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The Luis Ortega Survival Club (2023)
After falling in love with Sonora Reyes’ 2022 debut YA Sapphic romance, The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School, I was honored when I was selected by Reyes themself to read an Advanced Reader Copy of The Luis Ortega Survival Club! What enamored me in Reyes’ debut–their penchant for calling out institutions who justify and/or cover…
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The Song of Us (2023)
I was so excited when Kate Fussner herself approached me with an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of her debut middle grade novel-in-verse, The Song of Us. I grew up in a time when “queer” and “gay” were especially dirty words, so suffice it to say I never read a middle grade book with explicitly queer…
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In the Event of Love (2022)
Debut author Courtney Kae’s In the Event of Love (2022)–the first installment of their Fern Fall series–is the feel-good, incredibly safe sapphic Christmas romance we’ve been waiting for from Hallmark and Lifetime (which neither of them have yet to deliver). I am the biggest sucker in the world for a story of best friends to…
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Dead to Me (2019-2022)
This heartbreaking/heartwarming story about an uptight, borderline alcoholic real estate agent Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) and tender-hearted artist Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini), who are brought together by grief and (forced) circumstance, had me hooked from the very first episode. The complicated and intense relationship that these characters form is a rare bird (and I don’t…
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The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)
My wife and I first watched The Haunting of Bly Manor in 2020 because I was looking for a solid way to review Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw (1898) before my PhD general exams, and I heard it was a fairly faithful adaptation of the most-widely-adapted ghost story to ever be written in…
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Honey Girl (2021)
I’ll start this review by saying that the pain inflicted by Honey Girl is not related to the queer experience. Rather, it is a uniquely millennial and a uniquely POC pain that Morgan Rogers articulates in her debut novel.
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A League of Their Own (2022-)
When a major candy company decides to fill not only America’s bellies but the gap in sports entertainment left by the droves of men drafted for World War II, they recruit 60 women to begin a women’s professional baseball league.
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The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School (2022)
Sonora Reyes had me at Catholic School. Well, let’s be real–she had me at Lesbiana. I’m finally at the point where discussions of homosexuality and Christianity no longer make my eyes twitch and my body convulse, so I’m aware that the pain score I’ve assigned might not be harsh enough. However, Reyes really has found…
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Frida (2002)
This biopic of the famous Mexican surrealist painter Frida Kahlo (portrayed by Salma Hayek) exists on this blog for its positive portrayal of Kahlo’s fluid sexuality. While Kahlo’s bisexuality is not necessarily centered in the storytelling, for a film released in 2002, it is pleasantly free of homophobia and looks at Kahlo’s life with an…
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Pepper’s Penance (2021)
Pepper’s Penance landed in my lap this past winter when I’d reached out to Twitter’s writing community looking for books on musicians. Davina Lee had promised me a happy(ish) Sapphic love story, and so I was more than willing to take the plunge.
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