Tag Archives: As I Descended

Fave Five: Queer Boarding School Thrillers

My Dearest Darkest by Kayla Cottingham

People Like Us by Dana Mele

Fraternity by Andy Mientus

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

As I Descended by Robin Talley

Bonus: Coming this fall, The Forest Demands its Due by Kosoko Jackson, and coming in 2024, With Love & Mischief by Derek Milman

Fave Five: Queer YA for Dark Academia Lovers

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass

People Like Us by Dana Mele

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

As I Descended by Robin Talley

Bonus: Coming in 2022, My Dearest Darkest by Kayla Cottingham

 

Fave Five: Queer YA Takes on Shakespeare

As I Descended by Robin Talley (Macbeth)

The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake (Twelfth Night)

Nothing Happened by Molly Booth (Much Ado About Nothing)

Death Prefers Blondes by Caleb Roehrig (Hamlet)

That Way Madness Lies ed. by Dahlia Adler (an anthology containing a number of queer retellings)

Fave Five: Queer Boarding School YAs

 Without Annette by Jane B. Mason

Openly Straight and Honestly Ben by Bill Konigsburg

The Scholars and Sorcery series by Eleanor Beresford

As I Descended by Robin Talley

Girlhood by Cat Clarke

Bonus: Complementary and Acute by Ella Lyons is another one, separated out simply because it’s a novella under 50 pages

Double bonus: Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert isn’t set at boarding school, but does flash back to the bisexual MC’s relationship with her roommate there

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Fave Five: Queer Halloween Reads

Celebrate the spookiest day of the year with these queer and creepy paranormal tricks and treats!

Affinity by Sarah Waters

Among the Living by Jordan Castillo Price

As I Descended by Robin Talley

Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite

Shallow Graves by Kali Wallace

Bonus: Pick up Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova for a bruja-tastic Día de los Muertos!

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New Releases: September 6, 2016

Today is a huuuuge day in LGBTQ YA releases, so get your wallets and library cards ready and check out what’s now out in the world! (And congrats to all the authors!)

As I Descended by Robin Talley

28218948Maria Lyon and Lily Boiten are their school’s ultimate power couple—even if no one knows it but them.

Only one thing stands between them and their perfect future: campus superstar Delilah Dufrey.

Golden child Delilah is a legend at the exclusive Acheron Academy, and the presumptive winner of the distinguished Cawdor Kingsley Prize. She runs the school, and if she chose, she could blow up Maria and Lily’s whole world with a pointed look, or a carefully placed word.

But what Delilah doesn’t know is that Lily and Maria are willing to do anything—absolutely anything—to make their dreams come true. And the first step is unseating Delilah for the Kingsley Prize. The full scholarship, awarded to Maria, will lock in her attendance at Stanford―and four more years in a shared dorm room with Lily.

Maria and Lily will stop at nothing to ensure their victory—including harnessing the dark power long rumored to be present on the former plantation that houses their school.

But when feuds turn to fatalities, and madness begins to blur the distinction between what’s real and what is imagined, the girls must decide where they draw the line.

Buy it: Amazon * B&N * Indiebound

Girl Mans Up by M-E Girard

28217802All Pen wants is to be the kind of girl she’s always been. So why does everyone have a problem with it? They think the way she looks and acts means she’s trying to be a boy—that she should quit trying to be something she’s not. If she dresses like a girl, and does what her folks want, it will show respect. If she takes orders and does what her friend Colby wants, it will show her loyalty. But respect and loyalty, Pen discovers, are empty words. Old-world parents, disintegrating friendships, and strong feelings for other girls drive Pen to see the truth–that in order to be who she truly wants to be, she’ll have to man up.

Buy it: Amazon * B&N * Indiebound

Not Your Sidekick by CB Lee

29904219Welcome to Andover… where superpowers are common, but internships are complicated. Just ask high school nobody, Jessica Tran. Despite her heroic lineage, Jess is resigned to a life without superpowers and is merely looking to beef-up her college applications when she stumbles upon the perfect (paid!) internship—only it turns out to be for the town’s most heinous supervillain. On the upside, she gets to work with her longtime secret crush, Abby, who Jess thinks may have a secret of her own. Then there’s the budding attraction to her fellow intern, the mysterious “M,” who never seems to be in the same place as Abby. But what starts as a fun way to spite her superhero parents takes a sudden and dangerous turn when she uncovers a plot larger than heroes and villains altogether.

Buy it: Amazon * B&N

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova

27969081Nothing says Happy Birthday like summoning the spirits of your dead relatives.

Alex is a bruja, the most powerful witch in a generation…and she hates magic. At her Deathday celebration, Alex performs a spell to rid herself of her power. But it backfires. Her whole family vanishes into thin air, leaving her alone with Nova, a brujo boy she can’t trust. A boy whose intentions are as dark as the strange marks on his skin.

The only way to get her family back is to travel with Nova to Los Lagos, a land in-between, as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland…

Buy it: Amazon * B&N * Books of Wonder

It Looks Like This by Rafi Mittlefehldt

24755394A new state, a new city, a new high school. Mike’s father has already found a new evangelical church for the family to attend, even if Mike and his plainspoken little sister, Toby, don’t want to go. Dad wants Mike to ditch art for sports, to toughen up, but there’s something uneasy behind his demands.

Then Mike meets Sean, the new kid, and “hey” becomes games of basketball, partnering on a French project, hanging out after school. A night at the beach. The fierce colors of sunrise. But Mike’s father is always watching. And so is Victor from school, cell phone in hand.

Buy it: Amazon * B&N * Indiebound

And yesterday marked the release of yet another YA and an m/m Romance!

Assassins: Discord by Erica Cameron

29618746Kindra’s moral compass has never pointed north, but that’s what happens when you’re raised as an assassin and a thief. At sixteen, she’s fantastic with a blade, an expert at slipping through the world unnoticed, and trapped in a life she didn’t chose. But nothing in her training prepares her for what happens when her father misses a target.

In the week-long aftermath, Kindra breaks rank for the first time in her life. She steals documents, starts questioning who their client is and why the target needs to die, botches a second hit on her father’s target, and is nearly killed. And that’s before she’s kidnapped by a green-eyed stranger connected to a part of her childhood she’d almost forgotten.

Kindra has to decide who to trust and which side of the battle to fight for. She has to do it fast and she has to be right, because the wrong choice will kill her just when she’s finally found something worth living for.

Buy it: Amazon * B&N * Riptide

Shatterproof by Xen Sanders

30306399Grey Jean-Marcelin wants to die. He thought painting his passion—vivid portrayals of Haitian life and vodou faith—would be enough to anchor him to this world. But it isn’t. And when the mysterious man known only as Saint saves Grey from a suicide attempt, it’s more curse than blessing—until Grey discovers that Saint isn’t just an EMT. He’s a banished fae, and can only survive by draining the lives of those he loves.

All Saint needed was a simple bargain: one life willingly given for another. But as Saint’s feelings for Grey grow deeper, centuries of guilt leave him desperate to save a man who doesn’t want salvation, even if Grey’s life means Saint’s death.

When Grey’s depression consumes him, only he can decide if living is worth the struggle. Yet his choice may come too late to save his life . . . or Saint’s soul. And whatever choice he makes, it may shatter them both.

Buy it: Amazon * B&N * Riptide

Fave Five: LGBTQ YA Retellings of Classics

Using “classics” fairly loosely here, but whatevs!

Great by Sara J. Benincasa (Contemporary The Great Gatsby)

As I Descended by Robin Talley (Paranormal Macbeth)

Marian by Ella Lyons (Fantasy Robin Hood)

Beast by Brie Spangler (Contemporary Beauty and the Beast)

Ash by Malinda Lo (Fantasy Cinderella)

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TBRainbow Alert #1

For those of you who feel like you’ve already read every LGBTQIAP+ book in existence, not to worry – there’s plenty still to come! Every TBRainbow Alert will have a mix of five LGBTQIAP+ titles to make sure are on your radar, along with three reasons why you should know them. Here are a few coming up in 2016! (Title links to Goodreads; Author links to book pages for preorder.)

Title: Roller Girl (July 25)
Author: Vanessa North
Genre/Category: Contemporary Romance
Rainbow details: f/f, trans woman and cis woman
Why put it on your radar?
1. Ummm roller derby? Did you not catch that?
2. This is actually gonna be my first Vanessa North read, but far as I can tell she’s pretty great!
3. Mainstream f/f Romance is still reasonably rare, and including at least one trans woman even more so.

Title: Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit (August 30)
Author: Jaye Robin Brown
Genre/Category: Contemporary YA
Rainbow details: f/f, both MC and LI are lesbian and cis
Why put it on your radar?
1. Super fun, cute, and hot f/f YA with an HEA; all the things I almost never find together in one space.
2. Really great exploration of the intersection between queerness and religion.
3. It’s set in the south, where queer teens could especially stand to see their stories in happy contexts right now.

Title: As I Descended (September 6)
Author: Robin Talley
Genre/Category: Paranormal YA
Rainbow details: f/f, bi MC
Why put it on your radar?
1. This is a freaking Macbeth retelling. In boarding school. With ghosts. I MEAN.
2. I haven’t read this one yet but I’ve heard rumblings of a much A+ representation in this book, in addition to queerness.
3. Robin Talley is maybe the author most frequently and consistently publishing LGBTQ YA with a big house right now, and always does so with an eye on intersectionality; she’s just generally a fabulous person to support.

Title: Last Seen Leaving (October 4)
Author: Caleb Roehrig
Genre/Category: YA Thriller
Rainbow details: Questioning/Gay boy
Why put it on your radar?      1. Thrillers are my crack. Willing to bet I’m not alone there.
2. Debut author! Love getting in on the ground floor of a potential great new voice in LGBTQIAP+ YA, and all signs (and reviews)(and, if I’m being honest, his tweets) point to him being someone to watch
3. It’s just so…interesting. And resonant. And the representation is every bit as beautiful as the writing.

Title: When the Moon Was Ours (October 4)
Author: Anna-Marie McLemore
Genre/Category: Magical Realism YA
Rainbow details: m/f, queer cis girl and straight trans boy
Why put it on your radar?
1. The writing is melt-your-brain beautiful.
2. QPoC are incredibly rare in YA, as are romances between PoC (and especially interracial romances between PoC), and this is between a Latina girl and a Desi boy.
3. It’s just so…interesting. And resonant. And the representation is every bit as beautiful as the writing.

Stay tuned for the next TBR Alert, coming soon; in the meantime, please spread the word about these!