I loved the first half of this and I loved the suspense of the second half I just think that it needed another half. Like WHAT. THAT WAS THE ENDING?!
I loved the first half of this and I loved the suspense of the second half I just think that it needed another half. Like for real another hundred pages If not more because this book feels unfinished. I don't know if it's going to beat the start of a series or if it's supposed to be vague and open-ended but all of a sudden I looked at my audiobook and realized I only had four minutes left and I did not comprehend how that was humanly possible.
That being said, because it's written by Jen Wilde, of course all of the characters are amazing, at least the ones you're supposed to like. We have some phenomenal queer autistic representation in our main character and a ton of other disability rep and queer rep that is consistently highlighted. The story itself is interesting but I needed more. The premise is super cool but like I said, it needed a lot more to feel finished....more
Not a single person in the world can convince me that Beckett is not autistic. I don't know if it was intended by the author or if it's a happy accideNot a single person in the world can convince me that Beckett is not autistic. I don't know if it was intended by the author or if it's a happy accident but the only thing that would have made this book better is having that autistic rep labeled.
My only real complaint for the first book in this series is that it was so painfully white able-bodied cishet conventionally attractive etc and this book fixes some of that. We still have a very attractive successful couple working their shit out and being stupid about things, but at least we have both a POC character and a autistic coded character. There's also a queer couple within the secondary characters that's mentioned this time so that was nice. Do I think there could still be more diversity? Yes.
On to the actual book. This one follows Beckett who is the farming manager whatever thing for lovelight farms and he has a two-night stand with a woman named Evelyn on a work trip and when she leaves without a note he never expected to see her again. Then she shows up a couple months later to do a social media spotlight for lovelight farms. She stays does the spotlight and leaves again. The two of them cannot stop thinking about each other despite being nowhere near each other.
Evelyn is a social media influencer who has really got caught up in the obligations and commitments and has lost what brought her joy about her job in the first place. So in an effort to find her happy she goes back to the place where she was happy last, obviously it's lovelight farms with Beckett.
The two establish a routine but kind of dance around each other until they find a rhythm that works but the future is still unpredictable for both of them.
Part of me kind of hates so much I love this book because straight books are just not really my thing but damn, there is just something about the writing and the characters that absolutely draw you in.
I do want to highlight some of the reasons why I am claiming Beckett as an autistic character.
He has earmuffs that his family got him to help with noise sensitivity. He sticks to a strict routine every single day. He has two very specific special interests one being farming and agriculture and the other being astrology. He does better with animals than people and adopted a family of cats and also maybe perhaps a duckling. He has social anxiety and struggles with crowds and groups of people and conversations. He does his grocery shopping 5 minutes to close so that there's no one in the store and they stock his favorite comfort foods. This man has safe foods okay. I cannot emphasize just how neurospicy this man is ...more
This is exactly the type of story I think that we need and middle school libraries. It is a candid and realistic look at depression well also includinThis is exactly the type of story I think that we need and middle school libraries. It is a candid and realistic look at depression well also including things like clear exploration and dealing with the divorced parents and such.
Pluto is a middle schooler who has depression and anxiety. I also want to make a note that Pluto is incredibly autistic coded. Like I would honestly consider her an autistic character despite there not being on page labeling it was just very clear to me as an autistic reader so I'm just going to go ahead and claim Pluto as one of us ...more
This was adorable and very cute despite tackling some tougher concepts like grief and coming out. I also am 100% on board with the idea of "cryptid quThis was adorable and very cute despite tackling some tougher concepts like grief and coming out. I also am 100% on board with the idea of "cryptid queer"
Merged review:
This was adorable and very cute despite tackling some tougher concepts like grief and coming out. I also am 100% on board with the idea of "cryptid queer"...more
A steamy fairytale retelling with not a single man (except for the villain), count me the fuck in. This is a cross between Alice and Wonderland and CiA steamy fairytale retelling with not a single man (except for the villain), count me the fuck in. This is a cross between Alice and Wonderland and Cinderella where we have Alice who is routinely abused by her evil stepmother and is going to be married off to an evil abusive boy she grew up with. But, she's 25 and has friends who might be able to help her, if she can find a way to get them from behind the mirror.
This is weird and also quite heavy with multiple abusive moments on page. It is an erotica so be prepared for two major sex scenes in 86 pages. It's a polyam queer romance with a Black fat autistic MC and four queer LIs. There's additional disability rep, fat rep, and multiple gender nonconforming characters. No cis men!! One LI uses they/them, one uses she/her, one uses xyr/xym, and the last uses em/eir. (Pretty sure I got that right, it's been a couple days)
The author does have an extensive content warning list at the beginning that I encourage you to read before continuing....more
This was very cute! I loved the illustrations and of course the autistic rep. It also gave me a bit of insight into how it would've looked like for meThis was very cute! I loved the illustrations and of course the autistic rep. It also gave me a bit of insight into how it would've looked like for me if I'd known I was autistic as a teenager regarding the massive anxiety before any auditions/performances....more
Alrighty. What an end to this trilogy. It was a freaking ride and I'm still a little baffled but they managed to kill that many people. Pretty sure I Alrighty. What an end to this trilogy. It was a freaking ride and I'm still a little baffled but they managed to kill that many people. Pretty sure I can count on two hands the number of characters that are in the first book and the last book so that's something.
Rachel is still my favorite. I loved her entire journey and I will fight anyone who says that Rachel is not autistic. I felt it In the first book and it was solidified in the second and just confirmed in this last one. And by confirmed I mean my own opinion and the word autistic is not on the page. But you're going to tell me that you have a character who legitimately goes nonverbal at times, refers to herself as a slow cooker meaning that she processes her emotions hours or days after the fact, has a special interest that when she can't do it anymore absolutely loses her entire way of life, struggles to communicate her feelings and emotions verbally and you're going to tell me that character isn't autistic? Nah that's not a thing. I mean it is not super surprising that Rachel is my favorite character since she is a fat autistic artist ...more
Thank all of the gods for changing the narration. While the original narrator still plays a part in this, there are three narrators and it was amazingThank all of the gods for changing the narration. While the original narrator still plays a part in this, there are three narrators and it was amazing. I also feel like the original narrator took some notes and toned down her narration and natural two because it wasn't as overwhelmingly exhausting to listen to as the first book.
In my review of the first one I said that I didn't really fall in love with any of the characters and that changed with this book. Rachel gets a POV and I very quickly fell in love with her. I adored her POV and was easily my favorite of the three. I also really enjoyed seeing Elza's point of view.
That being said, this book is a little bit all over the place. There's a lot that happens and it was a bit hard to follow at times. Even with the different narrators it wasn't always obvious who was speaking because the POV changes happen in the middle of chapters versus having one chapter for this person and one chapter for another etc. This is probably not an issue with the physical book but with the audio it was a little bit of a struggle.
I can confidently say that I enjoy this one more than the first and that I look forward to the third....more
This book is a perfect example of how I like romance books. It is soft and swoony and so sweet but not saccharine. There's real baggage for each of thThis book is a perfect example of how I like romance books. It is soft and swoony and so sweet but not saccharine. There's real baggage for each of the characters and struggles that they have to get through in order to be together. The writing is very atmospheric and as someone who would stay indoors all day if possible, the descriptors of the PCT were at the same time terrifying and beautiful. I could never but it made for a great setting.
I listened to this whole book trying to pinpoint exactly what it was about Alexei that I just resonated with and then we find out that he's autistic and yeah that tracks ...more
Reread April 2023 via audio: the audiobook is also unsurprisingly excellent.
Original review: Well this was unsurprisingly excellent. There was never aReread April 2023 via audio: the audiobook is also unsurprisingly excellent.
Original review: Well this was unsurprisingly excellent. There was never any doubt that I would love this story but I don't know that I was ready to get SO emotionally attached. I've read all the Bergman books and I've already attached to this family, but there's something about Ziggy that tugs at me a little more and I really loved the way that we finally get to see her come full circle. Having own voices autistic representation is so important and I love the way that Chloe Liese has been able to write multiple autistic characters and all of them are different and that's such an important part of representation is realizing that autism exists on a spectrum. Ziggy's autism is different than Axel's and it's different than Frankie's and it was phenomenal.
So basically we have Ziggy who is trying to get out of this role and expectations that her family has set for her as fragile and someone who needs coddling and then we have Seb who is bad boy extraordinaire and needs to clean up his act.
I love a grumpy sunshine book but I'm always skeptical when grumpy equals mean. Seb is listed as a bad boy and someone who causes harm to others and acts recklessly and I was a little skeptical. I really hate books where they have an asshole character who is nice just to his love interest but that is NOT the case here and I really should have been more trusting of Chloe. She would not do us wrong. Seb is not an asshole, he is traumatized and has reasons for his behavior. His reasons are not very good but he isn't a bad person. He is willing to own up to his behavior, apologize, works to actively do better, and has a lot of self-loathing to work through.
So basically Ziggy and Seb team up to help each of their reputations. Ziggy wants to add a few dark spots to hers and Seb needs to clean his up. What neither one of them was really expecting was for such an intense friendship to build. Their first few encounters are some of my favorite scenes. I love watching their friendship develop and seeing each of them open up to the other and form a super important relationship.
We love emotionally mature characters and this book has them. We have characters who are not afraid to feel their feelings and to admit when they were wrong. We have characters who allow themselves to make mistakes and do better. We have characters who are anxious and scared and not afraid to admit that. We have characters that know that they aren't perfect yet work towards progress instead of perfection.
This book is a work of art and I loved it so much. This is one of the first books in this series that I would say you could read as a standalone. I think a lot of the other books have much more involvement from the family members, and while the Bergman crew is still involved, it isn't as overwhelming as it is in some of the other stories. This book really truly is about Ziggy and Sebastian and each of their journeys of growth. Do I recommend that you read the entire series? Abso-freaking-lutely. Could you read this as a standalone? Yes if you must.
Both MC's are queer and disabled. Ziggy is bisexual and autistic and Sebastian is pansexual and has celiac. I am living for all of the neurodivergent queer representation ...more
There is something so healing about queer neurodivergent middle grade books for me. There were so many moments during the story that I wanted to cry bThere is something so healing about queer neurodivergent middle grade books for me. There were so many moments during the story that I wanted to cry because everything was just so simple for these kids. Like for example just Ellen being autistic is widely accepted from her peers. Of course there is a couple instances where it isn't, but for the most part they're there for her. There's one particular scene where her friends help her through a panic attack that I had to pause the book for a minute because I was so overwhelmed by how wholesome it was. There's another scene where queer identities are disclosed and the kids just accept it and move on. There's very little to no pushback and it's just a thing. It is part of what makes this book so exceptional but also part of why I'm really excited for this next generation to grow up.
Anyway, moving on beyond my overemotional traumatized adult millennial feelings, this book is super great. It takes place on a school trip and Ellen ends up not paired with her friend but instead paired with a new non-binary kid in a group of four. Her Dad is one of the chaperones and they're just really trying to figure out how to understand some new dynamics outside of binary thinking. Ellen is Jewish and autistic and queer and she is just doing her best to be a middle schooler. Trying to navigate new friendships and old friendships and new spaces and sensory situations and new identities. I loved this book so much. That wasn't a surprise since I also loved Ana on the Edge and Camp Quiltbag, but I'm so happy to have another absolutely stellar middle grade to recommend.
I do want to mention that in the audiobook there are instances where Ellen has sensory overload that the narrator/production team chose to make it a full experience. What I mean by that is that they layered lots of sounds over one another and as an autistic person listening to the audiobook it was overwhelming. It kind of rips you out of the story which is not a pleasant thing to have happen. I do wish a little bit more care would have been taken in considering neurodivergent readers / listeners when producing the audiobook....more
I thought that I loved Blackout, but Whiteout was even more spectacular. It might have to do with the fact that this anthology is more queer and that I thought that I loved Blackout, but Whiteout was even more spectacular. It might have to do with the fact that this anthology is more queer and that the main couple is sapphic, but I just liked each story better as well.
I read one of the MCs as autistic and having that rep was great. There's also a fat sapphic character which was awesome.
As a whole, definitely one I highly recommend and one I'll probably be rereading each snowy season....more
Reread 2023 and it's still so good. Midsize autistic trans Daddy with misophonia and OCD and a Jewish trans Boy with ADHD.
Another obvious win for ReeReread 2023 and it's still so good. Midsize autistic trans Daddy with misophonia and OCD and a Jewish trans Boy with ADHD.
Another obvious win for Reese Morrison and for us for another spectacular book that we are privileged to read.
I have reached the point where I can guarantee that I will love every single Reese Morrison book. There is something about their writing and their character development that makes every single story not feel like fiction. All of their characters are in realistic bodies. There aren't any characters that are so insanely attractive or super muscly or intensely thin etc. Their characters have a wide variety of body types and gender identity is and disabilities and everyday blemishes that so often get written off in fiction.
This one is about David who is a autistic trans man just figuring out his Dom side. I cannot even explain how well the autistic representation is. It's like they pulled the things from my brain and popped them on page because holy freaking heck it was realistic. Then we have Naftali. Naftali is a Jewish trans man with ADHD. He is an experienced sub and teaches all sorts of classes and that's where he and David initially meet. One thing leads to another and they end up on a vacation essentially fake dating but think of it more as a trial run. David is able to feel comfortable and confident in his own personality and skills and Naftali is able to actually sit back and relax and be pampered for once.
I loved how both of these characters neurodivergence combined and as someone who who is both autistic and ADHD is a little bit wild having such great representation.
This book is kinky and there are explicit scenes on page. The specific kinks included are daddy/boy but no age play, impact play, primal play, and bondage along with general specified power exchange and dominant and submissive.
CW: deadnaming, misgendering, transphobia all pretty much in the same chapter. There is a note about it at the beginning of the book....more
This is a truly exceptional book. I went into this hoping for some answers in regards to my own neurodiversity and while I did get some answers, I feeThis is a truly exceptional book. I went into this hoping for some answers in regards to my own neurodiversity and while I did get some answers, I feel like I also left with some questions but that is okay. There's so many moments from this book that I bookmarked and I would love to grab a physical copy to annotate and highlight and make notes because I know that there's a lot of moments that I'd like to go back to. I definitely recommend this book if you are autistic or think you might be.
I wish I was surprised that almost every negative review of this book attacks the author's take on queerness and transness in relation to autism but I'm not. Dr Price does a lot of work and has a lot of conversations about removing the stereotype of an autistic person as a brilliant white boy. He really challenges you to think about why we have these preconceptions about what autism looks like and how autism shows up in other demographics. If you also take a gander through the negative reviews you'll find people upset for Dr Price supposedly removing the white man from the autistic POV and y'all I cannot. Get your head out of your ass. Just because someone focuses on a different demographic does not erase the identity of someone else.
I'd like the interspersal of some additional autistic POVs beyond the author and like to the variety in the chapters. I especially got a lot out of the chapter discussing comparisons and differences between ADHD and autism. One of my biggest takeaways and most memorable moments while listening to this book was just kind of the acceptance that even if I could never figure out if I truly am autistic or if I am just a spicy ADHD with anxiety, it doesn't matter that much. Like for me I'm a label person and it does matter but it also doesn't negate my experiences and the ADHD community and autistic community have so much in common and there's so many similarities that it's better for people to just kind of combine forces and support everyone and each other instead of trying to pinpoint exactly which trait is from ADHD and which trait is autistic.
Overall it's definitely one that I recommend and one that I look forward to doing a re-listen of with a physical copy and my hand and one that I will refer to in the future.
I do think that there are still some valid points in a few of the less than stellar reviews, not the bigoted transphobic ones but just ones that point out that Dr Price is a white academic and a lot of autistic people are not always going to be able to have that same level of privilege when it comes to unmasking especially people of color and people who work in the service industry. It isn't always an option to embrace your autism and be fully yourself in all settings as Dr Price pushes people to do. It's definitely a valid point and one to be considered....more
This was the type of cutesy romance I expect from roan parrish. I love seeing the rest of the Garnet run crew and this is a genuinely enjoyable book.
TThis was the type of cutesy romance I expect from roan parrish. I love seeing the rest of the Garnet run crew and this is a genuinely enjoyable book.
That being said, I am disappointed. I'm disappointed because not only was there not really the prank war that was promised, but I also missed out on all the pining. Like where even was it? First they were these like maybe enemies except not really, then there was an accidental prank war starting, and then all of a sudden they're basically dating. I just don't understand what happened. I liked both of our main characters I liked the Halloween spooky vibes but I just feel like missing a hunk of this book.
This was a super cute middle grade in verse. It's all about a friendship between a polish autistic boy and a Puerto Rican boy. They connect over theirThis was a super cute middle grade in verse. It's all about a friendship between a polish autistic boy and a Puerto Rican boy. They connect over their love of different forms of art, one music and one painting/drawing/etc. It's set in 1980s Brooklyn. It's a fairly quick read while also throwing in a some serious topics. Definitely recommend....more
Well. I'm kind of overcome with emotions. I almost cried in the grocery store checkout lane because I listened via audio and timing wasn't my friend. Well. I'm kind of overcome with emotions. I almost cried in the grocery store checkout lane because I listened via audio and timing wasn't my friend.
I felt safe reading this book. I think that that's a really interesting thing because that is my first response. And for me this book was all about queer safety and queer living. How wanting to live is so much more than taking a breath everyday. It is feeling comfortable in your own body and mind and feeling safe in the environments around you. It's feeling safe with the people around you. It is having the ability to smile and laugh and cry and dance and jump and thrive and live. And even though this book is about a lot of other things, for me that sense of queer vitality was at the core.
Sam is an autistic aspec nonbinary queer teen and they have just moved to a new town after the experienced a horrendous near death experience. Sam has a special interest of kids that died before they were 19 and maybe it sounds a little bit morbid but when you move into a house where a kid died in the room you're staying in and you end up working to solve his murder, it's not quite so morbid. I love Sam so much and one of my favorite parts of this whole book is their relationship with their dad.
I have read a lot of asexual and aromantic books at this point and I am always shocked when I encounter a new type of asexual and aromantic representation. Sam's dad is aroace and I cannot describe how important that representation is. I loved the fact that he adopted Sam and didn't ever conform to hetero or amatonormativity.
There is a mystery / paranormal element to this that I think worked really well. It keeps you guessing until the end and even if you think you know exactly what happened I truly believe that you're going to be surprised.
Content warning for violence and attempted murder. There's a first person account of what Sam dealt with at their last school that could be intensely triggering for some folks so please be mindful....more
I have been trying to listen to this book for months now and I kept forgetting about it and so by the time I actually started I had foOriginal review:
I have been trying to listen to this book for months now and I kept forgetting about it and so by the time I actually started I had forgotten the entire summary, the representation, anything that I had kind of known about the book, out the window. So I basically went in blind. Holy freaking nuts I loved this.
I listened to the whole thing this morning and it took me a minute to get invested in the letters only idea but once I figured out who the characters were I was here for it.
There's something really impressive about telling a story only through letters and especially a historical romance done this way was really exceptional.
So this book is about Gavin who basically gets sent to London so that he doesn't get bullied by his older brother when his older brother comes home. Gavin is very shy, very introverted, would much rather spend time in a library than socialize and damm if that isn't relatable, but he ends up getting drawn into London's society by Charles. Gavin meets Charles at this club after a night of unusual gambling and quickly grows to appreciate Charles' presence and friendship.
So the majority of these letters are sent back and forth between Gavin and his sister and those are my favorite letters. Like I really liked the ones between Gavin and Charles but the ones where Gavin gets kind of like soft and sweet while recounting all of his London experiences to his sister was so heartwarming. I don't know it just felt like a nice little hug.
I really enjoyed the queer normativity of this and also the small amounts of magic. So like magic is just a thing in this world and okay, absolutely. And then everything is so queer normative, like it doesn't matter. There's some historical fiction books that will kind of spin this tail and allow queer people to exist but in this story it is so normal that people don't have any sort of expectation on which gender you end up with, there's options of having a career versus a spouse, there is a non-binary Duchex (not sure of spelling since I listened to audio but it's a cross between Duke and Duchess) who uses they/them pronouns and everyone uses they/them pronouns for them. It was wonderfully normative and I want to live in a world like that.
I highly recommend this book. We've got a demisexual autistic-coded main character, a bi love interest, non-binary and sapphic secondary characters, and some very lovely letters.
Reread November 2022 This is such a soft read. I love Gavin and Charles so much and can't wait to dive right into One Good Turn....more
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