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Rating: 5 / 5 Stars Favorite Quote: "There are no villains anymore. On television, in movies, villains are easily recognizable. The bad guys wear long dark robes and have no noses or wear tight fitting suits and have red eyes. There is something comforting in this idea that when you see evil you will know it. That it cannot be hiding in the everyday faces of people you ride the bus with or go to school with of share a sandwich with at lunch." Synopsis: A genre-defying novel from the award-winning author NPR describes as "like [Madeline] L'Engle...glorious." A singular book that explores themes of identity and justice. Pet is here to hunt a monster. Are you brave enough to look? There are no monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. Jam and her best friend, Redemption, have grown up with this lesson all their life. But when Jam meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colors and claws, who emerges from one of her mother's paintings and a drop of Jam's blood, she must reconsider what she's been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster, and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption's house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend, but also to uncover the truth, and the answer to the question--How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist? A riveting and timely young adult debut novel that asks difficult questions about what choices you can make when the society around you is in denial. Review: From the first chapter I knew this was going to be a five star read. This story is magnificence and magic even before you get to page one. As the reader you are quickly drawn into this idealized world. One where their society used to have problems like we experience now, gun violence, racism, unjust living conditions, but then had a revolution. The monsters of the world ceased to exist thanks to the angels. Jam, our main character, was born after these events, into a world without monsters. Jam as a character is absolutely fascinating. She is described as "the protagonist of the novel. A 15-year-old Black trans girl, she is selectively nonverbal. Jam is supported and loved by her family and community." She uses sign language and a form of telepathy to communicate with different characters throughout the book. She is curious, and loyal, and considerate. She is able to exist the way she does because of the support from her family and community. Jam struggles with the knowledge that their may be a monster on the loose. She fears that her friend, Redemption, won't believe such a terrible and mythical thing is happening in their world. She fears that the adults around her, who knew what the monsters were like, won't be able to accept that they may have come back. She does not know if she can trust Pet just yet, her parents told her to command him back in the realm of the painting, but Pet might be the only who will be able to help her catch a monster. Equating the truly horrific things of our own world to the term monster makes the basis of this novel so easy to understand. We know the problems of this society because they are the same as our own. This story is able to make magic become tangible. The characters felt like people you could easily imagine. I listened to the audiobook read by Christopher Myers and could not recommend it more. Their voice is magnetic and fits the tone of the story and characters so well. This book is a Young Adult Fiction which is a genre I will always love, and I believe this is a message for everyone of all ages to read. If you are interested in purchasing a physical copy of this book please follow the link down below for our bookshop page. If you are interested in purchasing the audiobook please follow the link down below for our Libro page.

4.1 / 5 Stars In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity--what it means and how to think about it--for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere. Queer Book Club meets on the first Thursday of the month at 6:30 P.M. Check out our events page to see when the next meeting is and what we are reading!

These are all of the books I read in March! I added my rating and a short synopsis of the book. To read more about the book or make a purchase just click on the title or the image! Pet by Akwaeke Emezi 5/5 Stars There are no monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. Jam and her best friend, Redemption, have grown up with this lesson all their life. But when Jam meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colors and claws, who emerges from one of her mother's paintings and a drop of Jam's blood, she must reconsider what she's been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster, and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption's house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend, but also to uncover the truth, and the answer to the question--How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist? Pachinko by Min Jin Lee 4.5/5 Stars In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant--and that her lover is married--she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations. Read the full review here. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe 4.1/5 Stars Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity--what it means and how to think about it--for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere. The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh 4.1/5 Stars Deadly storms have ravaged Mina's homeland for generations. Floods sweep away entire villages, while bloody wars are waged over the few remaining resources. Her people believe the Sea God, once their protector, now curses them with death and despair. In an attempt to appease him, each year a beautiful maiden is thrown into the sea to serve as the Sea God's bride, in the hopes that one day the "true bride" will be chosen and end the suffering. Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel by Julian K. Jarboe 4/5 Stars In this debut collection of body-horror fairy tales and mid-apocalyptic Catholic cyberpunk, memory and myth, loss and age, these are the tools of storyteller Jarboe, a talent in the field of queer fabulism. Bodily autonomy and transformation, the importance of negative emotions, unhealthy relationships, and bad situations amidst the staggering and urgent question of how build and nurture meaning, love, and safety in a larger world/society that might not be "fixable." Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare 4.1/5 Stars Cordelia Carstairs is a Shadowhunter, a warrior trained since childhood to battle demons. When her father is accused of a terrible crime, she and her brother travel to London in hopes of preventing the family's ruin. Cordelia's mother wants to marry her off, but Cordelia is determined to be a hero rather than a bride. Soon Cordelia encounters childhood friends James and Lucie Herondale and is drawn into their world of glittering ballrooms, secret assignations, and supernatural salons, where vampires and warlocks mingle with mermaids and magicians. All the while, she must hide her secret love for James, who is sworn to marry someone else. But Cordelia's new life is blown apart when a shocking series of demon attacks devastate London. These monsters are nothing like those Shadowhunters have fought before--these demons walk in daylight, strike down the unwary with incurable poison, and seem impossible to kill. London is immediately quarantined. Trapped in the city, Cordelia and her friends discover that their own connection to a dark legacy has gifted them with incredible powers--and forced a brutal choice that will reveal the true cruel price of being a hero. Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare 4.7/5 Stars Cordelia Carstairs seems to have everything she ever wanted. She's engaged to marry James Herondale, the boy she has always loved; she has a new life in London with her best friend Lucie; and she bears the sword Cortana, a legendary hero's blade. But the truth is far grimmer. Cordelia's marriage is a lie, arranged to save her reputation, while James remains in love with the Grace Blackthorn. Cortana burns her when she touches it. And a serial murderer is targeting the Shadowhunters of London, killing under cover of darkness, then vanishing without a trace. Now Cordelia, James, and Lucie must follow the trail of the killer through the city's most dangerous streets. All the while, each is keeping a shocking secret: Lucie, that she is attempting to raise the dead; Cordelia, that she has sworn a dangerous oath of loyalty to a mysterious power; and James, that he himself may be the killer they seek. Daughter of No Worlds by Carissa Broadbent 3/5 Stars A life in slavery taught Tisaanah how to survive with nothing but a sharp eye, a quick mind, and a touch of magic. But the night she tried to buy her freedom, she nearly paid with her life. Instead, she murdered the most powerful man in Threll. Forced to flee, she has only one chance at saving those she left behind: pledging herself to the Orders, an organization of magic Wielders strong enough to destroy her former masters. The Orders have bigger plans for Tisaanah. Darker plans. But Tisaanah will stop at nothing to save those she abandoned. Even if it means forfeiting her freedom and sacrificing her heart. Even if it means wielding death itself.

Rating: 4.5 / 5 Stars Favorite Quote: “Neither had realized the loneliness each had lived with for such a long time until the loneliness was interrupted by genuine affection.” Synopsis: In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant--and that her lover is married--she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations. Richly told and profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japan's finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld, Lee's complex and passionate characters--strong, stubborn women, devoted sisters and sons, fathers shaken by moral crisis--survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history. Review: This is a beautifully written story of family, love, and sacrifices. This book had me feeling all of the emotions in real time, gasping in shock, laughing, and shedding tears for beloved characters. It does not take long to become invested in the characters and their lives. At the beginning of the story Sunja is a teenager and meets an older guy who introduces sex and relationships to her. From that moment her trajectory changes course time and time again. My first critical thoughts of the novel revolve around Hansu's relationship with Sunja. It felt as though he was grooming her. He was interested in a naive young woman and took advantage of her innocence and trust in him. Their relationship evolves so much during the course of their lives. It did seem as though Hansu would always love Sunja and try to provide everything he could for her and her family. There were times when the family desperately needed money. Hansu initially set up a job for Sunja and her sister-in-law Kyunghee making kimchi for one of his restaurants. He thought this was the best way to give them good money where they were working hard but still able to take care of their family well. He took care of them during the bombings in WWII. He found Sunja's mother in Korea and brought them back together. He paid for Noa's room and board, and tuition to go to University. In his own way he tried really hard to take care of her. One of Hansu's character flaws was that he got his money as a ganster with the Yakuza. Sunja and the family thought of his money as dirty and not worked for. I think that all of the Korean characters were handed a bad lot when they had to move to Japan for work. Hansu did the best that he could for the people he cared about most, which were Sunja and Noa. Spoiler:( I was floored when he showed up at Sunja's mother's funeral and asked her to marry him.) He thought of her the whole time he was with his first wife. He stated multiple times that he could not divorce because of her father's status in the gang. If things were different I think that Hansu would have wanted to live an honest life and could have been faithful in a marriage to Sunja, unlike that to his first wife. Throughout the novel the perspectives switches to various members of the family and the people they know. At times this made it difficult to follow and certain events did not get the attention they deserved. Characters would marry and die in a few sentences. Then decades could pass by the end of the page. One of the most disconnected lenses to view the narrative was Haruki's wife. She felt very removed from the story as a whole, only working to give us a glimpse of the concealed homosexual culture in Japan at the time? As a whole I felt that the alternating perspectives helped to give a fully rounded narrative. The development of characters as they grow older and become more able to expand the perspective was well used to tell the story. It was difficult to read about the level of discrimination that Japanese-born Koreans dealt with. All of the characters are exposed to insults and set backs due to their ethnicity. While some use this as motivation to prove themselves despite the stereotypes against them, some characters are driven to terribly desperate measures including suicide. Later in the book, problems arise where the characters fear being deported to Korea if they ever have a run in with the police. Sunja's sons and their children have never been to Korea and would have nothing to return to. This topic felt relevant with the Dreamers in the US with DACA. While the story is a historical fiction, the problems that people faced were true in Korea in the 1900s and true today. Pachinko should be considered necessary reading. This book covers the topics of war, racism, poverty, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia. This will become a classic soon enough. The ability to see so many different perspectives of living as a Korean in Japan during that time is unparalleled. As someone who does not typically read historical fiction, this was a wonderful book that made me feel a part of the time period. If you are interested in Asian culture and family dynamics I 100% recommend this book.