Radio Silence by Alice Oseman: This is a beautiful depiction of platonic friendship love and queer found family and the way that academic pressure and the myth of the Only Good Life Path can wreck people's lives and how people who make beautiful things (like art and stories) have an important impact on other people and their endeavors should be valued.
The No-Show by Beth O'Leary: I still can't decide if the plot twist in this book is brilliant or if it unfairly takes advantage of the assumptions a reasonable reader will make, but either way O'Leary did some really masterful plotting to pull this off.
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin: I was able to focus on Baldwin's superb writing in this reread, already knowing the tragic plot, but it couldn't redeem the book overall for me. The fact that this is Baldwin and a queer classic doesn't overcome my dislike of the genre of Men Behaving Badly (But You Should Feel Bad for Them).
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir: This was a wild ride, to be sure. It kept me entertained, but I also had to work really hard not only to keep the characters straight but also to understand WTF was going on most of the time. I enjoyed the suspense and the laugh-out-loud humor and the main characters' love/hate relationship, and also it didn't feel as escapist as I'd hoped when I had to keep pausing to try to talk myself through the latest plot swerve to avoid being completely lost.
Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver: Kingsolver did an admirable job trying to resolve the major issues with The Bean Trees, and yet the book was too long, not very engaging, and had way too many side characters/plots. On the whole, I think you can give this one a miss, unless you really want to see how Kingsolver resolved the issues from the first book.
When Endermen Attack by Cara J. Stevens: It kind of feels like Stevens is phoning it in by this fourth book, but my 8-year-old enjoyed it and is excited to continue with the series, and the book is at the perfect reading level for us to read together, so I'm not going to complain too much.
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo: Overall, this was good. I didn't find it as "stunning" as so many people have; the plot was fairly predictable and the characters were mostly one-dimensional, but that doesn't mean the overarching message about finding your voice isn't still important.
The Princess and the Peacock by C.S. Johnson: This wasn't great, to be honest. The concept is good, and I was at least moderately interested to see where the plot went, but the writing was a bit clunky (including erroneous switches from present to past tense). I appreciated the message about inner beauty and whatnot, but the whole thing felt unpolished to me as a reader.
Her Royal Highness by Rachel Hawkins: This was very cute, if slightly... underdeveloped? The plot doesn't really have any surprises, and there are several half-baked side plots that don't contribute a lot, but if you're just looking for a feel-good sapphic in-love-with-royalty book, that may not matter too much.
Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Never Split the Difference, Bips and Roses, Here's to Us, and The Hidden Gallery
Five years ago I was reading: A Kiss Before Dying and The Stand
Ten years ago I was reading: The Night Circus and You Can Adopt
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