She Dwarf might be the last of her kind, but this only fuels her desire for adventure, danger, and travel. Her famous warrior mother died before she could lead She Dwarf though the final coming of age trials, so our hero is on a quest to find the lost kingdom of Dwarves to see what knowledge she can gain from the ruins. A long the way she battles and befriends a whimsical cast of misfits who end up tagging along for the journey for reasons of their own. This story is action packed, fun, beautifully drawn and extremely aesthetically queer though there are no outright discussions of anyone's gender or sexuality. I highly recommend this comic for fantasy comic fans of all ages, it was released during covid and never got the promotion or attention it deserved. Buy this book for someone for the holidays! 

I absolutely loved this collection of queer fairy tales. I'd read about half of them online (Melanie Gillman posts an original fairy tale comic every year in October, on 24 hour comic day) but it was a pleasure to see these familiar pieces presented in this new anthology. I also loved all of the new stories and the interwoven themes of belonging, self-naming, queer love, rebellion, and abolition of monarchy in fantasy settings. All of the art is done by colored pencil and the rich tones, smooth shading, and smart color palettes all please me right down to my artist's core. 

Jade, a ceramic artist, is accepted into a prestigious summer camp for teen artists hoping to build their portfolios and win college scholarships. Three weeks before she is due to leave, her best friend Phoebe attempts suicide, and Jade isn't able to see Phoebe or speak to her before Jade has to leave for art camp. She is naturally distracted, not able to focus solely on her work because she's thinking so much about her friend. Then some of Jade's sketches and sculptures start to come to life, and Jade has to rethinking why she makes art, what she's trying to express, and who it is for. This is a beautifully illustrated and emotional coming of age story with a queer lead. The plot is quite simple but I was drawn in by the limited palate, dry bush line art, and the creative struggle. 

This is an essay collection I know I will return to again and again. Hannah McGregor, host of two of my favorite podcasts, Witch Please and Secret Feminist Agenda, tells the story of her own feminist education through six essays written in the first person, a deliberate act to carry over the voice she developed in podcasts into her writing. The first essay introduces a theme that recurs throughout of the uses and agendas of sentimental literature, especially books about white women caring deeply about things, in a way that can spark equal emotion in the reader, which has the potential to either, or both, stir political action or else prop up white supremacy. One of the major questions of the text is whether reading certain kinds of books, or reading in certain kinds of ways, can make the reader a better person- more empathetic, more motivated to strive for justice and equality. Caring about others is a feminist project, and McGregor questions where this care falls inside institutions like the university, who is able to ask for and receive care, who is able to give it or refuse giving it. McGregor asks these questions as a queer, fat, asexual, white university professor with a tenured position and constantly acknowledges her own position and also where her knowledge comes from. One of my favorite pieces is the many quotes woven through the text, as well as references to longer conversations I experienced in podcast form. I am so grateful for this book, and excited to annotate it on my second pass!

What an excellent conclusion to a three-book mystery arc! This one picks up right where the second one left off with Stevie, our anxious and brilliant teen detective, trying to fit together the pieces after a third death in as many months, with hints, rumors and uncertainty on every side. And oh how those pieces fit! I don't even want to say anything about the plot because to do so might spoil some of the events of the first two books, but I think this one is the best yet of the series and I am excited to see what comes next. 

An excellent second installment in the Wayward Children series. This one follows two characters we got to know in the first book, twins Jack and Jill, daughter of a pair of yuppie control freaks who didn't let their children make any of their own choices. No wonder a door opened for them, and let them escape into another world. It was a world of vampires, werewolves, and cursed sea monsters, but it was still better than what they'd left behind. I enjoyed this a lot, but was also interested from a writing perspective to think about how much territory it retread from information given in book one; and how successful it still felt despite that. It made me reflect on my own relation to ideas that feel "book worthy" and whether I could also be developing smaller thoughts into satisfying stories. 

High schooler Ryo knows that he's trans, but doesn't feel like he can tell anyone; it seems safer to repress this part of his identity. His school system requires gendered uniforms and Ryo hates wearing skirts, so tries to get away with wearing his PE track suit to school as often as possible. But he also fears standing out and the potential judgement of his peers. The only time Ryo feels like himself is after school when he roams the city in his own chosen street style, expressing his frustration and yearning through graffiti art. When Jin, a rough looking older boy who had to repeat a grade, joins Ryo's class, Ryo plans to steer clear of him. But then Ryo runs into Jin in a store and it turns out they share a taste in fashion and buried desire to break out of the molds society has built for them. Jin urges Ryo to start a fashion brand and tell his truth to the world at last. I was excited to try a manga series which centers a trans character, and which is also written by a trans author. This first book was a little shaky for me. The emotional beats felt clunky and rushed, and the antagonist boringly stereotypical. Nevertheless, I like the premise a lot, and will probably read at least one more volume to see if the writing smooths out a bit farther into the series. 

This series introduces Eleanor West's Home For Wayward Children, a boarding school for children who, like Alice, fell into another world; and returned to find they were completely out of step with life back on home. Some of these children went to magical fairylands full of rainbows and rhymes. Others went to strict authoritarian worlds ruled by logic and law. Nancy went to the land of the dead, and spent a peaceful year learning the values of stillness, silence, and the whispers of ghosts. She hates Earth on her return and the pressures of her family to "just be normal." But she finds companionship and understanding at Eleanor West's school. Until, that is, a bloody murder shocks the little school community and fear and suspicion turn in Nancy's direction. This is a slim fairy tale of a book, not a murder mystery. I loved this unique take on portal fantasy and the magical boarding school genres. The story includes trans and asexual characters, which I appreciated, even though I found some of the dialogue around those identities a little chunky. I sped through the short audiobook in just a few days and plan to keep reading this series. 

I was given the opportunity to read this book ahead of its release! Here's the blurb I wrote for it: Life does not deliver a series of discrete events, but a tangle of overlapping experiences. The author was working on a mathematics degree, playing on a hockey team, and slowly coming out as trans and nonbinary when their mom was diagnosed with cancer. This book weaves memories from the author's childhood with scenes from the last few months of their mother's life into a tender story of acceptance, care, and love. The heavy moments are lightened by the portrayal of the family as penguins, with friends and strangers as a flock of other birds, but the story is deeply human.

One day, all of the animals of the world wake up to human level consciousness, and most of them turn to violence against their human oppressors. Humans reel in the aftermath of this complete overturn of the world as we've known it. A few animals stay loyal to their human families, and this story follow one of them- Sandor, an elderly bloodhound, who promises his 11 year old human Jess that he will keep her say and travel with her across the country to find a half brother she has never met. Fast paced and thought provoking, the first of a ongoing series.