fav sapphic novels you’ve read this year? :)
hi anon! my caitvi brainrot was so profound this year that i mostly read fanfic for like eight months??? but i did manage to read some books, and i think literally every book i read this year was sapphic.
traitor baru cormorant (+1 sequel), seth dickinson: wow wow wow wow. as someone w adhd who periodically experiences immense brainfog who reads TOO FUCKING FAST, i was like -- well, there's so much going on here i'm just not grasping during the first readthrough and i don't even have to! yeah it's complex politically but the emotionality hits. baru my beloved horrible gremlin i love you. truly as good as everyone said, so looking forward to revisiting it, what a stunning delight.
my lesbian novel, renee gladman: this one is a experimental novel wherein the writer doles out a lot of bitchy critique of how miserable lesbian romance novels can be, which is toothsome, and then writes her OWN lesbian romance, which is as dull and tedious as her critiques are fun and lively, and she's not doing that on purpose, she is just is a much better hater than novelist i think.
the starving saints, caitlin starling: thanks to @explosionshark's crusade to spread the gospel of the starving saints i got to have one of the most captivating reading experiences of the past several years. haunting! grotesque! kind of erotic but everyone in it surely smells soooooo fucking terrible! extra bonus: getting to chat about this book w a crush at a party got me laid this year! read starving saints! it could happen to you!
perfume and pain, anna dorn: a fun little acid romp deploying the millennial voice a bit too self-indulgently, our narrator is an absolute trainwreck writer of lesbian novels who meets with her tumblr-based writing group and talks about astrology on the first page. funny! sex doesn't hit but the jokes do, and there are a lot of them!
feast while you can, mikaella clements & onjuli datta: YES! a lesbian horror romance set in a small town village in northern italy, our heroine starts the book looking for dyke tourists to bag at the end of the summer for her last chance to have sex for the year and things get weird fast. i wasn't sure about the horror element at first but it really played out effectively and the EROTICISM. i spent all year looking for a book where lesbians have sex and it's hot, and i finally found it! i'm not sure i've ever read such convincing lesbian eroticism on the page. the fucking is hot! i felt like paul revere telling everyone i know. the lesbians are coming! the lesbians are coming!
currently reading the isle in the silver sea, tasha suri: i'm like halfway through? i bounced off her previous books and i think the prose is a little lackluster in places but the world-building is quite effective, one of the protagonists is extremely likable, and the story itself is original and compelling. chemistry between the leads is there too. i think i added it cos twitter says the knight has a strap. i'll report back about the strap if you want.
