Category: Read This Book

In 1950s North Carolina, Edie finds out she’s pregnant. She’s a senior in high school and her boyfriend, Simon, is in med school. So it wouldn’t be uncommon for girls in her situation to get married. But Simon is Jewish, and neither her parents, nor his, have any interest in a wedding. Instead, they send Edie to a home for unwed mothers where Edie is told she will give birth to her baby, which will then be adopted. But Edie refuses to budge, and has her own ideas of what fate will await her baby.

Edie’s best friend Luce, the child of two divorced parents, didn’t have any friends until Edie came to town. To her, Edie’s absence feels immense, but she determines to find a way to help Edie have more options for her life, even if that means that Edie keeps her baby.

Decades later in 1984, Luce’s daughter Meera discovers that she’s pregnant. As Meera begins to explore her options, Luce is thrown back to the past when she watched another woman she loved have an unexpected pregnancy.

In many ways, Edie and Luce’s world is a bleak one, full of middle class women trying to give the appearance that their lives are in perfect order. But the closer you look at their lives, the more you realize that women have few other options. And underneath all of the frills and plastered-on smiles is a world where women are born into a society that has already decided what their futures will entail. This novel is about choices, both the ones women do have and the ones they don’t.

Franks’ prose flows across the page, and her storytelling is immersive. She possesses such an intimate understanding of her characters. I started the book and found that I couldn’t stop reading. I needed to know what the future had in store for these characters. They just seemed so alive.

First, some obvious content warnings for discussions of anti-fatness and anti-Blackness and also warnings for discussions of transphobia, police violence, and sexual assault including molestation.

Much of the existing literature on anti-fatness and anti-Blackness, whether it be books, articles, Instagram reels, or otherwise is primarily focused on fat Black women and fat Black femmes. Belly of the Beast is a very important and fresh addition to the growing literature on the intersections of anti-fatness and anti-Blackness as it focuses on fat Black masc bodies. Masc (derived from ‘masculine’) as in cisgender man bodies and nonbinary trans masc bodies and transgender man bodies.

This book is rather concise but Harrison covers a lot of ground and interrogates certain topics that I’ve read about but maybe haven’t encountered as discussed in this way, such as what it looks like to talk about policing, police violence, and prisons with regard to how the fat Black masc body experiences them. I also appreciate how they discuss the idea of health as a social construct made specifically in a way that makes it inaccessible to fat Black people. I sincerely welcome their interrogation of body positivity and self-love as I have done in my own writing. In another chapter in this book I really enjoy, Harrison writes about the politics of desirability. Who gets to be pretty? Who is determined to be ugly? And what power is there in these labels? In one of the later chapters, Harrison talks with seven fat Black trans people and gives them all space to tell their own stories and it is really, really powerful.

Harrison cites many other related works such as The Body is Not An Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor and Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings. Harrison’s citations are not mere regurgitations, but sometimes a deepening of discussion or clear rebuttal. I think that one of the things I like about this book is that it truly feels like a discussion and an exploration.

Jane was one of the very first people to go viral on the Internet when she was discovered as a baby in a Gucci handbag in a Poughkeepsie train station. She’s since grown up and been adopted by the man who found her, and has a very nice and happy life — which is why it’s a bit of an affront that her incorrigible best friend Algie submits a DNA test on her behalf to find her bio family. As Jane deals with the roil of emotions that comes from searching out her birth family, she’s also falling for Algie’s beguiling cousin Gwen, and trying to keep Algie from breaking her cousin Cecil’s heart. It’s a lot to juggle — and she has to figure out a way to be honest with herself and what she wants if she’s going to find true happiness.

This is a really fun and clever retelling of one of my favorite Oscar Wilde works, The Importance of Being Earnest. I love that Horan recasts Wilde’s class-conscious characters as NYC teens who live with varying degrees of privilege and who are trying to find their own way in the world. Algie is over the top and fun, and I love that you can really feel the friendship between him and Jane, even when they’re driving each other to exasperation. The romance between Jane and Gwen is really sweet as well, and I liked that it felt both inevitable and uncertain as they figured out a way to communicate what they need and want. This is a book about facing the realities of growing up: Relationships change, needs shift, and what we thought we wanted can morph into something different. But this story is also about holding on to what (and who!) you love throughout those changes, and finding your true self in the process. It’s a quick read, but utterly enjoyable and laugh out loud funny!

Angeline Boulley is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, and she writes about her Ojibwe community. In her second novel set on Sugar Island, which is located in Michigan’s upper peninsula, Boulley returns to the Firekeeper family. Warrior Girl Unearthed focuses on Perry Firekeeper-Birch, a 16-year-old Ojibwe girl who just wants to spend her summer days fishing on the island, her favorite place in the world.

But after crashing her car, Perry finds herself forced to join a summer internship program to earn enough money to pay for the repairs. While working for her tribe’s cultural center, she attends a trip to a local university, where she learns that the university is using a legal loophole to hold on to the human remains of people from her nation. In particular, Perry is appalled by the museum curator’s smug attitude at keeping a complete set of remains referred to as “Warrior Girl.” Leaving the museum, and Warrior Girl, behind, Perry becomes determined to return Warrior Girl to her people.

Warrior Girl Unearthed is a crime novel in two ways. Perry learns the history of the horrific treatment of Indigenous human remains and ceremonial objects. The crimes that the U.S. government has enacted upon her people drive Perry’s sense of justice and determination to right this wrong. Perry and the other high school students in her internship program also take part in searches and advocacy to raise awareness for the Murdered Missing Indigenous Women, Girls, and two-spirits people (MMIW). During the course of the novel, several young women go missing, and she begins to suspect that the most recent disappearances are all connected.

Perry is such a captivating character, full of a fiery spirit and heart, always trying to help her family and community. Isabella Star LeBlanc narrates the audiobook edition, bringing an incredible sense of emotional depth to her performance of Perry’s point-of-view. So if you’re an audiobook listener, then this is definitely one you’ll want to pick up on audio.

This is a novel in verse and I think this is actually the first time that I’ve read a novel in verse. It was fun! It is a story about seven queer women, six of whom are trans, living and loving and failing in Brooklyn, NY. I think that some descriptions of the book only mention six women in total but the narrator is also an integral part of this story, though she goes unnamed through most of the book. She’s a bit like a Greek chorus, though not exactly.

The book starts on New Year’s Eve when everything feels fresh and new and the air is thick with possibility. Our narrator is at a bar and witnesses some interactions which possibly include some couples forming. First are Day and Bette. Bette makes money being a cam girl and Day has the 9-5 job that she had been in since before she transitioned. For a while, Bette and Day seem to improve each other’s lives. Day has a spacious apartment she is willing to share and Bette teaches Day to embrace her sexuality. Next we have Keiko and Gaia. Keiko is maybe nineteen or twenty years old and an artist. Gaia is a couple years older. They have a magical evening where they get drunk and play whiskey slaps and make out (no sex) and talk and talk until they fall asleep together at Keiko’s flat. Keiko has a huge crush on Gaia moving forward but it is unrequited. The final couple we have are Kate and Aashvi. Aashvi is the one cis woman in the story and she and Kate are trying to have a baby, which in this case means that Kate needs to start producing sperm again. In order to do that, she’s going to need to go off of estrogen and start producing testosterone again which is incredibly difficult in many ways and Kate has a bit of a freak-out after a few months and feels like she needs to dive head-first into trans community work and help the younger, newly-hatched trans women in navigating life.

Our narrator is not only the witness but also a participant in all the mess that ensues. I cannot speak specifically to the trans woman community but there are so many things in this book that are present in the wider queer community that are both hilarious and cringey. This book was quite a ride and a fun read.

Casey and her three friends are the anonymous creators behind a popular YouTube channel whose videos focus on exploring old and abandoned places throughout L.A., sometimes relying on some light breaking and entering in order to capture the perfect shots. They’re about to graduate and go their separate ways, and they want one last hurrah. When Jacob convinces the others to break into a house that’s been left virtually untouched since a 1970 murder, Casey is reluctant, but allows herself to be convinced. The experience is thrilling and the footage is unreal…until a security alarm is tripped and the four of them make a hasty retreat, only to discover that Jacob has been stabbed. They make the snap decision to leave him behind, but he hangs on by a thread, lingering in a coma. While they try to cover their tracks, Casey is suspicious of why their friend is targeted, and becomes determined to discover who is responsible for his attempted murder…even if the answer leads to one of them.

This is a great twisty mystery with plenty of thrills, set against the backdrop of L.A.’s more mundane places, and where the elements of fame have a darker edge. I liked Casey as a protagonist and could sympathize with her struggle to balance what they do as an interesting hobby (Casey is responsible for the research elements of their show) alongside with the discomfort she feels as a tragedy tourist for their more sensitive locales. Casey’s mom was a victim of an unsolved murder years before the book begins, so she is especially sensitive to how victims of crimes and their relatives are treated after the fact. The mystery aspect of this book takes her right back to the original murder that occurs 50 years earlier, and it’s a compelling journey for a cold case with some surprising developments. The queer representation in this book also feels very casual and natural — Casey and two of her friends are queer, and although this book doesn’t focus in on any of their romantic relationships, their queer identities have a natural progression and are important to the book.

If you like fiction that interrogates the nature of true crime, is inspired by real locations (the Los Feliz Murder Mansion), and has a queer cast, definitely pick this one up!

The author, Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, is a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and Even As We Breathe is the first published novel by a member of the Eastern Band. Set during WWII, Even As We Breathe follows Cowney, a young Cherokee man who gets a summer job at the historic Grove Park Inn located in Asheville, North Carolina. Cowney was born with a twisted foot, which means that he is one of the only young men in the area that wasn’t drafted during WWII. So in early summer, Cowney and Essie, a young woman from his reservation, make the journey to Asheville from their home in Cherokee, North Carolina.

Cowney arrives at the Grove Park Inn excited and nervous to start his new job. He can’t help but be curious about the Axis diplomats and their families who are being held at the inn by the U.S. government. As he works around the grounds, he keeps looking for glimpses of the diplomats and their families. But the excitement soon dissipates as the white workers and military men begin making racist comments that echo in his mind throughout the day.

As he and Essie become better friends, he begins to wish she would see him as more than a friend. He catches himself thinking about their conversations as he works. But one day, a the daughter of a Japanese diplomat goes missing. Cowney is brought in for questioning, the military personnel racial profiling the only Native man employed at the inn.

Cowney is such a fascinating character. We learn about his dad, who died fighting in WWI, even before Indigenous people were recognized as citizens of the United States. Cowney is raised by his grandmother, and his dad’s brother is a figure always around but never really there for Cowney. As Cowney’s grandmother’s health begins to decline, Cowney is forced to confront some of his family’s messy history, and address relationships from the past that still impact his present.

This is a queer young adult anthology and I rarely say this about anthologies but, every single story in this collection is a winner. It was thoughtfully put together and features a racially diverse range of characters that are multiple different flavors of queer. It also includes a wide range of genre representation, which I appreciate.

There’s a vampire story titled, “What Happens in the Closet” by Caleb Roehrig that had me literally laughing out loud because of how awful the vampires are (and it’s not because of the violence). The same story made me cringe because of the awkwardness of being a teen, the awkwardness of being gay, and the combined awkwardness of being a teen who is gay.

Another story that has a nice balance is titled “Lumber Me Mine” by CB Lee. It has the rawness of a fresh breakup out of a toxic relationship with a person who is incredibly manipulative but then it also has a super swoon-worthy girl our lead character meets in Woodshop class. She’s only in Woodshop because she is avoiding the Nutrition and Household Planning class since that’s where her ex will be. I don’t want to give too much away but I really enjoyed this story.

One of my absolute favorite stories in this whole book is “Victory Lap” by Julian Winters. It is so sweet and I absolutely cried multiple times which is silly because it’s a short story! I would cry on one page, be fine for the next, and then start crying all over again a paragraph later. Luke Stone, our protagonist, is looking for a prom date with the help of his friends. We learn that Luke recently quit the cross country team to help his dad out more at his dad’s well-known barber shop. We also learn that Luke’s mother had passed away and also that Luke hasn’t come out to his dad yet. This story could totally be a recipe for disaster but it is filled with so much goofy dad goodness and I have a soft spot in my heart for dad jokes as well as for really good dads.

One of the many things I appreciate about this collection is that the characters are also all along different points in their queer journeys. Some are already well-established in their identities and some are figuring things out still and some figure things out by the end of the story and some don’t and that’s okay. There’s so much more in this anthology as well. A story that features LSD, a story including a few Greek gods, a story featuring a kitchen witch which is also another one of my most favorites in this book. Aliens! Selkies! Dystopian futures! A super fun read that has something for everyone.

June Hayward and Athena Liu met in undergrad and initially bonded over their love of literature and a shared dream of one day becoming authors. Fast forward a few years after college graduation and Athena is a successful, well-published author. June has a debut that flopped. Even though they don’t seem to really like each other anymore, they still occasionally hang out, and one fateful night Athena dies in a tragic, stupid accident and June steals the recently completed first draft of her next book. It’s brilliant, but rough. June tells herself she’s going to polish it off, in Athena’s memory. But before long, she’s immersed in the work, and she makes the fateful decision to pass the book off as her own. Pretty soon, the book has an amazing deal and her publishing team rebrands June, who is white, into the racially ambiguous Juniper Song. The novel launches her into the successful career she’s always dreamed of—but at what cost?

I feel like I should state upfront that if you’re not the type of person who cares about how the sausage gets made when it comes to publishing, and you don’t like books with antiheroes making increasingly terrible decisions, this book might frustrate you! However, it’s spectacularly written and endlessly compelling, and Kuang really knows how to sustain tension throughout the entire novel without losing the reader — I inhaled this book, and so did many other people I know. It’s a not-so-subtle commentary on literary scandals, and the parallels between June’s situation and the controversy surrounding American Dirt are obvious. But Yellowface goes deeper than just the real-life drama of the literary world and asks questions about what it means to be a writer, to create, to take inspiration from life, and to use the experiences of others in order to write a story that you profit from. It’s also about what kinds of stories are told and how the publishing industry shapes those stories. As a writer and someone entrenched in that world, there was a lot that was relatable and a fair amount that was horrifying. I thought I was getting a messy book about publishing, but the story takes the shape of a suspense novel fairly quickly (will June get caught?) and toward the end even verges on horror. It perfectly encapsulates all the ways that publishing can mess with your mind, and by the end I wasn’t sure what I wanted to happen next.

This book will mess with your head a little bit, and make you want to take a social media detox, but in a good way! It’ll also be one you won’t be able to stop talking about, so definitely pick it up!

In Rachel Heng’s second novel, she tells the story of Ah Boon, the son of a fisherman living in a small village. Ah Boon is a quiet boy, an outlier of his family. But when his family struggles to catch enough fish for the family, Ah Boon discovers a mysterious island that has plenty of fish for everyone.

Ah Boon meets his best friend, a young girl named Siok Mei. They both attend the small village school, where they meet a teacher who has very specific ideas of the future of Singapore. As he grows older, the Japanese army invades, and Ah Boon finds himself living in a world of political change and British Colonialism. He wants a better world for his family, and his country. But what is he willing to sacrifice for that possible future? Would the costs outweigh the benefits?

Going into this epic of a book, I didn’t know what to expect. I found myself swept away by Heng’s story. She’d created a world filled with magical islands, political intrigue, and love. Ah Boon seems adrift in the world. He is inquisitive, but unsure of what direction he wants his life to take. There’s the world of his family, their lives as fishermen. There’s the life that Siok Mei aspires to achieve, in face of political opposition. With English colonialism comes a new world of Oxford educated men determined to make Singapore more Western.

Heng’s storytelling sweeps you away, and for over 400 pages, I became invested in Ah Boon’s story. The Great Reclamation has intrigue, drama, suspense: everything one could hope for. The audiobook edition is brilliantly performed by Windson Liong, and he brings the story to life in such an incredible way. So if you’re looking for a novel to sweep off to your feet, this is it. Get ready to be wowed.