#shadow life

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Preliminary Round

Choose a book:

Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto (illustrated by Ann Xu)

Hunger Pangs series (True Love Bites) by Joy Demorra

Voting ended onNov 23, 2024

Book summaries below:

Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto (illustrated by Ann Xu)

Poet and novelist Hiromi Goto effortlessly blends wry, observational slice-of-life literary fiction with poetic magical realism in the tender and surprising graphic novel Shadow Life , with haunting art from debut artist Ann Xu.

When Kumiko’s well-meaning adult daughters place her in an assisted living home, the seventy-six-year-old widow gives it a try, but it’s not where she wants to be. She goes on the lam and finds a cozy bachelor apartment, keeping the location secret even while communicating online with her eldest daughter. Kumiko revels in the small, daily decorating as she pleases, eating what she wants, and swimming in the community pool. But something has followed her from her former residence―Death’s shadow.

Kumiko’s sweet life is shattered when Death’s shadow swoops in to collect her. With her quick mind and sense of humor, Kumiko, with the help of friends new and old, is prepared for the fight of her life. But how long can an old woman thwart fate?

Graphic novel, fantasy, magical realism, literary fiction, slice-of-life, adult

Hunger Pangs series (True Love Bites) by Joy Demorra

In a world of dwindling hope, love has never mattered more...

Captain Nathan J. Northland had no idea what to expect when he returned home to Lorehaven injured from war, but it certainly wasn't to find himself posted on an island full of vampires. An island whose local vampire dandy lord causes Nathan to feel strange things he'd never felt before. Particularly about fangs.

When Vlad Blutstein agreed to hire Nathan as Captain of the Eyrie Guard, he hadn't been sure what to expect either, but it certainly hadn't been to fall in love with a disabled werewolf. However Vlad has fallen and fallen hard, and that's the problem.

Torn by their allegiances--to family, to duty, and the age-old enmity between vampires and werewolves--the pair find themselves in a difficult situation: to love where the heart wants or to follow where expectation demands.

The situation is complicated further when a mysterious and beguiling figure known only as Lady Ursula crashes into their lives, bringing with her dark omens of death, doom, and destruction in her wake.

And a desperate plea for help neither of them can ignore.

Thrown together in uncertain times and struggling to find their place amidst the rising human empire, the unlikely trio must decide how to face the coming darkness: united as one or divided and alone. One thing is for certain, none of them will ever be the same.

Fantasy, romance, paranormal, series, adult

[jeypawlik]

TCAF HAUL

Hey TCAF was great but Max and I bought way too much so we had to dip out early. There's too many to @ but please support some cool artists this weekend

[ladyloveandjustice]

Caitlin’s Year in Books

A look at the books and manga I read this year, if anyone’s interested! I sorted it all the manga/graphic novels are at the beginning and the regular novels are at the end because I like to keep track of them separately. As far as print books, I read about 36 last year (they start at Otherside Picnic Volume 4).

For manga and graphic novels, I only added one from each series even if I read more than one last year, because it messes the order up otherwise and I don’t like how it looks. Pretty much in all cases except I think, Asadora and Boys Run the Riot (I’m a couple behind),  you can assume I read the whole series/am fully caught up.

Here’s some of my favorite novels of the year:

Gideon the Ninth & Harrow the Ninth (The Locked Tomb Trilogy) by Tamsyn Muir: A truly wild and gripping explosion of weirdness. The cover quote “lesbian necromancers explore a gothic palace in space! Decadent nobles vie to serve the deathless emperor! Skeletons!” pretty much sums it up, and it sure lives up to that promise. The snarky butch narrator Gideon draws you in with her fun voice, and next thing you know you’re tangled in a complex mythology and fucked up web of relationships. I was screaming “what the fuck is going on” half of the time, but kept reading voraciously, and it’s something special when a book does that to you.

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik: It’s usually hard for me to get into complicated lore based books, but this was another one with a fun narrator voice and the whole idea of an international magic school full of monsters who will kill you any second is instantly compelling to me. I liked the sequel a little less (the romance subplot just...got a lot less interesting, for one) but it’s still a fun and very monstrous read.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo- A Chinese-American teenager navigates her feelings for another girl and discovers a lesbian drag club in 1950′s New York. While I felt like sometimes it had too many point of view switches/plots going on, it was really compelling as a work of historical fiction and managed to touch on a lot of intense feelings and complex topics.

How Long ‘til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin: I haven’t gotten a chance to read Jemisin’s work, but this book of short stories available in my library was a great start. It’s a nice, snappy range of spec fic snacks, all of them thought provoking, My favorite was the story of Death wandering around in a post apocalyptic world.

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao- Very loosely based on Chinese Empress Wu Zetian, it’s a dystopia where guy/girl pairs are made to pilot mechs together, but girls are treated as disposable concubines and their lives are sacrificed to power the boys- until one peasant girl enters the system with the goal of taking revenge for her sister. At a breakneck pace, I found this to be compelling binge-reading, and the pure, unadulterated rage of the protagonist was refreshing and the draw of Chinese mythology inspired mechs was undeniable. It’s also extremely anime, and kind of a fuck-you to Darling in the Franxx specifically, and I love that spite against bad anime helped power a NYT Bestseller. Once I got down from the book-binge high, I did have some things that bothered me (like how Zetian didn’t seem to have positive relationships with women other than her sister, who we know nothing about, which makes me wonder where her feminism came from, etc) but it’s possible that will be cleared up in the sequel and I’m still totally down for the ride.

The anthology I was featured in, Myths, Legends & Dreams, also has a lot of great other stories in it! It’s only 99c on Kindle right now if you want to check it out!

Manga/Graphic novels

Goodbye, My Rose Garden by Dr. Pepperco- An absolutly gorgeous three volume Victorian yuri. The main couple struggles with the constraints of their time in realistic ways without it being miserable- it’s just deliciously dramatic and decadently drawn, full of literary references and literary ladies in love. Total catnip to me. This article goes into just how well-thought out the themes and the historical context is, though beware spoilers.

Sex Ed 120% by Kikiki Tataki - Set in an all girls school, it’s a straightforward educational comedy that gives solid sex ed advice for teens- the cast is genuinely funny and bounces off each other well, and it includes a ton of queer women- even one aromantic-asexual girl. There’s actually a completely sweet moment where the ace girl talks to her lesbian friend about her lack of interest in sex and romance and is surprised when her friend  doesn’t tell her she hasn’t met the right person yet. “Well...I’m never gonna be interested in guys no matter how many people tell me to meet the right one”. It actually made me want to cry. Wow, that inter-community support. Would be nice if it was always that way.

In the first volume, the sex ed teacher is a bit pushy towards the other teacher she’s clearly into, but it actually gets discussed and resolved in the second volume. There’s also even a conversation about the upsides and downsides of BL, why women (even lesbians) can be interested in it, and why fans/creators can run into homophobic territory at times. Just in case you meet fans to act like people in Japan don’t discuss this ever, smack ‘em the face with this manga.

More for the queer manga round-up: Yuri is my Job, I Think Our Son is Gay, How Do We Relationship?, Boys Run the Riot: All of these are just good. How Do We Relationship is a look at a complex, sometimes fraught adult relationship (the main downside being some annoying male side characters) and Boys Run the Riot focuses on a trans boy starting a fashion label with his friends (it does directly feature and tackle transphobia. It’s written by a trans man). Yuri is My Job has an interesting take on teen relationship drama that very tied to the identities and lies we tell ourselves and others, while I Think Our Son is Gay is just wholesome sweetness (and wonderfully, it helped the guy who wrote it come out to his mom!)

A Man and His Cat by Umi Sakurai is tooth achingly adorable, I may have cried.

Seven Little Sons of the Dragon is a bunch of nice little fantasy short stories by the creator of Dungeon Meshi, and Spy x Family is a very solid cold war-esque action-adventure comedy.

Thirsty Mermaids by Kat Leyh is a really adorable, fun romp about a pod of rambunctious mermaids who get stuck on land, full of hijinks, great character design, queerness and just the right amount of sea-witch angst.

Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto is also worth a look, it follows a Japanese-Canadian elderly woman who fights death itself, and it’s really rare to see fiction that focuses on older women and just presents the struggles of aging in such a frank yet fantastical way. Also, her reunion and relationship with her ex-girlfriend is both sweet and sad.

For stuff I’m continuing to read: Witch Hat Atelier and Delicious in Dungeon are both top tier fantasy manga and Otherside Picnic continues to be great.

There’s plenty more good stuff I read beside that, but those stand out as faves. I’m glad to have been able to do so much reading this year, and hope to continue that in the future.

[koolkitty9]

To be completely honest, I don’t know how I got this idea. I was listening to Show Yourself (bc Frozen II is good shit) and was like “This works for Four somehow” and thus this idea came to light. (I included the first sketch too just bc I found it so beautiful)  (Also I think the idea came bc I imagined the scene with Elsa sliding down the tunnel as Four but then I realized I suck at action drawings xD But attempted this even though I suck at perspective LMAO)

[burtontracks]

Naked 27 – 40

I live in the cracks

[solbacka]

[wisdomfish]

Man is like a mere breath; His days are like a passing shadow.

Psalms 144:4