Black Flame by Gretchen Felker-Martin
A few days after I finished the Black Flame novel by Gretchen Felker-Martin, I was trying to describe it to a coworker. I was not doing a good job. I said it was horror and you could see it at a surface level or in a deeper manner. We follow a woman, who is a seriously closeted lesbian, who restores old film. She is used as the “official Jew” (she is called the “mailroom Jew” when sent to meet a reporter who is deliberately hurtful, […]
Paper Doll: Notes from a Late Bloomer by Dylan Mulvaney
cbr17bingo TBR A while back, I texted a friend about a book I was going to read. It was out of my usual read because it was not a graphic novel, it was nonfiction and it was for physically and mentally adults. It was Paper Doll: Notes from a Late Bloomer by Dylan Mulvaney. My friend told me to let her know how it turned out. My first comment was, “Well, it didn’t stink.” And I said that with love. I expected something preachy and […]
Transitions: A Mother's Journey by Elodie Durand
I used to book mentor a kid that came to my store. He was smart, but mentally and physically young. One day I learned he wanted to go by “James” not “Jamie” anymore. Why? You see, his neighbor “Bob” left one day and when he came back, she was “Jamie” and (hopefully) she was happy. Now, since “James” was a kid, it is expected that he wouldn’t understand this. After all, transgendered people were not in the mainstream as they would be even a few […]
Homebody by Theo Parish
Perhaps the first thing I noticed about Homebody (outside of the “removal of color” and the use of color in a non-traditional fashion) was how open Theo Parish’s story was. They are not giving you the “down and dirty details” (unless you count one of the cats giving themselves a um… down there … bath) but they allow you into their world. We also are not given all the “bad things,” just honesty that they were there. The third was, how they do not use […]
Boys Weekend by Mattie Lubchansky
Boys Weekend is Horror 101 with Comedy 102. The mix of GLBTQ themes, friendship, love, family, and an odd cult-religion all play together with first the idea of humanity, society roles and more that is taking front stage. You can take the action as a straightforward horror/thriller story or take it for a deeper meaning, but however you take it know there are possible triggers, such as violence, guns, sexual situations, visual gross-outs and blood. Lots of blood. Totally not for everyone, but everyone might […]
Queer Heroes: Meet 53 LGBTQ Heroes From Past and Present! by Arabelle Sicardi
Over 50 famous and maybe not as famous people of the GLBTQ+ community are in the pages of the book Queer Heroes: Meet 53 LGBTQ Heroes From Past and Present! While I did not count, I would guess at least half or more of the people mentioned are not mainstream (but known in certain circles) or might be the first time the reader (and most) have heard of/about them. Of course there were several more well known (Freddie Mercury, Ellen DeGeneres, David Bowie (who never […]
