This is a very heartbreaking, informative and essential book about the history of Iran and the protests in 2022 after the morality police murdered Mahsa Amini for not wearing her veil the way the law says she should. There are illustrations and short bios of people who were murdered by the regime, and each one is so devastating to read. In additon there's also explanations about wealth inequality, effects of climate change, the extinction of leopards, and schoolchildren being poisoned. This book is a good reminder that the fight for freedom is always worth it.

I bought a used copy of this in 2023 and I'm so annoyed that I didn't read it sooner. This collection of stories is so gorgeously written. There's scifi, dark fantasy and horror in these stories. Themes that appear multiple times in these stories are family, birds, grief, loss, and mirrors. Although I spent more time admiring the beautiful cover art, the exquisite writing in these stories had me captivated. I'm eager to read more from Georgina Bruce. :)

This is a phenomenonal collection of stories. I don't remember where I learned of this book but I'm so glad I checked it out. It has a lot of uncanny and surreal moments. There's an emphasis on family, tradition, gender roles, and class. It's all written with so much empathy and care. The horror and fantasy elements in some stories are subtle but effectively written. I am definitely eager to read more from 'Pemi Aguda. :)

This is cosmic horror mixed with small town horror. The main characters are Ellie Brower, whose daughter Dawn went missing three years, and Mitch Green, whose daughter Kya is best friends with Dawn. When Ellie and Mitch get a text message from their daughters' disconnected phones and learn that they came from somewhere in Virginia, they find Lacuna's Point and end up trapped there. Strange and terrifying things happen in the town and the locals are very hostile, especially the cop. The town also has a clocktower that occasionally goes off, and the sound of it causes the townsfolk to go into a trance.  Ellie and Mitch meet some other people who also became trapped in Lacuna's Point and form a plan to escape.

I really, really enjoyed this book. The characters are all well-written and even though there are many povs in this book I was able to tell them apart. Although when the Mayor went on one of his speeches, I wanted to shout at him to just shut the fuck up but that's how it is with villains so I'm not too mad about that. My favorite part of this book was the friendship between Kya and Dawn. That was such a joy to read about. There's also some commentary about racism as well as the consumption and creation of art. After reading this and Paradise Club I am excited to read more from Tim Meyer.

This a beautiful and heartbreaking collection of poems about grief, family, nature, and climate change. I'm glad I decided to check this out from the library.

Lenore is an angry and bitter woman, and when she describes her childhood and marriage to Henry Crowther, her feelings are understandable. When Lenore and Henry move to the moorlands for a hunting party, a strange woman has an "accident" and stays with them. This woman is Carmilla and Lenore finds herself both drawn to her and repelled at the same time. Carmilla awakens desires that Lenore wasn't aware that she had.

This book is so gothic and sapphic. Lenore is a complex and insufferable character but so well-written and interesting. I was hoping the entire time that she'd kill her pathetic, piece of shit husband. The earlier interactions between Carmilla and Lenore were frustrating to read due to how Lenore is stubborn when she insists on sticking to propriety and being seen as a dutiful and devoted wife. Once she starts going after what she wants things get both better and worse for Lenore. Overall I really like this book and would recommend it to readers who like gothic horror.

CW: transphobia, animal death

This is a coming of age fantasy about Lorel, a trans girl who joins with a coven to learn witchcraft. Her friend Lane would rather be a knight so Lorel offers to take her place and does her best to not be discovered by the witches and whelps (that's the word for girls training to become witches). Besides that, there's also the matter of trees going cold and dying which is known as the blight, and a duchess who aspires to be a queen. 

One of my favorite things while reading this was the descriptions of how the witches' bodies change after prolonged use of magic. For instance one witch has goat legs and wings, and another grows horns. Another thing I really liked reading about is how some witches use magic to prevent pregnancy. Also I did not expect this book to have a character who's an aroace knight, which was pretty cool. However I did not like it when Lorel calls him celibate because asexuality is not celibacy.

 Some of the major themes in this book are individualism, collectivism and anarchy. The parts where Lorel has fun interacting with her friends were enjoyable, although there were times when it felt that they were unnecessarily cruel to her. Even though I didn't like everything about this book, I still believe it is worth checking out and I will definitely read the sequel whenever it's released.

This starts with some stupid teenagers deciding to throw a party in the fourth floor of an abandoned hospital. Several years ago a serial killer known as The Mangler died there and it is believed that he haunts the fourth floor. The party is held on the anniversary of his death. Then the story follows a younger kid named Brandon after his encounter with The Mangler. 

This has some scary moments but the characters are so underdeveloped that I didn't really care when some of them died. One character who I thought would be more important ended up dying. The ending was definitely eerie and unsettling and has made me want to read more of this series.

I like fairy tales and lesbians so I was excited to read this. Some of the stories are good, and some I consider to be just okay. There are only two I really didn't like, which are Robber Girl by Madeleine Shade because it grossed me out, and SWF Seeks FGM by Allison Wonderland because it has too many puns, and reading it left me feeling infuriated. Next time I read this anthology I will skip those stories. Some of my favorites are Woodwitch by M. Birds, The Prize of the Willow by H.N. Janzen, The Miller's Daughter by Michael M. Jones, and The Sorceress of Solisterre by Lea Daley. Overall this is a decent collection of sapphic reimaginings of fairy tales.