#sapphicathon

TOP TEN: SAPPHIC YA/MG CONTEMPORARIES

Getting ready for this year’s Sapphicathon with some recs posts.

1. Leah On The Offbeat: Companion to Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda, this volume follows plus-size bi girl Leah, out to her family but not her friends, dealing with (or, for most of the book, completely failing to deal with) her crush on her sort-of-friend Abby. Hit me hard in the ‘poorest person in your rich-kid high school social circle’ place.

2. How To Make A Wish: Grace’s strained relationship with her unpredictable mother is put to the test when gorgeous new girl Eva, who has recently lost her own mother, comes into their lives. Potentially triggering for folks with emotionally abusive or neglectful parents.

3. Star-Crossed: Cute middle-grade theatre kid romance. Mattie, who has previously only had crushes on boys, finds herself enamoured with glamorous new girl Gemma, who is playing Juliet in the school play.

4. A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend: Cass’s best friend Julia died suddenly, and the rest of her friends (more theatre kids!) want to stage her half-finished musical as a tribute. Cass feels pushed out, especially when her middle school nemesis gets cast as the lead, so she leaves with Julia’s ashes on the epic California road trip the two girls never got to take.

5. Not Otherwise Specified: Etta has never fit in with the tiny white girls in her ballet classes. Now her lesbian friends have ditched her for dating a boy. Unexpectedly, she finds a friend and ally in Bianca, a straight white girl in her ED therapy group. Potentially triggering for people who have struggled with disordered eating.

6. This Is Where It Ends: Ensemble cast featuring a lesbian couple who (spoilers) survive the book. This is a controversial book as it’s set during a school shooting and some readers find that an inappropriate subject for a YA novel, your mileage may vary. TW for violence both homophobic and in general.

7. Far From You: Recovering addict Sophie investigates the murder of her best friend Mina, which the rest of their town believes is Sophie’s fault because of a drug deal gone wrong. Twisty murder mystery and an excellent portrait of grief.

8. It’s Not Like It’s A Secret: This is billed as a sweet highschool romance between girls from wildly different cliques, and it is that, but it’s also an exploration of inter-group racism and the long-term impact of family secrets.

9. Queens of Geek: Up-and-coming actress Charlie is going to her first big convention, and she’s bringing her best friends Taylor and Jamie along. Charlie is ready to show the world she’s totally over her co-star Reese, and Taylor wants to prove that she’s the world’s biggest fan of her favourite franchise. Along the way both girls learn that their secret unrequited crushes (not on each other) aren’t as hopelessly one-sided as they thought.

@sapphicbookclub is reading Book 1 of Taryn's Journey this month!

SF/Here’s some of the books I’ve read and the squares they can fill in. 

Romancing the Inventor by Gail Carriger Non-Coming Out story SF/F (steampunk)

Awakened by Shei Darksbane Less than 500 GR Ratings SF/F (urban fantasy) Non-Coming Out Story

Sovereign by April Daniels Trans MC SF/F (superhero story) Interracial relationship Friends to Lovers

Drag Prince Charming by B. A. Huntley Less than 500 GR ratings

Royally Yours by Everly James Bisexual MC QWOC MC Less than 500 GR ratings

Out on Good Behavior by Dahlia Adler Friends to Lovers Non-Coming Out

Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee Bi MC QWOC MC SF/F (superheroes) Non-Coming Out Interracial

Fearless by Shira Glassman Jewish MC Less than 500 GR ratings

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley (Note: This story takes place during Civil Rights movement and one of the narrators is black and there are a LOT of usages of N-word and other racial slurs. I really liked the story, but do question if Robin Talley should have been the one to write it, as a white woman.) Interracial

Princess Princess Ever After by Katie O’Neill Interracial Fairytale retelling QWOC MC Non-Coming Out

Tangle by Em Stevens Non-Coming Out Less than 500 GR Ratings

A Girl’s Best Friends by Rory Wilde Interracial QWOC MC

Rook Takes Queen by Em Stevens Non-Coming Out Less than 500 GR Rating

Critical Hit by Em Stevens Bi MC Non-Coming Out Less than 500 GR ratings

Femme 4 Femme by Harper Logan (Note: the premise for this story is cute and I liked how it started out, but then it kinda turned into just a hook-up story and the ending felt almost rushed into a romantic relationship.) Less than 500 GR Ratings

Beauty and the Wolf by Bridget Essex Fairytale retelling Less than 500 GR ratings SF/F Non-Coming Out

Beyond Your Boundaries by Georgia Claire SF/F Non-Coming Out Fairytale retelling Less than 500 GR Ratings

Knit One, Girl Two by Shira Glassman (This is one of the cutest stories ever! I smiled the whole time I read it and still smile over “I didn’t eat bacon for three days just in case we kissed.”) Jewish MC Disabled MC Non-Coming Out

Black Blade Blues by J. A. Pitts (Note: I haven’t actually finished this story because the MC has a lot of internalized homophobia going on, and it made it difficult for me to enjoy the story as much. The author is a guy, and I don’t know if that’s part of why it got to me so hard...) SF/F (urban) Established Relationship

Cinder Ella by S. T. Lynn (This story is really cute and I highly recommend it) QWOC MC Trans MC Fairytale retelling Less than 500 GR Ratings Interracial

NEW POST: SapphicAThon Announcement and Recommendations

When the SapphicAThon was announced, I was stoked. A two-week readathon focused on reading female/female romance books? I’m in, mostly because I love readathons. Hey, it fuels the book nerd in me. The SapphicAThon goes from 12 am your time on December 14 through 11:59 your time on December 28. You can read as many books as you like, but the main focus is to have fun. There is an optional bingo…

So I finished my first Sapphicathon read, which was The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith. Some thoughts:

This is apparently a pulp novel. Maybe I haven't read a lot of pulp fiction but considering that, there's a lot of navel gazing and introspection. At one point Carol says to Therese, ""You so prefer things reflected in a glass, don't you? You have your private conception of everything. Like that windmill. It's practically as good as being in Holland to you. I wonder if you'll even like seeing real mountains and real people." That, I feel describes Therese's point of view pretty well--she feels like a very biased narrator because it's obvious how much she remembers mostly how experiences felt to her rather than what actually took place. This makes for an interesting, kind of literary tone, but also makes for dense reading at times.

I was not a huge fan of how Therese fell for Carol because it was very love at first sight, but eh. It's a literary convention, I'll go with it.

This is really more of a coming-of-age story than a romance in the sense that we again only get Therese's point of view, and it's really a story about Therese finding a relationship she wants and growing up a little rather than being a story about Therese and Carol falling in love. The falling in love is only a part of it.

There's a sense of isolation, like no one really understands each other. It's a bit sad...

Despite all the navel gazing, in a way it was a very suspenseful book. I never felt I could say with confidence what would happen next. Even knowing it's a lesbian classic I still wondered whether Carol and Therese were going to get together or not, whether Carol liked women or not, whether they would stay together or not, and just how events would transpire. I stayed up until 3:30 AM reading this book. It's like that.

The ending had a little tragedy to it, but I still liked it.

Not the kind of book you love at first, but definitely the kind of book that will stay with me. I may reread it.

Overall, I would recommend it in the same way I've seen it recommended, as a piece of the history of lesbian literature in the United States and sort of as a classic. It's not easy reading, though, and it's not f/f fun, too tense for that. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't fresh off a wave of a semester at an English major.

TOP TEN: SAPPHIC COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS

1. Fun Home-- Graphic memoir by lesbian cartoonist Alison Bechdel (of Bechdel Test/Dykes To Watch Out For fame) depicting her childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, with a focus on her complicated relationship with her father, himself a closeted gay man. Late teen/adult audience.

2. Insexts-- Victorian-era lesbian couple gain the ability to transform into horrifying insect monsters, get their revenge on their patriarchal and imperialist enemies. Adult audience, plenty of sex and violence.

3. Bombshells-- Unlike most superhero comics, Bombshells (and the follow-up series, Bombshells United) is its own self-contained universe, an alternate history in which everyone’s favourite female DC characters originally appeared in the 1940s and fought Nazis. Basically every major character is LGBT.

4. Gotham Central-- Police procedural set in Gotham City. Renee Montoya, a major character, is a lesbian; an early storyline focuses on her forced outing. Her relationships with her girlfriend and her homophobic parents are recurring plotlines. Late teen/adult audience.

5. My Faith In Frankie-- Supernatural rom-com featuring the love quadrangle between bi girl Frankie, her lesbian best friend, her undead childhood boyfriend, and her own personal god. YA and older audience.

6. Small Favors-- Annie is a young woman who is so horny she has already used up her lifetime supply of orgasms. Conscience spirit Nibbil is assigned to reign Annie in, but she turns out to be even more insatiable. Adult audience, the ‘girly porno comic’ subtitle is not a joke.

7. Mahou Josei Chimaka-- Bitter grown-up former magical girl Chimaka learns that there are still love and magic in the world. Not necessarily unsuitable for a YA audience but I feel like it would resonate better with adults.

8. Space Battle Lunchtime-- The adventures of the first human contestant on Space Masterchef. Includes a romance plot with a dashing fish-alien bad girl rival chef. MG and older audience.

9. Batwoman: Elegy-- The origin story of Batwoman. Kate Kane has always dreamed of being a soldier like her father and late mother, but she won’t compromise her ideals and lie about her sexuality in order to serve. Inspired by an encounter with Batman, she leaves the military and strikes out on her own as a vigilante. Teen and older audience.