Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy! 

Now available.

As a long time fan of the Poetry Is Not A Luxury instagram account, this book was a treat! It's a beautiful collection of contemporary poets, alongside a few classics, all in harmony and conversation with each other. Organized into four seasons, each section propels you forward toward a carthic release. I just wish it was longer!

what a way to end the story!! While i'm not a huge fan of Mark Twain because I find it difficult to extract his craft from his beliefs, I love the way Percival Everett breathes new life into the story of Huckelberry Finn. the plot twists toward the end had me TENSE and I wish we got to see a little bit more at the end. in many ways, the story reminded me of Colson Whitehead's Underground Railroad or Maurice Ruffin's American Daughters- a reclaiming of past narratives and giving agency to Black characters. 

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Now available. 

Leila Mottley's second novel, The Girls Who Grew Big, is a sympathetic look at young mothers in the Florida Panhandle. Just like the movie The Florida Project, Mottley romanticizes the deep poverty and abuse the Girls face. The writing is deeply poignant and often takes several flashbacks before we meet with the present moment and the secondary characters are hazy at best. Yet the stakes are so high for the Girls that it is impossible to look away. And maybe that's what the Girls need, just someone to look at all their glory and pain.

I think it's hard to read SJ Sindu's work in short form because I'm so used to her long, sprawling prose in Blue Skinned God's. I loved so much about this collection - the inherent queerness of the characters, Oscar Wilde's noncommital ghost, the magical elements sprinkled throughout. However, as a collection, the transitions between the stories felt abrupt and I wanted to linger in each story longer.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for this Advanced Copy!

Available August 2025.

SJ Sindu is one of my favorite queer South Asian authors - the beautiful way she addresses storytelling and family relations. What struck me most about this book is the way the start and end are mirror reflections of each other, this book doesn't shy away from the complicated history of Tamil resistance in Sri Lanka, but it sees the people as everyday people navigating complicated relationships. As a reader, I am left emotionally gutted but whole, like water folding in on itself.

Wow this is like an NBA All Star Lineup when your favorite players are on the same team! SJ Sindhu and Nabi H Ali are two of my favorite queer South Asian artists and to watch them create this beautiful story is everything. Even as an adult, there were deep themes about healing, trauma, and family that I found inspirational. The illustrations are so cute and I love how the world building is so seamless. ❤️❤️❤️

I devoured this book between tasks like emptying the dishwasher, giving my four year old a bath, driving him to school, folding laundry, and walking him to sleep. it's just that good. When we had a *surprise* guest writer 3/4s through the book, I was sobbing. are there some questionable characters? yes. is this still a very very good book that will lift your spirits and make you laugh and also be glad you never bleached your butthole? yes.

WOW! I loved this debut collection of short stories from Demtee McGhee. It lingers on the uncomfortable parts of growing up as a Black woman in America, leaning into the gross, the misshapen and the just plain ugly and rendering it tender and haunting and beautiful. the characters in these stories are for sure strange people, but they are also human and alive and McGhee captures that tension between voueryism and honest self reflection well. 

i think this book was trying to do a lot and also i wish the narrator choose Leili. some of the descriptions are beautiful and overwrought and as a whole it could use a lighter touch. 

While I am unfamiliar with Patricia Highsmith's work, I think this graphic novel does a great job at characterizing a queer, white woman writer in the early 50s and 60s in all her battles with gender and sexual identity.