Sage Nestler's Blog, page 6

Book Review: A Unique and Diverse High-Stakes Fantasy

Adrien Desfourneaux, professor of magic, must survive his own failing mental health and a tenuous partnership with a dangerous ally in order to save the city of Astrum from a spreading curse.

Adrien Desfourneaux, professor of magic and disgraced ex-physician, has discovered a conspiracy. Someone is inflicting magical comas on the inhabitants of the massive city of Astrum, and no one knows how or why. Caught between a faction of scheming magical academics and an explosive schism in the ranks of Astrum’s power-hungry military, Adrien is swallowed by the growing chaos. Alongside Gennady, an unruly, damaged young soldier, and Malise, a brilliant healer and Adrien’s best friend, Adrien searches for a way to stop the spreading curse before the city implodes. He must survive his own bipolar disorder, his self-destructive tendencies, and his entanglement with the man who doesn’t love him back.

Overall Rating

4/5

Quick Take

Cursebreakers by Madeleine Nakamura is an inclusive fantasy adventure that features a main character dealing with bipolar disorder in a high stakes dark academia world. Filled with action and unrequited romance, I easily became entranced by this debut. It is ideal for fans of queer fantasy with a mental health edge.

Tell Me More

As a mental health specialist, I always love when I find books that address mental health, and Cursebreakers by Madeleine Nakamura did so in such a brilliant and inventive way. While it is an adult fantasy with dark academia vibes, the main character, Adrien, is a professor of magic struggling with bipolar disorder. His struggles with his mental health are relatable and make him deeply human. But the way that Madeleine Nakamura incorporated these very human concerns in such a magical and fantastic story was ingenious. I couldn’t put it down.

At times, I did find it hard to keep up with the worldbuilding due to extensive language that was hard to follow; however, I do blame that on the fact that I am not a frequent fantasy reader. Readers who do enjoy fantasy and read it consistently should be able to keep up with the complexities of the story.

Nakamura also incorporated such excellent LGBTQIA+ representation, which was beautiful and I found intensely relatable. That paired with the mental health representation and the intense world building made Cursebreakers a profound and impressionable story.

If you enjoy intense fantasy with LGBTQIA+ and mental health representation, you are going to love Cursebreakers by Madeleine Nakamura.

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Book Review: A New Way of Looking at Trauma and Sexuality

Radical alternatives to consent and trauma.

Arguing that we have become culturally obsessed with healing trauma, Sexuality Beyond Consent calls attention to what traumatized subjects do with their pain. The erotics of racism offers a paradigmatic example of how what is proximal to violation may become an unexpected site of flourishing. Central to the transformational possibilities of trauma is a queer form of consent, limit consent, that is not about guarding the self but about risking experience. Saketopoulou thereby shows why sexualities beyond consent may be worth risking-and how risk can solicit the future.

Moving between clinical and cultural case studies, Saketopoulou takes up theatrical and cinematic works such as Slave Play and The Night Porter, to chart how trauma and sexuality join forces to surge through the aesthetic domain. Putting the psychoanalytic theory of Jean Laplanche in conversation with queer of color critique, performance studies, and philosophy, Sexuality Beyond Consent proposes that enduring the strange in ourselves, not to master trauma but to rub up against it, can open us up to encounters with opacity. The book concludes by theorizing currents of sadism that, when pursued ethically, can animate unique forms of interpersonal and social care.

Goodreads Synopsis

Overall Rating

5/5

Quick Take

Sexuality Beyond Consent: Risk, Race, Traumatophilia by Avgi Saketopoulou is a thorough and unique addition to the discussion on trauma and methods of what we do with the trauma we experience. Saketopoulou provides readers with a full examination of limit-consent, which encourages risk rather than protection, and explores how sexuality can be used to explore personal trauma. While the book was hard for me to understand at times because I had not heard of many of the terms and needed to research them, it opened my mind to an alternative to healing trauma that is sure to become a new area of exploration in the therapeutic field.

Tell Me More

Filled with case studies and examples, Sexuality Beyond Consent: Risk, Race, Traumatophilia by Avgi Saketopoulou opens up the discussion on trauma and how sexuality can be a way of exploring our trauma rather than focusing on healing it. It is a risky addition to the field, but one that is so important.

While the book is deeply academic, Saketopoulou tries to make the terms and discussions accessible. It did take me a few reads to understand what Saketopoulou was trying to portray, and for that I wish that the book was easier to understand to reach a wider reader base. However, I did give this book five stars because the discussion and new ideas on how to handle trauma and how trauma can be connected to sexuality was groundbreaking. It will inform my work in the mental health field.

Academic readers interested in learning about alternative ways to handle trauma and how sexuality can be linked to handling trauma will be enlightened by Sexuality Beyond Consent: Risk, Race, Traumatophilia by Avgi Saketopoulou. It is a heavily researched tome, and one that has the power to change the mental health field.

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Book Review: A Lifechanging and Lifesaving Read

What happens when we imagine loving the people–and the parts of ourselves–that we do not believe are worthy of love?

A transformative collection of intimate and lyrical love letters that offer a path toward compassion, forgiveness, and self-acceptance.

“Required reading.”–Glennon Doyle

Kai Cheng Thom grew up a Chinese Canadian transgender girl in a hostile world. As an activist, psychotherapist, conflict mediator, and spiritual healer, she’s always pursued the same deeply personal mission: to embrace the revolutionary belief that every human being, no matter how hateful or horrible, is intrinsically sacred.

But then Kai Cheng found herself in a crisis of faith, overwhelmed by the viciousness with which people treated one another, and barely clinging to the values and ideals she’d built her life around: justice, hope, love, and healing. Rather than succumb to despair and cynicism, she gathered all her rage and grief and took one last leap of faith: she wrote. Whether prayers or spells or poems–and whether there’s a difference–she wrote to affirm the outcasts and runaways she calls her kin. She wrote to flawed but nonetheless lovable men, to people with good intentions who harm their own, to racists and transphobes seemingly beyond saving. What emerged was a blueprint for falling back in love with being human.

Goodreads Synopsis

Overall Rating

5/5

Quick Take

Falling Back in Love with Being Human by Kai Cheng Thom is a challenging, enlightening, heartbreaking, and soul stirring read that I can honestly say is a must-read for just about everyone. It is one of those books that comes about once in a lifetime and forces you to confront yourself and bleed through each word. It changed me in the most painful, and beautiful, way.

Tell Me More

There are only a few books that I have read in my lifetime that have affected me as deeply as Falling Back in Love with Being Human by Kai Cheng Thom. This book is a short collection of letters and prompts that can be read in one quick sitting; but just because the book is short doesn’t mean that it isn’t impactful. Thom bleeds and pours love into each word and provides us insight into her soul. While I am not transgender, I related deeply to many of the letters in this book. It is not designed to be a self-help book, but it did help me to reconnect with myself and resolve some emotional pain that I have been carrying around.

The LGBTQIA+ community will find solace in each page, but so will those who do not identify as a member of this community. Thom has created a universal work of art that will impact those who read her words for generation. I have already re-read this book and practiced the prompts multiple times. With each re-read I connect with a different part of myself.

Falling Back in Love with Being Human by Kai Cheng Thom should absolutely be required reading as Glennon Doyle has said. It is lifechanging, lifesaving, and a beacon of hope for every one of us.

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The 3 Healing Benefits of Re-Reading Books

As a bibliotherapist, I have known that re-reading books is a true art form, but it is not something that everyone takes advantage of. I have to admit that I just started re-reading books myself, and it has been an unsuspectedly wonderful experience. Through my journey of re-reading, I have found it to be very cathartic in many ways.

The following are three healing benefits that can be linked to re-reading books. I hope that they will convince you to try re-reading for yourself, or if you already re-read, to find comfort in the health benefits you may are already experiencing.

It Increases Feelings of Comfort and Safety

When you read a book that you find deep enjoyment in, you already know how the book will play out. Having this knowledge beforehand takes away any surprise element and will fill you with feelings of comfort and safety. By knowing how a book will play out, you have full control. This is especially helpful if you are feeling like you don’t have a lot of control in your personal life. Re-reading can be a helpful coping mechanism to try and give you that sense of control that you may be lacking and fulfill that need.

As someone with extreme anxiety, I highly recommend re-reading if you also experience anxiety. Doing so can be a healthy way to manage those uncomfortable feelings.

It Allows You to Address the Feelings You Felt the First Time

Sometimes re-reading can help you to revisit feelings that the book made you feel the first time – either in a positive or negative way. For instance, sometimes I do want to revisit feelings of sadness because it can help me to soothe those feelings in my life outside of reading. It is during these times that I will re-read a book that originally made me feel sadness or despair, because sometimes those feelings can be cathartic. The same goes for wanting to feel any positive emotion, such as happiness. Re-reading books or stories that originally gave you those positive feelings will often do so the second time around.

It Allows you to Explore New Feelings That Come Up

While re-reading allows you to anticipate how the book will play out, you may not always feel the same emotions that you felt the first time, and that is okay! Sometimes this can be the right time to address what new emotions are coming up and try to pinpoint which parts of the book have elicited the new emotions. Doing so can help you to translate this to your life outside of reading and address anything that may be coming up. Sometimes these new emotions are also indicative of growth, which can show you how far you have come since first reading the book.

If you do not currently re-read, I urge you to try it out! It may not be for everyone, but it is a cost-effective therapeutic tool that is easy to add to your schedule. Reading is often such an underrated coping mechanism for so many things, and my wish is that the world will continue to see how impactful reading can be for our mental health.

Cover Reveal: The Darkest Stars by Kristy Gardner

I am excited to share with today the cover reveal for The Darkest Stars by Kristy Gardner! This queer, sci-fi novel is the sequel to The Stars in Their Eyes. If you love haunting sci-fi with queer themes, you can’t go wrong with either of these books!

THE DARKEST STARS BY KRISTY GARDNER

Coming 9/19/2023

Book 2 in the Broken Stars series

The most terrifying monsters are the ones that lurk inside…

After discovering everything she’s ever known has been a lie, Calay understands humanity’s brutality firsthand. Now, depleted rations, unexplained aberrations, and an ecosystem in collapse have driven her to the brink of madness–even with Jacob by her side. When a mysterious woman sent from the stars promises to grant every desire she’s ever locked away in her shattered heart, she’s forced to make an impossible decision: remain on a dying Earth or journey to a planet two-billion lightyears away in an effort to save them all. Clinging to the dream she might yet find somewhere to call home, she agrees. After all, how much worse could it get?

When she arrives on the shimmering, glass-city planet Téras, Calay desperately want to believe in a better future. Despite being haunted by the past she’ll never escape, her hope is buoyed by the reunion with the mother she thought long-dead and the possibility of uniting their civilizations. The reality, however, is more horrifying than anything she could have imagined.

As the universe descends into darkness, she finds herself trapped in the far reaches of deep space, face to face with dangerous forces, unyielding truths, and feral monsters that will force her to confront the darkest parts of herself, pushing her to the very limits of what it means to be human.

In this gripping queer sci-fi odyssey, Calay’s journey through love, betrayal, and self-discovery becomes a fight not only for her life, but the survival of Earth itself.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kristy Gardner is a queer sci-fi fantasy and horror writer. Furnished with degrees in Gender Studies and Sociology, she crafts queer characters that adventure through space, time, and emotional maelstroms questioning what identity – and home – really mean. 

She is the author of the queer dark sci-fi novel, THE STARS IN THEIR EYES, and the award-winning cookbook, COOKING WITH COCKTAILS. 

When she’s not jet-setting words on her laptop, she’s chasing stars, mountain adventures, belly laughs, curating playlists for her books, and packing her carry-on for another escape to SE Asia. She resides in Vancouver B.C. with her partner.

Website: https://kristygardner.comEmail: krislgardner0@gmail.comNewsletter: kristygardner.com/newsletterGoodReads:Author – https://www.goodreads.com/kristy_gardnerBook – https://bit.ly/darkest-stars-goodreadsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristy_gardner/Tag: @kristy_gardnerTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kristy_gardnerTag: @kristy_gardnerThreads: https://www.threads.net/@kristy_gardnerTag: @kristy_gardnerSigned author copies: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/AuthorKristyGardner

Book Review: A Brutal and Brilliant Book That Eats You Alive

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena’s a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn’t even get a paperback release. Nobody wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.

So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers to the British and French war efforts during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song–complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface takes on questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation not only in the publishing industry but the persistent erasure of Asian-American voices and history by Western white society. R. F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.

Goodreads Synopsis

Overall Rating

5/5

Quick Take

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang is an absolutely brilliant look at the problematic publishing industry, plagiarism, and racism. It raises questions about what authors are allowed to write based on their identities and challenges the readers’ biases. At times the book was cringey, but in the absolute best way. It is in my top reads of 2023, and if you would rather not read the rest of my review, just know this: YOU NEED TO PICK UP THIS BOOK NOW!

Tell Me More

Seldom does a novel come along that infuriates me, makes me want to throw it across the room, and yet, I cannot put it down! Yellowface by R.F. Kuang is a rare gem, and it is one of the only novels I have ever read that I have absolutely no qualms with. The writing was beautiful, but more than that, the concepts involved were almost taboo and I applaud how Kuang shoved the reader’s face in them.

Yellowface discusses the publishing industry and its faults, especially how authors are treated and what certain authors are “allowed to write” as opposed to others. It also shows us the inside world of an unsuccessful author who steals her dead friend’s manuscript and publishes it as her own – despite the fact that she is not Chinese and does not know the historical background behind the book she claims as her own. What ensues is a nail-biting story about identity and fame that swallows you whole.

I must admit that I was very conflicted while reading this novel. Athena, the author who ends up dying, was pretentious and wholly unlikable. Of course, June was jealous of her for her fame as they were both supposed to get successful at the same time based on their education and graduation times. However, Athena’s work ended up skyrocketing while June fell into literary obscurity and blamed her lack of fame on the idea that “no one wants stories about white girls anymore.” We see the story from June’s perspective, and it only gets more and more racist from there. I almost wonder if my distaste with Athena was because the story was from June’s perspective and that is how she saw her “friend.”

There are many times throughout this novel that you find yourself siding with June before realizing just how wrong she is. Kuang was sneaky by putting the reader in June’s shoes, but it helped to bring to light some of my own biases as well, and I haven’t stopped thinking about them sense. Yellowface is like a therapy session for the soul, and while the journey it takes you on is uncomfortable, it is so needed.

I guarantee you that if you pick this book up out of a casual interest, you will helplessly fall into its clutches. When I bought it, I hadn’t planned on reading it right away, but after reading the first page I couldn’t help but get trapped within the words. Yellowface by R.F. Kuang is one of those rare, enrapturing tomes that comes along and defines a generation. I can’t say enough about this magnificent novel, other than that you must go out and buy your copy NOW.

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3 Books to Expel Fear and Anxiety

I struggle with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and I have found that reading can be beneficial when it comes to helping me relax, which is why I became a bibliotherapist. However, there are specific books and genres that actively help me to expel my anxiety and fear. The horror genre is excellent for this because it can help to raise your anxiety and fear before banishing it. It is important to note that this process can be intense and painful, so please proceed with caution.

The following are three horror books that have helped me when I need to find some relief from my anxiety. I hope that they bring you some relief as well!

Beguiled by Night by Nicole Eigener Spooky Rating: 3/5

Louis de Vauquelin is an ancient French vampire created in 1668 and now living in present-day Los Angeles. His life in self-imposed exile has become peaceful and relatively carefree until time suddenly begins to unravel, forcing him to navigate the already chartered waters of his past.

Vauquelin fumbles his way through history in reverse, ripping the scabs off of old wounds and mourning the loss of his futurepast joys, while attempting to keep certain skeletons firmly locked in their closets where they belong.

But the past has a way of making its presence known, especially when one is reliving it. Vauquelin’s mundane modern existence is systematically erased, compelling him to confront all his missteps over the last three centuries and acknowledge his defeats.

As he regresses through time, he surrenders to his brutal nature and faces an unexpected choice that could alter his life completely, and in turn, extinguish the only true happiness he ever knew.

Beguiled by Night is a complex tapestry of time, horror, and beauty deftly woven with gore and redemption, returning the vampire genre to its proper roots of elegant violence.

Goodreads Synopsis

While this is a horror novel, it is also fantasy and historical. The writing is fluid, and it does have an air of “elegant violence”. This pick is probably more on the tame side, so it will help with expelling your anxiety, but in a more subtle way. If you love vampires, this one is perfect for you!

This One’s Gonna Hurt by Cody J. Thompson Spooky Rating: 5/5 (Proceed with caution)

As five friends travel through the isolated California desert towards a popular music festival, their trip is interrupted thanks to our modern world’s ever-evolving state of technology… Stranded and alone needing to recharge their electric vehicle. When the group of teenagers settle on a remote parking lot in the middle of nowhere, it isn’t only a charging station they find. They also uncover pure, unrelenting evil.

Hiding in the shadows is a maniac. Searching endlessly and without discrimination for victims to satisfy a hunger, viciously hunting down anyone that comes near.

As they fight for survival, the maniac works to outsmart and hunt them one by one, with a goal in mind that is so heinous and vile that the truth behind his actions will rattle the very foundation of the deepest caverns in hell.

As the heartfelt ties that bind the friends together unravel, they each will learn not only what it takes to love, but how to survive. While coping with past heartbreak, loss and abandonment, they must band together to get out alive. Or die one by one under the most excruciating circumstances imaginable.

One thing is certain, the desert is no place to hide.

Goodreads Synopsis

This pick is on the more extreme side of horror. It has The Texas Chainsaw Massacre vibes, and once it takes you in a chokehold, it does not let go. I highly recommend this novel if you have a higher tolerance for horror, because of its extreme, splatterpunk nature. It is not for everyone.

The Hunger by Alma Katsu Spooky Rating: 3/5

Evil is invisible, and it is everywhere.

Tamsen Donner must be a witch. That is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the wagon train known as the Donner Party. Depleted rations, bitter quarrels, and the mysterious death of a little boy have driven the pioneers to the brink of madness. They cannot escape the feeling that someone–or something–is stalking them. Whether it was a curse from the beautiful Tamsen, the choice to follow a disastrous experimental route West, or just plain bad luck–the 90 men, women, and children of the Donner Party are at the brink of one of the deadliest and most disastrous western adventures in American history.

While the ill-fated group struggles to survive in the treacherous mountain conditions–searing heat that turns the sand into bubbling stew; snows that freeze the oxen where they stand–evil begins to grow around them, and within them. As members of the party begin to disappear, they must ask themselves “What if there is something waiting in the mountains? Something disturbing and diseased…and very hungry?”

Goodreads Synopsis

If you like historical fiction with your horror, The Hunger by Alma Katsu is the way to go. It surrounds the Donner Party and keeps you on edge as you read it. It is not very extreme, but it is dreadful and disturbing.

These three books feature a different range of horror that will help to raise your anxiety, before ultimately expelling it. I hope that you will choose to add them to your bibliotherapy toolkit.

Getting Started with Practicing Bibliotherapy at Home

Bibiotherapy is a form of therapy that utilizes books to treat different things, such as anxiety, depression, grief, etc. It is a supplemental form of therapy that can be used at any age and is usually used in conjunction with other forms of therapy in a treatment plan.

However, it is possible to practice bibliotherapy yourself while at home. The main goal of bibliotherapy is to help you work through your emotions as you read a book to better understand and manage your emotions day to day. It can also help you to work through more difficult periods, such as a period of grief, so that you can work through what you are feeling and find some relief. I do have to mention, though, that practicing solitary bibliotherapy at home is not a substitute for treatment with a therapist and/or psychiatrist. This form of therapy at home can be helpful to work through more minor concerns, or larger concerns as a form of supplemental therapy if you already have a treatment team. But if you are experiencing suicidal ideation, self-harm urges, or urges to harm others, please do call the suicide & crisis hotline at 988.

While doing bibliotherapy at home, it is important to utilize journaling while you are reading. I always recommend having one journal dedicated for your bibliotherapy practice. In your journal is where you can document how certain parts of a book made you feel, and what may be coming up for you. Documenting these moments will help you to go back once you finish the book to find patterns in what you were feeling. Writing down specifics quotes from a part of the book that really impacted you will also be helpful.

But to get started, you first need to choose a book. Below are some of my book suggestions for working through anxiety, depression, and grief. These books range between young adult and adult fiction but are ideal for all ages.

DepressionEverything I Never Told You by Celeste NgThe Bell Jar by Sylvia PlathLooking for Alaska by John GreenAnxietyTurtles All the Way Down by John GreenFangirl by Rainbow RowellThe Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky GriefA Monster Calls by Patrick NessThe Fault in Our Stars by John Green Still Alice by Lisa Genova

*Note: These books may be sensitive for some readers due to their subject matter. Please read with caution.

When choosing a book, you do not have to find one that addresses exactly what you are going through. Sometimes it is just about picking a book that brings up the emotions you may be experiencing, such as sadness.

If this is your first time trying out bibliotherapy, I would advise you to choose one of the books above and journal while reading through it to get a feel for how this form of therapy works – especially when it is self-directed. It can be quite the journey, and it might take you awhile to get a feel for how this therapy will work for you. Just be patient with yourself and go with the flow. You’ve got this.

Book Review: An Important Look at Civilian Life Amidst Military Conflict in Ukraine

Everyday War: The Conflict Over Donbas, Ukraine by Greta Lynn Uehling

Everyday War provides an accessible lens through which to understand what non-combatant civilians go through in a country at war. What goes through the mind of a mother who must send her child to school across a mined field? In Ukraine, such questions have been part of the daily calculus of life. Greta Uehling engages with the lives of ordinary people living in and around the armed conflict over Donbas that began in 2014 and shows how conventional understandings of war are incomplete.

In Ukraine, landscapes filled with death and destruction prompted attentiveness to human vulnerabilities and the cultivation of everyday, interpersonal peace. Uehling explores a constellation of social practices where ethics of care were in operation. People were also drawn into the conflict in an everyday form of war that included provisioning fighters with military equipment they purchased themselves, smuggling insulin, and cutting ties to former friends. Each chapter considers a different site where care can produce interpersonal peace or its antipode, everyday war.

Bridging the fields of political geography, international relations, peace and conflict studies, and anthropology, Everyday War considers a different site where peace can be cultivated at an everyday level.

Goodreads Synopsis

Overall Rating: 5/5Quick Take

Everyday War: The Conflict Over Donbas, Ukraine by Greta Lynn Uehling is an essential read for understanding what civilian life has been like in a land where warfare and military activity have altered daily life. Uehling’s research is phenomenal, and she covers a variety of social aspects that have been changed by ongoing destruction. While this is not light reading, the topic is well explored and is ideal for anyone looking to learn more about the conflict in Ukraine and its impact on civilians.

Tell Me More

Military activity has been ongoing in Ukraine, and while the conflict has been widely publicized, the daily life of civilians has not received as much press as it should. Greta Lynn Uehling’s book, Everyday War: The Conflict Over Donbas, Ukraine, fills that gap. Impeccably researched, Uehling’s writing focuses on what everyday life has been like for the civilians of Donbas, Ukraine, and goes as far to explore how such relationships as friendships and marriage have been impacted.

But the insight does not stop there. One harrowing section of the book focuses on a group of civilians called The Black Tulips who have volunteered to retrieve the dead. This section does not sugarcoat the atrocities that this group faces, and it tears the reader apart.

While the book is highly educational and reads like college material, it is engaging and ideal for anyone looking to learn more about the conflicts in Ukraine. Uehling writes with a caring hand, and while much of the book is difficult to digest, she writes in such a way that it is easy for the reader to understand and absorb.

Everyday War: The Conflict Over Donbas, Ukraine by Greta Lynn Uehling is a current read about a historical event that is perfect for readers of history and nonfiction. It is searing, blunt, and compassionate in the best of ways. This is not a book to miss.

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5 LGBTQIA+ Reads to Celebrate Pride Month

June is Pride Month, a time to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community, diversity, and acceptance in all of its forms. In recent years, there have been a plethora of LGBTQIA+ focused novels and memoirs that have been released, and I wanted to share with you five of my favorites. As a part of the LGBTQIA+ community myself, I am always looking to find solace in novels and memoirs that resonate with me. These five novels did just that, and I hope that these beautiful books will resonate with you too.

I have chosen novels that offer a wide variety of LGBTQIA+ identities, but these are only the tipping point. The LGBTQIA+ literary world is becoming so vast, and there are so many great books to discover. Let these five novels start you on your journey of exploring LGBTQIA+ fiction and memoirs.

[image error]Dear Mothman by Robin Gow

Genre: Middle Grade Fiction in Verse

Representations: Transgender

A moving middle-grade novel in verse, about a young trans boy dealing with the loss of his friend by writing to his favorite cryptid, Mothman

Halfway through sixth grade, Noah’s best friend and the only other trans boy in his school, Lewis, passed away in a car accident. Lewis was adventurous and curious, always bringing a new paranormal story to share with Noah. Together they daydreamed about cryptids and shared discovering their genders and names. After his death, lonely and yearning for someone who could understand him like Lewis once did, Noah starts writing letters to Mothman, wondering if he would understand how Noah feels and also looking for evidence of Mothman’s existence in the vast woods surrounding his small Poconos town. Noah becomes determined to make his science fair project about Mothman, despite his teachers and parents urging him to make a project about something “real.”

Meanwhile, as Noah tries to find Mothman, Noah also starts to make friends with a group of girls in his grade, Hanna, Molly, and Alice, with whom he’d been friendly, but never close to. Now, they welcome him, and he starts to open up to each of them, especially Hanna, who Noah has a crush on. But as strange things start to happen and Noah becomes sure of Mothman’s existence, his parents and teachers don’t believe him. Noah decides it’s up to him to risk everything, trek into the woods, and find Mothman himself.

Horse Barbie by Geena Rocero

Genre: Memoir

Representation: Transgender

The heartfelt memoir of a trans pageant queen from the Philippines who went back into the closet to model in New York City—until she realized that living her truth was the only way to step into her full power.

As a young femme in 1990s Manila, Geena Rocero heard, “ Bakla, bakla! ,” a taunt aimed at her feminine sway, whenever she left the tiny universe of her eskinita . Eventually, she found her place in trans pageants, the Philippines’ informal national sport. When her competitors mocked her as a “horse Barbie” due to her statuesque physique, tumbling hair, long neck, and dark skin, she leaned into the epithet. By seventeen, she was the Philippines’ highest-earning trans pageant queen.

A year later, Geena moved to the United States where she could change her name and gender marker on her documents. But legal recognition didn’t mean safety. In order to survive, Geena went stealth and hid her trans identity, gaining one type of freedom at the expense of another. For a while, it worked. She became an in-demand model. But as her star rose, her sense of self eroded. She craved acceptance as her authentic self yet had to remain vigilant in order to protect her dream career. The high-stakes double life finally forced Geena to decide herself if she wanted to reclaim the power of Horse Barbie once and for radiant, head held high, and unabashedly herself.

A dazzling testimony from an icon who sits at the center of transgender history and activism, Horse Barbie is a celebratory and universal story of survival, love, and pure joy.

Pageboy by Elliot Page

Genre: Memoir

Representation: Transgender

Pageboy is a groundbreaking coming-of-age memoir from the Academy Award-nominated actor Elliot Page. A generation-defining actor and one of the most famous trans advocates of our time, Elliot will now be known as an uncommon literary talent, as he shares never-before-heard details and intimate interrogations on gender, love, mental health, relationships, and Hollywood.

When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri

Genre: Romance

Representations: Sapphic

From the acclaimed author of The Assistants comes another gutsy book about the importance of women taking the reins—except this time, when it comes to finding sexuality, pleasure, and love sometimes where you least expect it.

Katie Daniels is a perfection-seeking 28-year-old lawyer living the New York dream. She’s engaged to charming art curator Paul Michael, has successfully made her way up the ladder at a multinational law firm and has a hold on apartments in Soho and the West Village. Suffice it to say, she has come a long way from her Kentucky upbringing.

But the rug is swept from under Katie when she is suddenly dumped by her fiance, Paul Michael, leaving her devastated and completely lost. On a whim, she agrees to have a drink with Cassidy Price-a self-assured, sexually promiscuous woman she meets at work. The two form a newfound friendship, which soon brings into question everything Katie thought she knew about sex—and love.

When Katie Met Cassidy is a romantic comedy that explores how, as a culture, while we may have come a long way in terms of gender equality, a woman’s capacity for an entitlement to sexual pleasure still remain entirely taboo. This novel tackles the question: Why, when it comes to female sexuality, are so few women figuring out what they want and then going out and doing it?

Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

Genre: Young Adult

Representations: Asexual

Alice had her whole summer planned. Non-stop all-you-can-eat buffets while marathoning her favorite TV shows (best friends totally included) with the smallest dash of adulting–working at the library to pay her share of the rent. The only thing missing from her perfect plan? Her girlfriend (who ended things when Alice confessed she’s asexual). Alice is done with dating–no thank you, do not pass go, stick a fork in her, done.

But then Alice meets Takumi and she can’t stop thinking about him or the rom com-grade romance feels she did not ask for (uncertainty, butterflies, and swoons, oh my!).

When her blissful summer takes an unexpected turn, and Takumi becomes her knight with a shiny library employee badge (close enough), Alice has to decide if she’s willing to risk their friendship for a love that might not be reciprocated—or understood.

Are there any other LGBTQIA+ focused books that you would like to recommend? Let me know in the comments!