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It is interesting to read this book after seeing All of Us Strangers a few weeks back. While this book is very different from All of Us Strangers, the themes of isolation and lost connections are strong in both.

I’m reading a story or two from this anthology each day. I was really impressed with the first one about a young trans girl and an aloe plant.

I’m a few chapters in. It’s pretty horrifying, but in quotidian ways. It’s really interesting to see myself reflected not in the narrator, but in the environment that surrounds her. It feels like a damning, yet valid, indictment.

Sahara’s MH fascinates me. So far only two characters names are shared with the reader. The rest are titles, descriptions, and periodically redactions.

What a wonderful story of young people breaking free from religious-based hegemonic oppression. It is also heartbreaking seeing almost all of the characters suffering under it, even the believers as they get more and more entangled. It’s definitely YA romance with many of the accompanying tropes, but seeing them in this setting brings joy and liberation to a world that could have gone very dark and devastating. Sometimes you need an HEA to help you process the horrors intimated in the narrative.

I’m reading this for a book club this weekend. It’s a pretty easy read so far. Valerie (FMC) is a biracial teen growing up in a culty and very white Christian nationalist denomination. She is finding it difficult to conform and repress in a way that will make her family happy and doesn’t understand what’s wrong with her. Between a book she snuck out of the library and a new friend, Riley, Valerie might have the tools she needs to understand that there is nothing wrong with her and her feelings.

It might be hard for people with religious trauma, parental trauma from a patriarchal household, or come from highly homophobic environments. It is written for a YA audience.

Found it again…with not enough time to read before book club. I’ll finish it anyway. 🫤

I misplaced the dang book. I won’t be able to finish it before book club. Hopefully I’ll find it before it’s due back.

Like with most books in this book club, it will probably break me. I might need to line up a comfort read after this one.

A fun end to this queer romance filled with political intrigue.

Fun historical queer romance.

@JennyJaybles@bookwyrm.social It’s my local library’s book club choice for November. Im looking forward to it.