10 Bi4Bi Titles

I missed bisexual awareness week back in September, so here's a belated special post to celebrate! These 10 bi4bi titles (and some pan) have gorgeous covers in bisexual lighting to ooh & ahh over 💗💜💙

Why Ramy Mirza was excellent Muslim rep

Considering RF Kuang herself is not Muslim, I just have to commend how excellent the South Asian Muslim rep in Babel was as it pertains to Ramy. Literally the first thing Ramy notes upon meeting Robin is how the only thing he can really eat in England is fish (see: most of the meat would not have been halal at the time). He also notes that he threw away the port that his sponsor gifted him. Like right off the get-go it's established that Ramy is practicing Muslim.

We get Ramy reading his Maghrib prayer at sunset. We also learns he is quite annoyed at being forced to go to Church lest he face expulsion, something that he repeatedly asks Allah for forgiveness for. He says inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un when [redacted] dies. He's fearful of staying out in the dark after Maghrib prayer because of jinn. Also, not once does Ramy actively put aside his religious values to fall into the plot. I believe they also talked about Ramy fasting for Ramadan at some point!

Kuang paid a lot of attention to the details to show practicing Muslim rep (which is very different than non-practicing rep). In fact, Kuang did Muslim rep way better than some actual Muslim authors do. I just have to admire it!

In reading Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor, I've been wondering if there would be a hijabi main character in the sequel that would have a link to their ancestor.

But honestly, xiran jay zhao wrote an awesome novel that somehow encapsulates and represents a queer muslim character without those two being the only identifiers of the character. Oftentimes, characters that are queer or muslim only focus on those parts and seeing zachary ying is just so refreshing.

But yeak, zachary getting muslim friends to pray with and share experiences with would be amazing.

I just started watching We Are Ladyparts and PLEASE tell me there is a fandom, this show is fan-freaking-tastic!!!

Y’all don’t appreciate Hanna Alkhaf enough

If you don’t know, Hanna Alkhaf is the author of The Weight of Our Sky, Queen of the Tiles, and more.

She is Muslim, Malaysian, and an outstanding author. I’ve only read The Weight of Our Sky and it was sensational.

The Weight of our Sky is historical fiction and takes place in 1969, during Malaysia’s race riots. The main character has OCD and her intrusive thoughts are all about her mother, who goes missing during the riots. While I cannot comment on the OCD or Malay rep, let me just say the Muslim rep was amazing. I don’t know how to hide spoilers on tumblr so I won’t write about it here, but I personally view Hanna Alkhafs work as revolutionary.

After all, she was the first author I’ve ever seen make the triggers very clear. The trigger warnings she included were not some tiny little fine print that would be very easy to accidentally skip. No, it was clear right from the get-go that The Weight of Our Sky is a triggering novel that not everyone can/should read.

Not only that, there were some minor controversies with her middle grade novel, The Girl and The Ghost. In the arcs she accidentally used wording similar to that abusers usually use. Author Aisha Saeed pointed it out and instead of defending herself or getting upset, Hanna Alkhaf fixed the issue and apologized. WHEN SHE DID SOMETHING WRONG SHE FIXED THE ISSUE AND APOLOGIZED!

She deserves all of the love. Obsessed with her.

A Master Of Djinn Book Review

A non-spoiler review of A Master Of Djinn by Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark

Summary (pulled from Goodreads):

Cairo, 1912: Though Fatma el-Sha’arawi is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, she’s certainly not a rookie, especially after preventing the destruction of the universe last summer.

So when someone murders a secret brotherhood dedicated to one of the most famous men in history, al-Jahiz, Agent Fatma is called onto the case. Al-Jahiz transformed the world 50 years ago when he opened up the veil between the magical and mundane realms, before vanishing into the unknown. This murderer claims to be al-Jahiz, returned to condemn the modern age for its social oppressions. His dangerous magical abilities instigate unrest in the streets of Cairo that threaten to spill over onto the global stage.

Alongside her Ministry colleagues and her clever girlfriend Siti, Agent Fatma must unravel the mystery behind this imposter to restore peace to the city - or face the possibility he could be exactly who he seems...

Review:

Absolutely amazing. A wild ride. A mystery with just enough clues to have you figure out the plots right alongside the characters. Speaking of which, I LOVED the characters. Interesting, loveable, and so fun! Hadia has my entire heart.

The world building is incredible, the amount of history and religious history is impressive and I know that took a lot of research. And it was all treated with respect.

The first 100 pages for me were average but after that mark, you're thrown head first into the story and you won't be coming out even after you have finished the book.

The romance wasn't my style personally because I prefer more yearning and development and a focus on the actual love but we jump in with the them being girlfriends and in love and throughout the story their bond gets tested but there wasn't really any doubt or fear that it was gonna break. Not bad but since I read a lot of romance fanfiction, my preference and expectations for romance are very high.

The writing is very vivid and paints this fantastical world in your mind and brings it to life. You end the book with actual belief that a steampunk fantastical djinn and angel filled Cairo exists. In which case let me please meet some of these characters because everyone was awesome. Every time we met a new woman, a gender fluid djinn, a brief side character with so much richness written into them, I fall in love.

I already professed my love to Hadia and the West African Princess Amina and her djinn companion Jenne.

Despite the beginning feeling a bit slow cuz of character, setting, and story introduction, and the romance not being my style, it didn't take away from the book and still made it a solid 5 star rating that I would recommend (and have recommended) for everyone.

If you have made it to the end, here are some official art pieces for the book by Kevin Hong

Queen of the Tiles by Hanna Alkaf

“But life, like Scrabble, is like that—you get the rack you get, and you just have to figure out how to make do.”

Queen of the Tiles is an entertaining mystery romp that belongs to that subgenre of YA books that combines a whodunnit type of storyline with the kind of teen dynamics at play in Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars. Similarly to a lot of these books, Queen of the Tiles takes place in a ‘confined’ setting, but rather than going for the usual prep school/high school type of backdrop, Hanna Alkaf freshens things up by having her story take place during the World Warrior Weekend, an annual Scrabble competition. This tournament takes place in a hotel in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, a setting that, you must admit, we don’t get to see often in YA. Additionally, our lead is Muslim, and we also get a very casual non-binary rep with Shuba. The story definitely has some strong The Queen’s Gambit vibes and the author depicts the various Scrabble games in a really fun and dynamic way (so that they are anything but boring) and we can see just how devoted and ambitious some of the competitors are. Najwa Bakri, our narrator, is taking part in this tournament, the first one she's done since the very sudden death of her best friend.

“Every player knows that words can be twisted to suit your purpose, if the board allows it, and Trina knows this better than most. She is fantastic; she ignites fantasies. She is spectacular; she attracts spectacle.”

Trina Low died during the previous year's World Warrior Weekend. Since her death, Najwa has distanced herself from the Scrabble world, but she finds herself going back to claim Trina’s former title, that of the Queen of the Tiles. She knows that people who didn’t like Trina, and who were in turn not liked by her, are also vying for that title, and Najwa isn’t ready to give them the satisfaction of winning. Competing again however proves harder than it used to be now that Najwa is struggling with anxiety and trauma caused by Trina’s premature death. The author is really thoughtful in the way she articulates Najwa's grieving process, capturing just how suddenly grief can engulf you, regardless of how much time has passed since the person you cared for died. Alkaf also shows how grief manifests differently in different people.

Things get harder when new posts appear on Trina’s long inactive insta. Cryptic posts hinting that her death may have been very much not an accident. Joining a long tradition of kid-turned-detectives such as Nancy Drew and the Scooby-Doo gang (both of which get mentioned in the story), Najwa begins solving the posts’ ominous word puzzles and starts questioning the other competitors, most of whom were foes of Trina. There is the pompous boy she was competing against when she died, who seemed less concerned by her dropping dead than verifying whether her death meant he’d automatically won that final round. There is Trina’s ‘other’ best-friend, an ostensibly nice and obsequious girl whose subservience to Trina definitely gives off sycophantic vibes. There is that girl who was caught in a cheating scandal, and Trina may have been responsible for stoking those cheating rumours. And, of course, Trina’s off-and-on again boyfriend Mark, a possessive type who may have grown tired of Trina’s and what he perceived to be as her ‘blasé’ attitude. While Najwa has always been aware of Trina’s thorny character, and her need to prove herself and to one-up others, during the course of her ‘amateur’ investigation she will be forced to really confront the kind of person Trina was.

“That’s just how she was; she saw something she wanted and she went for it with a laser-sharp intensity that could border on the obsessive. All or nothing, perfection or perish.”

I liked the drama, the secrecy, the rumours and gossip. The Scrabble element was really well delivered and it worked really well for the mystery clues. My only quibbles are 1) throughout the story Najwa links words that are being used or were used in a game to her past or present situation. Sometimes this was effective, but the more this device was used, the less impactful it became, and at times I found the connection between word and situation to be a bit far-fetched 2) Najwa's 'tells' got pretty annoying. The characters weren’t particularly fleshed out or memorable, some were verged on being rather silly but this subgenre isn’t exactly known for having uber nuanced characters so it didn’t really negatively impact my reading experience. I would have however liked for Trina to have been portrayed in a slightly different light, as she ultimately seems a bit of a mean queen-bee cliché. I liked the lack of romance and Najwa made for a rather endearing protagonist. Their resolution to the mystery was a bit of a letdown, as I found the identity of the person behind those posts far too obvious. It would have been more satisfying to make someone else the culprit. There was also a metaphor about Mark being "a conquistador, trying to impose his will on Trina, colonize her spirit and reap her charms for himself, bend her to his definition of what a girlfriend ought to be" which struck me as a rather unhappy comparison to make. In general, I did like the references we get, especially when they added a dose of humor and levity to the story's ongoings (“Honestly. Murder. What do you think this is, an episode of Riverdale?"). Still, I found this engrossing and fun read. If you are looking for a light-hearted whodunnit that focuses on a group of ambitious and possibly backstabby professional scrabblers, look no further.

my rating: ★ ★ ★ ¼ ❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀

Our hearts may be spoken for by those with sweet eyes, little smiles, and so very many needs, but that does not mean that which makes us us is gone. And I hope . . . part of me hopes anyway that in seeing me do this, Marjana knows more is possible. I would not want her to believe that because she was born a girl, she cannot dream.

How is tumblr not obsessed with dead end paranormal park on netflix???

It's a super fun and creepy cartoon (think gravity falls vibes), with great plots and animation.

The characters are very diverse, and it's being discussed openly. What was the last cartoon that actually talked about binders? Or the struggles of coming out in an Asian family? About intense anxiety?

Everything is addressed very sensitively and given the respect it deserves, and it's balanced out with great humor and action.

This show is all about the found family and rebelling against oppression and (literal) demons and ghosts. It's a perfect watch for spooky season so please yall watch it so we get a 3rd season😭

Can’t believe I have to say this but if you wanna make a female aphmau character Muslim and make her wear a hijab/abaya please do it properly, don’t be like other artists who make a character wear a hijab then make them show off their bodies and make them wear immodest clothing. It’s extremely offensive to Muslims and the religion itself, also offensive to Arabs and Middle Easterners. What’s the point of wearing a hijab if you’re not being modest? THINK SMARTY THINK!

You can’t draw her with a hijab then with her in a crop top and showing off her legs fuckass

(Also kinda unrelated but we need more Middle Eastern representation over here give me Syrian, Turkish, Saudi, Kurdish, Iraqi, etc.. characters)

Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding Seven women stand in shock in a seedy hotel room; a man's severed head sits on the floor. Each of the women — the wife, the teenager, the ex, the journalist, the colleague, the friend, and the woman who raised him — has a very good reason to have done it, yet each swears she did not. View the full summary and rep info on wordpress!

last book read + last stethoscope used, part 25

My MDF starry night procardial titanium scope is here with Zaina Arafat's novel You Exist Too Much. What a title. But about the MDF--he had the honor of accompanying me on a short road trip last week to be used by someone other than the same two people who use him all the time. Happy for him, even happier for me! Ecstatic, actually!

The book has mixed reviews on Goodreads but I really enjoyed it. It's a semi-autobiographical story of a Palestinian American woman who flits from relationship to relationship, desperately searching for the sense of belonging that eludes her and her family--especially her parents, who grew up under military occupation and were cruelly thrown out of their home. Her mother is emotionally-manipulative and despite multiple attempts at honest conversation on the matter, is unlikely to accept her daughter's bisexuality. This is the narrator's story of learning to be kinder to herself as she makes (many of the same) harmful mistakes, and to be forgiving of those around her. I think readers wanted a neat ending full of epiphanies and a resolution to the protagonist's struggles and self-defeating behavior, but that's a tall order. A timely read and an important perspective, considering what is happening to the Palestinians right now.

Free Palestine.

yall do not know what i was putting up with at the model arab league conferences ....

@leafy-m Yeah you got it. Admittedly EoG has issues, but a huge part of the review divide is from upset Dara stans. (it probably doesn't help that the author never expected there to be Dara fans in the first place, so when she made his ending better than it should have been to help appease them, it wasn't enough because they expected him to be the top dog/first love interest wins & all that. Which completely fails to understand what the series is about, but what else is new).

Thanks for the reply bc I was itching to speak with someone who read the books as they came out. I really want to know what went down bc from my brief research the author was subject to abuse bc of Dara stans, and publishers neglected printing merch of Ali??? Honestly, it's as if those folks were reading a completely different series because HOW? how can they treat the second largest main pov character of the series like this? No kidding Shannon was confused and I'M CONFUSED bc she laid the red flags on thick right from the beginning. Like Shannon wrote books based on Islamic mythology so she could be free to write and headline a character like Ali for Muslim readers, not bc she wanted she wanted to pump out yet another genocidal xenophobic edge lord for ppl to thirst over. Unfortunately, large parts of her audience are shallow and honestly lack reading comprehension skills.

okay but like... hear me out -

They both have the last name Khan.

Kamala is of Pakistani descent.

Yaz's Grandmum was there when Pakistan was created.

Mayhaps they could be distant relatives?

(obvi ppl can have the same last name and not be related, esp because pretty much Yaz's whole family moved to America, and there weren't that many of them. I just think this could be a really cool crossover idea!!!)

*holds your hand gently* dont give us representation if u dont wanna do it right