LRRC Week 27

Onto the second half of the year, I guess! Wow.

#53: FELIX EVER AFTER by Kacen Callender

What a sweet, lovely story.

I saw someone describe this book as a "warm hug" and I can't help but agree, it's a really nice story about love, different kinds of love, and about young queer community and relationships. Note that the book does involve a few instances of transphobia, just in case that's something you want to avoid, or at least be warned about in advance.

I feel like I don't have a lot of intelligent things to say here. It's a nice story, and it's really awesome to read a book about a Black trans man written BY a Black trans man. More of this, please!

The only thing that I did find a bit disruptive, though this is more on me than on the book, is that I don't really understand teenagers. I didn't really understand teenagers when I was one, and this just kind of hammered that home. I feel both very happy and a little envious reading stories about queer teens able to exist within groups of other queer teens - such a thing seemed like a fiction to me growing up.

#54: A SONG OF WRAITHS AND RUIN by Roseanne A. Brown

HELL yes.

I was extremely here for this story, especially once I was, I don't know, 50-70 pages in and it really showed exactly WHAT it was going to be. Popularity-based contest, political intrigue, characters with different agendas working against each other but also bonding in the process? I am extremely here for this all.

I don't really know what all to say else that won't be a spoiler, but yeah, go pick this up if you haven't already! I'm still reeling a little bit from the whirlwind of an ending, and I'm genuinely not sure where the story goes from here. (I am, admittedly, a little bit grumpy about one of the ending details, but it's the kind of thing that's not bad storytelling, it just made me sad as a reader.)

NEXT WEEK'S AGENDA:
#55: Fledgling by Octavia Butler
#56: We Unleash the Merciless Storm by Tehlor Kay Mejia