rainbowbrarian's Reviews (1.85k)

I absolutely loved this story. It's been the most fun book I've read so far this year, hands down.

Kaiju Earth felt so well realized and the characters were so well done. This was the first book I've read by John Scalzi but it won't be the last for sure. I loved the diversity of the cast and how it just WAS diverse they didn't make a huge deal about it.

"I lift things." I chuckled every time I saw that. And I love how EVERYONE had a doctorate. Saatie! <3 so COOL.

Just, stop what you're doing and read this book. It has it all. I'm now going to go and add my favorite quotes.

This was a good story and I liked how it ended, overhaul the shitty program. BUT, those abusers never got called on their shit. Never apologized. And that’s not okay with me.

Also, as a Girl Scout, I got really tired of all the “cookie pusher” digs. Shitting all over the organization that does a lot of good for girls wasn’t cool.

Lot of mixed feelings about this book. I’m glad I finished this because I needed to know what happened, but I’m relieved that it’s finished too. Tough read.

Gorgeous art style, very well realized characters. I really liked the tiny portrait notes that were included around people and places in some of the wide shot scenes. You got little snippets of things about a person, right handed, has secretly been in love with best friend since he was 6, really likes robots. It really added a great flavor and realism to the story. I also super enjoyed the maps that were added and the notes on those. It made the setting feel more tangible.

I liked the story right up to the very unsatisfying ending. I guess it was at least realistic, and I probably should have seen it coming, but I'm really tired of stories about queer folks ending unsatisfying. It wasn't a misery ever after, but it was unhappy. And I get unhappy in reality often enough I don't want it in my stories.

Read 100 pages and decided it wasn't my thing. Life is too short for books I'm not loving.

Xavier has a lot of internal dialog that feels kind of forced. Sure, we all have thoughts about capitalism, but it feels like the character is internally trying to prove to the reader that he's on the right side of issues like racism and economic issues and feminism, and it's not necessary and kind of knocks me out of the flow of the story.

Also Logan is kind of a jackass. I mean I get that rude chefs is a trope, but ugh. Did not like him.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley

This book wrecked me. It's a beautiful, painful, funny, heartbreaking, hopeful story.

CW: this book deals with family separation, loss of a parent, and ICE.

Ander (they/them) has taken a gap year before he plans to attend a prestigious art school. They are using their time to do an artist in residence for a local group called Beautify not Gentrify. They meets Santi when their Tita hires Santi to work in their family taqueria. Ander and Santi try not to fall for each other but they're unable to resist falling in love. Ander paints murals and struggles with the racist 'advice' of their school advisor while they struggles to grow as an artist.

Spoiler

Santi is undocumented and in America alone. He was forced to leave his mother and sister behind at the border and continue to America on his own. He can't get a license and he's under constant risk of deportation. Despite all this he's determined to make the most of being with Ander.

Honestly, part of reading this book stressed me out. I could feel Santi's fear when ICE showed up, I could understand the visceral horror of Ander understanding what the reality of Santi's life was. It's very real for so many people, and reading this story really brought it home to me. It was a tough read. But it was SO good.

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And there were parts of it that were so funny too! I loved the dialog between Ander and their family and Zeke. Scenes of Ander and Santi painting together were amazing. And I also liked how well accepted Ander was. They wore pink cropped shirts and had pastel painted nails and no one gave them shit about it. MORE accepting families like this please. I loved the passion you could feel from the characters and how much richer a story it became the more we got to know them.

I think more people should read this story. I don't think a person could read something like this and not come out of it a better more compassionate person. I am very grateful to Jonny Garza Villa for writing and sharing this story.

In this Great Gatsby retelling, Nick Caraveo is a latinx trans guy from Minnesota who comes to New York City to start a career so he can earn money to send back to his family. He finds himself over his head in an ocean of white people who don’t even see him and can’t be bothered to even try. His cousin Daisy, engaged to a rich white man, is pretending they aren’t related because she’s passing for white and climbing the social ladder.
Daisy is trying though, she’s gone out of her way to help Nick fit into the new society. She’s gotten him these side lacers that flatten his chest (and hers, as that’s the fashion of the day). When Nick drunkenly stumbles into his neighbor Jay Gatsy and discovers that Jay is a self-made boy just like him, he can’t help but fall a little bit in love.
The story follows the Great Gatsby story mostly, but it adds a queer lens, showing queer folks loving and existing in the spaces between. It also adds another dimension addressing the racism of the time and neatly holding up a mirror to the present day too. Tom saying that Nick isn’t “one of the bad ones” until suddenly Nick isn’t taking it anymore.
I have to admit that I didnt entirely remember ALL the events of Gatsby from when I read it in High School, which was *coughalongtimeagocough* years ago. I remembered a car crash and ending in misery. Also gold toilet seats, which thankfully didn’t make a re-appearance in this story.
I don’t want to give all the story away, but I do want to say that I am VERY pleased at how it turned out.

Spoiler

There is a moment where Nick is emotionally compromised and angry with Jay and Jay turns to him and says that yes, he loves Daisy, but he has only fallen IN love with one person.

It’s So Good. It adds such rich nuance and (literal) color to the old story and reshapes it into a more queer and equitable tale that had me staying up till midnight because I HAD to know what was going to happen.

Meet Gareth, newly promoted baronet, and Joss, overworked smuggler (feels a lot more like a management position than you might think) and the skulduggery and shenanigans they get mixed up in. Also contains beetles.
This is how KJ Charles described her latest book. And I could not say it better, so that’s borrowed. Gareth has a several nights stand with an charming but anonymous man in London. But Gareth ends it poorly and regrets it but resigns himself to the fact that they’ll never meet again. Imagine his surprise when, on the death of his father who hadn’t contacted Gareth in over 20 years, and the inheritance of his estate in Kent, he runs into that same charming and now less anonymous man living practically next door. To make matters worse, Joss Doomsday, as Gareth now knows his name, is the head of a group of local smugglers who are decidedly on the other side of the law from an upstanding baronet which Gareth now finds himself to be.
When Gareth becomes tangled up in a smuggling trial he finds himself in direct opposition to both Joss and the rest of his neighbors. To complicate matters further, Gareth now has a half sister he’d never heard of and he’s having to face up to the fact that his father was even less of a good person than Gareth had hoped. His late father seems to have been caught up in the worst kind of smuggling and now he’s inherited enemies who are threatening him and his new family and the only person in the world who can help him is Joss Doomsday.
This romance was very well developed. Joss and Gareth both have feelings about one another, but their places in the world seem uniquely designed to scuttle any budding romance before it even has a chance to kindle. I love the trope of the rougeish dashing outlaw doing mostly good paired up with the uncertain, fumbling, less worldly upperclass lord and it’s done well in this book. One complaint I often have with that trope is the power balance. I hate when the lord person holds too much power over the lower class person, KJ Charles managed that really deftly here. Joss is the head of the local crime family, which gives him power over the area while Gareth has the money and title. It worked! You could technically call this enemies to lovers, but it was more like lovers who got all screwed up and were stuck on opposing sides and then worked through both their own personal issues and the issues of the situation they were in. Great dialog, and I loved the witty repartee they had with one another. Add in daring rescues and “I’ll protect you!” and mutual affection and fun and this was a very enjoyable read. I’m very much looking forward to the next book coming in September 2023.