this was perfect in every single way and this story is going to help heal so many lives. <3
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anna marie and their storARC provided by the publisher
this was perfect in every single way and this story is going to help heal so many lives. <3
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anna marie and their stories mean... everything to me. but when a little bird told me this might have HAS pan rep? no no, this book is going to be life changing, i just know it.
truly some of the best writing i've ever read in my life. the found family? the unconditional love and the journey of feeling that for others b[image]
truly some of the best writing i've ever read in my life. the found family? the unconditional love and the journey of feeling that for others but also yourself? the story, the messages, the way they were perfectly woven together? a masterpiece. and love me some on page pan rep. <3
[image] ARC provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
Did I just start 2019 off with the cutest sapphic relationship set up, that also fe[image] ARC provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
Did I just start 2019 off with the cutest sapphic relationship set up, that also featured a pan love interest? Wow, the blessings for this new year already! Friends, I loved this. And if you’re looking for something diverse, something hella cute, something super romantic, and something that’s a really quick read, then look no further.
“Why was it so hard to find good mainstream media where you could see two girls falling in love with a happy ending? Even harder if I wanted to find stories with black girls. Brazilian black girls falling in love? Mostly, I’d only found them in indie and self-published books. Maybe it would be easier to enjoy more media if everything I tried to watch didn’t look as white as the walls of my apartment.”
My Fake Canadian Wife is an ownvoices story for the Brazilian and the queer representation. Our main character, Dora, is a lesbian and is an aspiring photographer from Brazil, who moved to Canada to go to school, and is still currently living there. Sadly, their camera broke so they are currently working as a barista at a local café trying to save up money. That is, until Dora receives a letter from immigration telling her that she hasn’t updated her student Visa and that she is going to be deported if the situation isn’t corrected.
Dora is feeling helpless, and unsure if she wants to move back with her family in Brazil, but a coworker introduces her to Abby, who is a librarian, pan, adorable, and totally willing to marry Dora to keep her in the country. But first, they have to see if they are both willing to commit to something like this, and they have to find out if they even like being around each other for long periods of time. And what better way than for Dora to spend Christmas and the holidays with Abby and her family? And they both learn a lot about themselves and the kind of relationship that they want and need.
Last year, I fell in love with The Melody of You and Me which starred a pan main character who fell for a Filipino girl, and at this point I think M. Hollis is writing stories specifically for me and my interests. Even though both of these stories are filled with very real and challenging situations, but are heartwarming, sapphic stories that just fill my body and soul with so much pure joy and happiness.
Overall, I just loved this and I really appreciate the stories that M. Hollis keeps writing. They always make me feel so seen, and I always have the biggest smile on my face while reading their stories. I’ll be the first to say that this story is a little predictable, but that didn’t make me love it any less. I hope 2019 is filled with f/f romances like this! And I hope M. Hollis never stops writing them, especially after reading the author acknowledgements because you can really tell they put a lot of themselves into this beautiful story and it really shines through.
“We may not get to choose how we die, but we can choose how we live. The universe may forget us, but it doesn't matter. Because we are
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“We may not get to choose how we die, but we can choose how we live. The universe may forget us, but it doesn't matter. Because we are the ants, and we'll keep marching on.”
We Are the Ants is a really beautiful story about being a teenager, being gay, and not being accepted. This is a story about heartbreak, loss, grief, and trying to figure out who you are in the midst of it all. I’ll be honest, I didn’t love the start of this book, but I completely fell in love with the middle and end. And I totally understand why so many of my friends hail this as their favorite book of all time.
But the reason I’m giving this four stars is because the first part of this book felt just so vulgar. Like, maybe it’s because I’m a grown woman and I don’t want to read about teenage boners, but like the first part of this book just reads crude and bad. I was honestly scared I was going to end up hating this book. Which would have really surprised me, because Shaun David Hutchinson’s short story in the All Out Anthology was my favorite in the entire collection. It was so beautifully written, so lyrical, so immersive, so empowering. And luckily for me, I didn’t give up hope, because We Are the Ants ended up being all of those things, too.
“That's the problem with memories: you can visit them, but you can't live in them.”
This book stars a young boy named Henry who is grieving the loss of his boyfriend who recently committed suicide. His home situation isn’t great either, from a mom that is also unhappy, a brother that is abusive and making some big life changes, and a grandmother who can hardly remember his name. Also, Henry is the joke of his high school and has been dubbed “Space Boy” because he frequently gets abducted by aliens, regardless of who believes him or not.
We get to witness some of Henry’s alien abductions, but on one particular visit, he is given a choice to save the world or to leave it for impending destruction. Henry has 144 days to decide if the world is worth saving.
“If you knew the world was going to end, and you could press a button to prevent it, would you?”
This book does deal with so many heavy topics, so please use caution and make sure you are in the right mindset. Trigger and content warnings for attempted rape, sexual assault, outing, suicide, a lot of physical abuse, extreme bullying, homophobia, homophobic slurs, drug addiction, alcoholism, grief, depression, abandonment, loss of a loved one, talk of self-harm/cutting, and having a loved one with Alzheimer's disease.
Another important aspect I love in this book was the depictions of adults. First off, Henry’s mother is dealing with so many things, and so much heartache of her own, and she doesn’t hide it. I’m not saying everything she did was healthy, but it's realistic and I think it’s something really important for more teens to read and see that they aren’t alone. High key, Ms. Faraci was my favorite character. I seriously loved that teacher and her honest advice that sometimes awful people do indeed succeed in the world, but it doesn’t mean that they will always be in your life. I also just loved seeing a teacher care about a student the way that she did with Henry. It was truly heartwarming and meant a lot to me.
Another really real and raw theme of the book is how we use other people to fill a void left by someone else. And how we will make excuses and justifications for the only person who is making us feel something, even if they are abusive and manipulative. This just really spoke to my soul, honestly.
I wouldn’t say that this book is about romance, but there is a romance element and let me climb up on the rooftops and scream that the love interest in this book is a Latinx Pansexual boy! You all, I was not expecting pan rep in this book, and even though the actual word is not on the page, my heart was so damn happy.
Overall, Shaun David Hutchinson has now impressed me twice in 2018 and I’m no longer going to sleep on his work. I think he’s so immensely talented, and all the elements that are a part of his stories are honestly life changing and saving. And I hope you all might consider picking up We Are the Ants and get blown away, too.
“Depression isn't a war you win. It's a battle you fight every day. You never stop, never get to rest. It's one bloody fray after another.”
This story is truly holds such an important discussion about mental illness and how it is something that you have to always manage and keep up with, because it never goes away, no matter how many alien abductions happen. And I’m going to leave some numbers here:
➽SUICIDE PREVENTION: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: http://suicidepreventionlifeline.org In a crisis, call their free and 24/ 7 U.S. hotline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255) Contact their Crisis Text Line: text TALK to 741-741 National Hopeline Network: http://hopeline.com / 1-800-442-HOPE (4673) American Association of Suicidology: http://suicidology.org American Foundation for Suicide Prevention: http://afsp.org Suicide Prevention Resource Center: http://sprc.org
Also, I found all of these resources from The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan, which is another amazing book that I completely recommend for anyone looking for more books that center around mental illness. And I’m obvious not a therapist, but my DMs will always be open for anyone who just needs a friend to talk to. You are deserving of love and happiness, sometimes it just takes a little while to find those things, but I promise you are worthy of them. And I promise that you matter.
Okay, first and foremost, you all need to know that I ID as pansexual. And my friend, Alexis, who I buddy read this with identifies as pansexua[image]
Okay, first and foremost, you all need to know that I ID as pansexual. And my friend, Alexis, who I buddy read this with identifies as pansexual. And this is a story about a pansexual girl falling in love. And if that’s not one of the cutest things you’ve seen this Pride, I don’t have words for you. 💖💛💙
“…when people doubt her sexuality. Or the times when she needs to explain why she just feels more comfortable using pansexual than bisexual”
But real talk, this is honestly a story about a pansexual music-loving girl, falling in love with a Filipina lesbian ballerina, while they both work at a bookstore together. This book even shouts out Melissa de La Cruz, Mina V. Esguerra, and Rin Chupeco! Like, does that not already sound like a masterpiece?
The Melody of You and Me is a sweet, heartwarming, beautiful novella about two girls coming together and discovering who they want to be and who they want to be together. It’s quick, and fast paced, but I was smiling the entire time while reading. And there are a couple really steamy and sexy scenes in this, too!
“When you grow up hearing that you are not tall enough, not skinny enough, not white enough, you always wonder about how the world would be if you didn't need to conform to all these ridiculous standards.”
But this book also has a lot of important things that it discusses! This book talks about masturbation and how we normalize it for boys, but never for girls. This book talks about coming out to your family, and how sometimes it feels like you can’t do it alone, no matter what age you are. This book talks about how society puts so much pressure on kids to go to college straight out of high school, never giving them a chance to breathe and think about the choice they are about to make that will change their very lives forever. This book talks about white privilege and the way white people can react when people of color are in those “white spaces”, especially if they are excelling in those spaces. Like, there is so much good in this book!
“Why do they never let young people stop to think? Why is it unacceptable to take a little time to figure out what she wants to do for the rest of her life?”
I see a few people saying this book is hard to read, but I didn’t feel that way at all. Do I think this book reads easy and somewhat simplistic? Yes, very much so. But never difficult to read. And obviously other people’s opinions are valid, but I want to also say that M. Hollis is a Brazilian author, who wrote this book in a language that is not her first. Honestly? It blows me away how well written it is.
Overall, I can’t tell you how much this meant to me. I can’t believe that it took me over twenty years of reading to finally read the word “pansexual” in a romance novel. I could write an entire review on how depressing it is to make an entire TBR of LGBTQIAP+ reads for Pride, but to only be able to pick from five mainstream books that have the word “pansexual” even in them. This book honestly feels like it was written for me, and it will forever and always have a piece of my heart. And I will cherish it being in my library forever. And this is the cute, happy, fluffy, validating, love story that I’ve been looking for my whole life!
“She wishes they could stay like this forever. Just the two of them; telling stories and sharing secrets without a care in the world.”