Tag: Follow Your Arrow

Posted in Uncategorized

YA Book Recommendations for Pride Month (2023 Edition) 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Monday, bibliophiles!

Here we are again in pride month! It certainly is a joyous time of year, but in the past few years, it’s been a difficult one, too. All across the country, we have seen waves of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, and the rhetoric that queer people are unnatural and wish to convert your children has spread like wildfire. We’ve also seen a dangerous increase in book bans—particularly by queer authors and authors of color. Books with diverse perspectives aren’t harming children—depriving children of these books is the dangerous part. Now more than ever is it important to read diversely: there’s never any harm in seeing a different perspective through literature. And if you’re really that concerned about “protecting the children,” maybe you should advocate for stricter gun laws instead of worrying about drag queen story hour.

In past years, I’ve split this post up into multiple (organized by genre), but I decided to make it all one post this year to keep it all more organized.

For my previous pride month lists, see below:

KEY:

  • MC: main character
  • LI: love interest
  • SC: side character

Enjoy this month’s Pride Month book recommendations!

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️THE BOOKISH MUTANT’S YA PRIDE MONTH RECOMMENDATIONS (2023 EDITION)🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

CONTEMPORARY, REALISTIC FICTION, AND NOVELS IN VERSE:

SCIENCE FICTION:

HISTORICAL FICTION:

FANTASY, MAGICAL REALISM, AND PARANORMAL:

TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! What are your favorite queer reads that you’ve read recently? Have you read any books on this list, and what did you think of them? Tell me in the comments!

Today’s song:

That it for this year’s pride month recommendations! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Books

Feminist YA Books for Women’s History Month (2023 Edition)

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Wednesday, bibliophiles, and more importantly, Happy International Women’s Day!

Aside from that, the month of March in the U.S. is Women’s History Month! These past few years have been tumultuous for women here in the U.S. and elsewhere, with the attacks on bodily autonomy being some of the most violent in recent years. But despite it all, we cannot lose hope—by lifting each other up, we can foster an environment that respects women as equals. And as I’ve always said, literature is resistance: it isn’t just real-life heroes that can inspire us to incite change—fictional heroines can have just the same effect. So for the occasion, I’ve gathered even more feminist YA book recommendations.

For my previous lists, click below:

Enjoy these book recommendations!

FEMINIST YA BOOKS FOR WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH (2023 EDITION)

Most Likely, Sarah Watson

GENRES: Contemporary, realistic fiction, romance, LGBTQ+

MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

An intersectional story that weaves together the lives of four girls in their senior year of high school—one of which will become the president of the United States.

Extasia, Claire Legrand

GENRES: Dystopia, paranormal, horror, romance, LGBTQ+

MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Claire Legrand has made another gem of a feminist novel—this time, a chilling tale of unseen beasts and hidden power.

One for All, Lillie Lainoff

GENRES: Historical fiction, retellings

MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A genderbent retelling of The Three Musketeers with a disabled, swordfighting protagonist—actually by a disabled author too!

Hollow Fires, Samira Ahmed

GENRES: Contemporary, realistic fiction, mystery

MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Samira Ahmed always ends up showing up on these lists, and for good reason—she’s never missed with any of her raw and fiercely feminist novels, and Hollow Fires is no exception.

The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin, Kip Wilson

GENRES: Historical fiction, romance, LGBTQ+

MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25

A beautiful novel in verse about two queer girls who perform in a cabaret in 1930’s Berlin.

The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School, Sonora Reyes

GENRES: Contemporary, realistic fiction, romance, LGBTQ+

MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A fantastic novel about a lesbian Mexican-American girl navigating a Catholic high school—and her budding feelings for a classmate.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club – Malinda Lo

GENRES: Historical fiction, LGBTQ+, romance

MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

A raw but tender love story of two queer, Chinese-American girls in 1950’s Chinatown.

Cool. Awkward. Black. – Edited by Karen Strong (anthology)

GENRES: Fiction, fantasy, science fiction, paranormal, LGBTQ+, romance

MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

An anthology of Black stories of all genres, but with a particular focus on geek culture!

The Reckless Kind, Carly Heath

GENRES: Historical fiction, LGBTQ+, romance

MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I’ve described this one enough times, but I promise that I will NEVER shut up about how meaningful this book is. Just go read it. TRUST ME.

Follow Your Arrow, Jessica Verdi

GENRES: Contemporary, realistic fiction, LGBTQ+, romance

MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Though this book was far from perfect, I think it’s still worth it to put on this list; the writing and romance weren’t great, but Follow Your Arrow has plenty of timely discussions around bisexuality and how we treat queer women.

HONORABLE MENTION:

The Trouble With White Women: A Counterhistory of Feminism, Kyla Schuller

GENRES: nonfiction

MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Although this list was intended to be just for YA and fiction, I’d be remiss if I made a post about feminism and didn’t include this book. The Trouble With White Women presents a view on feminism that is necessary for moving past simply white feminism, and presents the feminist movement through those on the margins, such as Frances Harper, Pauli Murray, and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. It’s seriously one of the best nonfiction books I’ve read in ages—on any subject matter.

TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! What did you think of the books on this list? What are your favorite feminist YA books? Let me know in the comments!

Today’s song:

Most of the Warpaint I’ve heard hasn’t done much for me (aside from their great cover of “Ashes to Ashes”), but I love the quietness of this one!

That’s it for this list of recommendations! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Monthly Wrap-Ups

July 2022 Wrap-Up 🫠

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Sunday, bibliophiles!

As you can see above, the melting emoji represents my slow melting, a la the Wicked Witch of the West, because July in Colorado always threatens to melt me into a slushy puddle. At least we got some rain. (And hail, one time? got enough that it looked like snow in certain parts of the yard…)

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

Hot as it was, I’d say that July was another good month of summer. I’ve had tons more time to read and relax, and even though college is always on my mind nowadays, the time off has been good to collect my thoughts. I’ve gone hiking a few times, seen some fun movies, and tried to exercise a little more.

I got to read tons this month, and although it was generally a mixed bag (a lot more books in the 3-star range than usual), I still found some gems in the mix. For Disability Pride Month, I tried to focus on books with disabled characters, and I’ve found some reads with great disability rep—including the first book I’ve ever read with SPD rep! (Thanks, Carolyn Mackler!!) Camp NanoWriMo is nearly over—it’s had its ups and downs (couldn’t find the stats page for a while and fell behind on my word count, hit command v instead of command b and accidentally pasted the whole Pinnochio trailer into my document), but I’m so close to 45,000 words now!!

Other than that, I’ve just been playing my guitar, recovering from the last two episodes of Stranger Things (OW), seeing Thor: Love and Thunder (pure Taika Waititi fun), drawing, and listening to an excess of Peter Gabriel.

Also, I figured I’d give everybody an update on Ringo, since I haven’t posted about him much since we got him; he’s 7 months old now and even more of a menace to society, but he has the sweetest face…

the face of a serial foot biter

READING AND BLOGGING:

I read 25 books this month! This is probably gonna be the most books I’ll be able to read in a month, since it’s the middle of summer. It was a mixed bag, as always, but I found a few amazing 5-star reads in the bunch.

1 – 1.75 stars:

Among Thieves

2 – 2.75 stars:

Fortune Favors the Dead

3 – 3.75 stars:

Breathe and Count Back from Ten

4 – 4.75 stars:

Not If I Can Help It

5 stars:

The Reckless Kind

FAVORITE BOOK OF THE MONTH: The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects – 5 stars

The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects

POSTS I’M PROUD OF :

POSTS FROM OTHER WONDERFUL PEOPLE THAT I ENJOYED:

SONGS/ALBUMS THAT I ENJOYED:

yeah spoiler alert I did listen to more Peter Gabriel
Kate Bush is hit or miss for me but when she hits it for me she HITS it
going through an 80’s period this month I guess??
HOOOOOOOOOOOWEE time go to back to my sad girl roots
I haven’t listened to much Japanese Breakfast but I fell in love with this one INSTANTLY
MORE PETER GABRIEL BC I LOVED SO
I really need to listen to more IDLES bc I’ve loved every song I’ve heard of theirs

DID I FOLLOW THROUGH ON MY JULY GOALS?

  • Read at least 20 books: 25!
  • Get through Camp NaNoWriMo: We’ll see about that later tonight…

GOALS FOR AUGUST:

  • Get through the first few weeks of college (AAAAAA)
  • Enjoy my birthday (which also happens to be on the first day of classes…yeehaw😀)

Today’s song:

That’s it for this month in blogging! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Book Review Tuesday

Book Review Tuesday (7/26/22) – Follow Your Arrow

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Tuesday, bibliophiles!

Ever read a book because of one aspect people have been telling you about? That was me about Follow Your Arrow—I don’t know if I would have picked it up if not for several people telling me how good the bi rep was. And you know how much of a sucker I am for good bi rep. So I picked it up—and yes, the bi rep and discussions around biphobia were great, but the rest of the story I found to be a little lacking.

Enjoy this week’s review!

Follow Your Arrow – Jessica Verdi

CeCe Ross is an influencer with nearly a million followers. Her relationship with her girlfriend of two years, Silvie, has gained an extensive following, with thousands of fawning followers making #Cevie all the rage. But when she and Silvie break up, her life is turned upside-down—both on and offline. To make matters more complicated, she’s met Josh, a musician who has no idea about her online following. Will she be able to reckon with the storm she’s stirred up online—and keep her secret from Josh?

TW/CW: Biphobia, cyberbullying, homophobia

My feelings about Follow Your Arrow can essentially be summed up by that one Reductress article—“Why I Couldn’t Care Less About Your Relationsh—Oh, It’s Gay? Tell Me More.” I don’t think I would’ve picked up this book if not for several people telling me about how great the bisexual rep was, and I liked it on that front. However, it was definitely lacking for me in some of the other departments.

So, the bisexual rep! That aspect of Follow Your Arrow was what stood out most to me, and it was the most well-executed aspect of the book! Verdi did a fantastic job of discussing so many aspects of bisexuality and biphobia, especially about the stigmas of bisexual people in straight-passing relationships. Even though some of the social media aspects of the book weren’t very well-done (more on that later), the backdrop of social media was a perfect setting for CeCe to come into her own. There’s so much discussion about how bisexual people are pigeonholed as simply straight or gay, depending on their relationship, and how even within the queer community, there’s still so much biphobia present. Follow Your Arrow is a solid book for anyone who wants to learn more about bisexuality, and Verdi did a great job of representing it respectfully.

As far as the other aspects of the book…I wasn’t quite as invested. The romance, although the representation of bi people in a straight-passing relationship was great, didn’t hold a lot for me. It’s a pretty standard setup—”she’s an influencer, he’s a hipster musician who doesn’t even have social media! oh boy, how will this work out? he doesn’t even know what ‘ship’ means, tee hee!” It didn’t help that neither CeCe nor Josh were characterized much more beyond a few base character traits. The combination of the cliche pairing without much of an original spin on it (other than CeCe being bi) and the lack of characterization for both parties made me lose interest more than not.

I also had an issue with the writing—it tried way too hard not to date itself, but it ended up backfiring spectacularly. Even though app names (Instagram, Twitter, etc.) weren’t specifically mentioned (there was only the mysterious App…oookay) , the slang peppered in and the excessive use of hashtags at the end of every other paragraph made it feel painfully like a Gen X-er trying to sound “hip.” (How do you do, fellow kids?) CeCe’s status as an influencer didn’t make the hashtags make any more sense—I doubt that even influencers think in random hashtags. It felt weird. Additionally, Follow Your Arrow couldn’t seem to make up its mind about the message it was trying to share about social media; all it got was that there are good and bad aspects of social media, but it never got much more nuanced than that. Given how large of a role social media played in this book, I wish that were more developed.

All in all, a decent rom-com with great discussions around biphobia and bisexuality, but not-so-great writing and an underdeveloped romance. 3 stars.

Follow Your Arrow is a standalone, but Jessica Verdi is also the author of And She Was (really hoping that’s a Talking Heads reference lol), The Summer I Wasn’t Me, What You Left Behind, and several other novels.

Today’s song:

That’s it for this week’s Book Review Tuesday! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: July 18-24, 2022

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Sunday, bibliophiles! I hope this week has treated you well.

I suppose this week hasn’t been terribly eventful. I’ve been able to read and draw more often, and I’ve been learning an unexpectedly challenging song on guitar (it’s “Held” by Smog if you’re interested—who knew that 4 chords could be so infuriating) Aside from a weird dream that I had yesterday (and waking up at midnight to screeching foxes in the backyard—welcome to Colorado 😀) that threw me off, I’d say it’s been a nice, peaceful week, one where I could soak up some more summer.

Reading-wise, I’d say it’s been a solid week. I started off with a fantastic book and the first book I’ve ever read with SPD rep (thank you, Not If I Can Help It!!), and while the rest of what I read didn’t get as good as that, I enjoyed the majority of what I read. I came back from the library with a few nice, thick books, so next week should be a promising reading week.

And now I’m a good three weeks into Camp NaNoWriMo! For most of the week, I got to a slower part in the plot of my WIP, and my motivation teetered off a little before I got excited again. There’s something invigorating to me about writing really tense scenes—I feel like my fingers just start speeding across the keys whenever the tension starts to ramp up.

Other than that, I’ve just been drawing, trying to play said Smog song on guitar (insert the sound of my finger squeaking on the high E string here), catching up on the new season of The Umbrella Academy, and listening to the new Superorganism and Jack White albums. (Superorganism was definitely hit or miss, but Jack White…man, as much as I want to hate him, Entering Heaven Alive is just SO GOOD)

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

Not If I Can Help It – Carolyn Mackler (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

The Final Strife – Saara El-Arifi (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

Follow Your Arrow – Jessica Verdi (⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Fortune Favors the Dead (Pentecost and Parker, #1) – Stephen Spotswood (⭐️⭐️.5)

Two Girls Staring at the Ceiling – Lucy Frank (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

Breathe and Count Back from Ten – Natalia Sylvester (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

POSTS AND SUCH:

SONGS:

CURRENTLY READING/TO READ NEXT WEEK:

She Who Became the Sun – Shelley Parker-Chan

Man o’ War – Cory McCarthy

The Blood Trials (The Blood Gift Duology, #1) – N.E. Davenport

Ophelia After All – Racquel Marie

Today’s song:

found this in episode 5 of The Umbrella Academy and I love it!!

That’s it for this week in blogging! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Book Tags

A to Z Book Tag

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Wednesday, bibliophiles!

I was in the mood for a book tag today, so I thought I’d try this one out. I found it over at Birdie’s Book Nook (who you should absolutely follow if you don’t already!). I haven’t been able to find who originally created the tag, so if you know, let me know and I’ll link to their blog.

This one looks like a lot of fun…let’s begin, shall we?

🔠A TO Z BOOK TAG🔠

A – Author you have read the most books from

I haven’t picked up a Warriors book since middle school, but given the sheer volume of books in this series (aren’t there…there’s probably 40 or 50 books now, right? I stopped at the 5th series 💀), I’d say that Erin Hunter is the author that I’ve read the most books from. These books were my childhood…

B – Best sequel ever

the emotional damage that Aurora Burning inflicted on me remains unparalleled…

C – Currently reading

I’m a little over halfway through Follow Your Arrow right now! I’m not super invested in the romance, but the bisexual rep is great.

D – Drink of choice

Definitely tea—hot cinnamon spice is my favorite!

E – E-reader or physical book?

As much as I love my Kindle, physical books always win. Can’t beat the feeling of having a physical book in your hand—plus, a Kindle can’t give you that book smell…

F – Fictional character you would’ve dated in high school

Auri and Kal from Aurora Rising are my ultimate bisexual panic, so I probably would’ve gone for either of them…

G – Glad you gave this book a chance

I don’t usually read historical fiction as often, but The Reckless Kind was an unexpected 5-star read!

H – Hidden gem

The Wide Starlight ended up being my first 5-star read of the year! It doesn’t get nearly as much praise as it should, it’s a stunning book!

I – Important moment in your reading life

Reading and subsequently falling in love with The Search for WondLa in 5th grade. I’d liked sci-fi books before, but I give that trilogy credit for being my gateway into sci-fi literature. Haven’t turned my back since.

J – Just finished

I finished The Final Strife yesterday! Definitely a long haul, but the worldbuilding was great.

K – Kind of book you won’t read

I don’t usually do horror, and I’m also not a huge fan of the kind of romance books with airbrushed, shirtless/scantily clad people on the covers. Again, no shade to the people that enjoy the aforementioned books, but they’re just not my thing.

L – Longest book you’ve ever read

Technically, Invincible: Compendium One is an anthology, but 1,092 pages is still pretty thick.

M – Major book hangover because of…

Aurora’s End WRECKED me…I think I re-read it two or three times before I could pick anything else up…

N – Number of bookshelves you own

Three—two for most of my books, and a smaller one for all my graphic novels and trade paperbacks.

O – One book you’ve read multiple times

I re-read The Kingdom of Back a few weeks back, and I loved it just as much as I did the first time!

P – Preferred place to read

Either the couch, my bed (at night), and when it’s warm enough, outside in the hammock.

Q – Quote that inspires you

For the sake of brevity, I’ll just link it here, but Neil Gaiman’s “Make Good Art” speech never fails to be an inspiration to me. Go read it. You won’t regret it.

R – Reading regrets

Spending any money—even just $4.99—on Off Balance. What an awful excuse for a sequel.

S – Series you’ve started and need to finish

I really enjoyed Surviving the City, I don’t know why I haven’t picked up From the Roots Up!

T – Three of your all-time favorite books

Aurora Rising, Heart of Iron, and Frankenstein have been my steady favorites for the past few years.

U – …I just looked through several iterations of this tag, and it looks like U got skipped somewhere down the line?

moving on…

V – Very excited about this release

I need to pick up Godslayers soon—I think it just came out last month!

W – Worst bookish habit

I read relatively fast, and sometimes it comes back to bite me…I’ve learned to read my school books a little slower, at least.

X – X marks the spot. Pick the 27th book from your top left shelf.

Turns out it’s Nyxia! It’s been years since I’ve read this one, but I remember enjoying it.

Y – Your latest purchase

I bought Adaptation and a few other books on my Kindle for my trip to California in June. This one was my least favorite of the books I bought, but it was still decent. I finished it on the plane ride back.

Z – Z snatcher: book that kept you up way too late

nothin’ like staying up way too late reading The Darkness Outside Us and having a minor existential crisis, am I right

I TAG:

Today’s song:

this album was pretty hit or miss for me, but I like this one—feels like their old stuff!

That’s it for this book tag! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!