This is a powerful little book, and I further appreciated the afterword to this edition by Abosede George, which provides additional context and discussion of the novel’s major themes. The story was quite short, and at times felt rushed, packing a lot into only 88 pages. Still, I felt present with Okomo through her pain and striving, and found the cast of characters comprising her family and friends to be sufficiently developed despite the story’s brevity. Definitely recommended to readers of the global canon of LGBTQ+ literature.

Cw for homophobia, attempted murder, corrective rape, incest

This novella, told in stream of conscious narration and text message conversions, was originally published as Homo Sapienne in Greenlandic, then translated into Danish by the author, and then translated from Danish into English by Anna Halager.⁣
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The story follows five queer young people in Nuuk, Greenland who are grappling with their identities and their intertwined relationships, exploring not just romantic relationships but also siblings and friendship. The novella is broken into five distinct sections, dedicated to each of the characters, which weave back and forth in time to unfold a unique journey for each character. Though challenging at times to follow, I found the rambling style of Korneliussen’s narration beautiful and quite poignant. Korneliussen is a native Greenlandic author and lesbian, and her young queer Greenlandic characters were complex and well drawn, chaotic in their trials and triumphs. Each of this story’s protagonists is at a moment of crisis and transformation, and I loved watching each of their stories bloom and connect to one another.⁣
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Cw for homophobia, sexual assault/abuse by a parent, binge drinking

I listened to most of this book on audio, which was narrated by Ewan Chung, and while there was nothing lacking in the audiobook performance, I feel this was the wrong choice for this book for me. I felt like I missed details, and the overall result was that the story felt like it went completely off the rails, although that could also be a result of improper starting expectations for its contents.⁣
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Waste Tide is a sprawling novel, bringing together many viewpoint characters and a ton of plot. The setting is the imaginary Silicon Isle, an island off the coast of China where trash and recycling is processed by the “waste people”, a lower caste of people tasked with menial labor. It follows primarily a young Chinese American translator named Kaizong, as well as a “waste girl” named Mimi with whom he strikes up a friendship and something of a romance, Kaizong's boss at TerraGreen Recycling, an American company attempting to create a deal with the government/the clans who control Silicon Isle, the various clan heads, and more. The many perspectives added a lot of deep richness to this story, but I struggled to reconcile the story’s very realistic science fiction elements with others that felt more magical. There were a lot of ideas and political machinations at work in this book, and while a lot of it was fascinating, I didn’t find myself invested in the story the way I’d hoped. Kaizong’s character was best developed for me, and I loved his heavy musings, but I didn’t get that same level of depth with any of the other characters. I was most frustrated by Mimi, who often felt reduced beneath her potential. I wouldn’t want to discourage anyone from reading this novel though, as again I’m not sure I got everything I otherwise would have out of the text had I had better focus.⁣
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Cw for rape and graphic violence

I want more! I cannot wait to read more from debut author Charlotte Nicole Davis, and particularly the continuation of The Good Luck Girls; according to Goodreads there’s to be at least one more book in this series, but I could do with about a million!⁣
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This creative fantasy adventure novel follows five young women on the run from the “welcome house” which owns them, after one accidentally kills a patron on her first night as a “sundown girl”. The worldbuilding of the setting, Arketta, is exceptional, capturing the tone of the Wild West but with many of its own twists, a dash of magic, and violent ghosts. Each of the Good Luck Girls has a magical brand called her “favor” on her neck and face, which cannot be removed or even covered up without excruciating pain, preventing the easy ability to disappear into a new life, and propelling the girls on a dangerous quest to find a woman out of children’s stories said to be able to remove the curse.⁣
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I loved everything about this book. It’s well paced and imagined, and the characters really shine. Davis brings each of their main characters to life and beautifully explores the stress and struggle of their shared journey. The characters grow and change, both personally and in relationship with each other, and all of it was glorious to watch. I highly recommend this novel if you enjoy a fast paced adventure centering brave, complex women with everything on the line. And it’s queer!⁣
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Cw for rape, violence including torture, withdrawal, suicide mentions

The Freedom Artist by Ben Okri was one of those “didn’t know this book existed but now I have to have it” bookstore finds for me earlier this year, and reading it definitely brought the bookstore nostalgia for that reason. It’s sleekly designed, and I was captivated by the page between the dedication and epigraph which sports the words “Read Slowly” at the bottom. I’m not sure I always successfully followed that instruction, but I tried.⁣
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Though this book is probably considered by many to be more “literature” than “science fiction”, I put it on the 2019 Becky Awards Longlist because genre is made up and I was excited to read it. The Freedom Artist is a poetic little dystopian, with short elusive chapters which made it difficult to put down. I feel like somehow it’s a page-turner not because of the plot but because of the tone of the writing. Any book that’s ever been described as “allegorical” probably means that on some level I didn’t understand it, but I still found the reading experience rich and exciting. We begin with a tangled web of founding myths, and throughout this novel I found the worldbuilding to be intriguingly imprecise, cluttered with unknowns on questions of history and truth. The founding myths are being rewritten, books are disappearing, the majority of people sleep through their lives and scream in their sleep. The bulk of the plot follows a man named Karnak, whose lover has been removed by the authorities for asking the dangerous question “who is the prisoner?” This evocative question roots itself deeply in the novel, which overall I found absolutely beautiful to read, and mostly satisfying in its conclusion.⁣
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This novel makes an intriguing companion for another literary dystopian longlist-er, The Memory Police by Yoko Ogwa. Comparing the two, I think my biggest disappointment with The Freedom Artist is how off-page the story’s women were. Amalantis is arguably a much more interesting character than her lover Karnak, but we get his whole story peppered with mere fragments of his memories of her. I’m sure you could argue there’s something interesting about centering the story this way, but it also just kind of feels like the way women are so often not developed as full characters. I don’t feel like this criticism took away from the magic of the reading experience, but it sort of nags at me as I sit back and reflect upon finishing.⁣⁣
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Cw for violence including some gruesome descriptions and mentions of suicide

Wow, this book is a memoir like none I’ve ever read before. Hayes tells her own life story in a wild meander that skips back and forth across time, blending her recollections with Tlingit storytelling and lush descriptions of the land and local wildlife. The chronology being difficult to follow was never distracting, as that’s absolutely not the point of this book. That feeling is rare for me because usually I find the sense of time to be the make-or-break factor in whether a memoir will flow well for me. In this short but dense, rich text, the sense of place is the driver instead and it flows beautifully. This book was just so good, and I highly recommend you add this one to your TBR if you enjoy reading memoirs, or really even if you don’t, because this one is definitely different and it’s exceptional.⁣
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Cw for domestic abuse, alcoholism, suicide

I spent the long weekend immersed in this story, which is my favorite way to experience a chunky Fantasy nov, and I’ve honestly taken such a journey with this book. It’s a big book but Kuang doesn't waste any time so nothing feels extraneous. The protagonist, Rin (my heart ❤!), ends the book in such a different place than she begins, both in terms of personal growth and the grander scheme of changes to the world, and it was exciting all the way through. Kaung is the master of the training montage, and though this book deals with heavy themes of war and genocide, the material is treated with respect and honors the history on which it’s based. I appreciate the difficult, complex ethical questions the characters wrestle with, and how precisely Kuang has developed varied fully-formed characters with different backgrounds, ideals, and conclusions.⁣
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Cw for graphic violence, genocide, rape, suicide, drug use, self harm

I’m so glad I read this book in time for book club because it warrants all the breaking down with a group. I was shocked at the number of details I missed from this book, which is just barely over 200 pages but takes FULL advantage of each of those pages with absolutely no paragraph breaks and a relentless stream of page-long run-on sentences that make my ever lengthy sentences look like single words. I knew going into this novel that it was about the death of a local witch in a small impoverished Mexican village, and I knew that it wasn’t really going to be about the witch. Somehow I still expected it to be a bit more about the witch though, if that makes any sense. Jessica describes her as “a character you somehow know less about at the end of the book than the beginning”, which is so apt. This is an intense and difficult read, with a lot of bleakness and almost certainly more to say than I was able to hear, but I’m so glad I read it. I am gonna be processing this one for a while yet.⁣
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Cw for violence, murder, rape, incest, abortion, suicide, homophobia, transphobia, slurs, drug addiction, pretty much the works.