Tag: queer fic

Review – Unspeakable

Posted August 15, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Cover of Unspeakable by Abbie RushtonUnspeakable, Abbie Rushton

I’m so used to reading YA set in the US that I was actually surprised when I realised, oh hey, this is British! They’re doing their A Levels! So if that’s something you might be interested in, that’s another draw alongside the fact that it’s an LGBT story. (Well. Mostly just L.)

I originally had this as an ARC, but neglected it for so long that I ended up picking it up in the bookshop. I’m a little disappointed about that, because it turned out not to be for me. It’s pretty simply written, and while I like the issues it engages with, it was too obvious for me. There’s a mystery/thriller aspect, but I called it. And the characters… as I keep saying, teenagers may well act like that, so overblown and ridiculous, but I’m twenty-six and didn’t act like that even when I was a teenager! Much. I think. I hope. It’s just unpleasant to read about, because I just want to shake the characters — like seriously, you’re getting worked up because of what?

Even the adults seemed a little like that; I’m thinking of Megan’s mother. Granted, she was prone to drinking heavily and such, but still… It all felt a bit like a caricature, if that makes sense.

All the same, I’m going to donate this to the local library. Having LGBT stories there is important, and I don’t think this could possibly offend anyone, and it might be more to someone else’s taste.

Rating: 2/5

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Review – Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Posted August 6, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 7 Comments

Cover of Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David LevithanWill Grayson, Will Grayson, David Levithan, John Green

I had this from Netgalley at some point, and now I have it from the library, and I’d always been kind of intending to read it anyway. I liked Boy Meets Boy — it was cute — and so I expected to like David Levithan’s part of this more than John Green’s, since I have read some of John Green’s work and found it completely bland. Oddly enough, it was the other way round; it wasn’t my thing, but the first Will Grayson’s friendship with Tiny Cooper was oddly compelling. In fact, the vividness of it reminded me of Boy Meets Boy, so that I was surprised to find those were Green’s chapters.

But. I don’t really ‘get it’. The tone doesn’t work for me, and the teenage concerns are… well, I’m not sure I had patience with it when I was a teenager, and now I’m an old lady (nearly twenty-six!) I really don’t have patience with it. And I just find the sections all in lower-case hard to read.

Get off my lawn, etc.

Rating: 1/5

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Review – The Dark Wife

Posted July 24, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of The Dark Wife by Sarah DiemerThe Dark Wife, Sarah Diemer
Originally reviewed 19th June, 2011

I don’t exactly remember how I came upon The Dark Wife the first time. I don’t think it was in the usual way — I seem to remember that someone posted a to do list, and they were going to buy this book if they completed it. Something like that. Anyway, I was enchanted by the whole idea: a lesbian retelling of the Rape of Persephone, consensual and with a genderflipped Hades. A reclamation of a horrible story, in both a feminist sense and an LGBT sense. Apparently, it’s based on older versions of the myth, where Persephone chooses to go down into the Underworld.

Sarah Diemer’s blog has several interesting links about it: These Are Not Your Stories impressed me when I found it, in particular. It reminded me of a conversation in reviews here on GR, about how horrible it was for Malinda Lo to ‘steal’ Cinderella and write an LGBT version. I argued then as now: that it’s a powerful thing for LGBT people to take these stories and write ourselves into them, make a place for ourselves. Straight people can look to these stories as a dream of theirs: while fairytales remain exclusively heterosexual, gay people are shut out of ‘happily ever after’ dreams. It’s no use to tell us to go and make up our own, because going to make up our own shuts us out of the tradition that we may well have adored and loved as children, the old familiar stories that we never get tired of.

Sarah Diemer recognises the power of the old familiar stories. She even offers The Dark Wife free, as a PDF, here, for anyone who needs it — which is exactly why I bought her book, personally, because I can afford to and I want her to write more. At fourteen, fifteen, I needed it, and it wasn’t there yet.

I enjoyed the story itself a lot. I read it in about an hour, just a bit more than that, and in one go (aside from when I had to stop a moment to look up concert times — ugh, how dare people interrupt my reading?). I’m a little unsure whether I think it deserves three or four stars: I love the idea, and it was a good read, but I didn’t sink as deeply into it as I’d have liked to. It was, well, fairytale like, which meant I already believed it would turn out okay in the end, and which kept me from really feeling the tension.

I thought it was clever, though, the use of the pomegranate, the parts about the Elysian Fields… And I thought Cerberus was cute.

I was a less wowed by the ‘After’ section, which didn’t quite seem to fit.

Definitely not worth a five star “it was amazing”, but it’s enjoyable, fun to read, and necessary.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – A Suitable Replacement

Posted July 21, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment

Cover of A Suitable Replacement by Megan DerrA Suitable Replacement, Megan Derr
Received to review via Netgalley

Wow, this was really clumsily written. I don’t mind the dramatic plotline — I have an embarrassing enjoyment of silly tropes like compulsory marriage and the way it can throw characters together. But the characters didn’t feel real, the writing was a mess, and the plot just bounced around rather randomly. I notice from Goodreads that it is listed as part of a series: I have no idea if that has anything to do with it.

But really, I couldn’t get past the infodumps, bad dialogue, etc. I’ve enjoyed other books from Less Than Three press, but this one, wow. Nope.

Rating: 1/5

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Review – Huntress

Posted July 17, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of Huntress by Malinda LoHuntress, Malinda Lo
Review from 10th October, 2010

Huntress is a sort of prequel to Ash, but it is set a long time before it. If I remember rightly, this story is mentioned in Ash. Anyway, this story is about the journey of six people: Con, the son of the king; Taisin, a young woman who wants to be a celibate sage; Kaede, a classmate of Taisin’s with no talent for the magic; and Shae, Pol and Tali, their guards. They have to see the Fairy Queen, during a period when nature has gone out of balance.

The story of the journey itself isn’t really unique, but the love between Kaede and Taisin is. I loved the fact that the book treats them in pretty much the same way as a male-female couple is usually treated in fantasy stories — I mean, that it seems natural and inevitable that they should be drawn together, and that their desire for each other is palpable and not treated euphemistically. Okay, there’s nothing explicit, but the physicality of their relationship is there.

It’s also easy to read, a quick read, and the situations and emotions ring reasonably true. The emotional involvement that was lacking in Ash was definitely there, for me, which made it that much more enjoyable.

I really wish books like this had existed when I was younger. I hope the arrival on the market of books like Ash and Huntress isn’t just a one off.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Adaptation

Posted July 14, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Adaptation by Malinda LoAdaptation, Malinda Lo

I’ve been meaning to read this since it first came out, and at one point I even had an ARC of it, I think for the UK release. I ended up grabbing it and the sequel on our way to the airport, and read it on the flight. Which was possibly not a good idea given all the plane crashes at the start, heh. I don’t quite buy the explanation given in the book for that — genetically manipulated birds all somehow released at once and in multiple places worldwide? Seems a bit of a hole in the story there.

Still, if you elide the science stuff (e.g. I’m also not sure introducing alien DNA via mitochondrial DNA would have reliable effects), this is still pretty fun. It’s definitely YA, with the preoccupations of teenage readers fairly front and centre. What stands out is less the plot and more the characters. Even then, it’s not characterisation I’m talking about, but character diversity. The main character is, for instance, actually bisexual! And she actually initially read to me as ace, maybe grey-A, because she doesn’t seem to grok attraction as a general thing.

So that’s pretty cool. I’m not overwhelmed by plot and character, though there are some great moments — Reese’s mother, for example, and her adult life going on in the background — but it’s enjoyable and easy to read.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Ash

Posted July 10, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of Ash by Malinda LoAsh, Malinda Lo
Review from 8th June, 2010

This is a lovely retelling of the Cinderella fairytale. It keeps a very fairytale-like tone, so at times it doesn’t go as deeply into what happens or people’s feelings as I would like, but there are beautiful descriptions and it’s very easy to read. It’s exciting to read a version of the story in which part of the love story is between two women.

I liked the changes to the story as I knew it — Sidhean as the fairy godmother, and the element of actually having to pay for what you get from the fairies. I loved that the prince wasn’t all that important. I liked that the young stepsister, Clara, is kind of likeable.

I wish the story spent more time on the love story, on really making the reader feel it — both the strange attraction between Aisling and Sidhean, and the relationship between Aisling and Kaisa. I think this book would have really bowled me over if it had been like that.

As it is, it’s fun, and often lovely.

Later edit: So, the homophobic reviews of this book irritate the hell out of me, and upset me, too. I think it’s important that people write books like this, taking back traditionally heterosexual stories and finding places for ourselves within them.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Posted June 18, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky AlbertalliSimon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Becky Albertalli

This is really cute, and made me do this embarrassing grin and clap thing that I probably last did over David Levithan’s Boy Meets Boy or Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl or Attachments. The email exchange and the way they finally meet, the way they talk to each other and fall for each other via email. The friend stuff, too; that rings true to being seventeen and everything’s a holy freaking huge deal, and everyone’s pairing up and figuring things out and misunderstanding each other.

Mostly, though, I saw myself in Simon in the earlier parts of the book. The threat of being outed at school, the people making little sly comments about it. I mean, I even had that stupid standing-on-stage moment where people started shouting homophobic stupid shit at me. I had the awesome teacher, too, though not so much the friends backing me up. And straight people thinking that being gay isn’t a big deal anymore because they’re okay with it and they’ve never seen anything happen, and being so stupidly surprised when it turns out that hey, actually, people still really freaking suck when it comes to this sort of thing.

So for all that this was silly and cute and full of pop-culture references, it hit a slightly more serious note for me. Even though the silliness and general good will came out on top. Because I’ve been there, ‘do this for me or I’ll tell people you’re gay’. I used to have people saying they’d tell my parents, teachers, sister, anyone they thought they could hit home with. This really did get hold of some of those awkward feelings, the way being outed takes something away from you, the way people can hold it over you. I don’t know if I like that, combined with the happy-silly-fun ending, but I appreciated that it was there. I’m not sure I’ve read anything before that did get what that aspect of it was like.

And in a way, I’m glad it does have that happy-silly-fun ending with the supportive family and friends and a cool boyfriend. Because real life is just too awful, sometimes.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Karen Memory

Posted June 11, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 8 Comments

Cover of Karen Memory by Elizabeth BearKaren Memory, Elizabeth Bear

I was in such a hurry to read this when it came out that I bought it on release day, started reading and — promptly got distracted, because I’d been reading it at clinic and then I didn’t go to clinic for a few weeks, and lost the thread, etc, etc. So I started it again today, and devoured it all in one go. I love the colloquial narration, which manages to skirt the line between feeling genuine and being annoying really well. I love the casual way characters of all colours and persuasions are a part of the story, and the way Karen describes the world around her, taking some things for granted and explaining others. For those with pet peeves about narrators, I promise there’s a reason for Karen to be telling the story the way she is, though that isn’t made explicit until the end.

Speaking of explicit, you’ve got to admire the way Bear manages to come up with euphemisms so that a story about “soiled doves” isn’t actually explicit at all, and bar some of the language, isn’t more than a PG rating.

When I started reading it, I had no idea it would actually be a lesbian love story, with a happy ending. But Priya and Karen are so darn adorable it’s worth saying up front: they never get beyond some kissing and holding hands, it’s all making eyes and getting fluttery feelings and figuring out how the heck to tell someone you care without making a mess of it. It works really well, without ever being a big crisis or the most important thing about the whole plot.

Which is a point: if you’re reading this for the steampunk, or the LGBT, or the Wild West, and you’re not so interested in the other aspects… it’s probably one to skip. It’s all of those things and a mystery story, but it’s all those things together, and not focusing just on any one thread. In fact, the mystery/thriller aspect is more prominent than the rest; the rest is background, colouring the story and shaping it, but not foregrounded as such.

I’m gonna need a hard copy of this at some point, because I just love the cover art. But my first priority is getting my sister a copy, ’cause I’m pretty sure she’ll love this one.

Rating: 5/5

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Review – Slow River

Posted May 15, 2015 by in Reviews / 8 Comments

Cover of Slow River by Nicola GriffithSlow River, Nicola Griffith
Review from July 2nd, 2013

I don’t think I read the summary of Slow River when I bought it. It wasn’t familiar at all when I started reading it, anyway. And I… kind of liked that. Everything was a surprise. I loved the careful unfolding of the threefold narrative, the careful bringing to light of secrets you begin to feel you should’ve known all along. And I loved that LGBT relationships were normal, just taken for granted. I loved that the main character learns all sorts of things about privilege and the lack of it.

I even loved the slow plot. I never thought I’d find a book focused on a water remediation plant and the family that own the technology surrounding it so fascinating, but it really was. I love it when someone takes something so necessary but unseen to our modern lives and just expands it a little, showing how vital it is and could be.

Very much looking forward to the other Nicola Griffith books I have, now.

Rating: 4/5

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