I'd been meaning to read The Black Flamingo since it took the book community by storm a couple of years ago, and it definitely did NOT disappoint. Following Michael, a young biracial (Jamaican/Greek Cypriot) British boy, we start off at a young age in his life and watch him grow into a college freshman learning self-love through drag.

The entire story is told as a novel in verse, but the first-person narrative gave the book a very autobiographical feeling that was beautiful to experience. There's a lot of commentary on race, gender, sexuality, and feeling "othered" by your loved ones that a lot of readers will absolutely relate to, but most of all, I loved seeing this beautiful queer young Black boy celebrate every facet of his identity by the end of it.

✨ Representation: Michael is Jamaican/Greek Cypriot and self-identifies as both Black and mixed, is gay, and uses he/him pronouns but seems to be exploring some elements of his gender; several side characters are Black and/or multiracial; several side characters are queer, including gay, lesbian, bi, and trans on-page representations

✨ Content warnings for: bullying, homophobia, racism, substance abuse, absent parent, brief mention of child abuse 

 By the end of this book, I rooting for Vanessa and Aiden (more or less), and MZ's writing is very engaging and quick, but none of that is enough to fully redeem this book from how shallow I found Aiden's writing to be (he felt very flat to me for at least the first 60% of the book) and how poorly certain topics are handled, such as:

- Vanessa laughing until she cries when Aiden is groped without consent by a fan (stop normalizing the idea that it's "acceptable" or anything less than sexual assault when a man is harassed, even if he's a famous and attractive celebrity)!

- When Vanessa finds out a loved one is being abused by their significant other, her entire inner monologue for several chapters isn't "I can't believe my loved one is being abused, how can I help them?" but is instead "how dare they lie to me about this?" and is ridiculously, painfully self-absorbed and victim-shaming.

- Vanessa's older sisters are VERY abusive towards her, but Vanessa blames FASD (fetal alcohol spectrum disorders) for causing their violent and abusive tendencies, which is an immensely ableist and hurtful stereotype that a LOT of people with FASD have to deal with in the real world.

- There is a lot of fat-phobia that never gets properly addressed.

Other than feeling bad for her terrible childhood, I struggled with liking Vanessa as a character more often than not, and I couldn't bring myself to care about Aiden until waaay too far into the book. We learn some of his motives, of course, but I didn't feel that any of them ever actually explained his behavior or redeemed his treatment of Vanessa in the first half of the book. The chemistry between the two of them felt forced, and even by the time they finally got together (literally at 95% through the book — I love a slow burn, but damn), I think my emotions were less joy at seeing them confess their love for each other, and more relief at having finally finished this immensely disappointing book.

I can objectively see why so many people love this book, I think, but it didn't work as well for me as I hoped it would. If I had rated this the moment I finished the book, I might have given it 3 or 3.5 stars, but after sleeping on it, I have too many issues with it on a lot of levels, and to be totally honest, it's reminded me of why, despite loving the only other MZ book I read (Dear Aaron) years ago, I've been very hesitant to pick up more of her books. This book is older than that one was, and I'm open to trying another newer release of hers, but I think I'll probably leave Zapata's backlist alone for now.

✨ Representation: Vanessa's best friend is Latinx

✨ Content warnings for: memories of severe domestic abuse, claustrophobia, nyctophobia (extreme fear of the dark), alcoholic parents, absent parents, memories of foster homes, body-shaming, victim-shaming of domestic and sexual abuse survivors, ableism, "jokes" about sexual harassment 

 This is my third of Dana's books, and definitely my favorite. It does such a great job of tackling de-cluttering, organization, and general housekeeping and cleaning, all while keeping mental health struggles, neurodiversity, and physical disability in mind (which is something I've learned the hard way that most "cleaning book" authors don't keep in mind at all, sadly).

If you're looking for a book of Dana's to start with, I definitely recommend picking this one up first! In fact, if you do read this one, I'll be blunt and say that I think her other books are unnecessary. This book says everything those two say but better and more succinctly, and while she does mention a few times during this book that you can reference *insert book here* for more information, I actually think it's all summed up plenty within these pages.

The only negative thing I'll comment on — and, funny enough, I think I said this about both of her other books that I read as well — is that it gets repetitive at times. There are only so many times I need to be reminded of the "container concept", for example, but it's mentioned in more chapters than not. Then again, that might be a positive for someone who's new to Dana K. White's processes, though, so it might actually be a bonus for some readers, as it definitely drives the message home!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go rest my ache-y spine, because I finished this book earlier this evening and then went on quite the cleaning spree (if that tells you anything about how motivational Dana is!). 😂

Thank you so much to the publisher and LibroFM ALC Program for providing me with this audio copy in exchange for an honest review! 

 I don't think this one is quite for me, but it's not because there's anything wrong with the book — I think I'm just not in the mood for the jokes right now. That said, I can see The Plumbers appealing to a LOT of readers (especially anyone looking for a similar feel to Shaun of the Dead or something along those lines), and I could see myself giving it another go some time when I'm more in the mood for a comedy/horror cross-over!
 

 Slip follows Jade's summer at an art camp immediately following her best friend's attempted suicide, and Jade must try to juggle her goal of winning a college scholarship alongside realizing her best friend is in terrible pain. Through all of this, there's an unexpected romance with another girl at camp, and Jade finds herself understandably overwhelmed with the variety of feelings happening at once.

Unfortunately, while this graphic novel sounded great in theory, almost nothing about it worked for me. The art is beautiful, but primarily in black-and-white, and I agree with a lot of other reviewers that it would have been improved tremendously by being a full-color graphic novel. It's an entire story revolving around art and taking place at an art camp, so choosing not to colorize the book feels like a massive missed opportunity!

While I loved the queer rep, Jade and Mary (and all of the other characters, too) are so flat that I could not possibly bring myself to feel invested in the romance forming between them. There's a bit of back-and-forth "will they, won't they", but it doesn't carry any weight, and when the two of them get into a tiff over miscommunication, it doesn't cast Mary in a good light (multiple panels of her throwing items in Jade's direction out of anger — something we don't need to normalize in arguments, even among teens).

And finally, as far as the representation of Phoebe's suicide attempts and how it affects Jade, I was uncomfortable with a lot of the commentary. Phoebe's suicide attempts only served as a prop for Jade's own pain, and I kept feeling like Jade cared less about how her best friend was doing and more about how it affected her, or how she had "missed the signs". There are a few moments where it felt that Jade was vilifying Phoebe and blaming her, and while there is a side character who makes great points about mental illness, I don't think we ever got to see Jade fully actualize those realizations for herself. Obviously, she's a teenager and I'm not expecting her to be the most emotionally mature character I've ever read, but it's hard to root for her.

All in all, Slip is a classic case of great theory, poor execution. I would have loved to have given this a higher rating, but I was disappointed and uncomfortable with too many elements to justify it.

✨ Representation: Jade and Mary are queer; multiple characters are BIPOC (no specific representation is mentioned for any of them)

 I've never read the original version of Ten Days in a Mad-House, but after reading this adaptation, I'd be open to doing so — only once I recover from the massive amounts of rage and hurt that welled up within me while reading this book. As a woman who faces my own mental health obstacles (and quite a few of them if we're being frank here), there are few things that truly rattle me quite like looking into the past and coming to terms with how I and so many of my loved ones might have been treated, had we only been born a hundred years earlier.

Ten Days in a Mad-House follows Nellie's secret integration into a mental health hospital (though I'm not sure if "hospital" is the right term here, given that it implies some sort of actual care) in order to expose the terrible living conditions of the women therein. She tells not only of abusive staff and horrible treatment practices, but she also dwells a lot on how many women who were trapped there seemed to not need any sort of medical intervention in the first place. (On one hand, I think the added attention to how "sane" some of these women were discounted the fact that nobody, regardless of their mental state, deserved these treatments; on the other hand, Nellie's extra details here may very well have helped everyone across the board, as I can unfortunately very easily imagine a jury being more stricken with empathy for some patients than others.)

All in all, there's probably a bit to be said about Nellie's motives and the ethics behind how she carried out her research, but it's important to note that she made a big impact on the treatment of patients and blew the cover off of a massively disgusting practice (which would continue to be terrible for many decades to come, regardless, but I have to think it was somehow improved by Nellie's works). I appreciate the fact that the creators responsible for adapting this work even mentioned in the afterword how important it is to consider both the intent and impact here.

And finally, speaking of the book as an adaptation itself, while I haven't read the source material, I found the graphic novel to stand on its own incredibly well. The art was well-done, the dialogue and story were easy to follow, and I found it overall very informative and enjoyable (albeit emotionally difficult). I highly recommend it, whether you're new to Ten Days in a Mad-House or looking to experience it again in a new, fresh way. 

 Eat the Rich follows a young woman meeting her extremely wealthy boyfriend's family for the first time, and immediately being thrust into some pretty shocking scenarios with a bunch of creepy, rich assholes. I liked the general premise of this storyline alright, but it wasn't doing anything for me in execution. I feel like Eat the Rich is one of those rare cases where I really didn't care for a book, but I can't possibly explain why (which makes this a pretty crummy "not really a review" review, so I apologize for that). Between the writing coming off as odd and stilted, the characters feeling flat, and the art not belonging to any styles I particularly enjoy, nothing about Eat the Rich worked for me and I don't believe I'll continue the series.
 

I'm sad to say that, despite how excited I was to finally read my first Becky Chambers title ever, this was a massive let-down. I found the plot and world development terribly lacking, and I didn't enjoy Sibling Dex's character at all. I loved the casual queerness and the idea of this future where humans actually start getting it right and working to preserve their surroundings, and I loved Mosscap's character, but all in all, I believe this novella would have worked out far better as a full-length novel, and I don't have any desire to continue the series. I would be willing to check out more of Becky's work, just not in the Monk & Robot storyline.

Buddy read with Caro! ♥

✨ Representation: Dex is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns 

 Oh my god, this was incredible. The story this retells is one of my absolute favorite urban legends of all time, but Khaw went and kicked it up a tremendous notch by throwing their own fresh spin on it, and I loved it.
 

 

I've been meaning to check out P. Djèlí Clark's writing for far too long, and I'm so happy that I finally did, because Ring Shout absolutely blew me away and Clark is a new auto-read author for me, 100%. This novella was incredible! It's packed tight with action, intensity, history, and it all revolves around a trio of badass monster-hunting Black women that I immediately loved upon meeting. It isn't often that I read a book that leaves me feeling genuinely privileged to have experienced it, but Ring Shout is one of those special few.

I truly don't know where to begin with how highly I recommend this book. I loved the characters, the narrative voice, the fantastical elements, and the entire general premise of Ring Shout. Not only was it such a tremendously enjoyable story, but there was the added element of having learned a few things about Black history that I didn't know before. (I've learned since reading the novella that the author is also a historian, so that checks out!)

I also have to shout out the audiobook narrator, Channie Waites, for going above and beyond. Even when I wanted to read the book visually, I ended up putting my headphones in and listening while I read along with the ebook because the narration added so much extra jazz to the story! (I think this was the first time I'd ever done that, if that tells you what a raving compliment that is from me, someone who doesn't listen to audiobooks particularly often in the first place.)

Seriously, if you haven't picked up Ring Shout yet, do yourself and favor and fix that. Meanwhile, I'll be over here adding all of Clark's other works to my TBR! (Oh, and sincerely hoping that we get another novella in this world, because I was not ready to say goodbye.)

✨ Representation: almost all characters are Black; Chef is queer

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!