Originally posted on Goodreads. I heard about Mislaid on Bookriot’s All the Books! podcast. For the record, I would literally read anything Liberty and Rebecca recommend because I just adore both of them.  This novel takes place in Virginia in 1966. Butch teen Peggy and the flamboyantly gay Lee get married. After years of misery and borderline abuse, Peggy flees with their three year old daughter, leaving Lee to raise their nine year old son. Peggy goes into hiding, worried that Lee will have her arrested, or worse: committed. In order to fly under the radar, Peggy disguises her and her daughter as African American.  I think the biggest mistake I made with this book was to listen to it on audio. I wasn’t a huge fan of the narrator, but more importantly I felt like this is just not the kind of book that lends itself well to audio. I felt as though I was missing some of the snark and humor that Zink has woven into her writing. Maybe in a few years I will give this a read on paper, but it will need to be a while. This novel is weird and explores the spectrum of sexuality and gender norms and race, but in the way that I wasn’t always super comfortable with. I had to pause at some moments to decide if something offended me. I think that is the point of this novel, but it is not something that I feel I will be open to reabsorbing for a while.

Originally posted on Goodreads.

Recipe for Caraval:
1 cup of The Night Circus
1/2 cup of Once Upon a Time (boy do I love me some Killian Jones)
2 tbsps. Murder Mystery Party
A dash of romance

Mix all ingredients well, bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 hours, and enjoy!

Seriously, this book is over 400 pages and I read it in under 12 hours. This is the most compelling novel I have read since Divergent (which I kept on the passenger seat of my car and read while waiting at a red light – DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME I AM A LITERAL CRAZY PERSON). I could not put this book down and just fell in love with this world and the characters. 

Now, let’s be real. This is not the best world building that you will find, nor will it ever be heralded as literary prose. BUT – that’s not what I’m here for. 

I am here for the adorable soft-hearted pirate. I am here for the magical world. I am here for sisters who love each other more than anything else (I personally have two of those). I am here for the mystery and the twists. 

I had some suspicions about the twist of this novel, but my theories were all blown mid-novel. I was along for the ride and I could not stop. I threw the book at my wife so she could experience this ride, too. 

Honestly, the thing I liked least about this book was that this is the author’s debut novel and there was not more for me to devour. 

Originally posted on Goodreads.

I have never had a book like this where I simultaneously want to shove it in the face of everyone I know until they read it and also hug it to my chest and not let anyone touch it. I needed so many tissues but it was so, so worth it.

Ted is gay, single, and at a crossroads. He has suddenly realized that an octopus is clinging to the head of his beloved dachshund, Lily. Where had it come from? What audacity this octopus has to show up here! 

Now, I am not the kind of person that can handle movies or books about dogs. I haven’t seen or read Marley and Me. I have to emotionally separate myself from these things because of who I am as a person. I was so skeptical and nervous about this book. I was scared and apprehensive to start it, because you know how these things are. 

As both an octopus (not “octopus”) lover and dog mom, this book was something that struck my fancy. Add on a raving review from my mom, I knew I needed to power through this. I am so glad that I did. The writing in this book is so beautiful. This may be the best book that I’ve read in the past few years.

Originally published on Goodreads. Disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.  Will Dillard is struggling. Today, he is a graduate student working on his dissertation, but he is barely living. He goes through the motions, but he is haunted by his past. When he was a teenager, he spent one awful summer at Camp Levi, a conversion camp designed to “cure” teenage boys of their homosexual “affliction”. It is only when a slasher film based on that nightmare summer is released that Will is forced to confront his demons head-on.  Reading the description of this book made me SO excited to read it, especially during pride month. This book did not quite live up to the hype. It was a good enough read that I got through the book, but at no point did I feel any kind of investment in the characters. Will is a boring, bland human who does things that just made zero sense to me.  This is also one of the slowest moving books I’ve ever read. It isn’t until 56% of the way through the book (yes, read it on a Kindle) that you even get any kind of details about what went on at the camp. The build up just seemed to be way too in-depth and the movement was at a snail’s pace. It was exhausting. I (as I assume other readers will) picked up this book because I wanted to hear the story of the camp. The horror flick was an interesting plot device to force Will to bring up those memories, but the pages upon pages of information about his mother and his expedition to see his father just did nothing for me.  I think that this was an interesting story, but I’m not sure that this author was the best person to tell it.

Originally posted on Goodreads. Disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. “A school is a tapestry of threads.” Nowhere is this more true than Guadalupe Middle School. This has already been a tough year for the students and staff members: a student disappeared, gang violence, and abuse. Through shifting perspectives and timeline, the secrets of all are revealed.  From reading the book jacket, you know that something is about to go down on Career Day. As I’ve mentioned in the past, school shootings are something that absolutely terrify me and are not something I am comfortable with reading about. I was very nervous about this book. I would not read it before bed. I tried (unsuccessfully) to keep myself from reading a lot all at once. I know what effect this subject had on me, so I practiced self care. What I wasn’t prepared for was the page turning suspense of this novel. Everyone from the janitor to the prettiest girl in school to the handsome English husband of the principal has a reason to feel the fear. Is it them? Is it their secret that is going to bring on this lockdown? I was obsessed with finding out the ending and when I did I was not disappointed.  This is one of those crazy books that I want to just shove in people’s faces and yell at them until they start reading. It is so good and so thrilling. The writing is fabulous. Each character’s perspective has it’s own unique voice and vernacular. Each character has a different style of describing their past and present. The author uses language that is accessible enough that you don’t have to stop and look up every other word while at the same time phrasing things in the most perfect and elaborate way. I highly recommend this book to anyone who like suspenseful thrillers and dynamic characters.

Initially posted on Goodreads. I was very hesitant about starting this book. I am not the kind of person that enjoys reading about traumatic experiences and, as a gay woman, I was worried that this would hit too close to home. I was worried that I would live in fear and that I would feel scared for my marriage.  Instead, I feel inspired. The foreword of Eight Bullets tells the gripping, terrifying experience of Claudia Brenner and Rebecca Wight. Targeted, stalked, and hunted for their sexuality, Rebecca was killed and Claudia fought with everything she had to survive. That is where the book begins.  The subtitle of this book could not be more fitting. This is not the story of the tragedy that happened and it is not the story of the murderer. It is the story of Claudia’s fight to stay alive. It is the story of the community of people that stood together and fought against this.  Claudia was shot in 1987, nearly two years before I was born. I was raised in a world where being gay was not accepted and discrimination was common, but the hate and the violence that were part of the everyday life of previous generations just crushed me. Now, in 2017, I am legally married to the love of my life. I am on her health insurance and we have all the benefits of a heterosexual married couple. There is always still a fear of discrimination. It is still legal for an employer to discriminate based on sexuality. I still feel scared of holding my wife’s hand in public, because I know that people like Rebecca’s murderer are still out there.  This book has made me so appreciative of the rights that I have, the life I am able to live, and of the choices I have. It has also shown me that our work isn’t done. That there is still so much to do. It is because of Claudia and her peers that I have the life I do, now it is our turn to make it better for the next generation.