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melanielocke · 1 year

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Book recommendations - Queer POC books

Some more book recommendations, this time I'm focusing on Queer PoC books, all by authors of color. All the books shown in the picture are UK editions. I generally like it when books have a UK paperback edition because they're a lot cheaper than US hardcovers, usually also cheaper than US paperbacks, and release the same week as the US hardcover. I don't think these editions are always available if you live in North America, but to those living in Europe, buying UK editions can save you a lot of money. Other parts of the world I honestly don't know which editions are easiest to come by. Only downside for UK editions is that sometimes there are some with a redesigned cover that is very ugly. Of the books shown here, only the Witchery has a different cover than the US edition but in this case I like both.

Starting with this Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron

This is a duology, the second and last book was released last June and so this is a complete series. It is inspired by Greek mythology, and specifically, the myth of Medea, and follows Briseis, who was adopted and inherits an estate from her aunt whom she never met. Briseis has always been able to make plants grow, and is immune to poisonous plants, and at the estate she discovers her birth family had these same gifts, and they keep a garden with some of the most poisonous plants in the world. This book has some great characters, and Briseis was adopted and raised by two sapphic Black mothers, who also play a big role in this series. This series has also served as inspiration for the Lightwood's magic garden in Flowers Bloom

Also by this author: Cinderella is Dead, which I'd also recommend, the Vanquishers, a MG which I did not read

Upcoming books: My Dear Henry, a Jekyll & Hide retelling (3-2023); You're not Supposed to Die Tonight, a slasher horror (6-2023)

Next up is Afterlove by Tanya Byrne

This is a sapphic love story with a MC of Indian decent. At New Years's Eve, just before midnight, Ash is hit by a car and dies instantly. She gets the offer to become a reaper, who guide the city's dead to their afterlife. But Ash can't forget Poppy, her girlfriend, and will do anything to get to see her again.

I haven't seen a lot of people talk about this book, but I really enjoyed it. The main focus is the romance here, and it's more romance with a fantasy aspect to it than fantasy.

Other books by this author: there are several other older books, none of which I've read

Upcoming books: The Mermaid of Black Rock (9-2023), a sapphic book about a girl with no memory found in the sea and a girl who falls in love with her

The Jasmine Throne is the only adult series I put in this list (the rest is YA), and is a fantasy trilogy set in an India inspired world. Book 1 and 2 are out now.

Malini is a princess who is imprisoned in an old temple by her dictator brother, an emperor obsessed with religious ideas revolving women gaining purity and immortality by being burnt alive. Malini refused to burn for his sake.

Priya is a maidservant who travels to the temple every night to clean Malini's chambers. Before her land was conquered by Malini's family, Priya was a temple child, and she had passed through the magical deathless waters once, but all the temple children were murdered except a few who survived and she has to hide her past.

Malini and Priya eventually start working together, with the goal of restoring the throne to Malini's other, oldest brother who'd abandoned the throne to become a priest.

Other books by this author: The Books of Ambha duology, adult fantasy, and What Souls are Made of, a YA Wuthering Heights retelling

Upcoming books: Book 3 of the series, scheduled for 2023, currently no release date known

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas is one of my personal favorites of this year. It's the first book in a YA fantasy duology set in a world inspired by Mexican culture. In this world, the sunbearer trials are held every ten years to replenish the energy of the sol stones and keep the sun alive and evil gods at bay. Ten demigods (called semidioses) are chosen by Sol to compete in a set of trials. The winner becomes the Sunbearer and gets to replenish the sol stones. The loser becomes a human sacrifice that is necessary to replenish said stones.

Semidioses are divided in gold and jade categories, depending on if their parent is a gold or jade god. Gold gods are the most powerful gods, ruling over things like the earth, the seas, fire etc, while jade gods are considered less powerful and their children too. There haven't been any jade competitors in the Sunbearer trials in over a century, but that year, two are chosen.

Teo is the transgender son of Quetzal, the goddess of birds, and he never expected to be chosen for the trials. The other jade is Xio, the son of Mala Suerte, god of bad luck. The other 8 competitors are all gold semidioses, including Teo's best friend Niya, daughter of Tierra, god of the Earth and the twin children of the fire goddess, Aurelio and Auristela. Compared to many of the others, Teo does not have a lot of powers and will have to fight with everything he has to survive.

The fantasy world in this book is modern second world, so while everything is different from this world, there are equivalents of instagram and tiktok for example, and they have trading cards featuring different semidiose heroes.

Other books by the author: Cemetery Boys, Lost in the Never Woods, I've read both and they're very good

Upcoming books: book 2 of the sunbearer trials (expected in 2023), companion/sequel to Cemetery Boys (fall 2024), untitled book pitched as gay titanic in space (2024), Just Max (a contemporary set in college, 2024).

I don't think it's likely there'll be 3 books coming out in 2024 but that's the information I currently have

The last book in the picture is the Witchery by S. Isabelle

This book features four witches and two human boys. Logan only recently found out she's a witch and transferred to a school for witches, and so far she's no good at it. But she's taken under the wing by the Red Three, three Black witches and the most powerful witches at the school. Thalia, a greenwitch, Iris, a deathwitch and Jailah, the most powerful witch at school, want to end the curse that's plaguing their town, and want Logan's help to do it.

Every year, there's a Haunting Season during which wolves come out of the swamp and kill people. The witches can protect people, to some extent, but the Red Three want to end the Haunting Season once and for all.

This book has a total of 6 POV's, which can make it confusing but I think it worked well. All the characters were interesting, but there wasn't enough space to flesh them all out as much as I would have liked. Still, I think the story was great, and would recommend it. There's not much focus on romance, but Jailah is a lesbian which is why I included it on this list.

Other books by this author: The Witchery is her first book

Upcoming books: another book is expected to be released in 2023. I have no idea what this book is about

Let me know if there are specific recommendations you'd like me to cover next time, I think I'll make more posts like these because it's lots of fun. Also, if you've read any of the books I recommend and want to talk about it, let me know, because I don't have a lot of people to talk about my favorite books with

@alastaircarstairsdefenselawyer @life-through-the-eyes-of @astriefer @justanormaldemon @ipromiseiwillwrite @a-dream-dirty-and-bruised @amchara @all-for-the-fanfiction @imsoftforthomastair @ddepressedbookworm @queenlilith43 @wagner-fell @cant-think-of-anything @laylax13s @tessherongraystairs @boredfangirl16 @artist-in-soul @bottomdelioncourt @ikissedsmithparker

#book recommendations #queer books #poc books #qpoc books #This Poison Heart #This Wicked Fate #Kalynn Bayron #The Jasmine Throne #the Oleander Sword #Tasha Suri #The Witchery #S Isabelle #the Sunbearer Trials #Aiden Thomas #Afterlove #Tanya Byrne

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itisiives · 8 months

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#tumblr poll #academia #dark academia #light academia #books #literature #black academia #book recs #book haul #hygge #cottagecore #book cafe #lgbtq books #poc books #bipoc books

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autistickhunsam · 2 years

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— The Confessions of Frannie Langton, Sara Collins

#the confessions of frannie langton #sara collins #wlw books #lgbt books #poc books #books #book quotes

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mothymusings · 7 months

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Second Entry

“In the end, a simple happiness is better than a complex disillusion.”

― Janelle Monáe, The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer

Synopsis

Memory Librarian and Other Stories is an anthology inspired by Monae’s album Dirty Computer. Each story is set in the near future, where a new government called New Dawn controls everything a person does down to their memories. Within each short story is a message of Queer, POC, and Female resistance against the rigid conformity New Dawn tries to impose.

There are five stories within the anthology, every single one could be read independently of the other, however there are references interspersed each novella. The titular story, Memory Librarian, follows Seshet as one of the high ranking officials in New Dawns order. Her job focuses on categorizing as well as monitoring the memories of her city until strange circumstances cause her to question her loyalties and even her own memories.

Nevermind follows the residents of the Pynk Hotel, a resistant group of queer women who have run away from New Dawn, dubbed Dirty Computers. However things are not as harmonious as they assume, as tensions between those who try to restrict what it means to be Pynk threaten to destroy the safe haven forever.

Timebox centers around two women who have found out that their closet has time altering powers, and the arguments on how best to use such a valuable resource as time for the benefit of the whole, or the individual.

Save Changes also deals with time, as Sisters Amber and Larry deal with being outcasts due to their mothers status as a reformed resistance leader. Gifted with a stone that their late father claims to rewind time, Larry tries to save her sister and mother from fates worse than death.

Timebox Altar(ed), the final story, is about a young child named Bug, who with their friends find and create art in a clearing with the help of Mx. Tangee, a strange woman who almost seems to have magical powers.

First Impressions

Wow! Memory Librarian blew me away with the descriptive prose and inventive stories of rebellion and love in an oppressive society. I enjoyed each story and the messages they imparted. I think my favorites were Nevermind and Save Changes, especially Save Changes with how well it mixed technology and magic together. I think for me it was definitely a fun read all the way through

The Good, The Bad, and The Fuzzy

The good has to go to the inventive worldbuilding of the setting Memory Librarian is in! Details are kept vague in terms of how New Dawn gained power, how memories are able to be used as a resource as well as what being a Torch entails. But I think that vagueness is in its favor from a narrative standpoint as the characters we meet already know all these things (Save for Bug and their friends), as well as for the reader to keep drawing you back in. It’s a nice blend of sci-fi contemporary without being set in such a heavily futuristic setting, there’s technology everywhere but it doesn’t feel like it’s the main focus or detracts from it.

The bad, I will admit I had trouble reading through some of the prose, especially in the Memory Librarian novella. I had to go back and reread many large paragraphs to try to figure out what exactly was going on. I think other than that I couldn’t really find anything else I had a problem with?

The fuzzy is more to deal with plots being abruptly cliffhangers, however I don’t find it as a fault due to the formatting but I still had moments where I would go “And then what??!!” before turning the page to be met with a new story.

Conclusion

Memory Librarian and Other Stories from Dirty Computer is an amazing anthology that talks about being different in a society that tries its hardest to stamp it out through the lenses of black queer women. Its sci-fi setting is friendly enough to those who aren’t familiar with the genre while also providing an interesting spin on the genre. I think this is a perfect read for those that enjoy evocative short stories within the same world as well as fans of Monae’s music. Listening to Dirty Computer while reading definitely helped immerse me in the world of New Dawn.

Rating

A nice 8.9/10 lamps!

Upcoming…

Next entry in this blog will be Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir!

#book review #bookblr #mothymusings #the memory librarian #janelle monae #my art #moving image #science fiction #queer books #poc books #anthology #long post

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queeraliensposts · 9 months

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Hey I just saw some loser shit on someone who was posting about the book they were working on so I figured I'd tell ya'll about my book that I've been working on for 5 years

• YA Dystopian novel

• It's set in the year 2063 and it's about a runaway teen, who makes his living by being a hacker, that is found by a rebel group that asks for his help with a rescue mission in exchange that they help him find his younger brother

• It's got lots of representation: the MC is a bisexual Latino trans boy, the love interest is a Jewish gay boy with ADHD, and there is also an asexual autistic black boy, a Korean lesbian, and an indigenous two-spirit pansexual demigirl.

• Author is an autistic bisexual trans man and a Mexican immigrant

• Lot about queer history as well as the truth about American history

• Talk about trauma and mental illness

• Protagonist is a runaway teen but the book doesn't romanticize it

• Very political the way dystopian fiction is meant to be

• Trans Rage

• Fuck patriotism

• First book of a trilogy

• Teenage characters that talk and act like teenagers

• More world heavy rather than action-heavy (though rest assured there is action it's just taking a back seat for this one)

• Scarily realistic dystopia

• Byronic hero MC

• Found Family

• Enemies to Lovers?

• If you liked: Cemetery Boys, Legend series by Marie Lu, The Witch King, Nimona, or Hell Followed With Us, you're gonna love this book.

• If you've ever been called chronically online, or told you're reaching by white queers on tik tok, this book is for you

• If you're a Terf, neo-liberal, transmed, cishet white boy that uses being progressive as a status, cringe culture loser, incel, trump fanatic, or you call trans men expressing anger "toxic masculinity" you're gonna hate this book

The book is called "The New World" hoping to be done by the end of January

#lgbtqia #writerblr #ya dystopia #dystopian #lgbtq characters #lgbtqia representation #lgbtqia books #poc characters #poc representation #poc books #neurodivergent #neurodivergent representation #autism representation #adhd representation #work in progress

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kodiescove · 15 days

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Okay yall

No poll this time cause I don't really have ideas, I'm looking to you for ideas.

How would you like me to structure my Representation Masterpost?

The only two ideas I have is:

Make a list of all the identities I come across in books, and list the books under the identities

List each author, then their books and the rep in their books.

Idea 1 let's people find books based on rep.

Idea 2 is more organized/cohesive/how I'd personally organize my books.

I'm sure there's tons of ways people could come up with to organize this!

I want to know what the community wants.

#lgbt representation #trans representation #representation #representation masterpost #lgbt books #disabled books #mentally ill books #poc books #books #booklr #bookblr #book tumblr #queer books #ideas

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shouts-into-the-void · 10 months

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Book Recommendations that you can find on Audible because sometimes visual reading is just Not Going to Happen:

How to Be Eaten by Maria Adelmann

A modern fairytale reimagining in which five women join an experimental support group in order to confront their very public trauma under the supervision of a seemingly sympathetic but suspiciously persistent male therapist.

Each of their stories mirrors a popular fairytale except for Ashlee, whose story is a call out of the manipulative and borderline abusive side of the reality tv industry. Blurs the lines between fiction and reality, so it's difficult to know what parts of each story are real and what parts are a coping mechanism to deal with their trauma. It's explicit, bizarre and sometimes really uncomfortable, but definitely worth a shot.

TW: Gore, Sexual Assault, Eating Disorders, Abuse, and Torture

CW: Public Humiliation, Misogyny, Violence, Mental Health Issues

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

Lily Hu is a Chinese-American teenager living in the midst of the Red-scare. As the government threatens her father's citizenship and she grows increasingly frustrated with her childhood friend, Lily meets Kath, a social pariah with dreams of becoming a pilot. As she and Kath grow closer, the two begin sneaking out to attend nightly shows at a local lesbian bar called The Telegraph Club.

The narrative bounces back and forth between Lily in the 1950s and the journeys of her mother building a life in America and her aunt as Lily grows up. The ending is more realistic than happy, but it is hopeful.

TW: Racism, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Child Abuse, Underage Alcohol Consumption

CW: Misogyny, Outing

Until We Break by Matthew Dawkins (Audible Original)

Naomi is the only black student at a prestigious ballet academy and has structured her entire life around the art. When her closest friend dies and Naomi suffers an injury that means she must take a break from ballet right before the Grand Prix, grief begins to eat away at her. Meanwhile Saint, a street artist, is struggling to keep himself and his younger brother afloat as their father's health deteriorates. After a chance meeting, the two attempt to find their place in the world together.

A beautiful story, although there are certain parts of the narrative that felt unresolved (which is not uncommon with Audible Originals so grain of salt)

TW: Racism, Self-harm, Suicide, Child Abuse, Abuse

CW: Mental Health Issues, Violence

Young Rich Widows by Kimberly Belle, Layne Fargo, Cate Holahan, and Vanessa Lillie (Audible Original)

All four partners of a law firm die in a mysterious plane crash, leaving their wives to unravel the circumstances of their deaths— and find a way to pay back the large sum of money they owed to the local mafia.

Audible Original's Magnum Opus, it's legitimately the best they've released in my opinion. It has a bit of a detective noir vibe and the plot twist at the end is wild, although it's got a few plot holes here and there.

TW: Sexual Harassment, Homophobia, Alcohol Consumption, Implied Torture

CW: Violence, Child Endangerment, Misogyny

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

In 1902, two students are found stung to death by wasps, with the only thing in their possession being a book by Mary MacLane that they were both obsessed with. After another student is found dead with the book in her possession, the headmistress and her lover attempt to quiet the distress and suspicion among the students and staff as a decades old curse turns it's sights on them.

In the present day, Hollywood darling Harper and former child actress Audrey are cast in a movie based on the biography of the original students' deaths under the direction of a famous horror director, the book's prickly author Merritt, and the now closed school's owner Elaine. As the filming begins and strange things begin to happen, it seems as though the curse may have found its newest victims.

If you go into this one expecting everyone to be good people and the story to be neat and tidy, you are going to be disappointed. It's a very hit or miss story. The narrative feels like a fever dream and the driving force of the plot is that the characters are all disaster gays. Sometimes the present day plot can feel rushed or pointless, but I personally enjoyed it. The ending isn't what you're expecting, but it feels consistent with the flow of the narrative.

TW: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Self-harm, Purposeful Induction of Paranoia, Sexual Assault, Suicide, Emetophobia, Alcohol Consumption, Drug Use, Gore

CW: Graphic Depictions of Death, Wasps (No, I'm not kidding), Mental Health Issues

•••

Web Comic Recommendations

#i realized halfway through writing this that all but one of these sre sapphic #and then i went through my library and discovered that most of the books in it are either sapphic or WLNB #however most of the webcomics i read are achilliean or MLNB #also feel free to ask for more recs i consume so much media #young rich widows #plain bad heroines #last night at the telegraph club #until we break #how to be eaten #sapphic horror #sapphic books #poc books #book recommendations

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storyteller-aprendiz · 9 months

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#anna marie mclemore #young adult #queer ya books #queer books #book recomendation #uquiz #uquizzes #queer recommendation #book recomendations #poc books

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servingthecuntry · 4 months

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Just finished chapter 4 of cemetery boys and

Julian is so real for this

Reads: what're you gonna do, stab me? I'm already dead

#Cemetery boys #Lgbtqia #Trans #Yadriel x julian #Julian cemetery boys #Gay #Ignore my art style changing every frame #queer books #Queer #lgbtqia books #fantasy books #poc books #Yadriel cemetery boys #spooky

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poppletonink · 1 year

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Feminist Recommendation: Wash Day Diaries

The Wash Day Diaries is a wonderful graphic novel following the story of four best friends - Kim, Tanisha, Davene, and Cookie. The title comes from the experience of hair washing days, an experience that is shared by Black women throughout the world. With beautiful, vivid and colourful art, the story delves into many different life experiences from self care and hair appointments to love life drama to healing familial drifts.

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diversebookscorner · 1 month

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Welcome to Diverse Books Corner!

We're a community of readers committed to embracing a wide range of perspectives. Each of us brings unique experiences, and by actively seeking out books from various backgrounds, we can deepen our understanding of the challenges faced by marginalized groups. It's our shared responsibility as a community to engage in mindful, inclusive reading habits every day, not just on special occasions.

That's why we're here – to help you discover diverse voices and stories. In essence, we'll be curating a newsletter featuring;

New book releases

Spotlighting indie authors

Sharing our team's personal recommendations and book reviews

Hosting author Q&A sessions

Offering themed book lists

Organizing reading challenges and readathons, and much more.

If you're interested in expanding your bookshelf with diverse titles, we invite you to join our community by following our page and subscribing to our newsletter. Together, let's celebrate diversity within the book community by uplifting and showcasing diverse authors.

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melanielocke · 1 year

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Book recommendations - science fiction

I couldn't put the pictures next to each other as half the books would fall off the picture, but I decided to continue with a selection of science fiction books. Some are set in space, but not all of the, because sci-fi as a genre is more than just space books so if you're not into space books perhaps one of the other books might be a good choice.

I'll start with Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

This is not a space book. It's a mermaid book. And while you'd think that's fantasy, this one is actually a sci-fi horror. The way the mermaids are portrayed here is very scientific and also rather horrifying, which is why it's a scifi horror.

While the ending leaves an opening for a sequel, there is currently no sequel. As I understand, this is due to the publisher but if a lot of people were to buy the first one a sequel could still be possible.

Seven years ago, the Atargatis set out to the mariana trench to film a mockumentary about mermaids. The ship disappeared, and was discovered weeks later drifting somewhere with no one on it. Now, a new ship filled with scientists is traveling to the same area to find out what happened.

This book follows a wide cast of characters, but the main character is Tori. Tori is a marine biologist whose older sister was on the Atargatis and presumably died and she wants nothing more than to find out what really happened to her sister.

Some of the other major characters include Olivia, an autistic lesbian who is a tv presenter, the same job Tori's sister had on the previous voyage, deaf twins Holly and Heather who both have their own scientific expertise, dr. Jillian Toth, a marine biologist and siren expert at a time when people generally don't believe in mermaids.

There isn't a lot of romance in the book, but the main pairing is sapphic.

One of the greatest strenghts of this book is the use of science, everything in here is really believable, and the way scientists are portrayed. As very curious people who do not have a lot of self preservation (which is why they're looking for mermaids that might very well kill them all)

Next up is Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell, which I had to include if I'm making a sci-fi list although I've talked about it before as I used the premise from this book for the Stars Collide. The book on the picture is the UK edition, which I bought because at the time it was the only available paperback, but I'm kind of regretting that I don't have a US cover edition because I like that cover a lot better.

Winter's Orbit is a sci-fi romance that follows prince Kiem, a minor prince of the Iskat empire. When Kiem's cousin Prince Taam dies suddenly and unexpectedly, Kiem is rushed into an arranged marriage with Taam's widower Jainan to keep the treaty between Iskat and Jainan's home planet Thea.

It soon turns out Taam's death might not have been an accident and Jainan is a suspect, and Kiem and Jainan will have to navigate an investigation, possible conspiracy and their growing feelings for each other.

Winter's Orbit is equal parts sci-fi and romance, and I think one of the books where miscommunication is done well. It makes sense here for Taam and Kiem to misunderstand each other based on their past relationships, assumptions and expectations, and I would definitely recommend this if you like queer romance, sci-fi romance and arranged marriage stories.

Oceans' Echo is Everina Maxwell's second book, which I also discussed in my first book recommendations post. However, back then I hadn't gotten around to reading it yet and just wanted to show off my very pretty new book. Now I have read it and can tell you a little more about it.

Ocean's Echo is set in the same universe as Winter's Orbit, but featuring different characters set in a completely different part of the galaxy. You do not need to read Winter's Orbit to read this book. The only thing that appears in both books is the existence of the Resolution and their treaties and the remnants, but it'll make sense if you haven't read Winter's Orbit.

The story is set on a planet where they've done experiments with neuromodification, resulting in readers and architects existing. Architects are more common and can "write" people's minds, imposing their will on them, depending on how strong they are. Readers can read people's minds, and they are rarer, and generally not trusted, but their abilities do allow them to navigate chaotic space while mentally linked to an architect.

The main character is Tennal, a reader and walking disaster. He's conscripted into the military under very dubious circumstances, and is ordered to soul bound with young lieutanant Surit Yeni. This soul bond would essentially allow Surit to follow control Tennal's mind.

Surit is the son of a famous dead traitor general, and he is determined to prove he's not a traitor. He seems like the kind of guy who just follows orders, until he's told to soul bond with an unwilling Tennal. The moment he's told to do something unethical he throws that all obedient soldier guy thing out of the window and decides they have to fake a soul bound until he can help Tennal escape the military.

Compared to Winter's Orbit, this book leans more toward sci-fi than romance. It's more sci-fi with a major romance subplot than sci-fi romance, and I found myself less rooting for the romance, but more for the plot and the characters individually. I still liked them as a couple, but that's not the main focus here. It's very military focused, but in a way that portrays the military as an institution with dubious morals that they are mainly trying to escape from.

Next up is the Space between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

This is a sci-fi not set in space but focused on interdimensional travel instead. In this world, interdimensional travel has been made possible, but there's a problem. You can only travel to worlds where you're already dead.

Cara, the main character, is exceptionally good at dying. So much that out of the currently discovered worlds, she is dead in 372 worlds and only alive in 9. This makes her an ideal candidate to travel to parallel worlds to do research them, which allows her to move from her poor community into the wealthier city, and if she keeps up the job long enough can even win her citizenship there.

I'm not sure how to tell more about the plot without giving everything away, but there are a few things I'll mention.

The second character on the cover is Dell, a Japanese woman who works with Cara and sends her on assignments and such. Dell has grown up in the city, and is unable to travel to other worlds herself because she's still alive in too many of them. She is also Cara's love interest.

This story, and the reason Cara is so good at dying, is largely about poverty and racism. Cara is a Black woman who grew up in an unsafe and poor part of the world, whereas Dell grew up wealthy, and spends a lot of time exploring that, and how the poor area Cara grew up in works in her world but also different worlds she travels too.

There are also a couple of twists that really surprised me and I didn't see coming. While I admit I'm not the best at predicting plot twists, I think this book has one that will surprise a lot of people.

On the Edge of Gone is an internationally published book by a Dutch author (which aren't many), and is set in the Netherlands. Amsterdam, specifically.

A comet is set to hit earth, and Denise and her family have been assigned a shelter to hide in for the blast. Unfortunately, Denise's sister Iris is not home in time and her drug addict mother is slowing her down too, she's never getting to the shelter in time. Through a teacher from Denise's school, she discovers a space ship that has not yet taken off that they can hide in for the blast.

The problem is, passengers need good practical skills to be able to contribute to be allowed on the ship, and Denise is an autistic teenager who doesn't know what she has to offer, nor her mother or sister. Still, she tries her best to secure them passage on the ship.

This book is written by an autistic author, and the autism is very well portrayed here. The story is mostly focused on Denise's relationship with her family and people she meets on the spaceship, and about her autism and the idea of having to contribute. It's not very plot heavy and not very fast paced, and the spaceship doesn't actually take off, it's hidden on Schiphol (Amsterdam airport), and remains there after the impact, after which Amsterdam is flooded. I imagine if disaster strikes, that is likely because Amsterdam is below sea level.

I would recommend this mainly for the autism representation, if you're looking for something fast paced with a lot of plot this one isn't for you.

Next up is the Darkness Outside Us, which is a survival story set in space

Ambrose is a trained astronaut. When his sister's distress beacon goes off on Titan where she was the first human to settle, a rescue missue is launched, and Ambrose is chosen to go find her.

But the rescue doesn't go as planned. Ambrose wakes up on the space ship with no memory of the launch, and it turns out there's a second part of the ship with a second astronaut he wasn't aware of, a spacefarer from a different country who locks himself in his own part of the ship and wants nothing to do with Ambrose. And the ship's a worn down mess, with lots of repair jobs Ambrose has to do.

To survive and succeed in the rescue, Ambrose and Kodiak, the other spacefarer, will have to work together.

This book is YA, but a lot of goodreads reviews will tell you it reads more as adult. I'm not sure if that's true, since YA is mainly determined by the age of the main characters, who are teenagers in this book, but if you're more interested in adult sci-fi I think you might still like this book.

There is a lot of emphasis on the themes of survival, isolation, and humanity and bonds between humans, it does get more philosophical than some other books on this list. Ambrose and Kodiak are completely alone on their spaceship, they only have each other, and much of the focus is on that. Their relationship also becomes romantic at some point.

The book is divided into 5 or 6 different parts or so, with the first one being the longest, and I won't say what divides them as that'd be a huge spoiler. However, as you go from part 1 into part 2 you're going to be very confused. It makes little sense, until it does, and I thought this was a very intriguing idea.

Last book on this list is Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

Iron Widow is the first book in a duology with book 2, Heavenly Tyrant, coming out this August. The book is a reimagining of Empress Wu, the only female emperor in Chinese history, and many of the characters are based on Chinese historical figures. However, the setting is a futuristic sci-fi world inspired by ancient Chinese culture.

Huaxia has been under attack by aliens called Hunduns for many generations. The only way to fight them is with a chrysalis, a sort of robot that is piloted by a couple of pilots. Their shapes are based on Chinese mythological animals, such as the nine tailed fox and the vermillion bird.

The chrysalises are piloted by male pilots, paired up with a female concubine-pilot. No one really cares that the girls very often die.

Wu Zetian offers herself up as a concubine pilot after her sister was killed by a powerful male pilot outside of battle, to get revenge. And she gets it in an unexpected way. When she goes into battle with the pilot, she kills him through their psychic link and is labeled an Iron Widow, a female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up a chrysalis.

She's paired with Li Shimin, the strongest male pilot in Huaxia, and the most controversial as he was on death row for killing his father and brothers and his execution has been postponed indefinitely because he's so powerful.

But Zetian won't let him kill her or tame her, she's had a taste of power and she won't stop until she's destroyed the system that treats girls as disposable.

Zetian is kind of unhinged in the best way. After she killed the first male pilot, she yells something like "I'm your nightmare" on camera, and I love her for it. She's definitely a morally gray character, but very easy to root for because she's pissed off because of the patriarchy and wants to take it down.

The two other major characters in this book are Shimin and Yihzi. I already talked a little about Shimin before. Yihzi is Zetian's secret boyfriend at the start of the book, and at some point while Zetian's paired up with Shimin he shows up again. His super power is that he's rich, his father is the richest man in Huaxia. At some point he literally says "You can't shoot me, I'm rich". He seems like a very sweet guy but he can actually be quite brutal when he wants to be.

All three main characters are bisexual and end up being in a polyamorous relationship which I really liked. The author described this book as 400 pages of Zetian and Shimin suffering while Yihzi has the most bisexual time of his life.

#book recommendations #queer books #poc books #science fiction #into the drowning deep #mira grant #winter's orbit #ocean's echo #everina maxwell #the space between worlds #micaiah johnson #on the edge of gone #corinne duyvis #the darkness outside us #eliot schrefer #iron widow #xiran jay zhao

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