Patron Saint Of Library Cards

icarus/alok • he/him 🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸 • queer • bengali • world's most pretentious motherfucker • my booklr sideblog

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

Welcome to my humble abode!!!

If you’re new here, hi! I’m Icarus/Alok (he/him 🏳️‍⚧️) and this is my bookblr side account where I post mainly about what I’m reading (obviously). This blog is run by a bisexual and/or trans and/or aroallo book enthusiast so if you have a problem with any of that, idk suck my dick. Find me online at fun places such as StoryGraph if you want to keep up with what I’m reading/planning to read but I forget to post for some reason (more common than you would think). Expect horror/romance recs, especially if they’re in a historical setting because I’m wild about alla that.

Also. I have an Instagram too. I know. Pls forgive me.

If you’re going to be mean to me in my inbox, first you must answer my riddle: have you done anything to help a family in Palestine today? If not, you must donate a minimum of 20$ before you are allowed to send me any hate mail. That’s my one rule I’m afraid.

For those who can’t afford to donate and don’t want to be mean, have you done your daily click for Palestine yet? If not, here’s a handy link to make your job easier!

Help Palestinian refugees with a Click

Please help deliver support to Palestinian families; all you have to do is to click once a day for free, every day!

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

Carnalis is the story of party girl Lauren, who hides a terrifying secret from her injured girlfriend Alex, that she’s actually a cannibal and that Alex might be next on the plate.

————

This novella has made me a Tiffany Morris fan for life. It is exactly the kind of thing that drives me insane. Horror that interrogates the extents of informed consent, abusive relationships, and obsession.

Morris’s prose is both lush and sharp as knife, cutting deep to reveal the rotting flesh of Lauren and Alex’s relationship. Like I cannot understate just how beautiful the writing in this book is. It’s poetic and sensory and exactly the sort of way you’d imagine a cannibal would think. Morris really understands her characters and you can see this reflected in the prose.

The horror is visceral. I read a lot of body horror so it’s rare that a book elicits actual disgust within me. But Lauren’s depraved and obsessive mind and actions kept me on the edge of my seat and worried for Alex the entire time.

And Alex! Her Mi’kmaw heritage is so important to the book and inextricable from the way Lauren treats her. The saviour complex and infantilisation that Lauren subjects Alex too, the codependency and social-racial dynamics that underlie their entire relationship, it’s all so delicious to me.

Anyway, end notes, if you’ve ever wanted Hannibal but lesbian, this bite-sized (hah!) book might just be the thing for you.

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

My library hold for Carnalis by Tiffany Morris just came in!! Who else is ready for some sapphic cannibalism woohoo!!

[may12324]

Books and comics with Butch/Masc protagonists or Love interests 🧡

I asked on IG for book recs, and these are the ones I got! Well, including a lil promo of my comic. In any case, I figured I would make a graphic for them. I love seeing recs laid out all nice.

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

Public Accountability Reading Checklist!

Guess who hasn't been reading again because life got tough and now has a bunch of borrowed books he need to return by the end of the month! Rules of the game: I am not allowed to place on hold, borrow (or god forbid buy) another book until I've crossed of at least four of the ones on this list! wish me luck

The Obake Code by Makana Yammaoto

Boys Run the Riot by Kaitu Gaku

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Knitting Needles by Ezra Wren (arc)

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

Books already read this month:

Girlfriends by Emily Zhou

Crawl by Max Delsohn

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

Let the record show I finished the Readathon exactly at 12:30 am on April 30th and am thus WITHIN THE TIME FRAME!!! everybody pls clap and cheer (quietly, because I’m going to bed now!)

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

The vampire Lestat trailer came out this week but since I’ve taken a vow to not talk about exclusively faggot nasty cis men for lesbian visibility week does anybody want to hear about my recs for nasty lesbians and dykes in gothic horroromances?

[thebisexualwreckoning]

Pssstttt you wanna ask me for nasty dykes book recs so much….

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

One ☝️ person @optimistic-autistic asked. However it is the one of the 5 people whose opinion in the world I respect so.

1. Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran (historical lesbian boarding school horroromance)

2. The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez (Black lesbian vampires)

3. Providence Girls by Morgan Dante (historical sapphic horroromance)

4. Unholy with Eyes like Wolves by Morgan Dante (vampire horroromance)

5. A Dowry of Blood by ST Gibson (sapphic vampire gothic horroromance)

6. An Education in Malice by ST Gibson (lesbian vampire gothic romance)

7. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (I don’t even know how to explain this book. But nasty fucking dykes galore)

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

The vampire Lestat trailer came out this week but since I’ve taken a vow to not talk about exclusively faggot nasty cis men for lesbian visibility week does anybody want to hear about my recs for nasty lesbians and dykes in gothic horroromances?

[mxjackparker]

Warped, an anthology of trans+ sci-fi and horror: PITCHES OPEN NOW!

(Paid writing opportunity for trans fiction writers.)

More info below:

Meet the editors! I'll be going through pitches with Christopher and we'll soon be launching a Kickstarter to fund the anthology through pre-orders.

Send your pitches to [email protected] by May 30th.

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

Another week gone! Gosh, the time is just flying by this year. At least we’re finally in lesbian visibility week now? I still have hope I’ll finish reading all my planned books for the Lesbian Lit Readathon but we’ll see how I go. Here’s the lesbian books I read last week till then:

Charms and Dangerous by Shelly Page

Youngblood by Sasha Laurens

Vengeance Planning for Amateurs by Lee Winter

Junker Seven by Olive J. Kelley

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

Feeling the sudden urge to rearrange my 2026 tbr to prioritise my ST Gibson reads. Savage Blooms is already on there but I really want to know what the fuck is up with David Aristarkhov so bad as well. So many books so little time

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

So. I never got over Netflix cancelling First Kill. Ever since then, I’ve been compiling a list of sapphic vampire books to hit that spot for me. And after a lot (and I mean a LOT) of my friends decided to ask me for sapphic vampire books recs, I decided I might as well as compile and post an official list.

(Also thanks to my lover @eurydices-carnation774 for being just as weird about sapphic vampire books as I am and for helping me out with finding some of these!!)

[sapphire-mess]

It's less pretty and most of those are on here but this is my current reading list (aaaand I'm just about to add the ones from this post I'm missing)

Edit: I'm still working my way through the list so I can't vouch for them all personally except the first four, this is just a list of recs I've found various places

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

Ohhhh, there's a couple on this list i didn't know about (baby teeth, a ballad for slayers and monsters) or didn't include (fledgeing, a dowry of blood, the midnight shift etc etc) because they arent solely/explicitly sapphic which i'm adding to my own list now! but i'm pretty sure this list also has books non-sapphic MCs? (a tempest of tea, blood as bright as the moon, etc etc)

[sapphire-mess]

Baby teeth is fantastic! It's the one by Meg Grehan, for clarity, since there's a few books with that title that definitely aren't about sapphic vampires.

And now I'm going to have to go through and check all of the ones on the list to make sure they're actually sapphic. I think a couple of them might have snuck in from the reading list for the vampire book club I'm in (which is very cool and queer but tragically not exclusively sapphic). There's a bunch I just copied down from various threads on a sapphic book subreddit without looking them up and *apparently* I can't necessarily trust that. Sad times.

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

Haha yeah I get that unfortunately! You know society has truly gone to hell when you can’t even trust Reddit threads. Also I would love to be part of a vampire book club that is so incredibly lucky

[sapphire-mess]

Vampire book club is great! (Usually at least, I did have to read Vampires At Sea this month and it was very possibly the worst piece of published writing I've ever read and I'm tempted to write a giant post about how much I hated it). I'll give a bonus rec from there, actually, check out Of Monsters and Mainframes if you want a really fun and queer scifi story that's not exclusively vampires but there is a bit of sapphic romance in the end and the whole story revolves around Dracula as the big bad guy.

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

adding monsters and mainframes to my tbr! also pls write that post about the book you hated, i havent personally read it but i love drama and i love reading about other people talking about books and i so want to read why you think its the worst piece of published writing youve ever read now

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

I should be working on stuff I need to work on to graduate and instead I am listening to to lesbians audiobooks and embroidering transgender atlas to make a patch for my jean jacket. I don’t have anything else to say I just wanted to let yall know what my priorities in life are

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

So. I never got over Netflix cancelling First Kill. Ever since then, I’ve been compiling a list of sapphic vampire books to hit that spot for me. And after a lot (and I mean a LOT) of my friends decided to ask me for sapphic vampire books recs, I decided I might as well as compile and post an official list.

(Also thanks to my lover @eurydices-carnation774 for being just as weird about sapphic vampire books as I am and for helping me out with finding some of these!!)

[sapphire-mess]

It's less pretty and most of those are on here but this is my current reading list (aaaand I'm just about to add the ones from this post I'm missing)

Edit: I'm still working my way through the list so I can't vouch for them all personally except the first four, this is just a list of recs I've found various places

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

Ohhhh, there's a couple on this list i didn't know about (baby teeth, a ballad for slayers and monsters) or didn't include (fledgeing, a dowry of blood, the midnight shift etc etc) because they arent solely/explicitly sapphic which i'm adding to my own list now! but i'm pretty sure this list also has books non-sapphic MCs? (a tempest of tea, blood as bright as the moon, etc etc)

[sapphire-mess]

Baby teeth is fantastic! It's the one by Meg Grehan, for clarity, since there's a few books with that title that definitely aren't about sapphic vampires.

And now I'm going to have to go through and check all of the ones on the list to make sure they're actually sapphic. I think a couple of them might have snuck in from the reading list for the vampire book club I'm in (which is very cool and queer but tragically not exclusively sapphic). There's a bunch I just copied down from various threads on a sapphic book subreddit without looking them up and *apparently* I can't necessarily trust that. Sad times.

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

Haha yeah I get that unfortunately! You know society has truly gone to hell when you can’t even trust Reddit threads. Also I would love to be part of a vampire book club that is so incredibly lucky

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

So. I never got over Netflix cancelling First Kill. Ever since then, I’ve been compiling a list of sapphic vampire books to hit that spot for me. And after a lot (and I mean a LOT) of my friends decided to ask me for sapphic vampire books recs, I decided I might as well as compile and post an official list.

(Also thanks to my lover @eurydices-carnation774 for being just as weird about sapphic vampire books as I am and for helping me out with finding some of these!!)

[sapphire-mess]

psst @vamplire

[vamplire]

official vamplire post

also to add carmilla, carmilla and laura, a dowry of blood, a ballad for slayers and monsters, where shadows meet

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

Yeah I don’t know how I forgot to include Carmilla considering I’m always talking about it with anyone who’ll listen. I was literally thinking I gotta include it. And then I didn’t. Also ngl I completely forgot about Carmilla and Laura which is on me and I do apologise for that

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

This was a fun, light-hearted romance about uptight Lifestyle Columnist, Marianto, basically enlisting her boss/lead of her favourite band, Simón, into helping her get her boyfriend back after she’s fired for accidently posting a video of her break up to the Magazine’s official social media accounts.

I really liked how how vivid the setting was! I think this might have been my first book set in Venezuela and Marianto’s love for Caracas really shines through. It’s as much a love letter to Venezuelan culture as it is a romance.

The way Marianto’s relationship with her ex was handled was also really nicely done! I enjoyed how neither of them were portrayed as if they were in the wrong (that much), they were just two people who needed different things at that point in their lives and just wouldn’t have worked out and that’s ok!

Seeing Simón and Marianto’s relationship progress from fans to co-workers to friends to lovers was also really sweet. Simón cares so much for Marianto and is so right for who she is, pushing her to discover herself outside of the person she’s created to keep herself safe and it just made me like him.

At times the various subplots did make it read more like General Fiction than a true romance. Don’t get me wrong, I actually enjoyed seeing Marianto discover herself and the subplot about her relationship with her mother but sometimes, it did take slightly away from the romance. Not enough to not make it enjoyable though.

Anyway yeah, cute book. Would make a great summer/beach read.

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

So. I never got over Netflix cancelling First Kill. Ever since then, I’ve been compiling a list of sapphic vampire books to hit that spot for me. And after a lot (and I mean a LOT) of my friends decided to ask me for sapphic vampire books recs, I decided I might as well as compile and post an official list.

(Also thanks to my lover @eurydices-carnation774 for being just as weird about sapphic vampire books as I am and for helping me out with finding some of these!!)

[sapphire-mess]

It's less pretty and most of those are on here but this is my current reading list (aaaand I'm just about to add the ones from this post I'm missing)

Edit: I'm still working my way through the list so I can't vouch for them all personally except the first four, this is just a list of recs I've found various places

[thedeadreaderslibrary]

Ohhhh, there's a couple on this list i didn't know about (baby teeth, a ballad for slayers and monsters) or didn't include (fledgeing, a dowry of blood, the midnight shift etc etc) because they arent solely/explicitly sapphic which i'm adding to my own list now! but i'm pretty sure this list also has books non-sapphic MCs? (a tempest of tea, blood as bright as the moon, etc etc)