Charles continues to assist Margo on another series of monster cases in Echo City. Together they tackle a house that seems to be haunted with some kind of poltergeist-- and then answer a call from a gang of teenage vampires who are being haunted by human teens! Charles' new mission comes into focus: educate kids about monsters so they know which are dangerous, and which are merely quirky neighbors. An extremely enjoyable sequel!

Half romance, half political space opera, this book is filled with many delightful and familiar fanfiction tropes- arranged marriage, hurt/comfort, and huddling for warmth all make an appearance. Another huge part of the plot centers around one of the characters being a widow and survivor of domestic abuse. His past trauma informs a huge part of his behavior, so if that's a topic you need to steer clear of, maybe avoid this book.

The story begins when disappointing minor royal, Prince Kiem (university drop-out and frequent tabloid fodder) is informed he must marry the recently widowed Count Jainan, an ambassador from one of the empire's vassal planets. The marriage is rushed, because an important upcoming galactic treaty must be signed by a pair of linked representatives. Kiem is attracted to but deeply intimidated by his new partner, whose silences he interprets as grief. Jainan is in shock, and anxiously tries to figure out what his new relationship and duties will entail- especially as it comes to light that his first husband may have been murdered, not killed in a piloting accident. I saw some reviews calling this a comfort read; that's not what I'd call it. A lot of the story involves both leads being very stressed/nervous and the awkward miscommunications that result. I listened to the audiobook and I did enjoy it, but it was a 3.5 stars book for me; I decided to round up instead of down, because it left me interested to see what the author will write next.

August moves to NYC as a transfer student to Brooklyn College, expecting to find a harsh city that can only be survived by cynicism, intelligence and independence, three things she has in abundance. What she does not expect to find: three wonderful, queer roommates, who adopt her immediately. (One of them is a psychic and he says she has good vibes). A job at a 24 hour pancake diner. A girl on the subway who takes her breath away-- and who she sees every time she gets on the Q without fail. Jane is punk rock with a heart of gold: funny, kind, sexy as hell. She's also trapped on the Q and displaced from time after an unknown mysterious incident bound her soul to the subway in 1977. August sets out to try and figure out how to get Jane back to her own time, even if it means getting her heart broken in the process. This book is such a fun, fast read, a queer romance with a supernatural twist. Were there some things I had to actively suspend my disbelief about? Yes, but I'd still recommend it.

What a fantastic collection of essays! Kai Cheng Thom as been on my radar for a while, after listening to two great podcast interviews with her (season 4 episode 16 of Secret Feminist Agenda, and episode 81 of Gender Reveal). I'm so glad I finally picked up this book, which was shorter than I was expecting, but packed with many ideas about queer community, accountability, the often overlapping groups of survivors and perpetrators of violence, social justice movements, transformative justice versus healing, suicide, mental health and mentorship. All of the chapters center the concerns and well being of trans women of color and queer people. There are a few passages in here I will be thinking about for a long time, especially from the essay titled "A School for Storytellers." This is a book I plan to reread.

A very fun, queer, gothic comedy horror Sherlock Holmes pastiche. The main character, and our story's narrator, is Captain John Wyndham, a trans man recently returned from military service and in need of a living situation in Khelathra-Ven. Half of this ancient city is drowned under the waves and can only be accessed by submersibles which regularly ferry passengers past the towers of dead gods. Wyndham ends up rooming with the consulting sorceress Ms. Shaharazad Haas at 221B Martyrs Walk, and when she is approached by a client who has been blackmailed, Wyndham joins Haas in the investigation. Don't expect a logical or tightly plotted mystery that could reasonably be solved via clues. Do expect lesbian vampires, cursed theater productions, ghosts, necromancers, alternate dimensions, and a bad-tempered landlady (who happens to be a sentient hive of insects inhabiting a rotting corpse). I listened to most of this as an audiobook and enjoyed it, though I had to take breaks every now and then because there are a lot of metanarrative asides ("My editor suggests at this juncture that I describe the scene in more detail...") that I would probably have skimmed if reading the book in print.

This book is just as gentle and thought-provoking as all of Chamber's work. It takes place over about one week on a barren truck-stop world with no native air, water or life. Many enterprising species have built habitation domes on the planet to serve as pit-stops for the travelers from the Galactic Commons and beyond who filter through its wormholes. The Five-Hop One-Stop is a relaxing multi-species rest place, with a garden, bathhouse, refueling station and shuttle parking, run by a quadrupedal mammalian alien and her teenage child. One fateful afternoon three visitors all of different species are trapped at the Five-Hop One-Stop by a freak satellite accident that temporarily grounds all ships and crashes planet-wide comms. This unlikely gathering- an exiled artist, a soldier on leave, and a barterer- end up spending the time sheltering in place together, striking unlikely friendships and emotional clashes. I listened as a audiobook and loved it.

Very mixed reviews of this one. It has a lot of fatphobic language and a few throw-away racist lines that really caught me off guard in such a classic favorite YA novel. I did really like the portrayal of long distance friendship though, a topic that's fairly hard to find in media (at least, if you are looking for a long distance relationship that never turns romantic.) Unsurprisingly, I was most invested in Tibby's storyline, though I thought the book did a pretty good job balancing the action amongst the four protagonists. I really liked the short letters they each sent each other, but I'm unlikely to recommend this book in the future.

I bought this book after seeing it on several lists of queer contemporary fiction by Indian authors. The unnamed protagonist shares many similarities with the author- both are young doctors who grew up in Ghatshila and later worked as medical officers in the employ of the government of Jharkhand. However, the author published the book as fiction, not memoir. The story is divided into three sections, "Lover", "Friend", and "Father" and each tells of a pivotal relationship the protagonist had with these three different men. The lover is a fellow med school student who is very receptive to sex and furtive semi-dating, but is engaged to a woman living in another city. The friend is a head clerk of the hospital, and a "guy who knows a guy" for anything anyone in his neighborhood needs to get done, from purchasing property to registering to vote. The protagonist's father was a rising political hopeful in the Hindu India Party, a rare Santhal candidate during the years before Jharkhand was granted statehood. Through all of these various stories, the protagonist's loneliness and yearning for connection are a constant thread. The prose is clear, emotionally honest, and full of detail. Occasional lines of dialogue are not in English, and there were a lot of terms I wasn't familiar with, but that didn't take away from my reading pleasure. I want to read more from this author.