DEATH BLOOMS.

Finished this~

this ask has been collecting dust in my inbox for months now and i’m pretty sure the number of questions like these that I’ve failed to answer will be weighed against my soul on judgment day and I will be cast into hell but anyway

early this year, i made a post of lgbtq+ recommendations and i think it featured over 60 books (chill? can’t say i’ve heard of her), this post is going to include the top 12 books that were released (& that i’ve read) in 2018. for more recs, head over my book blog or my goodreads account! soo yeah let’s get into it!

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand

i know that, objectively speaking, existing in this world would be maximally dreadful, but the concept of belonging to a group of SAPPHIC GIRLS who draw on their magical powers to FUCK UP the life of the island’s bogeyman is firmly inside my circle of interests. i fucking loved this book and not to dictate y’all’s lives but… read it. 

The Wicker King (The Wicker King #1) by K. Ancrum

there is a unique sort of agony to this book that I can’t exactly describe but it’s not quite right and it makes my heart feel both hollowed out and so heavy my chest could not hold it. the raw and unpolished look at mental illness, the repercussions of an indifferent, dismissive and neglectful parenting and the dynamics of a deeply unhealthy relationship will make this a novel that will be hard for readers to forget. (p.s. there’s a polyramous relationship between two boys and a girl in this one!)

Blanca & Roja by Anna-Marie McLemore

i’m always all too happy to ignore the less poetic reality of the outside world and lose myself to Mclemore’s stories. in this book, the author weaves a brilliant retelling of Snow-White and Rose-Red with a wonderful Latinx feel threaded throughout and mesmerizes once again with a gorgeously supple story at the thresholds of identity, family and history. also, one of the main characters is genderfluid and uses both she and he pronouns!

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

i love this book so much—the kind of love that is peculiar to inhabiting the perspective of young women with agency and the relationships they form when relying on each other. this is a brilliant subversive take on the fairytale of Rumpelstiltskin and it’s basically about women joining forces to plot the downfall of their shitty husbands….and if that isn’t true solidarity, i don’t know what is.

Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake

the book centers Mara, a bisexual high school junior, whose twin brother is accused of raping his girlfriend. the author brings into sharp, brutal relief a raw and unvarnished look at victim blaming, consent, male privilege and the tendencies of many to mock and underestimate a painthey haven’t endured. gosh there are a lot of things I want to say about this book. they pile up in my throat, so many little buzzing words that i can’t release and can’t swallow. but they all boil down to this: this is a book you need to read.(also central to the narrative is Mara’s relationship with Charlie, her (ex)girlfriend who identifies as non-binary!) tw: rape, sexual assault, victim blaming, anxiety and panic attacks.

Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno

i picked up this book for an enchanting blend of the whimsy and the queer—in both senses of the word—and left with so much more, and for that sole reason, it was perfection. includes rep for lesbian/pan/aro-ace characters. also, the cutest, most wholesome sapphic romance. (tw :rape and sexual assault, underage drinking, animal death, drug use.)

A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi

y’all mind if I cry because if you’d told 16 year-old me that one day I’ll read a NYT best-selling book where a Muslim Hijabi teen gets her own coming of age story and her own big romance instead of being the token (stereotyped) minority character or some cultural prop used only to further the writer’s favorite white girl…it would have made a world of difference.

Mirage (Mirage #1) by Somaiya Daud 

i love this book for many reasons–chief of which is the ragged awe of reading something so achingly familiar, a story that feels like home, and the most gentle and glowy emotion in your chest at the knowledge that your culture has found its way into the YA fare and has been brought to an audience who likely would not have known about it otherwise. the story draws on Moroccan history and is inspired by Amazighi culture (the indigenous people of Morocco). the story features a hate-to-love romance and strong female characters with agency on full display.

I Was Born for This by @aliceoseman 

this book just dragged me into whatever living equivalent of heaven there is. Alice Oseman’s books have the type of energy that will always add value to the space and lives of those who read them. the story follows Angel Rahimi, a hijabi Muslim teen whose life revolves around The Ark, an internationally famous boyband, and Jimmy Kaga-Ricci, a biracial gay trans musician and a member of The Ark, and what happens when their paths unexpectedly collide. good stuff, i tell you.

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan  

the inside of me still clenches with the memory of this book. this is magical realism about a Taiwanese-American teen, Leigh, whose mother has committed suicide and reincarnated into a huge crimson bird. leigh travels to Taiwan to meet her estranged maternal grandparents, and with the aid of the bird and a box of magical incense, Leigh sifts through a kaleidoscope of spliced memories, trying to find the moment everything had shifted, the rip that tore her family’s foundation apart. (tw: suicide, depression, loss of a loved one, depiction of grief, abandonment, racial slurs, and mention of electroconvulsive therapy. please make sure you’re in a good mental spot before you pick up this book.)

A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne   

i, personally, love reading books and straddling that fine line between “loving the book” and “wishing you could unhinge your jaw and a swarm of locusts fly out of your mouth to attack the book.” this is about a literary con artists who plagiarizes others’ lived experiences and generally fucks people over. it’s an awful book. absolutely fucking messed up. i loved it.

Sadie by Courtney Summers

but do you feel like a young god?

“And there’s nothing wrong with being a lizard either. Unless you were born to be a hawk.”