Category: Read This Book

Brookins writes, “Every day, I am assumed to be a Black American man, though my ID says ‘female,’ and my heart says neither of the sort.” This memoir, interspersed with poetry, contains Brookins’ own experiences of the particular flavor of marginalization that happens when a person is Black, queer, and trans. Some of this is exacerbated by religious community but don’t let anyone lead you to believe this marginalization doesn’t happen outside of those spaces as well. Brookins’ birth mother had them very young and they were adopted by and raised by another couple. These folks, their parents, are, according to them, very religious and very Texan.

My heart broke over and over, reading about the bullying and the discomfort of elementary school, and then I shook with rage reading about the sexual assault they suffered at the hands of teenage children of fellow church members. Needless to say, this book is an emotional read filled with multiple kinds of abuse and homophobia and transphobia but there is always, always hope written between the words.

For 60 years, the author’s family has had two gospel-singing troupes made of dozens of family members. The family is well-known in churches in the Fort Worth, Texas area and they write about the effects of this on them growing up. They also write about their eventual escape from the toxic culture that surrounded and terrorized them, which coincided with going to college. During all of this is their struggle to figure out who they are, where they belong, and who they belong with. Maybe I’m biased, but one of the reasons I always find Black queer memoirs so powerful is that there is always hope as the through line. If there was no hope, then the memoir wouldn’t exist. If there was no hope, then Black queer people would not exist.

I feel so fortunate that this book exists and I get to share it with you.

This super creepy book takes readers through two timelines. Back in 1993, a group of young filmmakers spent four weeks making an art-house horror film that would become a cult classic. Not because everyone watched it and loved it—in fact, the movie was never released to the public. But the weird events that occurred during the filming of the movie became infamous. And years later, a few scenes from the movie were released on YouTube, only fueling the public’s obsession with the film that never was.

Now, three decades later, a major Hollywood reboot is in the works, and one person from the original film is back to help recreate the “magic” of the original. The man who once starred in the film as “The Thin Kid” has vivid memories of just how strange the filming process was. And just how dangerous. As he attempts to help the big-budget remake get underway, memories of the original filming and all of its mysteries and secrets come flooding back. What was real? What was the stuff of urban legends? And does he even remember the difference?

If you’ve read Paul Tremblay before, then you might have noticed that the author is not afraid of experimenting with form. For example, just look at The Pallbearer’s Club, which was fully annotated. In Horror Movie, we get to read about the filming of both horror movies (the original and the flashy remake). But we also get what appears to be the FULL SCRIPT of the original horror movie. Does the script read the way an actual screenplay would? Absolutely not, and that’s kind of the point. Instead, reading the script made me feel like I was actually watching the notorious horror movie that has everyone talking. And I really got it. There are images from that movie that truly terrified and disturbed me. By the time I got to the end of it, I felt like just maybe I’d actually watched the movie. And maybe it was one of the top five horror movies of all time.

This book was one of my most anticipated books of 2024, and it did not disappoint. This horror novel gave me nightmares. I don’t think I’ll be able to stop thinking about it for quite some time. As of right now, it’s my favorite book of the year, and I’m so excited it’s out now so that all of you can experience it for yourself!

I first discovered Emma Copley Eisenberg with The Third Rainbow Girl, a genre-defying nonfiction book that’s part memoir, part true crime, and part history. Now, Copley Eisenberg is back with her debut novel, Housemates.

Bernie answers an ad for a room for rent and joins Leah and their other housemates in their home in West Philadelphia. Both Bernie, a photographer, and Leah, a writer, struggle to find direction for their art. They each find a listening ear in the other, and their relationship begins to bloom.

When Bernie’s photography mentor dies, Bernie and Leah head out on a road trip to rural Pennsylvania to deal with Bernie’s part of the estate. Along the way, Bernie takes photographs while Leah writes short bits of copy to give the photographs some context. The two twentysomething artists find themselves in an artistic partnership that defies definition, a creative collaboration aimed at shedding light on the complex cultures of broader Pennsylvania.

Housemates is a love letter to the queer scene of West Philly, in equal parts critiquing and poking fun in the best possible way. Bernie and Leah’s story asks big questions about art, its creation, and its consumption. Eisenberg explores ideas around class and art, including the financial requirements to have the space to make good art. Who gets to tell their story? Whose art will be appreciated and whose will be overlooked?

Audie winner and AudioFile Golden Voice Marin Ireland narrates the audiobook. Ireland doesn’t over-perform the text. Instead, she uses her straightforward performance to make the story shine. With her narration, Bernie and Leah come alive, giving listeners new insights into their characters.

Chihiro Ito is sixteen and has big dreams about being a samurai. She is obsessed with Tatsuo Nakano, a well-known samurai who was the first girl to be accepted to the renowned samurai school known as Keisi Academy. Keisi Academy is notorious for only allowing boys, but Tatsuo’s fierce talent could not be ignored. Tatsuo is glorified in movies and television and on posters (and probably other merch), and Chihiro might just be her biggest fan. Chihiro has been training with her father who himself is an esteemed samurai, though in retirement from serving Daimyo Teshima. Chihiro’s father has an existing injury from his samurai days which makes the fact that he has been called out of retirement and back into service even more worrisome. A large, terrible creature called a yamauba has been kidnapping children in a town in the mountains.

Chihiro is eager to prove herself and volunteers to go in her father’s place. Her parents only allow it if she finds a rōnin to accompany her and fight the monster as a team. Chihiro decides that she is not going to hire just any rōnin. She wants to hire her idol, Tatsuo Nakano. When she finally catches up to Tatsuo and convinces her to join her, Chihiro finds that her idol is not at all who she imagined. Tatsuo is fighting her own demons. She is doing everything she can to escape from grief, which often involves a lot of drinking and a lot of being rude to people so she doesn’t form any kind of attachments.

Amidst the snarky dialogue and plenty of humor, this graphic novel is absolutely about the ways in which grief can tear us apart and bring us together. Content warnings for violence and death of friends and family members.

Come and Get It is a novel with a fascinating ensemble cast of characters. It’s told against the backdrop of the University of Arkansas in 2017. First, we meet 37-year-old Agatha Paul, a visiting professor and writer who is working on her next project, a nonfiction book about weddings and wedding traditions. But when she starts interviewing college students about weddings and their thoughts on marriage, Agatha becomes more interested in the students, the ways they live their lives, the ways they spend their money, and their thoughts about the world.

Many of the students at the university also become major players in the novel’s story. There’s Tyler, a wealthy college student who uses her “fun money” to get expensive balayage for her hair (but who also is saving up money to buy a dog). There’s Kennedy, Tyler’s roommate who transferred to the University of Arkansas in her junior year to escape a recent traumatizing experience. Kennedy, unlike Tyler, struggles to make friends at her new school and instead finds camaraderie in things; her dorm room is overstuffed with all of her Target purchases.

Then there’s Millie, a senior resident assistant who helps with Agatha’s research through access to the students in her residence hall. The more Millie spends time with Agatha, the more she becomes wrapped up in Agatha’s process and who Agatha is as a person. In fact, Millie starts fantasizing about Agatha when she’s not there and gets obsessed with the older woman.

All of the women in this story come from different backgrounds and have different expectations of each other, and that’s when things start getting a little uncomfortable. The more you read about each character’s hopes, dreams, and fears, the more you understand that these stories are not aligning in a way that’s going to work out for everyone. From the beginning, Come and Get It is setting up all of these characters for imminent disaster. You will not be able to predict where the story will go, but the journey to get there was completely riveting.

Just like with Kiley Reid’s first novel Such A Fun Age, I could not put this book down. I cringed on behalf of these characters the whole time, but I could not look away. The more mistakes everyone makes, and the more mortifying the situations became, the more invested I became in the build-up to the ultimate disaster at the end of the book. Are you dying to know what happens? I was too. Which is so odd, because it’s not like this is a plot-driven story. It’s an exploration of characters and situations, and it’s hard to say what the plot of the book really is. And yet, I really needed to know what was going to happen next at every turn.

There is so much to love about this story, and so far author Kiley Reid is 2 for 2 as far as I’m concerned. So read this book, and then go back and read Such a Fun Age. You won’t regret it.

Valerie Danners and her family belong to a conservative Christian community. She’s homeschooled as her parents prepare her to one day be a stay-at-home wife and mother. But even with her parents and everyone else in her community telling her what her future will look like, Valerie isn’t so sure. Valerie finds a book at the library that features a love story between two young women. She’s drawn to the story in a way she never knew possible, and Valerie steals the book and hides it at home. This starts a series of events that leads Valerie to realize that she’s bisexual — and she has a crush on the new girl at church.

Naudus’s debut is partially inspired by her experience growing up in a conservative Christian cult (think Shiny Happy People). This gives Gay the Pray Away an authentic feel, brimming with tiny details that ring true to folks who come from a similar background. Valerie must abide by strict rules, like wearing very modest clothing and listening only to approved (mostly religious) music, but — above all else — she must never question her parents. Valerie loves her parents, and they love her, but is their love strong enough to put her above their strict beliefs?

Gay the Pray Away is a love letter to libraries and the freedom they represent for their patrons. A helpful librarian looks the other way as Valerie steals her first queer book, and later he recommends queer books with generic-looking covers so her parents won’t find out what she’s reading. Without the books she reads at the library, she might never have been able to imagine a different future for herself.

Natalie Naudus is an award-winning audiobook narrator, so it’s no wonder that her performance of Gay the Pray Away is a masterclass in young adult audiobook narration. Naudus’s voice embodies Valerie’s anxiety as she tries to be as perfect as possible for her parents. With every pause, with every line of dialogue, Naudus captures the novel’s complex characters and brings to life Valerie’s inner world as she struggles to carve out a place for her to be her authentic self outside of her parents’ stifling and limited vision for her future.

This comic anthology features 29 transgender and nonbinary comic artists, each sharing a slice of their individual journeys of stepping into their own authentic selves. The stories in this anthology are vulnerable, encouraging, and diverse. Trans and nonbinary folks are not a monolith, and while some stories may have similarities, each is unique. This collection is a love letter to the trans and nonbinary community. It offers open arms to readers who may be questioning or struggling with their own gender identities as well as an outstretched hand to readers who are pursuing a deeper understanding of trans and nonbinary experiences.

Each comic is quite short, only a handful of pages long or fewer; however, each comic is expressive and meaningful, earnest and heartfelt. Dozens of small journeys take us from dysphoria, discomfort, fear, and confusion to a place of euphoria and at the very least, contentment. Contentment is no small feat, mind you, and the stories in this book are proof that it is possible.

The variety of comics in this anthology is really impressive. Not every story has a fairytale ending or an ending at all. Some folks are still discovering who they are, and that is valid too. Some creators were able to carry parts of their younger selves with them while others needed to completely break free of all they were, including their family and community. Many found new communities, sometimes in unlikely places, and that, too, can be gender-affirming. All of the creators are, of course, incredibly talented, and the artwork for each comic amplified the emotions in a way that only text would not.

This is an excellent anthology that began as a Kickstarter but is now available as an expanded version.

From childhood, Natsuki has felt like she doesn’t belong. Her family openly ridicules her. No one at school understands her. Her teacher takes advantage of her. The only way she can make sense of the world around her is through imagining that she has access to magic, and that she might secretly be an alien from another planet. Then there’s her cousin Yuu. In Yuu, Natsuki feels like she’s found another soul that is an outsider just like she is. But when Yuu and Natsuki are pulled apart, the two make a promise to each other: to survive. No matter what.

Now, Natsuki is an adult, and her feelings of alienation have only grown stronger. She’s married to a man who has zero interest in even touching her. Everyone around her is pressuring her to start a family. Meanwhile, Natsuki is relentlessly haunted by the nightmares of her past.

Natsuki is desperate for an escape from the pressures of adulthood and the expectations of what it means to be a productive member of society. And so she heads to the only place that ever made her feel at home: her family retreat in the mountains of Nagano, far away from the judgmental eyes of her peers. What’s more, she invites Yuu to meet her there. But Yuu comes to Nagano with his own thoughts about how to escape society. Will he be ready to keep his promise to Natsuki? And what will these two be capable of doing when they’re reunited?

This novel, as you might have already gleaned, is dark and disturbing. Content warnings for nearly everything you can think of: cannibalism, incest, sexual assault, murder, trauma, child abuse. This book is anything but an easy read. Like Natsuki, I found myself really clinging on to the more fantastical moments of this novel, hoping for moments of solace amidst the bleakness of what’s happening to our main character. And yet with all of that being said, I could not put Earthlings down. Not for a second.

Earthlings really spoke to me as a heart-breaking narrative of losing oneself in past trauma and feeling suffocated by the expectations of others. While Natsuki’s circumstances are extreme, I think a lot of us (myself included) can identify with those feelings. I also loved that author Sayaka Murata wasn’t afraid of making this story really, really strange. Here, Murata is taking a lot of the themes and ideas from her novel Convenience Store Woman and exploding them into something horrifying and earth-shatteringly unique. So if you read that and thought to yourself, “I wish this main character would just set the world on fire,” Earthlings might be your book. If you love good books, even if they make you super uncomfy, Earthlings might be for you.

I adored R. O. Kwon’s debut novel, The Incendiaries and have been watching out for her next novel ever since. There’s something about Kwon’s stripped-down writing style that captures readers’ imaginations and spurs us on to keep reading.

In Exhibit, we follow Jin Han, a photographer living in San Francisco with her husband. One night at a party, she meets Lidija Jung, and her world feels like it’s been turned upside down. Lidija is a one-of-a-kind ballerina, brimming with talent and poise. But after an accident, she’s been forced to take a leave of absence as she tries to recover from her injury. Both women bond over their art and their drive to keep going, even under difficult and discouraging circumstances.

Soon Jin and Lidijia are sharing their innermost thoughts and desires. Jin reveals that her husband now wants children, something she’s never wanted — and will never want — and Lidjia suspects that her accident was actually planned by a competitive colleague. Soon they are exploring hidden desires, finding satisfaction in each other like no one else before.

In this sexy novel full of art, queer sex, and hopelessly entangled human relationships, Kwon explores characters’ desires to the fullest, filling her short novel to the brim with complex motivations and the impulse that drives humanity’s need for connection with others. As Jin explores her newfound queer sexuality, she stands to lose every relationship that she’s ever held dear. 

Ami Park performs the majority of the audiobook, with Sue Jean Kim narrating brief interludes between select chapters. Park captures the intense electricity between Jin and Lidjia, which she sustains throughout the novel. Her performance is intimate, imbuing the characters with a quiet strength as they’re forced to make decisions that will impact them for the rest of their lives.

One thing I’ve learned as I’ve gotten older: older adults aren’t necessarily any smarter or more mature than young adults. Time has, however, given me the opportunity to wear many hats. I have been the aspiring rockstar. I have been the nerdy kid playing Dungeons & Dragons for hours on end. Through it all, I’ve been nothing if not completely self-critical and unsure of my every decision. Hooray for growing and not learning! This is one of the reasons Young Adult books can really work for everyone. None of us (at any age) actually knows what we’re doing. And this is why I wanted — no, needed — this adorable and affirming YA rom-com in my life.

Delilah is a cool girl in a punk rock band. Reggie is a D&D nerd so deeply steeped in the culture that he writes essays about D&D for fun. They don’t have a lot in common, but they see something in each other that they admire, and yes, they spend a year falling for one another (just as the title suggests). The premise was too cute to deny; on the outside, Reggie and Delilah appear to be from two different worlds, and yet the two connect over and over again over multiple holidays — New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day…you get the idea.

What I love about Delilah and Reggie’s relationship is how much it was based on mutual feelings of admiration and respect. They appreciate each other for what they can learn from each other and how they can help each other grow. And they love who they become when they are around each other. Delilah loves how Reggie is so unapologetically himself. Reggie appreciates Delilah for her boldness. They both wish they could be as brave as the other one, and they both bring out those qualities in each other.

Another big bonus about this book? The friendships. This is a love story, but Reggie and Delilah have other significant people in their lives. For instance, we see Delilah develop a friendship with a super cool rockstar chick named Ryan, who was honestly one of my favorite parts of the book. It was nice to see that Delilah’s journey to self-acceptance and confidence wasn’t just centered around her relationship with Reggie. She also had Ryan in her corner.

If you’re looking for a sweet YA romance with unique and nuanced characters, this is the one. I absolutely loved this book. It’s the perfect love story for the summer. Or for Christmas. Or New Year’s Eve. Or Valentine’s Day. You get the idea.