June Reviews - Pride Month!

It's PRIDE MONTH *air horn noise*. Or, you know, it was, and just like the past few years, I found a collection of colorful queer books and I read the rainbow. So let's not waste any time and just dive right in!

The Rise of Kyoshi and The Shadow of Kyoshi by FC Lee

This'll be a bit of an odd review, because I'm going to do the whole duology at once, even though it messes with my color order. The green book is first, and the red book is the sequel, but this review will go under the red book, since that's first in color order. Make sense? Maybe? Alright.

Most of us are familiar in some degree with the Nickelodeon TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender. And while we got to see the story continue in Korra (if you watched it, I guess, I didn't, but whatever), this book series allows us a look back at one of Aang's previous lives, the Earth-bending avatar, Kyoshi. From her rocky start (no pun intended) to being the avatar to her rise to who history remembers her being, Kyoshi's story is full of violence, love, and morality.

In The Rise of Kyoshi, we meet a young servant girl who can barely earthbend, a maid to the supposed avatar Yun. But neither Kyoshi or Yun are what they seem, and when Kyoshi is revealed to be the real avatar, it rocks the entire world. On the run, Kyoshi must learn to depend on bending she can hardly control and people she can hardly trust, running away from the man who helped raise her. Wracked with grief and learning her new place in the world, Kyoshi must master the elements if she has any hope of changing a world damaged by the previous avatar's early death.

In The Shadow of Kyoshi we see the fallout of Kyoshi's reveal to the world, trying to understand the political nuance of the fire nation and where she stands in the world. Struggling with her past lives, Kyoshi strives to make peacd in her time as the avatar, but she's plagued by spirits, both familiar and new.

Make no mistake, these books aren't afraid to look violence and death in the eye. While ATLA had some buffers, Kyoshi certainly does not. People bleed and die, are tortured and murdered in gruesome, bloody ways. Where Aang was a pacifist, Kyoshi knew harsh survival and the power of morality. It was never unbearably violent, but there were definitely moments where I was surprised at how graphic the writing or story was getting, especially compared to Aang's three seasons.

But having a more mature character meant the writer could do a bit more. Kyoshi is a bisexual icon, having feelings for both Yun and Rangi, friends she grew up with. And while she ultimately got together with fiery Rangi, that doesn't erase the romantic feelings she had for Yun. We love a bicon avatar.

The worldbuilding was so interesting. So much of it was already created for the show, and since that takes place after the timeline of these books, there's sort of a limit to how much the story can change. But F. C. Lee does a phenomenal job of working within the bounds of this expansive world while still pushing at it's boundaries. The world feels familiar and new all at once, with some occasional familiar names or places to add to the fun.

The overall story has so much heart and potential, giving a confidence and a background to a character we first saw fully realized in ATLA. It traipsed through political strategy and intrigue to generational grief and dry witty humor, all with the grace and skill of a beloved world and character. If you like the world of ATLA but also wish Aang had been allowed to say "fuck," you should definitely give Kyoshi a whirl.

Similar to Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller and Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

If I'm going to completely honest, I was nervous about reading this book. I read one of Callender's other books for pride a couple years ago and didn't really like it. But this one had gotten so much traction online (not to mention it was orange), so I knew I had to give it a try. And I'm actually really glad that I did.

Felix Love has never been in love. He's also transgender, queer, and black, something he worries will be enough to make falling in love impossible. And then a student at his school anonymously publishes his deadname and starts sending him transphobic messages. Felix, determined to find out who it is, starts anonymously messaging who he thinks is responsible, which leads to complications--and feelings--he wasn't expecting. Now, Felix must determine what made him believe he was so unworthy of being loved, and how the most important person to love is himself.

The book had a lot on it. It felt a little chaotic at times, and definitely took me a while to get into, but I ultimately liked where the story ended up. Felix stood up for himself against bullies of all calibers, from "micro-aggression" transphobic comments from a supposed friend to full on transphobic hate messages, and while I wish so badly that he hadn't had to deal with that, I am proud of him for surviving it and growing stronger in his love for himself and Ezra.

And wow, the characters in this book sure were something. It sort of felt like the only character I consistently liked was Ezra. Felix had a bit of a negative headspace going on a lot, and so as the reader looking through his lens, it meant casting judgment on and not really liking other characters. Marisol and James made sense, they were both assholes. Leah became a favorite by the end, as she helped Felix on his way, but many of the other small supporting characters were kind of...also assholes? I wasn't sure if that was because Felix didn't like them or if those characters were actually assholes. Declan has his moments, but I have a tendency to fall for Wickhams in stories before realizing they're bad news. I didn't always track Felix's thoughts and decisions, but I trusted him to find his own happiness in the end.

Felix's relationship with his father was so interesting to me. He'd paid for Felix's top surgery and helped with his medication and loved him, but there was definitely still something there that felt like a reluctance to accept who Felix really was. That relationship, I think, was the most important to me. Felix was falling in love and fighting with his friends and dealing with bullies, and all the while his father was there, steadfast but still making mistakes. I love reading about family dynamics and complicated ways we love one another in this big and messy world.

Callender's writing style is not my favorite, but that's okay! Great, even! Not all books were written for me (especially since I am both cisgender and white--books like this shouldn't be written for me, there's enough white girl books out there), and even so I found parts of it that really hit home. Felix knows he's transgender, that he's definitely not a girl, but there are parts of him that don't always feel like a boy. Gender exploration is something I didn't think would wander my way, but lately my thoughts on myself and how society perceives me have drifted in some new directions. I'm not like Felix in a lot of ways, but reading his journey to self-acceptance and discovery was a testament to loving yourself no matter what.

I don't know how much of that made sense, but I guess, ultimately, this book ended well and was worth the reading journey, especially since Callender themselves is black, queer, and trans. Read more queer authors of color!!

Similar to I Wish You All The Best by Mason Deaver

This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

I picked this book up at a little book store in Washington while visiting a friend. I'd been looking for a yellow book and had vaguely heard of this one, finding it by chance in this tiny store miles away from home. I brought it back to California with me a read almost every other book on this list first, before finally turning to this one. And it was honestly worth the wait.

The Walsh-Adams family have five boys, until suddenly they don't. Until suddenly precocious little Claude wants to wear a dress, wants to be a girl, and thus Poppy is born. And the family does their best; moving across the country, defending Poppy as best they can, but the world is not always kind to those who are different. So Poppy becomes a bit of a secret, living as herself until the secret becomes bigger than their family, bigger than her whole life. And when that secret is released, it becomes something that none of them are remotely prepared to deal with.

This is a book, first and foremost, about love and family. Every member of this big family is weird and loveable and trying their best, even when their best means not knowing what they're doing. It's also a book about a transgender little girl named Poppy, and a sad boy named Claude, and the person they become somewhere in between. It's about learning that not everything needs a label, not everyone needs to understand, that being yourself is sometimes the biggest and bravest thing a person can be.

We get to see a couple perspectives in this book. It's all third person, but we the reader get to spend a little time in Rosie and Penn's heads as they attempt to raise all their children the best they can. We also spend a little time in Poppy and Claude's head, stretching from little five-year old Claude deciding he'd prefer to wear a dress to fifth-grade Poppy who witnesses her identity come crashing down. And every so often we dip into the mind of one of her brothers, just for a paragraph or two, and through that we come to love the entire family and their messy chaotic lives.

I love big families in books and how the different familial relationships unravel and rebuild themselves on the page. And the characters in this book made it so fun. There were bigots and bullies, sure, but Poppy's brothers and parents and grandma were there, even when they didn't, couldn't understand. Getting to read through Penn and Rosie's differing thought processes as they tried to do right by Poppy was so interesting, and so wonderfully difficult. What can a parent do to help and protect their child? What can a parent do to teach them that the world will sometimes make assumptions, sometimes be cruel? What can a parent do between protection and preparation?

The way this was written, with Rosie's doctoral instinct and clinical thoughts and Penn's novelist magic and strategic plot points, was absolutely beautiful. Parts of it felt poetic, even amidst the reoccurring fart jokes and parenting. It did start out a little slow, I'll admit, but once I got into the book I was in. The book jumped around a bit sometimes, bringing back flashbacks of Rosie and Penn's falling in love, of their residency and book writing, interspersed with their children growing up. The book is split into four parts, each part a move to another place, another search for home, until coming back to face the mistakes they had made. You can't run forever, this book says, sometimes you have to live with the life you've made. But sometimes you get to live with the life you've made, and really, it's such a beautiful thing.

I don't know much about the author, other than she mentioned in her author notes that her daughter had once been her son, and that this story wasn't based in fact, but sometimes in feeling, so I'm inclined to believe she did a pretty good job with the messy and painful act of raising any kind of children, but especially one in a world that seeks to harm them, and living and loving anyway.

Similar to Small Great Things by Jody Picoult

When The Moon Was Ours by AM McLemore

I kickstarted reading the rainbow with this book! And not only that, but I think with reading this book I am finally caught up with all of McLemore previous releases. They definitely have some newer stuff out that I'm excited to read, but this was the last one I was missing from older stuff. And while it wasn't my favorite of their works, it was still very good.

Sam and Miel have been inseparable ever since Miel came out of the water tower as a small child. But even the strangeness of the flowers that grow from Miel's wrist or the way no one in town seems to know anything of where Sam came from can't compare to the Bonner sisters, beautiful and rumored to be witches. And when they set their sights on Miel's flowers, Miel must do what she can to protect Sam from their scorn and whispers, even if it means distancing herself from the boy she loves.

It's been so interesting to read this book and the author's note, since this book came out before McLemore came out as non-binary, so to see their thoughts on gender and processing it all has been...I don't know that I can say I'm proud of a person I've never met? But I feel like they've come to far and are living as their truest self and this book helped them do that? I don't know I have a lot of feelings about written works helping authors work through things and figure themselves out.

Anyway! One of the main characters, Sam, is transgender, which isn't a secret to the reader, but is to the town. Sam spends a lot of time grappling with his identity and the belief that this is something he might grow out of, not understanding that the people who love him will accept him for how he is. There's a weighted history there that has to do with culture and identity, and getting to read that was both interesting and...painful, at times? I love Sam and the journey he goes on towards self-acceptance, but I also very much wanted to hide him away from all the people that would have hurt or scorned him for it. Like, no way, this boy paints moons for his best friend and wants to protect his mom and I love him, no one gets to hurt him.

The love story between him and Miel was very beautiful and romantic. It had it's compilated twists and issues, made all the more complicated by the Bonner girls, but they really blossomed from tiny childhood friends to being in love. The language McLemore uses is always so romantic too, entrenched in color and deep feelings, and this book was no different. They are a master of magical realism and poetic writing.

The supporting cast were so interesting too, but that's not surprising, as McLemore always weaves a wonderfully entertaining world, as beautiful as it is terrifying. The Bonner girls, all different but so similar, were a sort of sympathetic villain, but I still think Miel and Sam forgave them a bit more than they deserved. Aracely was fantastic though, and I loved her and Miel's relationship and the magic that Aracely performed. Their history was complicated too, but it was so full of love that it doesn't really matter in the end. Love, whether it be romantic, platonic, familial, or self, is what saves the day, in the end.

Overall I really liked this book, and I can't wait to check out even more of McLemore's writing!

Similar to Wild Beauty by A.M. McLemore (I know, don't @ me, they write a lot of really compelling and original stuff)

Loveless by Alice Oseman

Okay, I've been trying to track down this book for a while, both because I really like Oseman's work and because asexuality rep can be difficult to find, so I will take it however I can get it (especially when it's done well). And while this book took me a bit to get into the story, I absolutely adored it.

Georgia is a romance enthusiast, at least in theory more so than practice. She loves romcoms and fanfiction and dreams about falling in love. Only, she's never dated or kissed anyone before, and every time she's tried it's ended in anxiety and disgust. So she decides that college is her time to try new things, and with the help of her friends Pip and Jason, and her roommate, Rooney, maybe she'll who she is and what love means to her.

Okay, so I love Claire Kann's book Let's Talk About Love and all it's wonderful ace rep, but there was something about Loveless that struck such a chord with me. Georgia's anxiety about love and sex and dating versus society's expectation and normalization of all of it felt so familiar. I wish I'd had a Sunil to help me through my own sexuality crisis, but seeing Georgia's process and how simultaneously crushed and liberated she was by finding her label was so, so validating.

And the supporting cast, oh man. Oseman does a great job with high school/college freshman awkwardness and relatability, and it was so wonderful to read Georgia's evolving sense of self pair and conflict with her friends. She did the coming out and explaining thing a few times, and each was different, with her friends reacting and discussing, ultimately positively. I especially loved her conversation with Jason about how just because Georgia couldn't love someone romantically or sexually, it didn't make her love any less. Friends are important, just as if not more so than romance, and to have that validated was so, so wonderful.

But there was more to the plot than Georgia's sexuality, and we got to see her do Shakespeare and society life and figuring herself out without losing track of her whole life. Some of it took some getting used to, since the book was set in Durham, England, but it's pretty easy to navigate. And after a while it was fun to learn about how that college in England works, especially as Georgia grew throughout the book.

This book had so much heart, and it was really jut so wonderful to read. I am grateful that books like this, with characters like Georgia and Sunil, exist in a world that is still learning and growing and changing, and may help other asexuals find this part of themselves represented.

Similar to Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann and Solitaire by Alice Oseman

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

McQuiston has done it again folks. The long awaited sophomore novel from the creator of Red, White, and Royal Blue is just as riveting and romantic and wonderful as her debut novel.

August doesn't let people in. Raised my a mother obsessed with solving cold cases (really just one), August ended up in New York alone, looking for a city that would let her get lost. Then she meets Jane, beautiful mysterious Jane, who turns out to be trapped on the subway, straight from the 1970's. And August finds herself falling, letting someone in even when she knows it will only break her heart. But she has to try, and with a little help from her new New York friends, she just might find a way to save Jane.

There were so many moments in this book where I laughed out loud. McQuiston knows how to write a killer ensemble cast, and I fell in love with every single character in this book, from the psychic August moves in with to the drag queen across the hall. Even the minor characters that wandered through the book were brilliant. We love a vastly queer and diverse supporting cast with a wicked sense of humor. McQuiston is incredible at dialogue and capturing big feelings in small words, and reading her work is honestly such a delight.

The story was wild. It was a mystery and a romance and a history lesson all at once. I don't usually mess with stories that have time travel or some sort of time bending aspect to them (they stress me out so much oh my god), but this one felt safe. It felt like a hug I could fall into and know that even if it did hurt me, everything would be okay. And there were so many pieces I didn't see coming, but the groundwork had been laid down so smoothly. I would realize just a second before August did, or even with August, and have to stop reading for a moment because I was so blown away by all the small connections and things that built up in this book.

It might sound cheesy, but One Last Stop is a queer triumph, proof that love, even love across time and space and electricity, can always be found. I got to fall in love with a city and a group of friends, filled with so many moments of joy and heartbreak. And I loved every single moment of it.

If you take nothing else away from my reviews, at the very least please take this book.

Similar to Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (PLEASE don't @ me, I compare books on vibes alone and some authors have really incomparable vibes, she's just really good trust me)

And that's it! I read the rainbow, and now you can too!

Keep writing, friends!

Sam

Literary recommendation: Check, Please! by Ngozi Ukazu

Media recommendation: Penguin Town (2021) on Netflix made me cry a lot but was also a delightful little documentary about penguins, so do with that what you will