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You guys know that you can (and in my opinion, should) be pro choice while recognizing that abortion can still be traumatizing???

I’ve had multiple people questioning my inclusion of “abortion” in the trigger warnings list for my review of The Spirit Bares Its Teeth. I did not put it there because I believe abortion is wrong or bad and we should be scared of it; I put it there because there are people who have trauma around abortions.

One woman asked why I included it, and she was actually polite so I assumed she was asking in good faith. I explained that some people have had to abort pregnancies they wanted, some people were forced or coerced into abortions they did not consent to, some people had medical complications after their abortions, and some people simply found the experience of having an abortion to be traumatic in itself, despite choosing it and needing it, because it’s a very hard thing for a body to go through even if you want it. I also explained that in the particular case of The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, I included it because the abortion scene in that book is a teenage girl cutting herself open to remove a fetus after she was assaulted. It was a very gory scene and was upsetting to read for me, who has no relevant trauma, and I felt I would not be doing my due diligence to omit that from the trigger warnings.

The woman then replied and said that “that SPECIFIC case is valid I suppose” completely dismissing all of the other examples I gave? As if those are not also perfectly valid reasons not to want to read about an abortion??

Multiple things can be true at once. Yes, abortion is healthcare and is a necessity. It has saved lives and helped so many people. That does not change the fact that some people will still have trauma around that topic. Recognizing that is not and never will be “pro life ideology”, as some people have told me.

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I read it and I liked it, although I felt like her book Faebound was much stronger structurally speaking. I felt like the Final Strife was a bit of a mess, although it had really strong concepts and a good plot (unlike a LOT of books I’ve been seeing come out recently, so that was refreshing).

The POV’s were all over the place and weren’t marked, so on audio it was sometimes difficult to know who was speaking because the pov character would shift without warning but only for a chapter or a couple of paragraphs, and then would switch back, again without specification.

However the romance aspect was compelling and I liked it a lot. I liked how Saara handled the topic of disability and thought the sign language was super cool. I really really loved the conversations the book had about addiction, who it affects, how it’s used as a tool by those in power, and why addicts are not bad people for being addicts. The mystery concerning the other lands is also very compelling and I can’t wait to read the sequel and learn more about that.

I think if this book had another round of developmental edits, it could’ve been easily a five star for me. I did rate it a 4.25 though, so it definitely wasn’t bad by any means.

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi

goodreads

Red is the blood of the elite, of magic, of control. Blue is the blood of the poor, of workers, of the resistance. Clear is the blood of the slaves, of the crushed, of the invisible. Sylah dreams of days growing up in the resistance, being told she would spark a revolution that would free the empire from the red-blooded ruling classes’ tyranny. That spark was extinguished the day she watched her family murdered before her eyes. Anoor has been told she’s nothing, no one, a disappointment, by the only person who matters: her mother, the most powerful ruler in the empire. But when Sylah and Anoor meet, a fire burns between them that could consume the kingdom—and their hearts. Hassa moves through the world unseen by upper classes, so she knows what it means to be invisible. But invisibility has its uses: It can hide the most dangerous of secrets, secrets that can reignite a revolution. And when she joins forces with Sylah and Anoor, together these grains of sand will become a storm. As the empire begins a set of trials of combat and skill designed to find its new leaders, the stage is set for blood to flow, power to shift, and cities to burn.

Mod opinion: I've heard of this book already, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet. I am interested in it though, but it might take a while for me to get around to it.

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I shall never emotionally recover from this

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For those who can’t see the images

Book recommendations for hispanic/latinx heritage month:

My Chicano Heart by Daniel A Olivia’s

Lineage Of Rain by Janel Pineda

The Storyteller’s Death by Anna Dávila Cardinal

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

No Filter and Other Lies by Crystal Maldonado

We Came to Welcome You by Vincent Tirado

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⚠️Calling All Queer Readers⚠️

If you’ve ever wanted to join a book club that reads queer books with a focus on intersectionality and diversity, I have wonderful news for you!

Fable is a book club app (which has expanded to include clubs for tv shows now too!) that combines the community aspect of Goodreads with the more user-friendly reading tracker features of Storygraph. It’s super easy to set up a profile and start reading with friends!

The QueerLit Book Club is the club I moderate where we read books by queer authors about queer characters. Right now we are reading We Are Okay by Nina LaCour.

I also share lots of book recommendations for different months/categories (pride month, immigrant heritage month, spooky season, holidays, women’s history month, etc).

If any of this sounds interesting, please feel free to come check us out here: https://fable.co/club/the-queerlit-book-club-with-bea-202365139676

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If you see this you’re legally obligated to reblog and tag with the book you’re currently reading

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hey. don’t cry. you’re not a Harry Potter adult

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Okay so I just finished reading The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens. It’s the first in a trilogy called The Books of Beginning. I absolutely loved this trilogy as a kid, but never actually got around to reading the third book. I wanted to start over and actually finish, partly for closure and partly to see if I still think it’s as good as I used to.

Overall, I still enjoyed this book. Many actual tears were shed at various points, and the sibling dynamic is very realistic. My only real gripe with this book is a phenomenon I’ve been noticing more and more with the books I read as a kid - they’re all incredibly (or at least very overtly) fatphobic, usually in the form of comedy.

In this book, a lesser antagonist is portrayed as disgusting, lazy, and a “worthless drunk”. A lot of emphasis is put on his weight being the butt of the joke and part of what makes him so repulsive. JKR does this, Lemony Snicket (one of my otherwise all-time-favorite authors) does it, and Obert Skye does it.

I notice it even more in books that were “weird” or creepy - which is unfortunate because those were my favorite kinds of books to read as a child/teen (and frankly still are). I am begging writers to find other ways to be funny or to make a “bad” character, without making them fat (or, for that matter, disabled - I see that one a lot too).

Also, it made me somewhat uncomfortable that the dwarves (something I already don’t love, because people with dwarfism are just regular people, not a mythical fantasy race) have their own entire culture and history and customs, but a pivotal moment of the story is when a human boy “calls out” the above mentioned fatphobic caricature as being “not a real dwarf”, and then proceeds to educate the dwarf population about what makes them who they are, after which he wins a medal and is appointed the official guardian of dwarf customs (or something similar, I forget the exact title).

It felt extremely white-savior-ish to have someone from outside the dwarf community, who only found out they were real like a day before, tell the dwarves how they should and shouldn’t behave in order to be considered a “real dwarf”. Which he has the authority to do because he... reads about dwarves? From one book? Rather than actually BEING one? Or even just living with them and studying their culture first hand?

It really sucks that these two big things are so present in the book, because the rest of it was pretty great. Stephens is very good at describing setting and emotions, and I’m serious when I say I actually cried multiple times. Like, the kind of crying that makes your chest hurt. (Although, full disclosure, that could also just have been because of the theme of oldest daughter trauma - which I have a LOT of 🫠)

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Some that I personally REALLY hated but also got through quickly were Natasha Preston’s books. I mostly enjoyed The Haunting (it wasn’t perfect but it was decent) and thought I should try more of her work, and then very quickly became a staunch hater. The Island wasn’t too horrifically bad, but The Cabin? The Lost? The Twin?? You Will Be Mine??? I couldn’t even finish The Lake because I guessed the ENTIRE “plot” before I was even 30% in.

Seriously, just… so bad.

But hey, they’re short and not too deep. 🤷‍♀️

An unfortunate random fact about me that I've come to realize is that I occasionally need something really bad in order to enjoy something really good (fiction, not real life lol). Like right now, I'm surrounded by really good books. I'm stuck in the middle of a handful of books I genuinely enjoy, but my brain is hitting a wall and all I want right now is to read something really, really bad. I'd blame it on being a mood reader (as I always do) but this is weird even for mood readers, is it not?

So now I'm trying to find a book so bad that it makes me appreciate the good books. I'd say the answer is to just take a break from reading altogether, but I've been doing that all month and I'm not enjoying it.

...I've also been thinking about writing again. Maybe that's what I need to be doing. Maybe I can write my own very bad book that will make me go "actually I should finish those good books. Clearly I need to take notes" lmao

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Potentially Godkiller. Idk yet though I haven’t read the sequel. But the ending of Godkiller very much reads like this will be the next book almost in its entirety.

My favourite trope has to be:

I sacrificed myself to save you. I didn't plan to survive. I burnt all the bridges. I intended to break your heart with my death, but that would be all right, because I wouldn't be around to see you. I pretended that you'll mourn me for a while and move on. I convinced myself I was going down in the blaze of glory. That my deed was appreciated. That everything was going to be all right afterwards, and I didn't need to be there to see it.

But I survived. And now I have to look you in the eye. I have to pick up the pieces of the life I shattered and figure out how to put it back together. If it can be done at all.

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100 queer books: horror edition 🔪🩸

disclaimer: i have not read majority of these so cannot guarantee good rep! please feel free to add any i didn’t include

with fall right around the corner, i’m in the horror mood! queer horror (or horror in general) is a genre i never thought i’d be interested in! i have always avoided horror movies because i am a massive scaredy cat and have very vivid nightmares but for some reason i am really loving horror in book format! i will admit, i haven’t read anything TOO scary yet though haha i will be adding a lot of the books mentioned in this list to my tbr and hoping to read a lot of horror this fall 🍂💀🕷️

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Review: Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao

Summary

Once, Lan had a different name. Now she goes by the one the Elantian colonizers gave her when they invaded her kingdom, killed her mother, and outlawed her people’s magic. She spends her nights as a songgirl in Haak’gong, a city transformed by the conquerors, and her days scavenging for what she can find of the past. Anything to understand the strange mark burned into her arm by her mother in her last act before she died.

The mark is mysterious—an untranslatable Hin character—and no one but Lan can see it. Until the night a boy appears at her teahouse and saves her life.

Zen is a practitioner—one of the fabled magicians of the Last Kingdom. Their magic was rumored to have been drawn from the demons they communed with. Magic believed to be long lost. Now it must be hidden from the Elantians at all costs.

When Zen comes across Lan, he recognizes what she is: a practitioner with a powerful ability hidden in the mark on her arm. He’s never seen anything like it—but he knows that if there are answers, they lie deep in the pine forests and misty mountains of the Last Kingdom, with an order of practitioning masters planning to overthrow the Elantian regime.

Both Lan and Zen have secrets buried deep within—secrets they must hide from others, and secrets that they themselves have yet to discover. Fate has connected them, but their destiny remains unwritten. Both hold the power to liberate their land. And both hold the power to destroy the world.

Now the battle for the Last Kingdom begins.

Thoughts

Okay I have a lot of thoughts, mostly positive but let’s start with the negative.

This book has a lot of things that I’m realizing are common with “romantasy”, which I am learning is not my thing, so take my opinions with a grain of salt. If you love fantasy romance, these things probably won’t bother you.

First, structurally this book felt rushed. There were typos and weird run-on sentences (not a ton, but definitely enough that I noticed). There were times where the wrong word was used (i.e. “Dredges” when the author meant “Dregs”).

Second - and this is something I really disliked about the From Blood and Ash series - there is a lot of infodumping that is often, for some reason, repeated? Like we get a lot of the same information two or three times over, which made the book longer than I felt like it needed to be.

Third, it was kind of insta-love-y. I mean, the book takes place over a long enough period of time that it isn’t necessarily insta-love, but I personally felt like there were odd leaps between romantic moments, so it felt like we really rushed through the main characters bonding, which made the stronger emotions seem a little unfounded.

Fourth, and this is a very specific to myself complaint, I didn’t like Lan’s characterization very much. I’m getting really tired of every female main character being essentially a cardboard cutout of each other. She’s snarky and sassy, but has to be taught everything, but is also somehow a prodigy at everything she does, all while seeing herself as able to handle a lot, yet she’s constantly crying over something. (This isn’t to say that strength = emotionless, it’s just that her character feels set up to be more withdrawn and to keep her emotions inside, but then she’s falling over a lounge chair like a Disney Princess to sob uncontrollably.) I feel like you could replace Lan with Poppy or Seraphina or Feyre and the story wouldn’t change much, if at all.

Lastly, I disliked the fact that Lan has no positive female relationships. Her mother is dead before the book starts; her supposed best friend is murdered like two seconds after we meet her (and Lan almost never thinks about her afterwards); her boss is a horrible person; and the only two female characters she meets for the rest of the book have instantaneous conflict with her that never gets resolved. I'm tired of reading about women and girls who only ever get along with men. Jenifer L Armentrout does this as well: Poppy and Seraphina both have exactly one positive female relationship who they are supposedly close with, but we don't see these women for practically their entire series. Every other female character is a villain or competition for her love interest, or else hates her for no apparent reason.

ON TO THE POSITIVES

I’ve been comparing this book to From Blood and Ash because they share a genre and I had some overlapping complaints, but all of the positives of this book are where we differ from that comparison. For instance, this book had a much more present and coherent plot, one that didn’t make me feel lost and confused every two chapters. I felt like the story was actually going somewhere. It also had a really cool magic system, which I did not feel like we got in FBaA.

Additionally, this book has actual themes about things that matter, and I thought they were handled in a much better and more responsible way. There is a recurring theme in Jenifer L Armentrout’s books of the “big bad” being a sexual predator. It happens because the love interest is just as murder-y and selfish as the bad guy, so she needed a way to differentiate so that we the readers would know why it’s okay for Sexy Lover Boy to be a heartless killer and not Evil Nasty Guy. It felt so lazy and frankly, just rancid overall, especially when it continued happening over and over again in each book of hers that I read.

On the flip side, in Song of Silver, Flame Like Night, we do see threats of sexual violence, but in the context of colonizers and invaders wielding their power over their victims, who have no leverage to say no. We also see villains who are actually just bad (greed, violence, lust for power, etc) without needing to make them rapists to show who we’re supposed to root for.

I thought the overarching points of this book were very important and relevant, especially in the context of current world events. The fact that horrific atrocities have been committed upon your people does not give you the right to turn around and do it to another people. Just because your people have hurt each other does not mean that violence against you is justified or “not that bad”.

The last thing I’ll say is that I really loved the setting and magic. It was so vibrant and I felt like I could really see and hear the places and events I was reading about. I know I’ve mentioned it at least twice now, but seriously this magic system might be one of the coolest and most unique I’ve read about recently (probably tied for first place with the magic system in Faebound).

Overall, it’s a good book, but this genre just isn’t my style. I plan to read the sequel because I’m very curious about where the story goes from here, but I don’t think I’ll be picking up more of this author’s books after that.

Rating: 3.5⭐️

AAPI Heritage Month Hopefuls

(books I want to read if I can get them)

Rise of the Manō by Leialoha Humpherys

Poūkahangatus by Tayi Tibble

Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo

Hula by Jasmin ‘Iolani Hakes

Vā: Stories of the Women of the Moana edited by Sisilia Eteuati and Lani Wendt Young

The Wild Ones by Nafiza Azad

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao

The Last Bloodcarver by Vanessa Le

The Do’s and Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar

Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao

Weird Fishes by Rae Mariz

The Marvelous Mirza Girls by Sheba Karim

One Boy, No Water by Lehua Parker

The Bone People by Keri Hulme

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

The Wonders We Seek by Saadia Faruqi & Aneesa Mumtaz

Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier

The Dragon Prince: Stories and Legends From Vietnam edited by Thich Nhat Hanh

The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang

Muslim Girls Rise by Saira Amir

Fish Swimming In Dappled Sunlight by Alison Watts & Riku Onda

Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocco

Banyan Moon by Thao Thai

Force Of Fire by Sayantani DasGupta

Rangikura by Tayi Tibble

Writing In Color by multiple authors (including but not limited to Nafiza Azad, Axie Oh, Joan He, Chloe Gong, and Darcie Little Badger)

I will be reblogging with reviews as I finish these!

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Review: The Do’s and Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar

Summary

Shireen Malik is still reeling from the breakup with her ex-girlfriend, Chris, when she receives news that she’s been accepted as a contestant on a new televised baking competition show. This is Shireen’s dream come true! Because winning will not only mean prize money, but it will also bring some much-needed attention to You Drive Me Glazy, her parents’ beloved donut shop.

Things get complicated, though, because Chris is also a contestant on the show. Then there’s the very outgoing Niamh, a fellow contestant who is becoming fast friends with Shireen. Things are heating up between them, and not just in the kitchen.

As the competition intensifies , Shireen will have to ignore all these factors and more— including potential sabotage—if she wants a sweet victory!

Thoughts

I always enjoy Adiba Jaigirdar's books, but I didn't like this one quite as much as, say, Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating. The main character is very talented and relatable, but she is a bit self centered in her friendships. There was an element of this in The Henna Wars, but in that book I felt like the main character recognized it and learned from it. In this book there isn't as much self-awareness, which made it a little frustrating to be in Shireen's head at times. That aside though, the story was cute and the characters were good. I liked the puns in the chapter names. One of the judges on the show that Shireen competes in has a name that is like a funny version of Gordon Ramsey, which I didn't realize until more than half way through (I think it’s Galvin Kremsey or something? I listened to the audiobook so I have no idea how it’s spelled.) I did love that the main character is fat and it doesn’t really come up that much, because I so rarely see plus sized main characters, and even when I do a large portion of the book is deprecating towards the character.

3.75 ⭐️

AAPI Heritage Month Hopefuls

(books I want to read if I can get them)

Rise of the Manō by Leialoha Humpherys

Poūkahangatus by Tayi Tibble

Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo

Hula by Jasmin ‘Iolani Hakes

Vā: Stories of the Women of the Moana edited by Sisilia Eteuati and Lani Wendt Young

The Wild Ones by Nafiza Azad

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao

The Last Bloodcarver by Vanessa Le

The Do’s and Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar

Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao

Weird Fishes by Rae Mariz

The Marvelous Mirza Girls by Sheba Karim

One Boy, No Water by Lehua Parker

The Bone People by Keri Hulme

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

The Wonders We Seek by Saadia Faruqi & Aneesa Mumtaz

Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier

The Dragon Prince: Stories and Legends From Vietnam edited by Thich Nhat Hanh

The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang

Muslim Girls Rise by Saira Amir

Fish Swimming In Dappled Sunlight by Alison Watts & Riku Onda

Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocco

Banyan Moon by Thao Thai

Force Of Fire by Sayantani DasGupta

Rangikura by Tayi Tibble

Writing In Color by multiple authors (including but not limited to Nafiza Azad, Axie Oh, Joan He, Chloe Gong, and Darcie Little Badger)

I will be reblogging with reviews as I finish these!

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Review: The Wonders We Seek by multiple authors

Summary

In this biographical collection, with stunning portraits and illustrations by Saffa Khan, authors Saadia Faruqi and Aneesa Mumtaz highlight some of the talented Muslim physicians, musicians, athletes, poets, and more who helped make the world we know today.

A brilliant surgeon heals patients in the first millennium. A female king rules the Indian subcontinent. A poet pours his joy and grief into the world's best-selling verses. An iconic leader fights for civil rights. And many, many more.

Throughout history—from the golden age of the empires of Arabia, Iraq, Persia, and India, up to modern day—Muslims have shaped our world in essential ways, with achievements in music, medicine, politics, human rights, literature, sports, technology, and more. Give this book to readers who are excited to learn about the great figures and thinkers in history!

Thoughts

This book was educational, although it is written for a much younger audience than me. I did learn a lot that I didn’t know before though, and now I have names and events I can actually look up to learn more about.

3.75 ⭐️

AAPI Heritage Month Hopefuls

(books I want to read if I can get them)

Rise of the Manō by Leialoha Humpherys

Poūkahangatus by Tayi Tibble

Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo

Hula by Jasmin ‘Iolani Hakes

Vā: Stories of the Women of the Moana edited by Sisilia Eteuati and Lani Wendt Young

The Wild Ones by Nafiza Azad

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao

The Last Bloodcarver by Vanessa Le

The Do’s and Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar

Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao

Weird Fishes by Rae Mariz

The Marvelous Mirza Girls by Sheba Karim

One Boy, No Water by Lehua Parker

The Bone People by Keri Hulme

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

The Wonders We Seek by Saadia Faruqi & Aneesa Mumtaz

Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier

The Dragon Prince: Stories and Legends From Vietnam edited by Thich Nhat Hanh

The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang

Muslim Girls Rise by Saira Amir

Fish Swimming In Dappled Sunlight by Alison Watts & Riku Onda

Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocco

Banyan Moon by Thao Thai

Force Of Fire by Sayantani DasGupta

Rangikura by Tayi Tibble

Writing In Color by multiple authors (including but not limited to Nafiza Azad, Axie Oh, Joan He, Chloe Gong, and Darcie Little Badger)

I will be reblogging with reviews as I finish these!

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Review: Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca

Summary

Reha feels torn between two worlds: school, where she's the only Indian American student, and home, with her family's traditions and holidays. But Reha's parents don't understand why she's conflicted--they only notice when Reha doesn't meet their strict expectations. Reha feels disconnected from her mother, or Amma, although their names are linked—Reha means "star" and Punam means "moon"—but they are a universe apart.

Then Reha finds out that her Amma is sick. Really sick.

Reha, who dreams of becoming a doctor even though she can't stomach the sight of blood, is determined to make her Amma well again. She'll be the perfect daughter, if it means saving her Amma's life.

Thoughts

My first thought is… ow. This hit me right in the feels, over and over. I spent a good chunk of this book in tears. It’s so so beautiful. Please everyone read this book 😭

5⭐️

AAPI Heritage Month Hopefuls

(books I want to read if I can get them)

Rise of the Manō by Leialoha Humpherys

Poūkahangatus by Tayi Tibble

Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo

Hula by Jasmin ‘Iolani Hakes

Vā: Stories of the Women of the Moana edited by Sisilia Eteuati and Lani Wendt Young

The Wild Ones by Nafiza Azad

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao

The Last Bloodcarver by Vanessa Le

The Do’s and Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar

Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao

Weird Fishes by Rae Mariz

The Marvelous Mirza Girls by Sheba Karim

One Boy, No Water by Lehua Parker

The Bone People by Keri Hulme

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

The Wonders We Seek by Saadia Faruqi & Aneesa Mumtaz

Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier

The Dragon Prince: Stories and Legends From Vietnam edited by Thich Nhat Hanh

The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang

Muslim Girls Rise by Saira Amir

Fish Swimming In Dappled Sunlight by Alison Watts & Riku Onda

Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocco

Banyan Moon by Thao Thai

Force Of Fire by Sayantani DasGupta

Rangikura by Tayi Tibble

Writing In Color by multiple authors (including but not limited to Nafiza Azad, Axie Oh, Joan He, Chloe Gong, and Darcie Little Badger)

I will be reblogging with reviews as I finish these!

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Review: Rangikura by Tayi Tibble

Summary

"Rangikura is the fiery second collection by Tayi Tibble. These poems live in the space between the end of the world and a new day. They ask us to think about our relationship to desire and exploitation. They are both nostalgic for, and exhausted by, the pursuit of an endless summer" —Publisher's website.

Thoughts

My feelings about this book were very similar to that of the other collection I read by his author. She has such a unique narrative voice that really makes you feel the words, but unfortunately poetry is still just not really my thing. It wasn't too long though, so I had a decent time with it.

3.5 ⭐️

AAPI Heritage Month Hopefuls

(books I want to read if I can get them)

Rise of the Manō by Leialoha Humpherys

Poūkahangatus by Tayi Tibble

Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo

Hula by Jasmin ‘Iolani Hakes

Vā: Stories of the Women of the Moana edited by Sisilia Eteuati and Lani Wendt Young

The Wild Ones by Nafiza Azad

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao

The Last Bloodcarver by Vanessa Le

The Do’s and Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar

Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao

Weird Fishes by Rae Mariz

The Marvelous Mirza Girls by Sheba Karim

One Boy, No Water by Lehua Parker

The Bone People by Keri Hulme

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

The Wonders We Seek by Saadia Faruqi & Aneesa Mumtaz

Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier

The Dragon Prince: Stories and Legends From Vietnam edited by Thich Nhat Hanh

The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang

Muslim Girls Rise by Saira Amir

Fish Swimming In Dappled Sunlight by Alison Watts & Riku Onda

Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocco

Banyan Moon by Thao Thai

Force Of Fire by Sayantani DasGupta

Rangikura by Tayi Tibble

Writing In Color by multiple authors (including but not limited to Nafiza Azad, Axie Oh, Joan He, Chloe Gong, and Darcie Little Badger)

I will be reblogging with reviews as I finish these!