marywahlmeierbracciano's reviews
730 reviews

Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood

emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book simultaneously wrecked me and was everything to me.  Mallory is no stranger to being female in male-dominated spaces.  Before she secretly re-entered the chess world after a four-year hiatus, she supported her family as a mechanic.  But a surprise checkmate against the world’s top player upends her life in ways she never expected.  A queer queen of hookups and avoider of emotional connection, Mallory may have finally found her perfect match—Nolan, the only person who sees chess the way she does: beautiful, artistic, all-consuming.  The sexual tension between them is unrivaled, and each is healing from family trauma.  This is a story of a gifted young woman who dares to follow her dream.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Alcohol, and Chronic illness

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Car accident, Infidelity, Sexual content, Dementia, and Violence

The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan

challenging funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Naoise Dolan’s sophomore novel has a fun structure that gives it almost a reality TV tell-all feel.  Leading up to the day of the wedding, we hear from the bride; her sister, the bridesmaid; the best man; the groom; and one of the guests.  Chock-full of queers, this book has the complicated characters and relationships you might expect from the inimitable Sally Rooney, but it’s funnier and much less depressing (no shade!).  In essence, it’s the perfect book candy—a beach read with substance; genuinely interesting lit fic with plenty to laugh about.  It’s a clever book, and the ending made me smile.  Plus, as a musician, I enjoyed reading Celine’s thoughts about music.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity, Alcohol, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Addiction, Racism, Drug abuse, Abandonment, and Suicidal thoughts

Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

With much inspiration taken from the ancient horror stories of the Bible, Hell Followed with Us is a post-apocalyptic adventure featuring queer teens as the heroes.  A new plague has been released upon the world by an evangelical cult, The Angels.  Benji’s mother is one of their leaders, his father his greatest ally, and he: a trans boy trapped inside their compound, slowly transforming into a monster, a “savior” of their own creation.  Benji escapes—at a great cost—and joins a group of queer teens hiding out in an LGBTQ+ center, a place beyond his wildest dreams.  This primal scream of a novel is, at its heart, about survival.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Religious bigotry, Body horror, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexual content, Vomit, Alcohol, and Confinement

Silence and Shadow by Erin Beaty

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

After Blood and Moonlight, I couldn’t wait for more of Simon and Cat’s story, and I absolutely loved Silence and Shadow!  This sequel features even more moon-centered magick, religious imagery and lore, and powerful women—including Catrin, of course.  Add in a school for medicine, a series of gruesome murders, and a steamy romance, and I couldn’t put it down.  Catrin digs into her Selenae powers and identity just as her relationship with Simon truly blossoms in this thrilling book.  I was so immersed in this fantasy world that I wanted it to be real.  I’ll never think of the moon the same way again!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use, Death of parent, Torture, Vomit, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Child abuse, and Blood

The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto

reflective medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

With lovely, elegant writing and a view of the world that is uniquely Japanese, Banana Yoshimoto’s The Premonition is a melancholy coming-of-age story.  Nineteen-year-old Yayoi wants to remember—her thirty-year-old aunt, Yukino, wants to forget.  Yayoi flees her eerily perfect family home to live with Yukino, whose depressive lifestyle is steeped in tragedy.  The two young women are each haunted in their own way, and perhaps their reunion will heal them both.  Following Yoshimoto’s historically-favored themes, seasoned fans will want to pick this one up.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Mental illness

Minor: Incest and Abortion

The Children's Bach by Helen Garner

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Rumaan Alam’s excellent foreword is what convinced me to read this book, which features incredible writing by locally-obscure Australian master Helen Garner.  Set in the 1980s, it shows its age only in a few instances concerning behaviors which are no longer widely socially acceptable (i.e., ableism, racism, sex with a minor).  That aside, it is a thoughtful novel which uses music as motif to explore the stumbling dance of “modern life.”  It begs the question, What makes someone a good person or a bad one?  With nuanced characters and complicated relationships, this is the product of a practiced hand.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Infidelity and Racism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Violence, and Sexual content

The Last Language: A Novel by Jennifer duBois

challenging tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved every moment of reading this book—the breathtaking, carefully-crafted tension made it so I never wanted to put it down.  The narrator, a former PhD candidate, attempts to find meaning in linguistic philosophy while penning her story from behind bars.  She recounts the events that led to her incarceration—becoming employed to facilitate written communication for nonverbal people with motor impairments (using early 2000s technology), and falling in love with her client.  This book provocatively explores disabled personhood and sexuality alongside language and thought.  It is intriguing and heart-wrenching, and I’ll be thinking about it for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Minor: Miscarriage

The Hills of Estrella Roja by Ashley Robin Franklin

adventurous lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

Kat wants to believe in the supernatural—she even runs a podcast with her bestie called Paranormal Texas.  Mari would rather not think about spooky stuff in real life, especially after the dreams she’s been having.  When Mari’s abuela dies, her mom takes them back to her birthplace of Estrella Roja, where Kat later arrives to research local legends.  The community—and Mari’s extended family—seems overly secretive and cold.  What are they hiding?  Kat and Mari are eager to find out in this sweet, queer, cozy read, perfect for spooky season!

Blood and Moonlight by Erin Beaty

adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

I loved the medieval setting of this serial murder mystery!  An orphan raised in an abbey, Catrin’s job as a teen is to inspect the scaffolding of the ever-evolving Sanctum, the house of worship of the sun.  In a nearby community, ostracized moon-worshipers lead their lives at night.  When an encounter with the moon sends her reeling, Cat finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation that will test her loyalties, and she just might fall in love along the way.  With representation of mental illness and neurodiversity, this thrilling novel is full of twists, magic, and derring-do!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Drug use, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Mental illness, Murder, Medical content, Death, Xenophobia, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Confinement and Sexual violence

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

In Victorian England, Silas is an autistic sixteen-year-old boy facing imminent marriage and the expectation to reproduce, for he was born with a womb and the coveted violet eyes which mark him as a medium.  When a last ditch effort at survival goes wrong, Silas is sent to a (very haunted) reformatory school for wives-in-training.  Andrew Joseph White writes about trans characters with such tenderness and beauty while utilizing horror to discuss the persecution of the othered, cruel medical experimentation, “hysteria,” and fear of trans magic.  Stitched with rabbit imagery and the gory realities of humanity throughout, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is a knockout.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Medical trauma, Death, Gore, Violence, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Abortion, Deadnaming, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Murder, Ableism, and Grief

Moderate: Transphobia and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Bullying, Blood, Animal death, Dysphoria, Cursing, Confinement, Miscarriage, Lesbophobia, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Torture, Self harm, Pregnancy, and Emotional abuse