Matthew reads, I guess...

  Hello, so today I am talking about yet another book that I had no idea even existed until I saw it on the shelf in the shop that I got it from. And the bookshop I got it from? Yep, Gay’s the Word down in London again. I don’t know what it is, but it’s something about just knowing where a queer bookshop is in London that’s easily accessible. Some place that I know I can easily get to and not be forced onto the overground to get to. Or, with the case of the ones more local to me – I say local, like they’re not an hour’s journey away – that have both moved in their respective cities and now I have no idea where they are. Anyway, the blurb says that it’s been a year since a devastating storm ripped Liz’s world apart. Haunted by the memories of those she couldn’t save, Liz holes up in the only place she felt safe before her world fell away: the bookstore where she used to work. Now she spends her days trading books for supplies and collecting stories from the remaining survivors who...

  Today I’m talking about Felix Ever After by Kacen Callendar. I’ve had this book on my shelf for a good amount of time. It’s one of those where I have no idea when or where I got it, but I’ve always sort of just had it. The blurb says that Felix Love has never been in love – and. Yes, he’s painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it’s like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What’s worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he’s one marginalisation too many – Black, queer, and transgender – to ever get his own happily ever after. When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages – after publicly posting Felix’s deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned – Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn’t count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi-love triangle… But as he navigates his complicated feelings, Felix begins a journey of question...

  So, I actually got this book, Gorgeous Gruesome Faces by Linda Cheng, as a present. It was one of those that I just found out about one day and added it to a wishlist, and eventually just handed it off to someone to get for me. The blurb says that after a shocking career-ending scandal, eighteen-year-old Sunny Lee spends her days longing for her former popstar life and cyberstalking ex-groupmate Candie. They were inseparable – before leaving tragedy and heartache in their wake. Now Candie is chasing stardom in a new K-pop competition, and Sunny can’t resist joining her. Finally, they can confront the demons in their past, like what happened that horrible night their third groupmate jumped to her death. And whether the dark, otherworldly secrets they keep had something to do with it… But when Sunny is haunted by terrifying visions, gory injuries start happening to competitors – followed by even stranger mutilations. It’s a race to survive the deadly carnage in this spellbinding...