by Samantha Allen 2/5 I loved Samantha Allen’s Real Queer America, but oh my god, I HATED this. I’m sorry, it just isn’t for me. I do not like this kind of mindless campiness. I found the characters one-dimensional and annoying, and there was not a single aspect of the plot I enjoyed.  I gave…

by Torrey Peters 4/5 I loved most of this novel. It’s very accessible queer lit, and I feel like it’s something I would be comfortable recommending to non-queer people and mainstream audiences. I think the comparison of the perspectives of trans women to divorced cis women is super clever, and I could see that strategy…

by Alexandra Vasti 3/5 This was the cheesiest of cheesy romances, to be sure, but it was better than I expected from the title. The characters fell flat for me, which is why I gave it three stars instead of four, but overall it was well-written and entertaining enough to breeze through quickly! I would…

by Elena Ferrante 4/5 I read this for book club and loved it. I thought it was incredibly interesting and well-written, and I loved the extent to which I did (and didn’t) find it relatable. But only one other person in the group liked it! Everyone else said they found it boring—I was shocked! I…

by Fernando A. Flores 4/5 I heard about Fernando Flores’s writing first when I still lived in Texas—he’s a local Austin author who’s well known there for his book Tears of the Trufflepig. I never had the chance to read any of his work before I left, although I always meant to. I saw this…

by Anne Carson 5/5 Autobiography of Red was my first ever Anne Carson read–I’ve never even read any of her standalone poems until now! I thought this book was gorgeous and completely different from anything else I’ve read. Carson’s epic poem tells the magical, and at times, haunting story of Geryon. As he grows, he…

by Ruth Ozeki 4/5 As the last book I read in 2025, The Book of Form and Emptiness perfectly tied up my year in literature. I’ve been interested in exploring magical realism more, and while I’m not sure this novel would technically fall under this description, it was certainly magical, and a few times more…

by Akwaeke Emezi 4/5 I recently read Akwaeke Emezi’s poetry for the first time and loved it, so it’s no surprise I was a fan of their prose, too. Little Rot is intense, fast-paced, and filled with surprising twists and turns. I read it for a book club, and we all agreed that it would…

by Mona Awad After reading most of Mona Awad’s repertoire and discussing them with friends, I’ve come to the conclusion that whether or not someone likes one of her books depends primarily on how much they connect to the situations being satirized. I have friends who are obsessed with Bunny, who thought All’s Well was…

by Ursula Villarreal-Moura 4/5 I picked this up from a bookstore down the street called Gladys Books and Wine. It was a random choice–I’d never heard of the title or author before–and I’m so glad I stumbled onto it.  Like Happiness tackles the same subject matter that’s been rising in popularity since the MeToo movement…