No, because the way Delilah was absolutely silent and not 'oh my god stop talking to this girl' when Imogen and Laudna were first talking, do you think she saw her own moments with Silas.
Call Delilah Briarwood a lot of things, but an expert in loving things fiercely is no. 1 on that list.
thinking about how laudna inherited her mother’s strength and her father’s warm heart and those things being what kept her from breaking and succumbing to delilah in all of those years alone, even when laudna could barely remember her life before the sun tree
I read over 160 books this year. Let's fucking go.
Note: List excludes re-reads and sequels, I am however not above including franchise novels and tie-ins.
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Dystopia. In a near future America, inmates on death row or with life sentences can choose to participate in death matches for entertainment. If they survive long enough - a rare case indeed - they regain their freedom. Among these prisoners are Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker, partners behind the scenes and close to the deadline of a possible release - if only they can survive for long enough. As the game continues to be stacked against them and protests mount outside, two women fight for love, freedom, and their own humanity. Chain-Gang All-Stars is bleak and unflinching as well as genuinely hopeful in its portrayal of a dark but all too real possible future.
Goddess of Filth by V. Castro
Horror novella. What starts as a drunken seance between friends ends with one of them chanting in Nahuatl, the language of their Aztec ancestors. Following that night, the formerly shy Fernanda has changed. While her family calls for priests, claiming her possessed by a demon, Fernanda’s friends believe what has taken up residence in her is something decidedly older. A quick read featuring female rage, desire and empowerment, this is a different twist on the typical possession story.
The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
Science fiction. A strange child lands on an isolated planet, scaring its inhabitants into handing him over into the hands of Nia Amani. As captain of a transport ship, Nia is not only the planet's only contact with the outside world, she is also a woman out of time, years compressing into months as she travels through space at high speeds. Now responsible for a child who doesn't speak and in a galaxy that wishes them ill, she must rethink exactly what she wants to do with her life, and what she's prepared to give up. Features multiple major queer characters.
The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings
In an alternate version of our present, the witch hunt never ended. Women are constantly watched and expected to marry young so their husbands can keep an eye on them. When she was fourteen, Josephine's mother disappeared, leveling suspicions at both mother and daughter of possible witchcraft. Now, nearly a decade and a half later, Jo, in trying to finally accept her missing mother as dead, decides to follow up on a set of seemingly nonsensical instructions left in her will. Features a bisexual lead!
Cottonwood by R. Lee Smith
Science fiction romance. 20 years ago, aliens arrived on Earth, neither invaders nor diplomats but refugees. Now they are being kept in integration camps away from the human population, meaning Sarah has never met one before getting a job as a social worker in one of the camps, at which point the true treatment of the aliens at once become horrifyingly clear to her. Sanford, single father, has a decades long plan to flee the prison that is Earth, and maybe with Sarah's help it can finally reach fruition. Includes dark elements such as torture, sexual assault, and pet death.
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Historical fantasy. Emily Wilde is a professor who prefers the company of faeries, dangerous but bound to rules she can understand, to that of humans, who she finds inexplicable. Working on her faerie encyclopedia, she travels on a research expedition to the faraway Hrafnsvik, hoping for some solitary months of study. Her hopes are dashed when Wendell Bambleby, rival scholar and possible faerie in hiding, arrives on her doorstep. But Wendell's aggravating presence is far from Emily's only problem, as the Hidden Folk of Hrafnsvik turns out to be far more dangerous than expected.
Mass Effect Andromeda: Annihilation by Catherynne M. Valente
In a ship carrying 20 000 colonists on a centuries long trip to the Andromeda galaxy, something has gone wrong. A small contingent of crew representing the various races on board has been woken up to find out why colonists are dying in their sleep, but the situation quickly gets worse. Soon a pathogen is spreading and jumping species, threatening the entire ship before it has even reached its goal. Tie-in novel for the Mass Effect games; while I love it a lot, you're unlikely to get the full experience unless you've also played the games.
Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings
Two ships have gotten stuck in a rift in space, isolated outside of time. One of them is the Jonah, a ship dodging a generations long war against an alien species, carrying a small crew of smugglers, an unintended passenger, and a hijacker. The other ship is the Gallion, which arrived from 150 years in the future carrying an alien ambassador - and whose crew is awestruck at meeting the heroes of the Jonah, known to have ended the war. As the two crews struggle to understand each other's timelines, they must also work together to leave the rift before they're stranded forever. Multiple queer characters, however the main romance plotlines are m/f.
The Good Demon by Jimmy Cajoleas
Young adult horror. Clare has recently been put through a successful exorcism, but rather than help her, it has left her miserable. Clare's demon was her closest friend and had been for years, and without her Clare is left alone and lost. Set on getting her friend back, Clare starts seeking clues her demon seems to have left her, and in doing so starts finding dark, old secrets buried in the history of her home town.
Such Sharp Teeth by Kim Harrison
When her pregnant twin sister is left by her boyfriend, Rory decides to go back to her home town and stay with her for a time. But the town is also the home of old childhood trauma, and something wild is roaming the woods. When she gets attacked and mauled one night, Rory's successful life is changed forever. Lycanthropy used as a metaphor for female rage, trauma, and bad coping mechanisms.
The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison
Sherlock Holmes retelling, historical fantasy. After having been injured fighting a war against fallen angels, Doyle returns to London to survive on only a veteran's pension. To afford a place to live in the city, Doyle finds a housemate in Crow, an eccentric angel with a great curiosity for humans and a knack for solving crime. And London needs its protector - supernatural beings walk the streets, and a someone going by the name Jack the Ripper terrifies the citizens at night.
The Spider and Her Demons by sydney khoo
Young adult fantasy. All teenager Zhi wants is a normal life (and possibly for her harsh aunt to be a bit nicer), but it’s hard when she’s half spider demon. Every day she must conceal her true nature and hide in human guise. When she slips up and eats a man in front of her rich, aloof classmate Dior, Zhi thinks her life is over. But Dior has secrets of her own, and she is dead set on making herself a part of Zhi's life.
A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin
Urban fantasy. Two years ago, sorcerer Matthew Swift was killed. Today, he woke back up. And he isn't alone in his body, but rather in the company of the blue electric angels, who lived in the telephone lines and are now experiencing the world for the first time through him. Now, he seeks vengeance not only against the one who killed him, but also against the one who brought him back. Absolutely buck wild unique take on switching and merging pov betwen singular and plural.
The Fall that Saved Us by Tamara Jerée
Sapphic romance. Cassiel is of angelic heritage, raised to fight and kill demons alongside her family. But Cassiel has left the hunt and her family behind, wanting a normal life. For three years she's built a life for herself, cut off from her family, but now a demon has found her, sent to collect her soul. Except, the demon isn't any more interested in following the orders of her family than Cassiel is. Can they work together to free themselves from the expectations placed on them?
Spiderlight by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Fantasy. A small band of heroes prophesied to defeat an evil king must follow the "spider's path"; to find the way they seek the aid of dangerous, man-eating giant spiders. As spiders don't keep maps, their mage turns one of the spiders into human guise, forcing it to lead their way if it is ever to return to its true form. Both dark and immensely funny, Spiderlight is at once a love letter to classical heroic fantasy quests and a deconstruction of the idea of 'evil races' in the fantasy genre.
Providence Girls by Morgan Dante
Sapphic horror re-imagining of several of H.P. Lovecraft's works from the point of view of the women sidelined as victims in the originals. Forced to abandon her not-quite-human children to escape a cult seeking to sacrifice her, Lavinia nearly dies from exposure in the woods. She's saved by the prickly Asenath, and they find themselves growing close as Lavinia regains her strength. But Asenath's own dark past is catching up, as she too begins to transform into something not entirely human.
Amatka by Karin Tidbeck
Dystopia with especially creative world-building and a sapphic romance. In a vague past, something caused a group of humans to become trapped in an alien world, where the laws of reality themselves react in hostile ways to humanity's attempt at life and stability. To survive, strict rules and censorship are put in place, with harsh punishments for any overstep. Vanja is sent to the distant colony Amatka to do market research. In her research, she starts finding out the truth of the laws she chafes under, and begins to wonder whether life is really worth living if change isn't made.
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
Having grown up on the heavily militarized Gaea Station, Kyr has spent her whole life training to become a soldier, aiming to bring power back to humanity after Earth was destroyed in an alien war decades ago. But when she is relegated to the nursery to birth future sons and her brother is sent on a suicide mission, Kyr breaks the rules for the first time in her life. Breaking out an alien prisoner and working alongside her brother's asshole friend, she flees Gaea Station to save her brother and bring glory to humanity. But along the way she finds out there’s much she doesn't know, about Gaea station and her own family both.
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
Alternate history. In 1952, history changes when a massive meteorite hits the Earth, killing thousands and kickstarting a global climate change that will soon make the planet uninhabitable. To save humanity from extinction, the world begins to come together to bring us to space before it's too late. Elma York, WASP pilot in the war and expert mathematician, is hoping to become one of the astronauts, but finds that she and her women friends have to work harder than anyone else to be given room in the mission.
To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose
Young adult fantasy. Anequs is a young indigenous woman in a land ruled by Anglish conquerors. When Anequs finds a dragon egg and bonds with the hatchling, she is forced to travel away to attend an academy for dragon riders as one of only two indigenous students. Pulled between the traditions of her family and the ideas of the conquerors - many of which want her out of the academy no matter what - Anequs must find her place in the world as a dragon rider.
What Doesn’t Break by Cassandra Khaw
Fantasy, character study. You’re unlikely to get the full experience of What Doesn’t Break unless you’re also a viewer of Critical Role. It follows the backstory of Laudna, undead sorceress and warlock with the ghostly presence of the necromancer who once murdered her keeping residence in her mind and tugging at her strings. For thirty years, Laudna wanders the outskirts of society, forced into a lonely existence by her visibly undead status, and tries to understand what she wants to do with her un-life.
“ Long tables housed intricate dioramas, the carvings arranged so they looked like they were in battle in one tableau, and at a ball in another, and so on and so forth, a whole country of scenes. Matilda leaned down, fascinated by one panorama in particular: two children stumbling through a black forest, hounded by things she had no name for, things that might have been wolves were it not for the froth of pink flesh growing out through their joints.
"Beautiful, aren't they? I had those commissioned just last year when Sylas was in bitter megrims," purred a low, mellifluous voice. "It so cheered him to see Cassandra's reaction to them." “
The Whitestone Chronicles: Ripley // The Legend of Vox Machina S1 // Bells Hells: What Doesn’t Break
