Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is considered a hallmark of LGBTQ fiction in the Young Adult genre, and after reading, I could see why, (besides that it came out in 2012 when the only other gay fiction was by David Levithan).

After reading the first few chapters and checking the author bio, I was not surprised to learn that Sáenz is also a poet. His sparse, evocative style reminded me a short story's synergy of prose and poem. With Aristotle and Dante, that short story was drawn out to novel length. The characters, especially the parents, are fully realized and loveable. The relationships are awesome, and the desert mood delicious. The discussions of race are very real and echo conversations I've heard friends of color have. I also savored that particular magic of authenticity that happens when a male author writes about queer men. The great feelings behind very little words, the never-ending search, and the recourse to nature reminded me a lot of my brother. I'm not sure if those elements would have been present with a female author.

The two hiccups, which dropped my rating from five stars, are spoilers.

Late in the novel, Dante and Ari's parents, on separate occasions, sit Ari down to tell him he's queer. As a queer person and writer myself, this storytelling move feels quite bizarre. At this point, Ari has spent the whole novel trying to understand himself...and yet he's not the one to figure out something as intimate and personal as his own sexuality? Further, the reveal that Ari's brother is a violent transmisogynist came waaaaaay out of left field. Sure, his brother would not live up the ideal Ari set, but in a novel full of delicate feelings and short, tender eternities why describe a deed so cruel and hateful? Why against trans people? These writing decisions confused me.

While Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe isn't a perfect book, it's a hecking good one and perfect for summer. I definitely recommend it to fans of gay YA.

Another stunner from Meredith Russo! I'm a big fan of If I Was Your Girl, so when I heard Russo was writing another book, I snapped up a copy from Barnes & Noble. I could talk about Birthday for ages, but I'll try to condense my thoughts down for a decent review, haha.

Birthday follows two teens who were born on the same day and whose families are irrevocably intertwined for it. Each chapter covers one birthday, going from thirteenth to eighteenth, and switches perspectives between our leads, Eric and Morgan. As the years pass, Morgan and Eric struggle with family, friends, and high school. Morgan has known she's a girl since she was thirteen, but lives in fear to ever tell anyone and desperately misses her mother, who died from cancer. Eric wants to be a good man and a son, but only toxic masculine role models surround him.

Speaking of masculinity, it is a major theme of the novel, which surprised me in the best of ways. With the precision of a surgeon, Russo cuts American masculinity open to show readers how toxic gender roles pass from generation to generation. If that wasn't enough, Russo intersects this phenomenon with class, showing how poverty and small town mentality can reinforce toxic gender concepts. Not being a man myself, I feel I learned a lot about what my male family members must have gone through.

Jumping from masculinity to femininity, Morgan's journey to become herself is absolutely gut-wrenching. Real and raw, this story feels like a possible pre-cursor to Amanda's in If I Was Your Girl. While Amanda has already come to terms with her gender, Morgan fights the loneliness, confusion, anger, and ravaged mental health that comes from being mis-gendered and unseen. Sometimes it was tough to get through Eric's POV sections: each time he uses he/him pronouns for Morgan feels like a violence.

Besides the master craft Russo puts into her themes, Birthday also boasts engaging and vivid the plot and characters. Also tears. I cried real tears and needed breaks between chapters. AHHH, just read this novel and let it destroy and mend you again. Read, read, read this book!!!!

Here we are again and it is such a pleasure. Sort of.

Chronicling our beloved characters' lives from March 1773 to December 1776, A Breath of Snow and Ashes is full of fiery delights and fiery ends. As settlers reel from the War of the Regulation, a band of marauders stalks the Carolina backcountry. Presbyterian fisher-folk, including the vocal Christie family, settle on Fraser's Ridge, and a generation of teenagers explore the pathways of their hearts and veer towards self-destruction. Jamie acts as the King's agent to the local Cherokee tribes. Fergus and Marsali question whether farming life is right for them. Roger decides to become a minister. Ian mourns his wife. Stephen Bonnet stalks the waterways. First Phaedre and now the Bonnie Prince's gold have disappeared from River Run. The only things growing faster than Claire's healing business are the whispers of witchcraft. Lord John and Willie despair as Jamie's Tory, Loyalist facade crumbles to reveal his Whiggist American ideals. The revolution begins, and, of course, the bloody house burns down.

Yeah, so, if you can't tell from the mess of all that plot, it's basically a Gabaldon fiction. Like the other two books set in the American Colonies, A Breath of Snow and Ashes does not have a focused, overarching narrative. One could conceivably argue that A Breath focuses on the thematic question of "When does the Revolution begin?" Does it really start with the battle of Lexington and Concord? Or is it before that, in the minds and hearts of individuals who bend themselves toward change? What about for Claire, a British citizen, who only knows this history secondhand? Has it already happened for Brianna, a modern USA citizen? What about Jamie, who goes against clan, oath, and his very nature to be on "the right side of history" for once? Gabaldon explores this theme well.

However elegant the subtextual question is explored though, the textual plot of novel is haphazard at best. While Gabaldon's struggles with POV are over, this book's plot structure is distractingly bad. In broadstroke, A Breath reads like a series of novellas, which are taped together by occupying the same characters and the above question of revolution. Each novella's plot arc is told about 75% of the way through, abruptly ends, and the next chapter moves on to a different novella. It leaves characters and threads hanging and is unsatisfying to read. In the last 200 pages, Gabaldon remembers to finish her plot lines, and all is wrapped up in a tidy bow...which would be great if that felt in any way organic and not the author showing their hand. I'd heard in The Outlandish Companion that Gabaldon's writing process involves sort of writing big puzzle pieces and then fitting these pieces together later. That's super apparent here, and maybe her editor should have been more rigorous in the fitting.

Here's an example

One day, Claire receives a mysterious letter from Phaedre, telling her to come to River Run. A big hubbub of speculation is made about what Phaedre could need so badly, and Jamie and Claire drop everything to rush to River Run. Once there, Phaedre has disappeared, and Ulysses tells them about a missing ingot of French gold. The writing clearly gears up for a mystery. Jamie and Claire interview suspects and post notices. Jocasta reveals that Phaedre is Hector's daughter, and we find out Duncan and Phaedre have been having an affair. I am, like, so jazzed at this point. OMG intrigue! OMG confirmation of loving biracial relationships!! OMG what if they set Phaedre and her baby free!!! No. None of that happens. Jamie and Claire find out all these cool things, look at each other, shrug, and leave River Run, saying they can't do anything more. Next chapter. We don't get a resolution until 500 pages later, when we find out Phaedre was sold by Ulysses and ended up as Stephen Bonnet's kitchen maid on a tiny island of pirates and we get one (1) sentence about how afterwards they send her to Wilmington to work. That's it. All that build-up only to be torn away and then resolved so quickly and randomly. It's frustrating.

My other big bone to pick with the novel involves sexual violence and violence against women. As an amateur historian, I have a lot of respect for Gabaldon in her Outlander books, with how she doesn't gloss over how common sexual assault and even rape was in this time period. The threat of sexual violence is so, so high, even today. In past novels, these traumas feel organic to the plot and characters. The instances of violence are well woven in and dealt with respectfully. In A Breath of Snow and Ashes however, there are instances of gang rape, incest, and the sexual slave trade, and these moments are not given the same weight and space as in previous novels. They feel more like random events inserted in to give the characters something to react to and a chance to show off historical research. It was awful to read and awful to stomach. Bleh.

While I still love the characters and will continue to follow their journey, I'm not as keen on the series as I once was. Here's hoping that An Echo in the Bone goes better.

As I've roamed the Twitter lands, I've heard roars and whispers about how awesome and needed Menon's writing is. The Dimple and Rishi universe has been celebrated and rightfully lauded in tons of blogs and book websites. After falling in love with From Twinkle, With Love, I was all the more eager to jump into Menon's debut series.

Dimple Shah is a computer science nerd with her whole life planned out. She's going to work her butt off, take the web development world by storm, and break glass ceilings everywhere. After her acceptance at Stanford, the next step in her plan is to attend the prestigious Insomnia Con and win a tête-à-tête with her coding idol, Jenny Lindt. Everything is going smoothly until a problem in the form of a boy walks up and excitedly tells her she is his future wife. What??? (Reader, she throws her coffee on him and it's FANTASTIC)

Rishi Patel is a definitely-not-what-are-you-talking-about comic art nerd, with his whole life planned out. He's a dutiful son and proud Indian American, who will purse engineering and computers like his father (that career pays the bills, duh!). His parents have arranged Dimple Shah to be a potential marriage candidate, and they're going to hit it off at Insomnia Con, attend college and grad school together, get married, and be the ultimate Indian American power couple. Rishi knows it. Everything is going smoothly until he gets coffee thrown at him.

This book is fantastic. Reading When Dimple Met Rishi gave me the same feeling I get when I arrive home after a long day of fighting the patriarchy, take a hot shower, wrap myself in a fuzzy blanket burrito, and drink hot chocolate. It's so comforting and feminist, and yet realistic about the obstacles Dimple faces being a women of color in the tech field. Rishi is such a positive masculine character, and Dimple's fire is such an inspiration. On a craft level, Menon performs interesting rapid POV switches between her two leads, and she pulls off this storytelling choice with aplomb.

Another thing that drew me to the book was I wanted to read a counterpoint to the many, many Western/white authored stories of arranged marriage going horribly awry. In these stories, the tradition of arranged marriage is very fraught, almost sinister and frightening, because of how easily it transforms into forced marriage. But I know the statistics: 90% of marriages in India are arranged; India has one of the lowest divorce rates in the world. Menon's work shows that arranged marriages can be loving, and arranged partners can bring out the best in each other. Dimple and Rishi's compatibility and their parents' support of their decisions are breaths of fresh air in the book world.

In sum, if you're looking for a fluffy, feminist love story with strong characters and smashed clichés, treat yourself to When Dimple Met Rishi already!

Creatures of Darkness is back for a third book and it's better than ever.

Hoping that an all-out vampire war has been averted with Alana's death, Rose, Kallis, and Eric return to the States. Peace is still elusive, however, when the Assassins show what humans can do with centuries of training and planning behind them. All too soon, Kara and Aaron are in their home, recruiting for the war effort, planning counter-attacks, and reaching out hands of alliance with the nearby Village of the Undead. Meanwhile, the blood bond between Kara and Rose is overwhelming in its intensity, Rose's brother has important Sibling Teasing Duties(TM) to get to, Audrey & Owen are back, and Rose's eyes are...turning black???

There is A LOT going on in this novel, and Jackson weaves her plotlines with aplomb. The characters sparkle off the page, and Jackson does not shy away from nuance in backstory and action. The world builds with the Village of the Undead, and it was fun to see how more modern vampires lived. As for the fight between the Assassins and the vampires, I admired how Jackson didn't shy away from real world parallels. In fact, she fully embraces the fantasy's genre's ability to address contemporary problems through a lens of unreality. It made my heart twist, and I was all the more invested.

Putting on a more fannish hat, can I say!!! Kara and Rose!!! So good together!!! AHHHH, love them to bits!!!! Creatures of Darkness is still going strong, and I can already tell the finale will leave me a crying wreck. I'm going to miss this series when it's over.

The second book in the Dimple and Rishi universe and my third time reading Menon's work, There's Something About Sweetie pulls no punches. Menon's intersectional feminist vision and brilliant wordcraft shine in this fat-positive novel about proving yourself.

Months after the events of the first book, Dimple and Rishi are more in love than ever. Ashish and Celia, meanwhile, are...decidedly not. After she cheats on him with a college dudebro, Ashish's heart snaps in half. With a broken heart, nothing else works: not basketball, not grades, and definitely not his dating skills. Desperate, he decides to do something he's never done before: ask his parents for help.

Sweetie is the second fastest high schooler in the state of California, earns stellar grades, and has very good friends, but none of that matters to her mother. All her mother sees is that her daughter is fat. She harps on it all day, every day, and the last straw is when Amma turns down a dating contract from Ashish's mother, saying that such a handsome, talented son like Ashish would never date a fat girl. Determined to prove her mother wrong, Sweetie accepts the proposal herself, and she and Ashish embark on a dating journey like no other.

While I don't consider myself skinny, I have little experience with fatphobia. For me, Menon's work was eye-opening to the twisted illogic fat people can be subjected to, and oof, it is sinister. At times I had to put the book down and breathe for a moment to re-orient myself. It's definitely the darkest theme Menon has tackled so far in her work, and the urgent need for body positivity and acceptance are a running theme.

As far as the romance, There's Something About Sweetie holds Menon's trademark sparkle and fluff. I adored Sweetie and Ashish together, in all their trope-y goodness. The friend and parent characters are refreshingly well-developed, and I can tell Menon is truly invested in this world now. I'm still left dazzled and wondering how Menon pulls off her quick POV switches with such grace and ease.

My only quibble is something probably only readers who have raced through the series like me would ever complain about. Despite/whatever the professed interests of the protagonists, the plot obstacles always seem to come back to theater performances. In From Twinkle, With Love, that worked perfectly since Twinkle is a director. In When Dimple Met Rishi, it was a little awkward because the setting was a coding camp, and all the coding happened off-screen, yanno, just, ah, over there. In There's Something About Sweetie I was really expecting a track meet or a basketball game to be a major plot point since Ashish is a basketball player and Sweetie is track star. It's a Big Thing that Sweetie is fat and an athlete, so it would make sense that tension would gather there. Plus, researching high school athletics is less daunting than high caliber mobile app creation. Instead, the climax takes place at a concert fundraiser for Sweetie's track jerseys. On the one hand, it's cool that a book series is depicting STEM majors and athletes with varied interests. The fact that Dimple likes coding and Sweetie likes running doesn't exclude ALSO liking dancing and singing. Three books in though, it's weird that Menon isn't just letting herself write about the theater she so clearly loves. It might be because there are so few books about Indian American women, so she feels the need to spread the representation? I don't know. Again, this is only a quibble and maybe I just shouldn't read three contemporary romance novels in a row, haha.

All and all, There's Something About Sweetie is a lovely, much needed book. Read it, read it, read it.

The biggest mystery of We Hunt the Flame is why it doesn't have 457635873658 awards.

Based on ancient Arabia, the land of Arawiya is crumbling. A forest of dark silence and tempting whispers eats the edges of its map, and the trees are more persuasive and swallow more acres every year. Very few people dare walk the black forest, and only the Hunter Zafira has come out with her sanity in tact. Worse, magic is leaking out of the land and the people, so if the forest doesn't get them, their land's cursed eternal winter will. When the mysterious Silver Witch appears before Zafira and offers her the chance to return magic to the people and banish the forest, Zafira grabs at the opportunity...only to find that she isn't the only person the Silver Witch has given this mission. The Prince of Death is on his way.

I haven't read high fantasy in quite a long while, and We Hunt the Flame reminded me of why I like the genre. The world building, the magic system, and the characters were meticulous and precisely written. I got lost in the beauty of the language and the images it conjured. I love the message of hope behind the title, and the dynamics between the characters were amazing. In typical YA fashion, the two leads do fall for one another. I'm not usually a fan of enemies-to-lovers, but Faizal pulls it off with panache and believably.

I'm already eager for the next book, and I'm so glad we already have a release date! 2020 is looking bright!