#auslit

[poetlcs]

books I’ve read in 2024 - no. 44

Green Dot by Madeleine Gray

[uranusguided]

Hey my publisher finally got my book series, The Silent Trilogy, up on Apple Books! Check it out!!!

My publisher calls Silent Trilogy 'X-Men meets Good Omens'. That's not wrong but it is a series about abuse, colonialism and the importance of love in ways those aren't.

In more detail: the Silent Trilogy is an urban fantasy series set primarily in Hobart, Australia. It tells the story of the dainisa, a not-so-hidden magical community, focused primarily on their non-binary Princess, Torao Yamaguchi.

Desperate for her child to have a better life than she did, the leader of dainisa Amaya Yamaguchi sparks a revolution to claim Australia as a magical continent where dainisa can live in accordance with their own laws, not those of humans. However fighting power is a complex thing in a world built to function on injustice, and a pretty siren desperate for revenge could ruin it all…

Narrated through the eyes of a human who doesn’t quite get it, the Silent Trilogy is about the narratives we build of history. It's an exploration of trauma, the ways people learn to live with it, and how bigotry works. Also there's angels and demons messing things up. More info on the website!

I finished this series a long time ago but I'm still very proud of it!! It's a niche story I had a lot of fun with. I wrote this NB protag before I even came out myself so that's always cool. And every time I have to reread a part of the series I have a really hard time stopping cos I enjoy my own work so much lmao. So hopefully you'll enjoy it too!!

(it's also on Amazon if you prefer kindle, and if you don't wanna support either, well, chuck me a couple dollars on Patreon)

[madlovenovelist]

Most Anticipated New Book Releases September 2024

September is a bumper month for titles that have grabbed my attention. I could have easily added another five or so upcoming releases, but tried to whittle this list down to the novels that intrigued me the most: When Haru Was Here – Dustin Thao (YA, Contemporary, Romance, Magical Realism, LGBT+) We Are Okay meets Wandavision in this novel about loss, and learning to let go.After the death of…

Most Anticipated New Book Releases September 2024

[picnic-at-dreaming-rock]

Shelf-Confidence BPC | February 2021 | 8. Currently Reading

As of writing this post, I have 46 pages left!

[pleaseusethisbag]

First panel of “Sight Lines”, published as part of Liminal Magazine’s Interiors digital series.  Watch Isobel D’Cruz, Jessica Zhan Mei Yu and myself read our contributions as part of the Interiors’ online launch here. 

[aretherelesbians]

Are There Lesbians? Yes

What Happens? Alex lives in a rural town where everyone knows everyone but no one knows she’s a lesbian. Then a new family arrive with their out-and-proud daughter and Alex has a choice – stay quiet and miss out on an opportunity for love, or take a leap of faith and live true to herself, no matter the consequences.

The Verdict: I loved this book so much right up until the final quarter. Then I was fuming. Then I was still angry but also crying a lot because I am a human capable of complex emotions.

I really liked the character development in If I Tell You. For the most part it felt very realistic and I felt a great deal of connection with the main character. It was also really nice to read something about rural Australia which really humanised the towns inhabitants without making them into caricatures. There was a lot of a familiar Aussie behaviour that I could appreciate, even with my suburban upbringing, and overall If I Tell You was just a pretty darn good read.

Now for the less fun, more rant-y part of this review.

This novel sucked me in with a fantastic tale of overcoming oppression to be your true self, and an absolutely adorable romance. Then it went all Nicholas Sparks/Jodie Picoult on me and killed a lesbian. I mean, seriously, I thought we were finally beyond all of this in YA fiction. I don’t expect the first person you fall in love with to be your one and only for the rest of your life but that doesn’t mean you have to kill them in order to make other opportunities possible. There was literally nothing gained by killing off Phoenix. There are so many more creative things that could have happened without playing along with such an over-used and outdated trope. There was a set-up for a spain trip that never happened, which I never expected to happen but this could have been because of something else. Hell, it might have been more interesting if Alex and Phoenix just straight up broke up because they were at different points in their lives, there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m not saying I wanted them to break up, because hell, I think they’re adorable and I cried when they got married, but for me their relationship wasn’t the main emotive force behind this novel. My reaction to Alex’s relationship with her mother was a lot stronger for me. I didn’t cry when Phoenix was dying or when they got married, but you better believe I cried when Alex’s mum said “You didn’t come home for Christmas.” I wasn’t even expecting to. The thing is that the relationship between Alex and Phoenix was a fairly standard relationship with a manic pixie dream girl, but Alex’s relationships with her friends and family were extremely complex and nuanced. I’m not saying I didn’t want the romance or even that I didn’t like it, I love me a good wlw romance where girls support each other in the face of adversity, but YOU CAN CREATE TENSION WITHOUT KILLING A GAY. Death is not the only way to create drama or emotion, and in the end, in the face of all the other things going on in the novel, Phoenix dying became just another thing. At the end of it, she didn’t feel like a person but a magical fairy that fluttered into Alex’s life, taught her how to “live”, and then buggered off again.

I did genuinely love If I Tell You, for all that I found it rather problematic in the end. I thought the writing was fantastic, and if my only problem with the novel was that a lesbian was killed, then I think it’s still a pretty OK story. Even if killing a lesbian is a pretty big no-no for me.

*I received an ARC of If I Tell You from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

[theomnilegent]

dancing on knives by jenny pausacker

He said: “There is some one myth for every man which, if we but knew it, would make us understand all he thought and did” - and he wouldʼve said “every woman” too, if heʼd been writing now, instead of last century.

[poetlcs]

books I’ve read in 2024 - no. 24

The Man Ban by Nicola Marsh