Queerly Loving

Once I got over my kneejerk reaction to the title (because while I'm glad some in the LGBT+ community are reclaiming the word, I grew up with a father that used it derogatorily and...pretty sure I'd have a major issue using the word even in a good way) I decided I had to get this book. I mean, I was already kind of in love with that bright, almost comic-esque, cover.


Miss Me with that Gay Shit (Please Don't) by Sacha Lamb

This story is silly. It just is. It's a little contemporary high school tale about a gay, trans boy and his slightly moronic love interest. Funny is the best word to describe the whole thing. (Rep includes: gay/trans main character, and a brief mention of a bi or lesbian off-screen character.)

3/5

Gifts of Spring by Shira Glassman

Already knew Shira's writing and pretty much adore it. This story was no different. It's about a trans woman magic user and the acrobat she assists out of a ... situation. There's a lot to enjoy about this story of the pair wandering through town and the people they help along the way, but the whole thing moved way too fast in the relationship department, I think. Like from ‘I don't even know you' to ‘let's run away together' in one afternoon. (Rep includes: trans main character, and a brief scene with a gay couple.)

4/5

Wishing on the Perseid by Kay C. Sulli

This was definitely one of my favorite stories, simply for how easy the story was and how likable the main couple were. It's also pretty straightforward - a soon-to-be college student becomes infatuated over a park ranger during his stay in the park. And, no, although it could describe one, this is not the start to a horror story. If I had one complaint, it would be that the LGBT+ rep was fairly light. And it's of the most easily found in fiction. (Rep includes: a gay main couple.)

4/5

Hunt and Peck by Teresa Theophano

I have only one thing to say: lesbians in 1987. There's a part of me that loves the idea and the culture that would come with it - that part, however, is quickly squashed by the part of me that pretty much hates any ‘historical' story that takes place in the last hundred years. Maybe if this had dealt more heavily with the culture of the time, instead of being about a pair of high school students and a typing competition... I might have liked it more. (Rep includes: a bisexual main character, a lesbian couple and a couple of references to a secondary lesbian couple.)

3/5

First Light at Dawn by Nyri Bakkalian

While I love the concept - a trans woman that used to be a military helicopter pilot that suffers from PTSD and is in a committed relationship with a woman - this story suffers from being told entirely in one long email from the main character to a friend she hasn't spoken to in about a decade. (Rep includes: trans woman main character, lesbian couple.)

3/5

Dragons Do Not by Evelyn Deshane

While there is some pretty amazing world building going on here, it's also the major reason I didn't love this story: because it feels like the first chapter of a book. There's brilliant set up, but it was just left floating a little. (Rep includes: bi or lesbian main character, trans woman secondary character.)

3/5

Planchette by Carolyn Gage

...I didn't like this story. At all. It's told in script style and is about a trans boy that no one wants to call a boy - because girls are supposed to be all feminine and pretty and wear dresses (it is historical) - and the girl that he's staying with misgenders him and is generally transphobic early on. Of course, that all changes when her father (a reverend) shows up and becomes the transphobic, misgendering one. And then there's a romance blooming between the two youngsters. (Rep includes: trans man main character, bi or lesbian main character, past secondary lesbian characters mentioned, one of whom was killed by a man because she was a lesbian.)

1/5

Birthday Landscapes by E.H. Timms

An aro couple that are living in occasional domestic bliss. Honestly, there is so much to like in this story, a military man with PTSD, a fantasy setting, an aro couple that had copious past relationship negotiations to bring about the birth of their two kids. This couple is strictly platonic, but I would have liked to see a strong friendship between them and never felt it. More attention was paid to his PTSD and their children. (Rep includes: aro main characters.)

3/5

A Gallant Rescue by A.P. Raymond

Ooh boy. This is the story I was waiting the entire book for. It has sci-fi! It has poly! It was pretty darn awesome and I've love to read a series about these people. The only complaint I have - and it's a fairly minor one - is that the world feels so much bigger than this story. But, the story is complete in and of itself, if a little less fleshed out than I would have liked. (Rep includes: poly triad main characters, non-binary main characters, trans woman main character, lesbian secondary couple, non-binary secondary character, a real live tentacled alien.)

5/5


Over all, the books average out to 3.22 stars - and I was, taking this book as a whole, going to rate it 3 stars. Because, even if I really enjoyed some of these stories, this book was...strangely obsessed with trans characters. Before anyone jumps down my throat, I was excited for the first couple stories that featured trans characters - and have even went searching for books that feature trans characters to read. (And have loved some of them.) But, six of the nine stories featured trans characters. That is more rep than any other LGBT+ group got. Even more than the gays or lesbians. And that's including counting all characters that I was unsure if they were bi or lesbian as being lesbian. Maybe if you read like one story a week, it won't seem so inundated, but I read the first six stories in a very short period of time and I couldn't help but notice the number of trans characters represented here.

So...I love the idea, but can't help but think that I would have liked this collection much more if the diversity had been...more diverse. (More poly, more non-binary, more genderqueer, more ace characters, (or ANY ace characters) more unabashedly bi characters. Because I'm ticked off that not one character is unarguably bi. (And most characters I tagged as bi or lesbian are almost unarguably lesbian.)

Honestly, I was super excited for book 2 but...now I'm not so much.