard to follow at times.
Probably my lack of familiarity with the culture didn't help either. I was also disappointed by the "tragic queer love story" trope too.
I did like the writing, I hope to see more from this author, just maybe a little less scattered. ...more
OMG, folks. This is a GOOD ONE. Fast facts: 4th in the Singing Hills Cycle, following Cleric Chih as they traverse the world collecting stories for thOMG, folks. This is a GOOD ONE. Fast facts: 4th in the Singing Hills Cycle, following Cleric Chih as they traverse the world collecting stories for the Abbey’s archive. This one is my favorite of them all so far. For the first time we get to see the magic behind Chih as we get our first glimpse of the Singing Hills Abbey, itself. I loved getting to see glimpses of Chih in their childhood, learn about some of their backstory and to meet their friend Ru. But things have changed at the Abbey since Chih was last home. We meet old friends and new family in this installment. With Mammoths literally at the gates of the Abbey and the familiar order upset, Chih has to reckon with changes both good and bad. The idea of stories within stories is SUCH a good one, and that’s what you get in these books. They are SO good. I loved meeting Chiep and all the rest. This is probably a series I should own. I could read and re-read this again and again. ...more
This was a solidly decent book of poetry for middle schoolish age kids I think. And I swear I didn't read their dI received this ARC from Book Sirens.
This was a solidly decent book of poetry for middle schoolish age kids I think. And I swear I didn't read their description ahead, but it IS like Shel Silverstein and Neil Gaiman collaborated on some creepy poetry and hired the illustrator for Scary Stories to tell in the Dark to do the art work.
There's some good horror-lite in the poems, I liked the one about everyone smiles in this town, and I enjoyed the burning at the stake poem as well. The art makes it too scary for younger readers and there's a little gore that you would want to be aware of in case you've got sensitive kids.
I think without the creepy art it wouldn't be as good....more
The wajinru are the descendants of pregnant Africa slave women who were cast overboard during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Their children were bornThe wajinru are the descendants of pregnant Africa slave women who were cast overboard during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Their children were born breathing water and created a civilization beneath the waves of the Atlantic. The Deep is the story of Yetu, a historian of her people, who alone carries the burden of The Remembering. She contains within her all the memories of every wajinru who ever lived, forced to contain and recall every tactile sense memory of the violence and trauma of ancestral pain. But carrying out this duty is slowly but surely killing her. Can she survive being the historian? And what will happen if she abandons her duty and her people?
In The Deep, Rivers Solomon (fae/faer) invites you to explore what it means to inherit ancestral and generational trauma in a fantastic underwater world populated by the wajinru, a mer-person like race of black people who created a civilization in the wake of destruction left by the casualties of the trans-atlantic passage enslaved Africans were forced to take to supply the demand for enslaved workers in the Americas.
Reading Rainbow, the queer book club that I co-lead at DPL picked this book as our March selection. A little background on this book, it was originally inspired by a song by the group Drexciya, then adapted into a rap song by the group .clipping of whom Daveed Diggs is a part. .clipping rejects the use of personal pronouns in their lyrics as a push back against the territoriality of some styles of rap songs, they do not use I, my, me in their lyrics. For The Deep they went even further, using only the phrase “y’all remember”. In Rivers Solomon’s adaptation into the novella The Deep, fae has focused on that phrase and given life to the wajinru and their tradition of The Remembrance. You can read more about the process in the end notes to the book, which I highly recommend!
The Remembrance is a recurring observance where the historian pushes out all the memories to the rest of their people so that they can all remember their collective past for a time before the Historian recalls all the memories and the wajinru can be free with only faint whispers to burden them. This book was powerful, and a completely recommend listening to the song The Deep by .clipping as well. I heard the song after I read the book and it would be interesting to compare experiences with someone who heard the song first and then read the book. I recognized moments of the novella when I heard the song.
This is a very queer story, the wajinru live in a variety of family styles and shapes, some in polycules and some unpartnered. I appreciated the queernorm of their world, it wasn’t made into a sensational thing, it was just presented as part of their culture. There are a number of queer relationships in the story as well, but the story focuses on Yetu’s life and how she carries the history of her people inside her. Several members of my bookclub read her character as autistic, although that word is never used. I don’t want to give too much else away, because I recommend that you read this novella. The story was both about the burdens caring for community places on a few ‘strong’ individuals and the cost of being a caretaker, especially when you aren’t prepared for that role and didn’t choose it. But it was also a story about community healing and how that can happen in the wake of a massive traumatic event.
The writing of this story is very lyrical in places and sometimes I became confused about who was narrating because of the lack of personal pronouns, but I don’t find this to be a fault of the writer, just an adjustment of my thinking as we work towards being more identity inclusive. A good stretch of the brain for any reader. It’s a beautiful piece of well-crafted story telling and I liked how it ended. Recommended 100%!...more
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