quillnqueer's reviews
397 reviews

dark hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

If this had been marketed as adult fiction / dystopia, it might have been able to find it's audience. As it is, a book with a complex writing style that features mentions of rape and descriptive depictions of sexual assault, feels mismarketed as a teen book.

In the Absence of Men by Philippe Besson

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emotional hopeful slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Oh to be a beautiful muse to tragic men in war torn early 1900s Paris. This book was all about the passions of first relationships, and it was so beautifully written. The last act plot twist did make me bark laugh though.

This Can Never Not Be Real by Sera Milano

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Super impressed that this managed to keep a strong realistic tone throughout. Due to the gun violence I admit I was expecting it to be set in the US, not the UK when I first picked it up. The way the story would switch POV from paragraph to paragraph did seem jarring, but I got used to it quickly.

Cinema Love by Jiaming Tang

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emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I just know that this author has personal beef with mouth breathers. This story has a stronger focus on the women affected by their closeted husband's relationships than the husbands themselves, and the way their relationships decayed due to poverty and infidelity reflected the descriptions of unclean mouths the author was fond of.

I thought this was such an interesting picture of life for Chinese people in 1980s America. The Queer culture of the Worker's Cinema, it's destruction and the decisions one character made became the catalyst for our characters finding a new home in America. I thought the writing was beautiful, and even at slow points in the story, I was invested.

Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth

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emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

"Martin is water, I am smoke. She is fire."

Set in early 90s Ireland, this follows Lucy over a few years of her teenage life, as she navigates family expectations, old fashioned values and religion with her burgeoning romance with her friend, Susannah. The sapphic angst was beautifully written, and I'll be recommending this book forever.

Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This is all action from start to finish, and I think this needed maybe 100 more pages to breathe, but I loved the concept. I just wish we had lingered more on some initial set up, so I could feel more connected to the characters.

I really liked the idea of the Ku Kluxes being formerly human, and now transformed into something even more monstrous, and the imagery was incredible - just again, I wish we got a little more backstory on his this worked.

Overall though, this story takes inspiration from a dark piece of history and gives us an action packed story that does it justice, and I wanted to spend more time with the characters, learning the lore behind the stories told.

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

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adventurous hopeful medium-paced