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The sequel to Meru, about humans being limited in their activities due to their destructive past by their genetically engineered offshoots (the Alloys), follows Akshaya - the human-Alloy hybrid daughter of the characters from the first book. 

Akshaya was always destined to live on Meru, her parent's dream for a human colony free from Alloy interference and an atmosphere perfectly suited for people like her - with sickle-cell. But as Akshaya comes of age, she resents the imposed destiny of living on a lifeless world and embarks on the Anthro Challenge - a circumnavigation of Earth only reliant on old human technology - to prove she's strong enough to stay on Earth. 

This book covers areas I wish we saw more of in the first book; how the tamed humans live in the approved, safe areas of Earth and those exile areas at latitudes that are yet to recover from the catastrophe that human ambition wrought. Yet I did feel that their trip across continents and oceans progressed with such speed it missed any opportunities to really learn how these different human communities (those living under Alloy guidance, and those lost in the wilds) really lived; especially culturally.

Instead, it very much focuses on the journey, the various perils they face along the way, and the doubts they have about the challenge as the losses mount. In the background, those following their trek mount movements both in their favour and against both human ambitions like the challenge.

It chimes with the original in being a very human and hopepunk-focused vibe. The beauty and dangers of humans as individuals and a collective. It's a fundamentally optimistic story with some great reflection. 

1893 in the rural English town of Dallyangle, the youngest of the Nettleblack sisters (heirs to the Nettleblack fortune) Henry Nettleblack decides to flee her eldest sister’s plans to marry her off to elevate the family to aristocracy. However, Henry is cornered by thieves and loses everything. Thankfully saved by the Dallyangle Division (detective agency come neighbourhood watch composed nearly entirely of women), Henry decides to enlist before promptly fainting.

Hiding as a new recruit in Division, she deals with a the spate of robberies, a missing head and her eldest sister’s instructions to track her down. And then there are strange and distracting feelings Henry seems to be developing for her superior Septimus. Thankfully, there are plenty of other locals who, through experience, find it easier at putting such queer things into words. Perhaps in the Division, Henry can find her true self in a way she never could under her sister’s tutelage. 

I absolutely adored this charming farcical comedy of scandal and sapphic love. I love the characters and their chafing against the little Victorian world the book creates. Pretty much everyone has a secret and is finding their own path to freedom or respect in a society that doesn’t wish to take them seriously; particularly split-skirt ladies fighting crime on bicycles. The style of the book is through journals and extracts with a very Dickensian vibe in parts (notably the old-style chapter headings) which I find quite charming.

Henry is an adorable cinnamon roll, stammering and swearing in fruits - pomegranates! - as she desperately tries to prove her worth to the world. Septimus (noted by someone else as "prone to poor judgement with short-haired androgynous types") is the hot-head tomboy fighting guilt over her past failures. Cassandra, the daughter of the Director of the division, feels underpressure from her mother’s perfectionism (and not helped by being women in charge of a “police” and the only black family in the area). Pip, the dandy genderless cravat designer, is intimidating in both style and speech (such goals!). Rosamond, the scandalous middle sister who refuses to give up her Welsh tongue, is the rebellious sibling who is easy to look up to. I could go on but I do love this cast of characters. 

Linus Baker is a caseworker for the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth where he has progressed little over his quiet life. Each time inspecting orphanages of magical youth, he rigorously applies the RULES AND REGULATIONS that guides how magical people should be handled in this world of quiet but persistent discrimination. What becomes of the children in the orphanages he issues a negative report on, he has never quite considered. 

His life of quiet compliance is interrupted when he is given a confidential case from Extremely Upper Management, who’s taken note of his rigorous application of the rules. A remote island orphanage that is home to six children classified as extremely dangerous including “a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist” under the tutelage of a headmaster who has little regard for rules and regulations.

During Linus’ stay, he starts to see beyond the classifications ascribed by the department to see the beautiful dreams and gentle souls the children have. Little risk comes from the playful antichrist, the nearby villagers on the other hand pose a far more menacing threat thanks to the department’s ever-present fearmongering. And as he comes to care for the children, Linus begins to fall for their tender-hearted headmaster.

I found this incredibly sweet and hopeful in how it wove together this found family creating safety for each other to heal in the face of a world that doesn’t accept them. It might come across to sweet or YA for some people, but it gave me a lot of comfort and smiles given how stressful the world is at the moment. 

This is a novella based on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. In the 1890s; Easton, a former soldier of the Gallacia, visits kan old friend Madeline Usher at her family’s ancestral seat on the news that she may be dying. The house is decaying and covered in fungus; only a few servants remain (Madeline’s maid jumped from the roof a few months prior) while her nervous wreck of a brother has only an American doctor to rely on who is baffled by Madeline’s ailment. As Easton attempts to help the family, ka uncovers a mystery around the glowing lake and unsettling wildlife that just won't die.

If you’re up for some gothic horror, mycelial zombie hares, a soldier whose gender/pronouns are simply “soldier”, and regular English jibes at Americans then this is worth picking up. I enjoyed the characters a lot, especially Easton and the English lady providing the mushroom nerdery, and I’m always here for fungal horror vibes. It gives it a blend of old and modern horror. 

So what happens when a vampire hunter ends up in a poly thruple with two vampire nobles?

Remy is a vampire hunter partly estranged from his father and an outcast in the other hunters, given only the bounties no one else would touch despite him proving himself a thousand times over. This may have something to do with his mother eloping with a vampire. His only friend is secretly a vampire he saved and he is often used for sexual favours from one older noble lady.

A new mutating disease is creating new monsters and the town immediately turns on him, blaming him for the death of a Lord. His only allies ends up being cinnamon bun vampire Xiaodan and her arrogant fiancé Zidan. Taking him under their wing, they work together to solve the mystery despite raised pitchforks from the humans. In time, Remy gets closer to them and has to reassess what he thinks he knows about vampires and his family’s history with them.

Remy is an interesting character. I was getting a bit frustrated at him at times for his determination to misread Xiaodan and Zidan’s advances; but given the bucket load of trauma dumped on his lap I’m surprised he manages to get out of bed in the morning so I do feel for him a great deal. Xiaodan managed to be just on the fun side of things without becoming Remy’s manic pixie dream girl but both she and Zidan deserve an award for their patience as Remy slowly unpacks his shit.

The plot as a whole is interesting but does take a back seat to the characters a lot which I think works for this; I don’t think I’d understand Remy as well if the character time was sacrificed for some extra subplots or whatever. But I could do with more time with some of the side characters. The world is similarly a little thin, but still engaging for what is there. 

Four parallel universes are layered on top of each other. All they have in common is there is a city upon a river called London. Everything else in the world diverged a long time ago when they were separated. Grey London is ours, dull and without magic. Red is resplendent and in balance. White was once all powerful, before Black London fell to the darkest of magics and White was used as a firebreak to stop the spread.

Kell, from Red London, is one of the few remaining magicians capable of traversing worlds. While he transports messages between the rulers of the 3 surviving cities, he also smuggles trinkets for those who would pay a great deal for anything from another world. But when he is tricked into smuggling something far more dangerous than he bargained for he ends up falling in with a thief & aspiring pirate of Grey London, Lila, to put things right.

It’s an interesting world and the stacked nature of the worlds and need for trinkets from each adds a decent limitation to Kell’s powers that everything makes sense and drives the plot forward. Nothing gets too silly when it comes to the uses of magic and the multiverse. I wish we had more of to round out the characters and each version of the city but it’s not significantly lacking given it’s part of a series; it lays a decent foundation there even if it could give more of a hook. I certainly enjoyed Lila. 

 This semi-autobiographical account follows Jess Goldburg during the 60s and 70s in America. Jess comes out as a butch lesbian in the old gay drag bars with that heavy butch/femme divide* facing regular attacks from bigots and police. 

After an SA at school she drops out and goes into manual work and is involved in the unions but her gender nonconformity leads her to save up for testosterone and top surgery in the hopes that going stealth as a man in the workplace can lead to a more stable life. It also shows the racism, anti-semitism, sexual harassment and transphobia inside and outside of the community at that time as Jess navigates her own feelings and identity.

*= I knew that scene was intensely enforced, but this line struck me in particular: “The more I thought about the two of them being lovers, the more it upset me. I couldn’t stop thinking about them kissing each other. It was like two guys. Well, two gay guys would be alright. But two butches? How could they be attracted to each other? Who was the femme in bed?” 

Lamya (she/they) presents a memoir of her life as a queer hijabi Muslim, blended with her recollections and interpretations of stories in the Qur'an.

Born in South Asia, at 4 her parents move to a rich Arab state where she is immersed in readings of the Qur'an and sits at the bottom of the informal racial hierarchy. They realise they are queer at 14 after they feel a strong connection to the story of Maryam and has a crush on their teacher that manifests through persistent pranking to get her attention. She later starts college in the US as most of her family move to America and she faces battles with racism and the immigration system.

It’s a beautiful exploration of seeing your faith through feminist and queer lenses, the racism in the queer community, and discovering yourself and your vulnerability with others. It’s refreshing to see such a dauntless defence and embrace of the intersection between faith, race and queerness. Certainly, passages towards the end deeply connected with me and gave me a lot to reflect on.

Breq was once part of a huge ship’s AI, linking the ship to thousands of “Ancillaries”, captured peoples turned into soldiers controlled by the AI. After a betrayal from the highest levels destroyed the ship, Breq is just one fragment of her former self. 1000 years later, she plans on revenge before she comes across Seivarden, a former lieutenant on her ship suspended all this time.

I heard this mentioned often in comparison to other books so I decided to check it out. The narrative jumps between future Breq and her quest for justice, dealing with a drug-addicted depressed Seivarden; and the past where the events of an annexed planet lead to her destruction.

It covers a decent amount of Breq and the world-building as a whole for one book, with cultural shifts over time, the diversity within a splintered AI and the expansionism of the state. The main culture’s language is also ungendered, so for the books’s POV and any characters from that culture use she/her for everyone with Breq occasionally getting mixed up in misgendering a species in their native tongue - being confused by all the different social cues each culture uses to determine it. That adds an interesting cultural spanner into the narrative as you learn about the characters. 

When your bestie’s hand in marriage is being given away as a prize in a jousting tournament, obviously that means one thing. Steal some armour and a horse and ride across the country to enter the tournament pretending to be a man. Show up enough of the other competitors and maybe you can save her from an arranged marriage. And if you happen to win… maybe she’d marry you. Joking, joking. Unless… No, not serious at all, marry a woman in a suit of armour? Insane… obviously she’s not serious… unless you’re into that?

This is a very sweet sapphic story with Joanna being a bit useless and not knowing she’s gay af, and Lily is more than eager to smash men with swords for wanting to win her girl. What’s a few broken ribs if you can give your love her freedom? It’s a sequel but you don’t really need to read the first one to read this - the background is explained and it focuses on different characters. 

 Jackie Kay’s Scottish poetry collection covers a lifetime of protest from her parent’s socialist campaigns, anti-war protests, feminist and queer rights, black lives matter and the pandemic. Woven in are figures such as Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, and Fanny Eaton.

One short and sweet one from the book;

Had we ne’er met like this, my luve, my lass,
never kissed, never become amorous,
never hid, never split, never got pissed,
never kept shtum, played dumb, nursed secrets,
never stared at the moon and wished,
never taken risks, imagined this.
Had we ne’er believed oor luve wad prevail,
we’d hae aye gone awol, or aff the rails.
Had we ne’re been oot o’ this wilderness
we wad hae ne’er felt this quiet tenderness.
We micht have thought this day wad never come:
Houghmagandy equality! A marriage; gay.
The guid day when me and my bonnie lassie
might walk doon the aisle and be free.