Blog Archives
Straight Expectations by Calum McSwiggan – The Write Reads Ultimate Blog Tour Book Review
About the Book
The brilliant debut novel from author, presenter and LGBTQ+ advocate Calum McSwiggan!
Seventeen-year-old Max has always been out, proud and just a little spoiled. Frustrated by the lack of romantic options in his small-town high school, during an argument with his lifelong best friend Dean, Max lashes out and says he wishes he had never been born gay.
Max gets more than he bargained for when he wakes up to find his wish has come true – not only have his feelings for boys vanished, but so has Dean.
With his school life turned upside down and his relationship with his family in tatters, Max sets out on a journey of rediscovery to find a way back to the life he took for granted, and the romance he thought he’d never have.
A deliciously romantic YA debut that’s What If It’s Us and One Last Stop!
Add it to Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61335651-straight-expectations
About the Author
Calum McSwiggan (born 21 May 1990) is a British YouTuber, blogger, and online radio presenter. McSwiggan creates video content on LGBT+ issues, mental health, and sex and relationships.[2][3][4] He began creating YouTube videos in 2013 and began hosting The Calum McSwiggan Show on Fubar Radio in 2017.
What I Thought
This is a modern and gay version of Big with our protagonist Max wishing away his gayness in a fit of frustration and being transported into what his life would have been like if he was straight. The absolute horror! (There is a Freaky Friday reference made in the book but I chose Big because the switch here only directly affects the one person).
The switch does take a little time to happen but I think it’s important for the plot that we spend time with the characters in their present reality first. We also get a slightly extended resolution which, for me, allowed more time for everything to be wrapped up leaving this as a very satisfying stand alone read – not that I’d be against reading more books featuring these characters.
I think fans of Simon James Green and Heartstopper will eat this up both because of the humour, and in that it features a whole diverse cast and I loved how intersectionality was addressed too with Max being forced to face up to his white gay privilege.
I really appreciated how all the side characters were explored as individuals in their own right and not just in terms of how they fit into Max’s life. And gosh this is the second YA book I’ve read in a row that features the parents!
Fans of musicals will also be in luck reading this and I don’t think I’ll be alone in desperately wanting to see the drag versions of Mean Girls and Little Shop of Horrors become a real thing.
Thanks to The Write Reads and the publisher for access to the gifted eARC. Opinions are my own. Do check out the tour to see other people’s views.
Share this on Facebook, Twitter and Google+
If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come by Jen St. Jude – The Write Reads Ultimate Blog Tour: Book Review
About the Book
We Are Okay meets They Both Die at the End in this YA debut about queer first love and mental health at the end of the world-and the importance of saving yourself, no matter what tomorrow may hold.
Avery Byrne has secrets. She’s queer; she’s in love with her best friend, Cass; and she’s suffering from undiagnosed clinical depression. But on the morning Avery plans to jump into the river near her college campus, the world discovers there are only nine days left to an asteroid is headed for Earth, and no one can stop it.
Trying to spare her family and Cass additional pain, Avery does her best to make it through just nine more days. As time runs out and secrets slowly come to light, Avery would do anything to save the ones she loves. But most importantly, she learns to save herself. Speak her truth. Seek the support she needs. Find hope again in the tomorrows she has left.
If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come is a celebration of queer love, a gripping speculative narrative, and an urgent, conversation-starting book about depression, mental health, and shame.
Content warnings: discussions of depression, suicidality, apocalypse, homophobia and religious trauma.
Add it on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62039307-if-tomorrow-doesn-t-come
Genre: Young Adult, Queer, LGBT, Romance, Science Fiction
About the Author
Lambda Literary Fellow Jen St. Jude (she/they) grew up in New Hampshire apple orchards and now lives in Chicago with her wife and dog. She has served as an editor for Chicago Review of Books, Just Femme & Dandy, and Arcturus Magazine. When she’s not reading or writing, you can find her cheering on the Chicago Sky and Red Stars. If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come is her first novel.
What I Thought
Well, I’m writing this review as I wipe away tears from my eyes but surprisingly ones that feel hopeful and not just sad.
A book featuring discussion of suicide and an impending apocalypse would not be the top of people’s feel good reads but oddly enough this story has all sorts of beauty in it.
Our narrator Avery is ready to die, until it turns out all her loved ones are too. What follows is both countdown (to an asteroid collision) and count back (to when her depression materialised) and when things went wrong between her and the love of her life Cass.
This is the ultimate high stakes book, but its inevitable outcome is challenged time and again, creating a tense read at times, but with plenty of time for reflection too.
I loved the exploration of a multitude of different ways that humans decide to face the end and the powerful hope there is in clinging to the idea of survival.
Our main band of characters were all drawn so well (and we even get a YA book with two living parents) but it is Avery that shines. Avery who doesn’t believe her life is worth living who gives so much to those around her. But will she see it for herself in time? Can she hold on until the end? Would she hold on if the end never came?
All in all this was a wonderful read.
If you knew an asteroid was hurtling to earth what would you do? And once you’ve determined that why wait because what if tomorrow doesn’t come?
Thanks to The Write Reads and the publisher for the gifted ARC. As ever opinions are my own. Do check out the rest of the tour. Everyone is loving this one.
Share this on Facebook, Twitter and Google+
Lucha of the Night Forest by Tehlor Lay Mejia – Blog Tour
About the Book
An edge-of-your-seat fantasy about a girl who will do anything to protect her sister—even if it means striking a dangerous bargain. Dark forces, forgotten magic, and a heart-stopping queer romance make this young adult novel a must-read.
A scorned god.
A mysterious acolyte.
A forgetting drug.
A dangerous forest.
One girl caught between the freedom she always wanted and a sister she can’t bear to leave behind.
Under the cover of the Night Forest, will Lucha be able to step into her own power…or will she be consumed by it?
This gorgeous and fast-paced fantasy novel from acclaimed author Tehlor Kay Mejia is brimming with adventure, peril, romance, and family bonds—and asks what it means for a teen girl to become fully herself.
About the Author
TEHLOR KAY MEJIA is the author of the critically acclaimed young adult fantasy duology We Set the Dark on Fire and We Unleash the Merciless Storm. Her debut middle-grade series, Paola Santiago and the River of Tears, is in development at Disney as a television series to be produced by Eva Longoria. Tehlor lives with her daughter, partner, and two small dogs in Oregon, where she grows heirloom corn and continues her quest to perfect the vegan tamale.
Website: https://www.tehlorkaymejia.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/tehlorkay
Instagram: http://instagram.com/tehlorkay
Extract
Excerpted from Lucha of the Night Forest by Tehlor Kay Mejia. Copyright © 2023 by Tehlor Kay Mejia. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
The forest was said to be uninhabitable. The governors of the Elegidan continent—skittish as squirrels and twice as greedy—refused to recognize any territory north of the river. They took their shares of Robado’s ill-gotten profits readily enough, but they claimed no authority in the city. Or any of the responsibility that would go with it.
The mapmakers, for their part, blotted the wood into their landscapes without sparing a stroke for this wound of a place clinging to its edge.
Like we don’t even exist, Lucha thought, still loitering in the middle of the road.
“Watch it!” snarled a man heading south. Lucha staggered backward, reminded of the dangers of standing idle. The little cart the man pulled turned sharply and splattered her shoes with mud. She was about to shout something rude when she saw the cart’s tiny passenger. A girl of no more than four. She dangled her bare feet over the edge as her father rolled her along.
Lucha smiled, remembering her younger sister, Lis, at that age. Her huge brown eyes and shining curls …
“Better watch out!” the girl called in her lisping baby voice. “El Sediento will get you if you look too long!” Sticking her fingers into the corners of her mouth, the girl stretched her smile too wide and rolled her eyes back so only the whites showed.
My review will follow …
I’m really looking forward to being able to devote time to this. I’ve read the first couple of chapters and as you can see in the extract above the writing is lush and atmospheric, and I was definitely sucked into figuring out the world straight away. Lucha is giving me Katniss from Hunger Games vibes. The eerieness continues from the little girl’s mention of El Sediento and we learn that they are not the only monster in the forest.
Thanks to Bee at Kaleidoscopic Tours and the publisher for the gifted copy. I will come back and update with my full thoughts when I get my brain back.
Do check out what everyone else had to say.
kirstyes 