Scan barcode
sapphistoire's reviews
215 reviews
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
5.0
This book was a joy to read! First and foremost, this book follows Felix who, at the start of the novel, walks into school one day to find pre-transition photos, which he thought were private, plastered around school, alongside his deadname. Felix, understandably distraught, goes on a mission to get revenge for this and accidentally ends up falling in love along the way. Felix was a great main character to read from. He was at times rash with his decisions but always tried his best to be kind and understand other people's point of view. Felix struggled with being truly accepted by his dad, and even some of his friends, and this was something I could really relate to. He also brought up how difficult it can be being trans, black and queer all at the same time and I think it's so important that people will be able to finally see themselves in a character like Felix!
Then we have Ezra, Felix's best friend, whom I adored! Ezra is so sweet and really Felix's biggest supporter and their friendship was something that I really loved about this book - Ezra always stood up for Felix and backed him up no matter what, and they really are the best duo. Unfortunately, none of the characters felt that fleshed out to me, which is why this got a low 5 star CAWPILE rating. A lot of the characters are part of the LGBT community but sometimes that's all they felt like they were - we never really got to learn any of their hobbies, their likes and dislikes, even Felix. Saying that, I think the amount of representation we got in here was amazing, and I really cant wait for young queer kids to get their hands on this book!
Regarding the representation, there were some really important discussions in here that were tackled amazingly well. To name only a few, we got discussions on labels which was done so respectfully of both sides of the 'argument' - on the one hand it can be empowering for people and create a sense of community, but for others it may feel restrictive to label yourself - and it's one of the few books I've seen tackle that (another book that did it well was The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper). Furthermore, there was a discussion about privilege which I also felt was done really well, and also about how, even though someone has faced struggles growing up, it is still important to acknowledge your privilege and that one does not negate the other. Intersectionality of identities was also touched upon and how it's okay to keep questioning your identities, even if you thought you had them down. For these discussions, and the many others throughout the book, it's evident how important this book will be for young people who pick it up, and I wish I had read it when I was younger too!
Finally, I'd like to touch on the plot. There are a couple of little plot lines throughout the book but I suppose the main one was who created the gallery of photos and Felix's deadname. I really enjoyed the plot of this one, even if at times it was difficult to read. I was trying to figure out who did it alongside Felix (and was honestly surprised by the ending too!) and I really grew to love a few of the characters throughout too for how they reacted to things that happened. I felt that the romance/love-triangle plot was also done very well (especially coming from someone who's not a big fan of love triangles) and I'd honestly love to see an epilogue novella of what happens to the three of them, because I'd love to see their dynamic after what happened at the end of the book!
Overall, this book was fantastic and should definitely be a staple in classrooms across the world as I really think young LGBT (and, in particular, trans) kids and LGBT kids of colour would really benefit from reading it! Please, please pick up this book if you get the chance!
Then we have Ezra, Felix's best friend, whom I adored! Ezra is so sweet and really Felix's biggest supporter and their friendship was something that I really loved about this book - Ezra always stood up for Felix and backed him up no matter what, and they really are the best duo. Unfortunately, none of the characters felt that fleshed out to me, which is why this got a low 5 star CAWPILE rating. A lot of the characters are part of the LGBT community but sometimes that's all they felt like they were - we never really got to learn any of their hobbies, their likes and dislikes, even Felix. Saying that, I think the amount of representation we got in here was amazing, and I really cant wait for young queer kids to get their hands on this book!
Regarding the representation, there were some really important discussions in here that were tackled amazingly well. To name only a few, we got discussions on labels which was done so respectfully of both sides of the 'argument' - on the one hand it can be empowering for people and create a sense of community, but for others it may feel restrictive to label yourself - and it's one of the few books I've seen tackle that (another book that did it well was The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper). Furthermore, there was a discussion about privilege which I also felt was done really well, and also about how, even though someone has faced struggles growing up, it is still important to acknowledge your privilege and that one does not negate the other. Intersectionality of identities was also touched upon and how it's okay to keep questioning your identities, even if you thought you had them down. For these discussions, and the many others throughout the book, it's evident how important this book will be for young people who pick it up, and I wish I had read it when I was younger too!
Finally, I'd like to touch on the plot. There are a couple of little plot lines throughout the book but I suppose the main one was who created the gallery of photos and Felix's deadname. I really enjoyed the plot of this one, even if at times it was difficult to read. I was trying to figure out who did it alongside Felix (and was honestly surprised by the ending too!) and I really grew to love a few of the characters throughout too for how they reacted to things that happened. I felt that the romance/love-triangle plot was also done very well (especially coming from someone who's not a big fan of love triangles) and I'd honestly love to see an epilogue novella of what happens to the three of them, because I'd love to see their dynamic after what happened at the end of the book!
Overall, this book was fantastic and should definitely be a staple in classrooms across the world as I really think young LGBT (and, in particular, trans) kids and LGBT kids of colour would really benefit from reading it! Please, please pick up this book if you get the chance!
Sword in the Stars by A.R. Capetta, Cory McCarthy
4.5
So, in the sequel we're transported back in time to Medieval Earth and we get to meet the very first King Arthur. I was so excited to be in this time period - I grew up with the BBC Merlin adaptation and so I'm a sucker for Medieval fantasy novels! To add to this, I loved the new characters we got! The original Arthur is only about fifteen in this novel, and he was such a sweetheart, I adored him! We also get to see old Merlin who is almost obsessed with King Arthur, and also a little power hungry. A few other well known characters were also sprinkled in, including Gwaine and Morgause, who I was very excited to see!
The pacing issue I had with the first book, I'm glad to say, was resolved in this one. The pacing was perfect and I was on the edge of my seat on numerous occasions. The intrigue and the sense of urgency among the characters was done so well, so I must say that, if you were put off by the pacing of the first book, then definitely pick up the sequel!
My main issue with this book, and why it didn't get the full five stars (although it was very close!) was, unfortunately, the world building. I loved the world building in the first book but I really felt it was lacking here. I know that this book is ultimately character and plot based, but it really didn't feel like we were in Medieval England at all. If you removed the knights, we really could have been anywhere at all. It was a real disappointment.
That being said, this book was a wild ride and I really enjoyed this series overall. The ending of Sword in the Stars made me cry and I loved all the references to other Arthur retelling (and the fourth wall break) that we got at the end. This series is witty and just so much fun and I really urge you to pick it up!
The pacing issue I had with the first book, I'm glad to say, was resolved in this one. The pacing was perfect and I was on the edge of my seat on numerous occasions. The intrigue and the sense of urgency among the characters was done so well, so I must say that, if you were put off by the pacing of the first book, then definitely pick up the sequel!
My main issue with this book, and why it didn't get the full five stars (although it was very close!) was, unfortunately, the world building. I loved the world building in the first book but I really felt it was lacking here. I know that this book is ultimately character and plot based, but it really didn't feel like we were in Medieval England at all. If you removed the knights, we really could have been anywhere at all. It was a real disappointment.
That being said, this book was a wild ride and I really enjoyed this series overall. The ending of Sword in the Stars made me cry and I loved all the references to other Arthur retelling (and the fourth wall break) that we got at the end. This series is witty and just so much fun and I really urge you to pick it up!
Once & Future by A.R. Capetta, Cory McCarthy
4.0
I'm going to start by saying that I loved the representation in this book, and in this series overall. The main character, Ari, is pansexual, and in the wide cast of characters we also see trans, demi-boy, lesbian, bi gay and ace characters! Ari is also of Arab descent and many of the other characters (both main and side) are characters of colour! In the universe this series starts in there is no racism or homophobia/transphobia, which is something I always love to see in fantasy novels!
As for the characters themselves, I loved them! They all felt so three-dimensional and I cared about all of them. Ari, the forty-second reincarnation of King Arthur, is confident and strong throughout the whole novel and all the hardships she faces. Merlin is a great comedic relief to the book and I loved that his magic was controlled by using his voice (sometimes using Cher songs to conjure it!). Gwen was kind and soft but also a strong leader of her planet, alongside Val, who was intelligent and witty. And of course Lam, who was so loyal to their friends and who I'm sure so many people will see themselves in; Jordan, the beautiful, strong-willed female knight who I'm maybe in love with; and Kay, Ari's brother who would do anything to keep her safe. They quickly became an amazing found family that fought for each other and always had each other's backs, and are maybe one of my favourite found families that I have read!
I was also really intrigued by the world building. We're in a future universe where a giant tyrannical corporation, Mercer, has a monopoly over the galaxy. We see a strange Arthurian legend museum on the moon, an abandoned and exploited Earth, a dance club with oxygen bars, Ketch, Ari's home planet which was destroyed by Mercer, an ice prison scourged by a plague, Gwen's planet Lionel, which resembles Medieval Earth. It was so interesting and I loved exploring the galaxy with Ari's crew.
However, I did have two main problems with the book. The first being that I wasn't convinced by the romance between Ari and Gwen (not a spoiler, they get married within the first few chapters!). They had some feelings for each other prior to the novel and also a falling out of some sort. However, when they were together, although they did voice their romantic feelings frequently, to me it just felt like a purely sexual relationship. They seemed to just say their romantic feelings and not show them. The other problem I had was the pacing. Countless times whilst reading this book I had to stop reading, maybe even mid-sentence, and go back a couple of pages to figure out what on Earth (ha ha!) was going on. Things happened so quickly and we even moved from one planet to another in maybe the space of a paragraph and I was so lost 90% of the time (and judging by other reviews, this was not just a me problem!).
Despite this, I really did enjoy the book and I would 100% recommend it, even to those who are not really sci-fi readers!
As for the characters themselves, I loved them! They all felt so three-dimensional and I cared about all of them. Ari, the forty-second reincarnation of King Arthur, is confident and strong throughout the whole novel and all the hardships she faces. Merlin is a great comedic relief to the book and I loved that his magic was controlled by using his voice (sometimes using Cher songs to conjure it!). Gwen was kind and soft but also a strong leader of her planet, alongside Val, who was intelligent and witty. And of course Lam, who was so loyal to their friends and who I'm sure so many people will see themselves in; Jordan, the beautiful, strong-willed female knight who I'm maybe in love with; and Kay, Ari's brother who would do anything to keep her safe. They quickly became an amazing found family that fought for each other and always had each other's backs, and are maybe one of my favourite found families that I have read!
I was also really intrigued by the world building. We're in a future universe where a giant tyrannical corporation, Mercer, has a monopoly over the galaxy. We see a strange Arthurian legend museum on the moon, an abandoned and exploited Earth, a dance club with oxygen bars, Ketch, Ari's home planet which was destroyed by Mercer, an ice prison scourged by a plague, Gwen's planet Lionel, which resembles Medieval Earth. It was so interesting and I loved exploring the galaxy with Ari's crew.
However, I did have two main problems with the book. The first being that I wasn't convinced by the romance between Ari and Gwen (not a spoiler, they get married within the first few chapters!). They had some feelings for each other prior to the novel and also a falling out of some sort. However, when they were together, although they did voice their romantic feelings frequently, to me it just felt like a purely sexual relationship. They seemed to just say their romantic feelings and not show them. The other problem I had was the pacing. Countless times whilst reading this book I had to stop reading, maybe even mid-sentence, and go back a couple of pages to figure out what on Earth (ha ha!) was going on. Things happened so quickly and we even moved from one planet to another in maybe the space of a paragraph and I was so lost 90% of the time (and judging by other reviews, this was not just a me problem!).
Despite this, I really did enjoy the book and I would 100% recommend it, even to those who are not really sci-fi readers!
Music from Another World by Robin Talley
5.0
I loved this book! The story begins with two teenage girls - one who's desperately trying to find her identity and another who is desperately trying to hide hers. Tammy and Sharon both grew up in strict, claustrophobic Christian backgrounds in the 70s and haven't really had much freedom while doing so. One Summer, they get paired together as pen pals for a school project and their friendship blossoms from there.
In Orange County, Tammy is trying to hide the fact that she is a lesbian from her family and her friends while both struggling to meet the expectations of her parents and having to participate in the homophobic protests organised by her extended family. Meanwhile, in San Fransisco, Sharon is slowly becoming enveloped in the local punk scene and helping out leafleting at a local women's bookshop after being taken to a protest by her closeted gay brother. The two bond over their love of music and slowly become each other's best friend and closest confidant. I adored Tammy and Sharon's friendship. They both understood each other's worries and struggles and cared so, so much about each other, despite never having met. At times, hearing about the homophobia that Tammy and Peter, Sharon's brother, dealt with, was so hard to read, as it's something that almost all LGBT people have heard from both strangers and people they love their whole life. Despite this, the book was written with a real hopefulness from start to finish and a real sentiment of how much community and friendship matters, which was so important.
I loved the setting of this book. Being born in the 90s I'm not familiar with the 70s in the slightest, never mind the USA in the 70s, but I adored it nonetheless. It was so much fun reading about the local punk scene, albeit most likely fictional, and the women's book club and I wish that kind of scene was still around nowadays. It made me feel a sad nostalgia for all the LGBT bookshops, clubs and organisations that I never got to experience. It also made me very nostalgic for Pride and how excited I was to be able to go with my girlfriend of the first time before the virus shut everything down! Nevertheless, I also adore reading about LGBT history and this book was no exception - the backdrop of this book is Harvey Milk getting elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and all the backlash he received for being gay. I had, rather embarrassingly, never heard about this before so I was really interested (and at times saddened) to hear about this piece of LGBT history that was so groundbreaking at the time!
This book really centred around love - love between friends, love between family, conditional love, unconditional love, love within a community, gay love, straight love. It explored identity and being true to who you are, and maybe being a little bit confused as to what exactly that is. And it did all this beautifully. I will always hold this book close to my heart and I loved every second of it!
In Orange County, Tammy is trying to hide the fact that she is a lesbian from her family and her friends while both struggling to meet the expectations of her parents and having to participate in the homophobic protests organised by her extended family. Meanwhile, in San Fransisco, Sharon is slowly becoming enveloped in the local punk scene and helping out leafleting at a local women's bookshop after being taken to a protest by her closeted gay brother. The two bond over their love of music and slowly become each other's best friend and closest confidant. I adored Tammy and Sharon's friendship. They both understood each other's worries and struggles and cared so, so much about each other, despite never having met. At times, hearing about the homophobia that Tammy and Peter, Sharon's brother, dealt with, was so hard to read, as it's something that almost all LGBT people have heard from both strangers and people they love their whole life. Despite this, the book was written with a real hopefulness from start to finish and a real sentiment of how much community and friendship matters, which was so important.
I loved the setting of this book. Being born in the 90s I'm not familiar with the 70s in the slightest, never mind the USA in the 70s, but I adored it nonetheless. It was so much fun reading about the local punk scene, albeit most likely fictional, and the women's book club and I wish that kind of scene was still around nowadays. It made me feel a sad nostalgia for all the LGBT bookshops, clubs and organisations that I never got to experience. It also made me very nostalgic for Pride and how excited I was to be able to go with my girlfriend of the first time before the virus shut everything down! Nevertheless, I also adore reading about LGBT history and this book was no exception - the backdrop of this book is Harvey Milk getting elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and all the backlash he received for being gay. I had, rather embarrassingly, never heard about this before so I was really interested (and at times saddened) to hear about this piece of LGBT history that was so groundbreaking at the time!
This book really centred around love - love between friends, love between family, conditional love, unconditional love, love within a community, gay love, straight love. It explored identity and being true to who you are, and maybe being a little bit confused as to what exactly that is. And it did all this beautifully. I will always hold this book close to my heart and I loved every second of it!
Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki
4.0
LOVED the illustrations and the characters! It made me feel a bit sad but I really enjoyed it!
The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper
2.5
I really had mixed opinions about this book. On the one hand I absolutely adored the whole NASA space program aspect. I loved all the hype around the mars mission, the sort of "found family" among all the astronauts families and when the experts talked about their different projects - you can really tell that Phil Stamper loves what he's writing about! I loved the drama with the news station and the last 20 or so percent of the book was so much fun, I really had a ball reading it! I also really appreciated the discussion of mental illness (for the most part) and therapy in particular, especially this quote - "People aren't broken, and therapists couldn't fix them if they were. But maybe someone can make things a little better, or help them be a little happier"
However, I did have a few pet peeves about the book. I didn't really like the main character at all. He was very selfish and really does not know how to communicate! He fell out with his best friend over something quite silly very early on in the book, didn't contact her for half the book, gave her a pretty meh apology and everything was fine again? I also didn't like how he kept pushing Leon to apply to universities, particularly when he supposedly understands how tough Leon's battle with his mental illness is. Furthermore, I also wasn't a fan of the relationship, unfortunately. It was the biggest case of insta-love I have seen in a long time! They knew each other for about a week and decided they were in love with each other! The pacing felt very off and I just couldn't really get into it, but I did think by the end they were quite cute together (when they finally decided to communicate!)
Overall, a fun, quick read but not the best ya contemporary I've read recently!
However, I did have a few pet peeves about the book. I didn't really like the main character at all. He was very selfish and really does not know how to communicate! He fell out with his best friend over something quite silly very early on in the book, didn't contact her for half the book, gave her a pretty meh apology and everything was fine again? I also didn't like how he kept pushing Leon to apply to universities, particularly when he supposedly understands how tough Leon's battle with his mental illness is. Furthermore, I also wasn't a fan of the relationship, unfortunately. It was the biggest case of insta-love I have seen in a long time! They knew each other for about a week and decided they were in love with each other! The pacing felt very off and I just couldn't really get into it, but I did think by the end they were quite cute together (when they finally decided to communicate!)
Overall, a fun, quick read but not the best ya contemporary I've read recently!
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo
4.0
This book was not an easy read, and I found myself both very angry and very emotional whilst reading it. The story details Kim Jiyoung's life, from being a young child to being married with one child, and displays the harsh sexism that she, and every other woman like her, goes through on a daily basis. The story is interspersed with facts which just make the reality of life in South Korean for women seem even less hopeful. This was a tough read but ultimately a necessary one and I'm looking forward to buying my own physical copy to share out to family and friends!
A Lesson in Thorns by Sierra Simone
5.0
Maybe I loved this!! I skim read the flowery writing at times and I have no idea what Beckett was there for At All but I'd better get more Rebecca and Delphine in the next book!!! (Also themes such as consent, rape and fatphobia were dealt with SO WELL!!)