#Rhiannon wilde

[cadaverre]

the reason i’m insane abt byler and henry hamlets heart is bc i’m insane abt friends to lovers. i need. i NEED.

[slaughter-books]

Day 13: JOMPBPC: Watercolours

[thereadingchallengechallenge]

JOMP BPC - December 14th - Wanted to Love But Didn't

I love that Rhiannon Wilde is populating the Australian YA scene with measured, emotional queer stories. I just wish I liked her writing style 🙈 but maybe you'll like them more than I did - both have been published in the US now so give them a go

[aurorawest]

Reading update

The Winter Spirits: Ghostly Tales for Festive Nights - 5/5 stars

I bought this solely for the Natasha Pulley story, "The Salt Miracles," (I WOULD READ A WHOLE BOOK ABOUT FLINT AND THE SAINT, MX PULLEY), but every story was really good. My kind of spooky.

Seriously though, I wanted so much more of "The Salt Miracles." How was it a queer love story despite not being a love story or queer? God I love Natasha Pulley.

Henry Hamlet's Heart by Rhiannon Wilde - 5/5 stars

Really lovely YA romance set in Australia. The yearning is impeccable. Also, I hate myself for saying this, but it's historical fiction—it's set in 2008.

Handmade Holidays by 'Nathan Burgoine - 3.5/5 stars

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin - 4/5 stars

Not an easy read. The main character, David, is despicable, but in large part because he lives in a society that expects rigid adherence to gender roles. One thing I found really interesting was repeated emphasis on the fact that David won't act, he waits for someone else to do it for him—he acknowledges that if Joey had asked him to stay, he would have, that if Giovanni had asked him to stay, he would have. And then Hella tells him that as a woman, she has to wait for men to tell her things, but David doesn't tell her he's gay, he waits for her to figure it out herself. Hella makes this into an explicitly gendered dichotomy, which is interesting with David constantly fretting about not being a man because of his queerness.

Queer classic, people should read.

Merry & Bright by Joanna Chambers - 5/5 stars

They Hate Each Other by Amanda Woody - DNF at pg 2

Contained the following absolutely baffling author's note, which I quickly became so resentful of that I stopped reading.

Against the Stars by Christopher Hartland - 4.25/5 stars

Near-future sci-fi where everyone gets one 44 second look into their future. Fairly dark for YA. Also thematically relevant to my MCU fic.

Mistletoe & Mishigas by MA Wardell - 4.25/5 stars

This book was lovely. I loved Theo so much. Sheldon is very annoying but also very lovable. And it's nice to read a Hanukkah romance!

Haunted Hearts by K Sterling - DNF at pg 2

Did anyone edit this?

The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia - DNF at pg 21

Wanted to like this one but it just wasn't very well written. You ever read books where it's obvious the author spent too much time on their wOrlDbuILdiNg to the exclusion of actually writing a good book? Yeah.

Between Shadow and Flame by CT Bryce - DNF at 26

Editors? Hello?? Seriously, I feel like people are writing manuscripts on their phones and uploading them directly to Amazon from there.

The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage - 4.5/5 stars

Oddly I found this to be not as difficult of a read as Giovanni's Room, in my private game of Ranking Queer Classics Against Each Other. Obviously Phil is an awful man, but in the end I felt bad for him, tbh. Phil is like, a really catty twink wrapped in layers of toxic masculinity and repressed homosexuality. And then Peter is a sociopath. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to sympathize with Peter? I didn't think I was, but then I scanned Annie Proulx's afterword and it seemed like she thought we were supposed to? Obviously you feel worst for all the people Phil just heedlessly tears to ribbons because he's a maladjusted asshole. I think the thing is, there were just enough glimmers where Phil acts like a human being that I was like, maybe you can be saved! Ah, tragedy.

Anyway, good book, 10/10 would recommend. (and no, I haven't seen the movie)

[chriscyr]

Where You Left Us, Rhiannon Wilde

I had the pleasure of illustrating the cover for the new US print edition of Rhiannon' Wilde's book which is out now! You should check it out!

[auslgbtqya]

Where You Left Us by Rhiannon Wilde

(2022)

From the Publisher:

Cinnamon Prince is angry. She’s living at home with her rockstar father after his latest breakdown, and she’s stuck in a town where people have whispered that the Princes aren’t quite right ever since her Great Aunt Sadie vanished without a trace. Not that Cinnamon cares about anyone else’s opinion. Except, she might be really starting to care what her gorgeous co-worker Daisy Leung thinks.

Scarlett Prince is anxious. Most of the time, and also about spending the summer with her sister and barely there dad. She’s holding it together. Just. But when sister’s ex-boyfriend-now-best-friend Will starts helping her search for the truth about Sadie, things get all-the-ways complicated.

Can finding the truth fix their broken family?

Goodreads

[kinziethings]

REVIEW: Henry Hamlet's Heart by Rhiannon Wilde

REVIEW: #HenryHamletsHeart by Rhiannon Wilde || #ComingSoon #cute #QueerYA #FriendsToBoyfriends :) very cute

  A sparkling queer YA romance set in Brisbane, Henry Hamlet’s Heart follows one guy and his sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking journey to love. Henry Hamlet doesn’t know what he wants after school ends. It’s his last semester of year twelve and all he’s sure of is his uncanny ability to make situations awkward. Luckily, he can always hide behind his enigmatic best friend, Len. They’ve…

[noveltyreads]

Henry Hamlet's Heart by Rhiannon Wilde Book Review 

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

There's something so nice about reading a book set in your country and in the 2000's. 

I have always loved reading #LoveOzYA books. This year though, I've felt like I've barely read any so I was glad to pick this eGalley up a few months ago especially with all the hype I've read about it on Goodreads and from Aussie bookstagrammers. I was excited to get back to my contemporary roots too since this year I've been delving more and more into fantasy rather than emotional/character focused reads. 

Henry Hamlet's Heart follows the main character, Henry as he navigates his final year at school and his growing feelings for his best friend Len who he is starting to see as something more. This book looks specifically at the bond between friends, family and yourself and what it means to grow up, change and evolve. Henry Hamlet's Heart reads emotionally and really packs a punch. 

One of the things I enjoyed in this book was Len. I loved how passionate about photography he was and that last scene with the exhibition? My heart leapt out of my skin! It was so cute and wholesome! I also enjoyed the friend group of "The Boiyss" and how supportive they were of each other. It was really endearing to see and I loved seeing their dynamic shine on the page.

The main criticism for me is with Henry. To me he just seemed kind of bland as a character and I wanted more layers, backstory or personality to make me really fall in love with him. I also wished him and Len would've communicated more with each other about what they wanted. I felt like for so much of the novel, it was unclear what Len really wanted and if he wanted to truly be in a relationship with Henry or not. 

All in all, a must read for people who love wholesome and emotional books. Especially if you enjoy books set in Australia which discuss the highs and lows of high school. 

ACTUAL RATING: 2.7 STARS

[gaybookstournament]

Round 1, bracket 10

Propaganda under the cut, feel free to add more in comments or reblogs

Henry Hamlet’s Heart – Henry Hamlet is the School captain at an all-boys school in 2008. After he and his friends play a game of things that want to do before graduating and going their separate ways. Henry reads the crumpled up piece of paper that his best friend since forever, Len, wrote, which all but proclaims his love to Henry. Henry then has to juggle his newly discovered feelings for Len, while dealing with Australian highschool. This book takes place in the capital of the Australian state Queensland, Brisbane. Whereas most Australian books take place in Melbourne or Sydney.

The Monster of Her Age – Ellie is the granddaughter of critically acclaimed horror actor Lottie Lovinger, with whom she stared in a single movie with that left Ellie severely traumatised and timid around her grandmother. Ellie is now 17 and her grandmother has just passed away and the family reunites in Lottie’s Hobart home to pay their final respects and lay her to rest, when Ellie meets a cinephile her age, Riya, who invites her to join a feminist horror film club, Ellie faces her fears and unlocks long forgotten memories. Hobart is the capital city of the Australian state of Tasmania, the small island that sits just below Australia on the map, and gets mocked by mainland Aussies.

[missterwild]

~29~ Kingdom

Heeey guess who got into heraldry recently (blazon/image ID in alt)

OC stuff below the cut

[steviescrystal]

I love her so, so much. 🖤💜🤍

[slaughter-books]

Day 28: JOMPBPC: Character Most Like Me

Henry Hamlet 💜

[thereadingchallengechallenge]

JOMP BPC - September 4th - Frustrating Character

unfortunately, I found both the main characters in Where You Left Us by Rhiannon Wilde incredibly frustrating but it was still interesting to see how they developed over the course of the novel

[ro-sso]

thinking about all the forms of magic MC has used, just suddenly as if they are fully trained. also the lack of magical tools used feels weird? Like we got a rune ward for rune carving, and a shadow seeker vacuum, a fragment of aideens light and a bottle of aideens tears but these all do... nothing? We dont use the rune wand to help channel energy, or rune-work outside of that one questline.

idk if it's just me but with some of the more recent late-game quests it feels as though MC has suddenly become adept in magic after training in the Sun circle (& doing minor work in the lightning and moon circle). It feels quite... offputting but that could just be me being weird

[raspberry-gloaming]

All I know about the new descendants movie is osmosis from tumblr and combining that with the media I think of when someone says Alice in Wonderland is making for tbh the movie in my brain is probs very different than what I've heard the new one is like.

And that media is the Royal Ballet's Alice in Wonderland. Its a lovely comic ballet, and my favourite dances are The Mad Hatter's Tea Party (tap! in a ballet! also in this clip played by Steven McRae, who i want to know more about and watch more of his stuff as i have heard good things about from other dancers I know), and the Tart Adage, which is frickin hilarious. (also the way that the King of Hearts just droops around in the background and its like yup. thats Red's dad apparently.)

So uh everyone should watch these clips simply because they're amazing and I love them.

[cavalierclavier]

Fret not dear heart, let not them hear The mutterings of all your fears, the fluttering of all your wings Welcome to the storm, I am thunder Welcome to my table, bring your hunger x

a redraw of an older piece with these two!