simonlorden's reviews
1288 reviews

I'm like 20 years late to this series. Earth is being invaded by aliens, and the only ones who know about them and can fight against them are five kids. That nobody believes, obviously. Thankfully, they can turn into animals! But that comes with its own drawbacks, horror and complications. I liked that when morphing, they actually get the animal's mind so to speak, which leads to some struggle with their own bodies.

Maybe not objectively perfect, but pretty much what I needed. Kind of like a trans wish fulfillment. Kieran is a young trans guy who has long hair, a high voice, and sadly forced to be in girl mode for one of his two jobs, so he's not having a great time. And yet, he manages to get together with a hot, sexy older bisexual guy who stands up for him at work and corrects people about his pronouns and wants to make him comfortable! Like, I don't know man, I wish someone did that for me.

Also Seth is just really sweet and I liked him. And he has a cat named Dragon.

 Aranyos, vicces napló Erzsébettől, a saját stílusában, ami macskához méltóan nagyon drámai. Mert a tonhalnál nincs fontosabb. Némelyik fejezet kevésbé tetszett, de a Star Warsos volt a kedvencem. 

This book was made available on NetGalley by the publisher. This is my honest review.

Just Like Queen Esther is a picture book about a young Jewish trans girl, Atara, who always wears her crown to feel confident and remind people that she is a girl. She is empowered by the story of Queen Esther, a Jewish heroine who also wore her crown all the time.

I really liked the mention of the meaning of Atara's name, and how she chose the name for herself. I feel like the story of Queen Esther was very simplified even for a children's book, and maybe there could have been a couple more sentences, but that's my only complaint. The illustrations are colorful and cheerful, and Atara learns to be even more confident in herself.

I liked this better than the previous one. Kai gets kidnapped, so Irene must deal with fae and dragons, befriend (?) some young fae and use the power of stories to get the job done all on her own. (Mostly.) I liked the worldbuilding and the way stories and narratives work around the fae, as well as the little rules they have to follow even among each other.

The publisher made an ARC of this available on NetGalley. This is my honest review.

A trope-y, comedic Christmas second chance romance with winter-y shenanigans, being snowed in, and a singles competition. With a cast that is almost entirely queer, which is really kind of refreshing.

Brighton and Charlotte have been friends since they were 12, dating since they were 17, and engaged to be married... until Brighton doesn't show up on their wedding day. Five years of silence later, they meet by accident when their respective friends invite them to a Christmas-y getaway.

Here's the thing: it's hard to read a romance book when I have zero sympathy for one of the characters. Sure, Brighton had her own reasons for leaving Charlotte standing at the altar alone, but those reasons didn't really justify the humiliation and heartbreak for me. It didn't help that once they met again, it was Brighton who started out with the passive aggressive comments at dinner in front of everyone. Like, girl, you don't have the moral high ground, you just look like an asshole.

For those reasons it took me at least half the book to really come around to Brighton and root for them to be together. Thankfully there were other factors that saved the book for me - mostly Charlotte's arc to become a better friend, and her fascinating December curse. I also liked Brighton's side-plot with the former members of her music band, and the story of the song she wrote for Charlotte.

In summary, I had some issues with Brighton's behavior, but it was still an enjoyable, comedic and heartfelt wintery read. With a lot of cheery queers.

Self-care actions that seem simple but can be very hard. It didn't have much new for me as I've followed social media about self-care, but the illustrations are the best.

I don't really know how to feel about this author. The concepts sound interesting but I'm not vibing with the writing style. This book specifically is full of repetitions and short sentences, and sometimes it's heartfelt but mostly it's annoying. The first half of the book dragged on, and I would have liked to spend less time with the childhood scenes - I found them either boring or bizarre. I mean, 10-year-old Joe basically claims Ox as His, and everyone in his family knows what that means, but Ox has no idea, so he's just confused by why this 10-year-old is jealous that he went on one date. 

I liked the second half more, I liked where the plotlines eventually went, that's why I'm giving more than 3 stars.

A dystopia in another world, where words have the power of creation or destruction. I enjoyed exploring the rules of this community, for some meaning of enjoy at least - the part that really got me down was that children all lived separately and could only visit their parents on the weekends, and even then, hugging them or being too emotionally attached was frowned upon. It's also very surreal, I admit I didn't really understand the ending, but the first 80% was solid.