December Reviews

We did it! We made it to the end of 2022! And with a grand total of 51 books read! Woo-hoo!

I'm hoping that 2023 will have less in it (less sickness, less loss, less sadness), but if there's one thing that's allowed to be more, it's more books.

Let's jump right into it:

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas

Books by Aiden Thomas are always a good time in very different ways. I'd previously read Cemetery Boys and Lost in the Never Wood, so I was excited to see what they'd do with a sort of Hunger Games-esque competition in the world of myth.

Teo is a Jade semiodios, the son of what is considered a 'lesser god' than those descended from Gold dioses. So it's a shock when he's chosen to compete in the Sunbearer trials, where the best of ten semidioses could win the honor of a lifetime, while the loser becomes the sacrifice to keep the cities safe from the Obsidians. Teo will have to fight harder than the others to even stand a chance at surviving, let alone winning. And there's something wrong with the competition, something that's driving everyone past the brink of competition, and only Teo seems to realize it.

There were a lot of characters, so that was a bit confusing in the beginning trying to keep everyone straight, but I love an ensemble cast and figured it out by the end. And the most important folks stepped forward pretty easily, whether they were friend of foe. I liked Niya, Teo's Gold best friend, and I'm not sure if himbo is a gender neutral term but for Niya it should be. Very strong, full of heart, not the smartest. Chef kiss, perfection. I did also like the other characters, and there was quite an array of personalities, which can be hard to juggle from a writing standpoint but really makes a difference when the results of the contest are literally life or death.

I appreciated Teo's journey and how layered it was. Teo is trans, and there were parts of himself he still struggled with, but he had the opportunity to bloom in unexpected ways. He became more of a leader, which was really fun to watch, especially when compared to some of the other so-called leaders in the story. I also loved learning about the mythology behind it all. Thomas dipped into Latin mythology for a lot of it, though I also want to think that they crafted a lot of their own stuff out of it as well, a nice mix that was really interesting to read, since I hadn't known much going in about Latin American gods or beliefs.

The book did end on a cliff hanger, definitely setting the scene for something much bigger and scarier than the Sunbearer trials, and this was a great first act for what could be a very, very cool series (duology? Trilogy? no idea how many books they're planning on). I look forward to seeing more of these characters and this world!

Self-Made Boys by Ann-Marie McLemore

I haven't read The Great Gatsby since high school, but I remember annotating the shit out of it and thinking LOADS about disillusionment. And then when I heard McLemore was writing a transgender remix, I knew I had to read it. I love McLemore's writing, and I love a twist on a well-known classic.

Nicholas Caraveo is a seventeen-year old transgender boy from Wisconsin, coming to New York to establish himself as a young professional and visit his cousin Daisy. But while Daisy is passing as white on the East Egg with her unknowing almost-fiancé Tom, Nick is staying next door to wealthy Jay Gatsby on the West Egg-- a man who turns out to be far more like Nick than he could have ever dreamed. Jay promises to teach Nick how to fit in with the wealthy in the city, and Nick offers to help with Gatsby what he thinks is the girl of his dreams, Daisy. But things grow complicated when Nick starts to fall for Gatsby himself.

I love everything about this remix. Nick and Daisy as Latino, Gatsby and Nick as transgender, queerness bursting from every corner on every page. It still has the decadence and parties, the violence and secrets, but this one feels better, and not just because it has a happy ending (spoiler alert, sorry, but queer folk deserve to live happily ever after, even if it changes the ending a bit). The characters feel similar while coming into their own as these new figures, different relationships forming in complex and wonderful ways.

Even the name is such a joyful double-meaning; Self-Made Boys in both the monetary and physical sense, as Nick and Gatsby made themselves into who they were supposed to be. There is still disillusionment and romanticism, the ever looming history of war and the opulence that followed in an attempt to erase it, but this time there is also a Latino history, a queer backbone. There is racism and homophobia, but there is also triumph and love, love, love. This retelling takes a tragedy and turns it into a victory, and while both kinds of stories absolutely have merits, there is such a triumph in knowing that somewhere, somehow, and iteration of these characters have found happiness. Especially to the tune of something as poetic and beautifully written as McLemore's writing.

Even if you didn't like the Great Gatsby, read Self-Made Boys. It's about self-recognition and pride, and also how a dress really can make quite the statement.

Beating Heart Baby by Lio Min

Third book in a row with a transgender main character, December is looking pretty good so far.

Three years ago, Santi accidentally leaked his internet best friend Memo's song, and while it became an overnight hit, Memo ghosted, and Santi's spent the years since trying to recover. Now, moving to LA, the very city where Memo claimed to live, he's just hoping to make it through high school. He's not expecting Suwa, surly and so, so talented, to come crashing into his life. As they begin to grow closer, Santi starts to recognize pieces that he may have known before, and a fragile truth emerges just as things begin to settle. Both boys have to reckon with a past they may not be able to get over if they want the chance at a future together.

This book felt very big. It's split into two pieces, an A side and a B side (the music references throughout the book and in the actual formatting, with chapters labeled as tracks, was so, so clever) that both have very different feelings. Part of that is they're told from different perspectives; side A from Santi's, side B from Suwa's, but the setting and age both feel different too. There's a time jump that definitely affects it, but it was so interesting to read about a second and third chance spread out over so much time. Especially since both characters are afraid to reach for what they want.

This book also had a very fun ensemble cast in the form of band kids, which was both nostalgic and not. The comradery and weird rituals felt familiar, but the overall story was very, very different than anything I could have expected. It was very emotional, which given the weight of a lot of the story, makes sense, but I'm not totally sure what I expected from a book titled Beating Heart Baby. It's a love story and a break up album and the power of friendship and music all in one, with a lot of colorful pieces along the way. I appreciated all the queer kids included, and how Suwa's transness was both a very big part of his identity and not simultaneously, if that makes sense. He's trans, but he's also a musician and a brother and a survivor, and his amalgamated identity felt big and musical and wonderful. Santi was also brilliant, in a softer but also more rebellious way, and he tried, my god did he try.

Everything had a bit of a lyrical quality to it, which makes sense since it's a book about music, and the dialogue was masterfully done. Min also created a lovely fake anime for the boys to love, and that story within a story was lovely, adding so much to the rich word they created. Their version of LA feels real, not the magical haze of starstruck Hollywood or the gritty mess of tourist town. It felt lived in and explored and admired, the backdrop of a coming of age and a crashing together.

I think I'm still processing all the big feelings from this story, but it's a victory and a journey, and a well-written one at that.

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

I've had this book on my shelf for a while, but I knew it would be a pretty heavy read so I wanted to wait until I was in a head space to handle it. A good friend of mine passed a couple days ago, and I figured this would probably be the only book I'd be able to get through. This is also, consequently, the first thing I've written since she died, and since she was part of my writing group and an avid reader, it all feels very apt.

Told from the perspective of a writer called Little Dog, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to his mother in a language she cannot read. Spanning his childhood growing up in American after leaving Vietnam to his teenage years and finally as an adult, we see the evolution of his relationship with his mother, loving and big and painful, as well as how the narrator himself grows and changes. From first loves and losses to generational trauma and love, the letters he writes paint a picture of living.

There were so many lines in this that made me pause and take a breath. Vuong is an incredible and poetic writer, able to turn even ugly things into something almost lyrical, forcing the reader to face the things they otherwise might turn away from. The fallout of a war in Vietnam, violence passed from parent to child, the ugly and terrible things people can do to each other and themselves. The beautiful and wonderful things they are just as capable of. The letters Little Dog writes are a desperate reach toward his mother, already steeped in recognition that she will not understand. They have things in common, loss and heritage and the scornful eye of the world, but also a lot of difference. Little Dog is gay, and in the section where he comes out to his mother (a scene written out into the letter, something he did in person), he talks about the mirror of love, the reflection of an incorrect thought. He writes a line that I actually read before I even picked up the book, the very sentence that made me realize I needed to read this book: "So what if all I ever made of my life was more of it?"

I am full of big feelings for several reasons, and this book did help me process, but it also helped me escape. There is grief and loss and death, a mirror back at what I was feeling, but it also felt a world away, and maybe I was running away, but at least I had something pretty and meaningful to read until I was ready to stop and face it.

You do need to be in the right place to read this book. It's moving and beautiful and harsh and very, very good, but it's heavy, and not a story to read lightly. That being said, it's such an expression of humanity that I wish everyone would read it, even if it does fit into place with a lot of sadness.

And not to end on a sad note, but that's it! That's all the books of 2022!

Thank you for coming along on this ride for me. Looking forward to all that we find next year.

Keep writing, friends!

Literary recommendation: My top five books from this year were Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune, This is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reed, and Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Media recommendation: I know I am Truly a Star Wars bitch at heart, because it ended several weeks ago but I'm still having feelings about Andor