#and there is a chapter on lgbtq+ rep so he might mention it later

[pisshandkerchief]

I judge every history of star trek based on how the author talks about fandom and the genesis of slash fiction

[astralbooks]

Hell Followed with Us - Andrew Joseph White

Read: 1/6/2022 - 2/6/2022

Rating: 5/5

Rep: gay trans boy main character, autistic gay love interest, Black trans girl side character, Latinx non-binary asexual side character who uses xe/xem, Black lesbian side character, sapphic Black hijabi Muslim side character, aromantic side character, various other queer side characters including characters who use they/them and neopronouns CW: parental death, graphic death, body horror, violence, religious abuse, discussions of genocide; instances of homophobia, transphobia, misgendering, and deadnaming

Review:

When I started reading this book, I very quickly knew I didn’t want to stop reading. The only times I managed to take breaks were when my partner messaged me to let me know that the renewal of a TV show I’ve been obsessed with recently had just been announced, and when I was literally falling asleep due to how late it was. I’m usually the kind of person who always arrives early when meeting up with friends, and I wound up running late to a hangout because I had to finish reading this book before I could let myself move. I couldn’t leave the last couple of chapters until later, I had to read them right then and there. The need to continue to read this book overrode my anxiety and that in and of itself is glowing praise.

Benji was such a great main character and I loved watching his development from being a scared runaway to how he is at the end. If you want to read about someone coming to terms with their anger and using that anger to destroy the people who hurt them then this is the book for you. ‘Anger’ doesn’t feel like a strong enough word to describe what’s going on here, to be honest. ‘Wrath’ might be better. I also really liked seeing Benji try to reckon with everything when in positions of relative safety with the ALC, and his growing friendships with (almost) everyone there were really lovely! He also has a directness that I appreciated. He’s not one to let a potentially sticky social situation fester, and I really liked that! This book is not for the faint of heart. The content warnings are not jokes or exaggerations. The descriptions are vivid and graphic, and the strength of these descriptions alone are enough to strongly recommend this book to people who like body horror. White doesn’t pull a single punch and does a truly great job! I loved the ALC so much! Benji himself notes how healing it is for him to be in an environment where he can tell people his name and pronouns knowing that people will use them for him without argument, and especially how important being around other trans people is for him. This book does a good job at emphasising how important community is, and at addressing some of the beliefs that some people within the lgbtq+ community have that do more harm than good. This book is unapologetically queer and a rejection of the idea that there is a right or wrong way to be queer or to exist. I need to give a special shout out to Salvador. Salvador my beloved. A major character who uses xe/xem pronouns? Who isn’t white?? Who casually mentions that xe’s ace??? And whose relationship with Benji is one of the most significant ones in the whole book???? Salvador pretty much takes Benji under xyr wing in the ALC and makes sure to loop him in in all the gossip, which does so much to help Benji feel like he belongs there. I think Salvador would’ve been one of my favourite characters even if xe didn’t use xe/xem, but xe does and that’s so exciting to me!! I’ve read so few books with any characters who use neopronouns, and I’ve never read a book with a character with neopronouns who’s this prominent before!! And all of Salvador’s friends used xyr correct pronouns and didn’t slip up once!!! Getting a little personal here, but a big reason why I use they/them is to make things easier for other people. It means so much to me to see a character who isn’t doing that, is unapologetic about it, and who’s respected by everyone whose opinion matters. And xe’s not even the only character who uses neopronouns in this book, xe’s just the most prominent one!! Xem being ace too is only mentioned once very briefly and is easily missed, but there was no way I was going to miss that. I wasn’t expecting any aspec rep, and I was fine with that, but for Salvador to be ace and Faith to be aro means so much to me as an ace arospec person!! I also really liked the main love interest, Nick, and I especially enjoyed his pov chapters and the greater understanding of both him and everything else that’s going on that this gives the reader. At the beginning, Nick and Benji have totally different priorities and this isn’t something that Benji fully grasps, so seeing Nick’s perspective of things at that point was needed and worked really well. The two of them also share a lot of really sweet moments, and their growing affection for each other was believable! I wish Nick had been a little more present than he was, though. Benji has a lot going on, so obviously his focus is often not on Nick, and then Nick only has three pov chapters in the whole book. We see him at the start when he’s distrustful of Benji, and we see him nearer the end when he regrets that distrust, but we don’t get to see his perspective of him going from A to B, and Benji doesn’t know about any of this while it’s happening. I was left with the feeling that earlier versions of the book had more written from Nick’s pov that have since been cut and I think that’s a shame. I could be totally wrong about that, but that’s the impression I got. I really liked Nick and Benji’s relationship! I just wish that it had a little more space. Nick is such a great character! Interestingly, one of the main antagonists, Theo, also got a single pov chapter, and I have complicated thoughts on that. It felt a little out of place, and I don’t think it was needed. I would’ve preferred another Nick chapter, if just because I need more of him in my life. Ultimately, I had a really great time reading this book, and would strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to read a strong, visceral horror with a queer cast, with the caveat that if any of the content warnings would be an issue for you then to proceed with caution. Thank you to Peachtree Teen and TBR and Beyond Tours for providing me with an e-arc and having me on this tour! You can see the rest of my tour stop here and the full tour schedule here!

[lisajuliareads]

A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth

My rating: 4

Pages: 499

I have to be honest, I’m currently a little too lazy and tired to write a new review, so I copied the review I wrote for Goodreads. I’m also using my laptop, normally I use my phone for Tumblr, so this review looks a bit different than my other reviews.

Wow. What a ride this book was. This August I'm using a 'jar tbr' to decide what I read this month. I was very excited when I grabbed a paper with this title written on it. I've wanted to read this ever since I first found it, but even after I finally bought it, I didn't pick it up because big books scare me. Once you start, it can feel like the book will never end. Even though I might say some negative things, overall I really did enjoy this book and will definitely be excited to read the sequel when it is released. This is definitely a book I would recommend... ... though, if you're fairly new to the whole 'faeries' thing with books, I would recommend reading some other books with these themes first. 'Cause wow this got confusing sometimes. I've only read a few books with faeries before, and none were as complicated and confusing as this one. From the beginning there are many different terms thrown around, some get explained, some don't. But even with explanation, at the end of the book they still kinda confused me. In this book we have: - immortal beings - mortal beings - faeries - fae - unseelie court for all seasons - seelie court for all seasons - lesidhe fae - sidhe fae - gods - furies - the wild hunt - titans - and all different kinds of other beings, that I don't know whether they're fae or faerie in this book. They made vampires a kind of faerie (or fae, I don't remember, I'm not used to these two terms being different terms). But fox spirits are also mentioned. And trolls and goblins and all kinds of faerie beings. So yeah, if this is your first go at faerie/fae stories, be aware. I kinda wished there was some kind of dictionary or whatever included to explain these terms to people who don't know what they mean. I was surprised - in a good way - when I saw a trigger/content warning in the beginning of the book. I hope more books will do this! I'm not one who usually needs this, the only things that freak me out are sexual scenes and even mention of an animal being hurt, which thankfully doesn't happen that much in Young Adult. But for people who do need it, this is very handy. This is a book where you have to pay 100% of your attention. Even a second of distraction, and chances are you'd have to reread a whole passage. I'm easily distracted, so many times I had to reread a few pages. But even when I gave this book my full attention, I had to reread some parts because I just couldn't understand what the hell was happening. But besides rereading sentences, I also skipped some. Cause wow everything had so much details. Every character got a handful of sentences, even characters who only appeared once. And every room got full details. The floors, the walls, the ceiling. For me, sometimes so much details that I didn't care and skipped the 4 sentences to go back to what was happening. Don't get me wrong, detail is important and good, but too much detail... well, for me it was too much anyways, but I've read some reviews who agree with me. Here and there I noticed some possible mistakes, like something being mentioned twice but with the opposite description or one person says something, but later someone says that someone else said that. But those are human mistakes that would definitely happen to me if I ever end up writing that book that's been in my head for years, so I'm not going to remove any points for this in my review, but I still felt like mentioning it. We have four main characters, however two of these actually don't appear that much. Most of these chapters are from Arlo's point of view, and don't get me wrong I don't mind that all because I really enjoy reading from her perspective. Nausicaä also had some chapters from her point of view, but the other two, Vehan and Aurelian, only had a few, and I kept forgetting they were in this book until they finally, after more than half of the book, met Arlo and Nausicaä. I kinda wished, even though I loved reading from Arlo's point of view, that there was more of an equal amount of chapters with the point of views. I felt like I barely got to know Vehan and Aurelian the way we got to know the other two main character. Hell, I feel like we got to know some side character better than those two. Again, I did really enjoy this book. Even if it sometimes felt really long and a bit exhausting to read, and I feel like it could've been a little shorter without all the extra details. It's a good book with a promising story, an interesting world building and characters with potential. It also has a lot of representation for the lgbtq+ community. "A sidhe prince, a lesidhe guard, an ironborn girl, and a former fury - they seemed less like a serious investigation team and more like the lead-in to some terrible joke." TL;DR + A lot of lgbtq+ rep + interesting worl building + I really liked Arlo + Also, not mentioned before, but I loved her scenes with her cousins + Characters with potential + interesting story + A content/trigger warning! Yes! + I definitely enjoyed reading this - if you get distracted reading, there's a possibility you have to read some sentences - sometimes I had to reread some things even if I didn't get distracted - so many terms are used, it got really confusing sometimes - even though they're main characters Vehan and Aurelian don't have a lot of point of view chapters - so many details that I skipped because I didn't care what this random character who never again appeared looked like and what he was doing and what the room he was standing in looked like even though the room would never again be mentioned