In a conflict where future societies from opposing eventualities are fighting to control all of time and space, two rival agents become ever more entangled in each other's plots and thoughts playing an escalating game of tit for tat and tête-à-tête that slowly becomes about more than just winning. After all, when you are the best of the best across all time, when the whole universe folds willingly to your touch, what else could hold your interest and obsession but another of equal skill?
A classic love story of "viny-hivey elfworld" girl meets "techy-mechy dystopia" gal. Perfect for fans of Doctor Who who hate Steven Moffat (imagine lesbian Time Lord / Cyberman slash fiction written by dueling poets).
Natsuki is convinced she is an alien. Or perhaps a witch. She's definitely from another planet--her plushie hedgehog Piyyut, who's actually a telepathic fairy, told her so. She knows she'll never fit in with the Humans, nor does she want to. She has a wand, a transformation mirror, and no one understands why she's in love with her cousin Yuu even though he's the only one who believes in her. She's determined to escape the "Factory" that turns kids into obedient workers and stupid parents churning out more helpless children. Will Natsuki ever escape the Factory, or will cruel Humans crush her spirit and rob her of her powers forever?
Dreamlike, challenging, and riveting. Earthlings is a fascinating study on nonconformity, transgression, trauma, and living beyond the periphery of society. I read it in a fevered day and a half, and it left me reeling.
Trigger warnings abound, though like me you might have a hard time putting it down regardless.
!Spoilers!
TW: incest, child sexual abuse, dissociation, murder, cannibalism, self mutilation
Email info@literatibookstore.com or call for price
Carmilla
by Sheridan Le FanuHome in a gothic castle amid the woods of Styria, the lonely Laura is contrived by fate to host the mysterious Carmilla, a young beauty of captivating charm and secretive repute. Her new "friend" showers her with the most queer affections and, more strangely ... bears the face of a spectre that visited Laura's childhood nightmares.
Also known as the lesbian Dracula! (Though it predates Stoker's opus by a quarter century.) While hardly an earnest depiction of a lesbian relationship, Carmilla's pursuit of Laura is nonetheless compelling both to the object of her desire and the reader -- it's clear why she is cited as a source of awakening to this day.
Pair with:
Fiction - Two Virgins in the Attic, Yoshiya Nobuko
Film - Jennifer's Body (2009), Ginger Snaps (2000)
Discourse - Foucault's History of Sexuality, Vol. 1 p. 1 "We Other Victorians"
Wine - Kadarka (a Hungarian red)
The Locked Tomb Series {Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, Nona the Ninth, Alecto the Ninth (forthcoming)}
Do you miss listening to your goth butch friends talk about undeath and spells over the lunch table while trying to decode the undertones of dyke drama going on behind the scenes? Well, I also didn't live that experience, but The Locked Tomb series makes me yearn for it. Tamsyn Muir writes like she is trying to give you a caffeine migraine, then give you eight shots of espresso to the brain stem. Within: A cast of characters who I want to be my best friends, lovers, and mortal enemies; a world with aesthetics ranging from the lofty and macabre of the Baroque to the gruesome and brutal of the Warhammer 40k universe; themes of hubris and the perversion of death worthy of gothic epics like Frankenstein; and so much GAY. All to say, I'm obsessed with this series and will not know peace until you are too.
In Gideon, a sword jock pretends to be a bodyguard for lifelong rival while the latter tries to untangle the dark secrets of necromantic sainthood; Harrow is about our goth queen of darkness dealing with the consequences of apotheosis--if you survive the plot twists, tonal shift, and gut-wrenching character development, it will rewire your brain (too); Nona is my newest favorite slice-of-life anime about characters living through the apocalypse; and you can't convince me Barbenheimer wasn't an ARG promo campaign for Alecto.
The Locked Tomb Series {Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, Nona the Ninth, Alecto the Ninth (forthcoming)}
Muir's genre-shaking space opera belies its own depth. Beneath the veneer of quick wit and breakneck action, Muir leaves tantalizing clues to mysteries revealed incrementally through twists both bombastic and sinisterly subtle. Reader beware, Muir is constantly obfuscating some critical detail, and doling out confirmations in irregular, habit-forming fashion. You may find yourself, like me, hopelessly hooked, and waiting all to eagerly for hell to break loose at last in the forthcoming conclusion, Alecto. But fear not, there is plenty of fix to be had in what is out now, as the series is infinitely re-readable: diabolically, the rabbit hole only ever seems to go deeper, with each installment urging you to retrace your steps and plaster your walls with sticky notes and red string (fans actually do this).
In short: you won't want off Mrs. Bones' Wild Ride.
The Locked Tomb Series {Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, Nona the Ninth, Alecto the Ninth (forthcoming)}
Listen, if you're an established fan of the series you probably already bought the Nona hardcover. But we all know you need a second copy to pass around the queer friend group/polycule.
The new short story in this edition is a 31-page play (I know, right?) where everyone's favorite tumblr sexyman Palamedes tries to solve the riddles three of leather-clad Lemongrab woman Ianthe. I got three quarters through before needing to reread passages with later context, of course. How does Muir manage that with just a short story? She has done the thing yet again, and you can't miss it.