Matthew reads, I guess...

  Today I’m talking about The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas. I’ve actually previously read, and really enjoyed, Cemetery Boys by Thomas and, fun fact, Cemetery Boys was one of the inspirations behind the novel I’m working towards querying. But, yeah, I’m actually talking about The Sunbearer Trials which has been one of those books that I was really confused about when the UK release of the book was. Like I could tell when the US release was, but it was one of those that had a really murky release date for the UK. Still, I read it and here we are. Our magical fantasy blurb says welcome to the Sunbearer Trials, a competition between ten of the very best semidioses, where the winner will be celebrated, and the loser will be sacrificed. Teo, the seventeen-year-old trans son of the goddess of birds, isn’t worried. As a Jade, it’s unlikely he’ll be chosen to compete in the Trials, and even if his best friend Niya competes, she’s a born-and-bred Gold semidios with unparalleled abi...

  I’m talking about Ghost Town by Kevin Chen today. I discovered this book because the city I work in (sadly, don’t live in) has a queer bookstore and I went into it looking for a specific book. I did find the book I was looking for, but I also thought that I might as well have a little look around while I was there. It ended up being because I took that little look around that I ended up spotting, and buying, this book. I will give a couple content warning: This book does have reference to self-harm, suicide and assault of a couple different kinds. The blurb says that Keith Chen, the desperately yearned for second son of a traditional Taiwanese family with five daughters, refuses to play the role his parochial parents would cast him in. Instead, he chooses to make a life for himself in cosmopolitan Berlin, where he finally finds acceptance as a young gay man. The novel takes place about a decade later, on Ghost Festival, the Day of Deliverance. After his release from a maximum...

  So, today I’m talking about a book that I think has been sat on my shelf for a little while, and that’s Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera. I think I ended up picking this up from a queer bookshop relatively near me. I say relatively, because there isn’t a single bookshop I would consider to be near me, like if public transport and traffic was on my side, the closest is maybe 20/25 minutes away. The blurb says that Juliet’s head is spinning with questions. Will her beautiful, chaotic Puerto Rican family still love her when they found out she’s gay? Will an internship with her favourite author help her understand what kind of feminist she wants to be? Any why won’t her girlfriend return her calls? In a summer full of queer dance parties, a fling with a motorcycling librarian and intense exploration of sexuality, feminism and identity, Juliet’s about to learn what it means to really come out – to the world, to her family, to herself. The book opens on a preface where Juliet is...