Book Review – Page 2

Booktube Needs You!

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:41:49-05:00May 5th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Book Review, Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading|Tags: Book Community|

by Danika Leigh Ellis If you're a bookish person, and especially if you're a fan of YA, you should be exploring the wonderful world of Booktube by now. Booktube is the bookish community of Youtube. Hundreds of people make videos about books, from reviews to bookish tags to provocative discussion topics. It's similar to the book blogosphere, but feels more interconnected. Being able to see people's faces as they discuss book they're passionate about makes it a much more personal interaction, and you quickly begin to feel like you really know the people you follow. Booktube is also [...]

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5 Reasons to Love Benjamin Alire Saenz’s Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

By Sonia|2020-03-28T13:42:06-05:00March 5th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Book Review|Tags: Historical, Latin@, Queer Guys, Realistic|

by Sonia Alejandra Rodriguez Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2012) opens in the summer of 1987 in El Paso, Texas and follows Aristotle Mendoza’s journey toward self-discovery. Fifteen year old Ari is smart and witty but quite isolated from other boys his own age. However, after meeting Dante Quintana at the pool he begins to feel a renowned interest in life and an unfamiliar feeling for Dante. Benjamin Alire Saenz[1] creates a beautiful flourishing relationship between the two young boys that forces both of them to look inward. Ari and Dante find solace, [...]

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Review of I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN

By Katie|2020-03-28T13:42:07-05:00February 13th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Book Review|Tags: gay, LGBTQIA, New Releases, Queer Guys, Realistic, Romance|

I'LL GIVE YOU THE SUN by Jandy Nelson I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN is a complex story about FAMILY, secrets, GRIEF, love, growing up, FINDING AND BECOMING YOURSELF, self-esteem, and art. It’s perfectly described in one of the epigraphs with the following e. e. cummings quote, “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are” (spoiler alert: It takes a whole lot of courage. And it’s incredibly difficult). The novel reflects on the journey to becoming that person. FROM GOODREADS: Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly [...]

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Review: Remember Me by Melanie Batchelor

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:08-05:00January 23rd, 2015|Categories: Archive, Book Review, Teen Voices|Tags: Poetry, Queer Girls|

Melanie Batchelor was fourteen years old when she wrote the subject of this month’s review, Remember Me. Had I not known that, I would’ve filled this review with a thousand praises for her nuanced, accurate characterizations and deceptively simple poems that create a gripping, compelling read. Remember Me by Melanie Batchelor (Bold Strokes Books, 2014) Since I am aware of the fact that Batchelor is, in fact, deeply precocious, and possibly one of the most promising young writers of this generation, I will instead fill this review with a thousand praises for her nuanced, accurate characterizations [...]

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Review: Stranger by Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:18-05:00January 13th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Book Review, Teen Voices|Tags: Aromantic, asexual, Black, gay, Latin@, PoC, Polyamory, Queer Girls, Queer Guys, Trauma|

Stranger (Viking Juveline, 2014) Many generations ago, a mysterious cataclysm struck the world. Governments collapsed and people scattered, to rebuild where they could. A mutation, "the Change,” arose, granting some people unique powers. Though the area once called Los Angeles retains its cultural diversity, its technological marvels have faded into legend. "Las Anclas" now resembles a Wild West frontier town… where the Sheriff possesses superhuman strength, the doctor can warp time to heal his patients, and the distant ruins of an ancient city bristle with deadly crystalline trees that take their jewel-like colors from the clothes of [...]

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Review: Lies my Girlfriend Told Me by Julie Anne Peters

By Georgie|2020-03-28T13:42:19-05:00January 11th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Book Review|Tags: lesbian, Queer Girls, Realistic|

Lies My Girlfriend Told Me (Little Brown Books, 2014) I bought this on a whim because it showed up on the ‘What other customers bought’ section of my Amazon page, which made no sense at all the book I was looking at just then was a totally unrelated YA horror. Amazon clearly has some issues with its recommendation system, then, but it’s all good: after finding this book I was very grateful that they’d plagued me on that particular day. The book opens when Alix’s parents come into her room and tell her that her girlfriend, [...]

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Orphan Blade by M. Nicholas Almand & Jake Myler: Review

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:42:20-05:00December 23rd, 2014|Categories: Archive, Book Review|Tags: Fantasy, gay, graphic novel, Horror, New Releases, Other Media, Queer Guys, Speculative|

“Orphan Blade is pretty gruesome,” the email warned. “You don’t have to review it if you’re not a fan of blood, gore, guts and monsters.” Nonsense! I thought blithely, cheerful and ready to accept whatever queer YA literature might grace my inbox for review. It’s a graphic novel. How gross can it be? As it turns out, gross enough to make me wince, flip through pages, and shiver with the kind of deep, primal disgust that comes with Jake Myler’s illustrations. Myler explore all the textural unpleasantries of skin – boils, scales, slime, and of course, what skin flaps in jagged shards [...]

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Book Review: Fighting Kudzu by Mystic Thompson

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:20-05:00December 22nd, 2014|Categories: Archive, Book Review|Tags: Historical, lesbian, Queer Girls, Realistic|

In 1972 on a hot, late spring day in Georgia, five-year-old Noble Thorvald plays contentedly, alone in her suburban backyard. Her only companions...an imaginary professional football team. As she plays in her world of wonder and adventure, Noble is unaware of the challenges life will hurl in her direction-challenges that will redefine her more than once. Fighting Kudzu is the lyrical saga that traces Noble's life as she emerges into adulthood and discovers herself. The plot synopsis given on the back cover, and given above, of Fighting Kudzu by Mystic Thompson comes nowhere near the actual depth [...]

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Hey, Dollface: Pushing the Boundaries of YA in 1978

By Nathaniel|2020-03-28T13:42:23-05:00November 26th, 2014|Categories: Archive, Book Review|Tags: Historical, Queer Girls, Realistic|

It was around then I began to realize that there was some current between Chloe and me that was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before; it was a vague, clouded feeling that I couldn’t quite place or identify. It didn’t happen all of a sudden; it was more like moments of dim awareness, followed by a gradual recognition that it was there without my understanding what it was. Deborah Hautzig’s Hey, Dollface, written while she was a student at Sarah Lawrence College, was originally published in 1978, one of the first books of its kind. I’ve only ever [...]

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Shadowplay by Laura Lam: Review

By Georgie|2020-03-28T13:42:23-05:00November 25th, 2014|Categories: Archive, Book Club, Book Review|Tags: Fantasy, Intersex, Non Binary, Speculative|

by Georgie Having read Laura Lam’s Pantomime - and loved it - I was super excited to read its sequel, Shadowplay, which follows Micah Grey’s journey as a fugitive after the tragedy at the end of the last book. Pantomime’s closing moment saw Drystan, the white clown from the circus, telling Micah that he knew a magician who they can trust. At first their only problem is being on the run from the policiers, but more dangerous things soon start to happen. Micah’s being tracked by a Shadow who is absurdly skilled at following him. And when they [...]

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