Anne by Kathleen Gros
In this modern graphic novel retelling of Anne of Green Gables from graphic novelist Kathleen Gros, foster kid Anne Shirley finally lands in a loving home and befriends a girl who she may have more-than-friends feelings for.
Anne Shirley has been in foster care her whole life. So when the Cuthberts take her in, she hopes it’s for good. They seem to be hitting it off, but how will they react to the trouble that Anne can sometimes find herself in . . . like accidentally dyeing her hair green or taking a dangerous dare that leaves her in a cast?
Then Anne meets Diana Barry, a girl who lives in her apartment building, the Avon-Lea. The two become fast friends, as Anne finds she can share anything with Diana. As time goes on, though, Anne starts to develop more-than-friends feelings for Diana.
A new foster home, a new school, and a first-time crush—it’s a lot all at once. But if anyone can handle life’s twists and turns, it’s the irrepressible Anne Shirley.
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The Scratch Daughters by H.A. Clarke (October 25th)
This is the sequel to The Scapegracers
It’s been a wild year for Sideways Pike. After forming a coven with the three most popular girls in school and developing a huge crush on a mysterious stranger named Madeline, Sideways’ Halloween was ruined by finding out that Madeline wasn’t trying to make out with her, but to steal Sideways’ specter, the force that gives witches the ability to cast magic spells. From Madeline’s perspective, it’s not her fault: after a doomed relationship with one of the creepy near-identical Chantry Boys turned into a witch hunt, they took her specter, so, really, she’s only borrowing Sideways’ until she can recover her own and punish the Chantrys.
The specter-less Sideways is in a horrid, distracted mood, unable to do magic and with part of her consciousness tied to Madeline’s, on the lam as she uses Sideways’ specter to hunt Chantrys. The other Scapegracers are much jollier, heading into the winter holidays having set up shop as curse crafters for girls in their school who’ve been done wrong by guys. When Sideways—through Madeline—gets a flash of how to track down both her foes at once, she asks the Scapegracers to help entrap them, only to be told her plan is unsafe and unwise. So if she’s going to find Madeline, her only ally is Mr. Scratch, the inky book demon currently inhabiting her as life support until she gets her spectre back.
Sideways is used to being an outcast loner, and is desperate to do magic again, so she’s not going to let little barriers like facing an betraying crush and a family of six demented witch hunters practically alone stop her. But she and her trusty stolen bike are in for a bumpy ride…
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Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo
This is the third book in the Singing Hills Cycle.
Wandering cleric Chih of the Singing Hills travels to the riverlands to record tales of the notorious near-immortal martial artists who haunt the region. On the road to Betony Docks, they fall in with a pair of young women far from home, and an older couple who are more than they seem. As Chih runs headlong into an ancient feud, they find themselves far more entangled in the history of the riverlands than they ever expected to be.
Accompanied by Almost Brilliant, a talking bird with an indelible memory, Chih confronts old legends and new dangers alike as they learn that every story―beautiful, ugly, kind, or cruel―bears more than one face.
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The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake
This is the sequel to The Atlas Six
Six magicians were presented with the opportunity of a lifetime.
Five are now members of the Society.
Two paths lay before them.
All must pick a side.
Alliances will be tested, hearts will be broken, and The Society of Alexandrians will be revealed for what it is: a secret society with raw, world-changing power, headed by a man whose plans to change life as we know it are already under way.
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Ghost Town by Kevin Chen, trans. by Darryl Sterk
Chen Tien-Hong, the only and desperately yearned for son of a traditional Taiwanese family with seven daughters, runs away from the oppression of his village to Berlin in the hope of finding acceptance as a young gay man.
The novel begins a decade later, when Chen has just been released from prison for killing his boyfriend. He is about to return to his family’s village, a poor and desolate place. With his parents gone, his sisters married, mad, or dead, there is nothing left for him there. As the story unfurls, we learn what tore this family apart and, more importantly, the truth behind the murder of Chen’s boyfriend.
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Heretic: A Memoir by Jeanna Kadlec
Jeanna Kadlec was a devout Evangelical and the wife of a pastor’s son before she came to the double realization that she was queer and that she had to leave the church in order to survive. This is a memoir of growing up Evangelical–of indoctrination, family, and working poor middle America–and a sharp critique of how the tenets of conservative Christianity have built our power structures and political systems, in addition to how they’ve shaped our culture and our daily interactions with each other.
From writing about Lilith and celebrity purity rings, to coming out and discovering F/F fanfiction, finding community outside of Christianity in the face of millennial loneliness, to interrogating the liberal and academic stigma against faith, this memoir traces the damage Evangelicalism, with its demands for unquestioning obedience, has caused in individuals, communities, and our country, past to present–and also imagines how could we radically leave it behind: new methods of building community, finding meaning, and reintegrating concepts of fellowship and love into our everyday discourse.
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Girlfriend Material by Katia Rose (26th)
It’s a good thing Allison Farley isn’t in love with her best friend.
They may both be star students in their costume design program, but when it comes to relationships, Allison and Kate are as different as their fashion senses.
Kate marches through life in combat boots and crop tops, breaking hearts as fast as she steals them and insisting anything more than an emotionless hook-up is a waste of time.
Allison knits her own sweaters, wears socks with tiny strawberries on them, and has spent her first two years of college utterly failing at her goal of getting a girlfriend before graduation.
Until the day it hits her: she’s got a master flirting coach right at her fingertips.
Kate, meanwhile, has vowed herself to a semester of solitude while she tries to figure out why heading home with strangers isn’t as fun as it used to be. Teaching her best friend the art of seduction seems like the perfect distraction from some of the inconvenient truths she’d rather not face.
Like maybe she doesn’t hate relationships.
Maybe she’s just afraid of them—too afraid to reach out and grab one when it’s staring her in the face.
So it’s a good thing Kate Davidson isn’t in love with her best friend either.
It’s a good thing Kate and Allison are just taking part in some purely platonic flirting lessons and are absolutely, totally, definitely not falling in love.
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