Book Review: Camp by L. C. Rosen

I feel bad because Camp is cancelled.

Sixteen-year-old Randy Kapplehoff loves spending the summer at Camp Outland, a camp for queer teens. It's where he met his best friends. It's where he takes to the stage in the big musical. And it's where he fell for Hudson Aaronson-Lim - who's only into straight-acting guys and barely knows not-at-all-straight-acting Randy even exists.

This year, though, it's going to be different. Randy has reinvented himself as 'Del' - buff, masculine and on the market. Even if it means giving up show tunes, nail polish and his unicorn bedsheets, he's determined to get Hudson to fall for him.

But as he and Hudson grow closer, Randy has to ask himself how much is he willing to change for love. And is it really love anyway, if Hudson doesn't know who he truly is?

I didn't read the summary of this book before reading it. I requested it solely on it being Gay and set at summer camp. A Queer Summer camp. So I was immediately turned off by Randy having changed himself completely for a guy. Queer people do have to change ourself around people for safety reasons, but doing it at the ultimate safe place was painful. It's handled well, and everyone around Randy tells him that this is a terrible idea. Its definitely a teenager's plan of rom-com.

The book is told in first person pov of view of Randy, during the current and past summers so we do get a glimpse to what made Randy decide to go to this extreme to impress a boy.

I love all the characters and how Queer they all are. We have gay, demisexual, Asexual, Trans binary and non-binary characters. It's really nice and great. As demisexual person, I would say the rep for demi and ace was good. It was minor because they not the main character but what was said was accurate and also two Ace people living their lives, who do contribute to the story. The supporting characters are well developed outside of their gender and sexuality as well. I can't actually decide who my favourite one is.

I'm also very jealous of a musical that doesn't care about casting for gender. I've read a few YA books lately that heavy feature musicals, this was the one that felt the most genuine. It also really captures the chaos of musical productions

This novel also deals with internal homophobia and toxic masculinity. This something I've never dealt with (I just didn't have the words for my deal was), but I sure did cry a lot through those scenes. There's a lot of love and fun in this book, but there's is also a lot of serious talks because being a Queer person even in 2020s western society is not easy.

This is on the older side of YA because does have sexual scenes, but it does demonstrate safe sex. Ideally, teenagers should wait till they're 25 and their brains have stopped developing but highly unrealistic even to wait till they're 18 so I do appreciate a YA book that has safe and healthy sex scenes.

Overall, I give this book 5/5 stars for Unicorn Nails. This works as a standalone but I do think a Camp Outland series following different campers would be great. It's really left me in a mood for queer camp stories. I'll definitely read more Rosen (I owe one of his other books already). This the sort of book I wish I could give to my teen-self. Yeah, it would taught me the word Demisexual which would have been usefully but mainly because of all different queer characters. You have no rep, here's all the rep. My main point is that I love this book. Its does cover serious issues, so that's something to be aware of that going in. It's not all fun, true to life that way. This is my favourite book of this year so far, so of course, I think you should read it.

Read: 16/5/2020 to 21/5/2020
Reviewed: 21/5/2020 - 26/05/2020
Medium: E-Arc
Published Date: 28/05/2020
Publisher: Penguin
Source: NetGalley
CW: Homophobia (Challenged, Discussed); Queerphobia (challenged, Discussed); Homophobic Slur used; Internal Homophobia; Death of Grandparent; Death Ally family member;

Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales

Maybe my favourite film is Grease. No...Or is it? No.

Ollie and Will were a summer fling; now they're classmates. But only one of them is out...

It was the very last Wednesday of August when I realized Disney had been lying to me about Happily Ever Afters. Because, you see, I was four days into mine, and my prince was nowhere to be found.

"Please don't lose contact. I need to see you again," he'd said. So why was I here, banging my head against a metaphorical wall, weighing up the pros and cons of sending another message? This wasn't a big deal. It was just a guy texting another guy. A guy who knew all my biggest secrets, and had Seen. Me. Naked™. A guy who'd convinced me he really, really liked me. A guy who'd better have been abducted by goddamn aliens...

When Ollie meets Will over the summer break, he thinks he's found his Happily Ever After. But once summer's ended, Will stops texting him back, and Ollie finds himself short of his fairy-tale ending.

A family emergency sees Ollie uprooted and enrolled at a new school across the country - Will's school - and Ollie finds that the sweet, affectionate and comfortably queer guy he knew from summer isn't the same one attending Collinswood High. This Will is a class clown, a basketball jock and, well, a bit of a jerk.

Ollie isn't going to pine after a guy who isn't ready for a relationship. But as school life repeatedly throws them together, from music class to the lunch table, Ollie finds his resolve weakening.

With the noisy drama of their friends as the backdrop - from ambitious Juliette and frosty Lara, to big-hearted Darnell and king-jock Matt - Ollie has a decision to make.

The last time he gave Will his heart, Will handed it back to him trampled and battered. Ollie would have to be an idiot to trust him with it again. Right?


This was sold as a Queer Modern Retelling of Grease and it is. I think ten years ago, it probably would it been sold as High School Musical. Maybe that's just that the Love interest, Will is a basketball player. Oliver isn't a science quiz genius or anything. He does like music and is in a band. I guess basketball is just the modern equal of a bad boy car-obsessed gang. Yeah, that's not a thing anymore, probably because cars are not a novelty anymore.

I do like that we have Queer character outside the main romantic pairing. Queer people are friends with other Queer people even when we not out. We find each other completely on accident.

This novel is completely told in Oliver's POV, which I was slightly disappointed about, cause in my mind a Grease retelling should duo-protagonists, so you think the same it doesn't. This is Oliver's story more than Will's.

Will is not out to anyone, is major factor in how their relationship plays out. I think this was done well, consideration from both points of view, with both feelings been taken into account. Obviously, no one should be forced out but Will does go overboard in an attempt to hid their relationship.

This does deal with causal homophobia, by a causal, I mean making gay jokes while not intending target a gay or Queer person. Just to mock your friend because Straight boys think being gay is funny for some reason. I blame the patriarchy. This was a major problem when I was youngling and going off the teen barter I overhear its still a problem. Hopefully, this will not be a problem anymore in the future. I think its dealt with well and realistically.

This book deals with grief and the threat of grief. Knowing that you are likely to lose someone you love soon. This was done okay. The thing is I very recently read a 5/5 star book that had someone lose their Aunt to cancer. This book felt more about the romance than anything, so I didn't like it as much. I read romance heavy contemporaries but I'm Ace so I'm not all about that. There is a lot of romantic pairing going on, it's all very cute.

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for Rosegold Roses. This is cute romance with attempt at depth. It's perfect for people who like cute but want something more going on than just romance. T|he relationships between all the characters were done nicely.  I will read Gonzales again, her next book sounds interesting.

Read: 3/3/20199
Reviewed: 3/03/2020
Published Date: 5th March 2020
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
Source: Netgalley
Content Warning: Cancer, Terminal Illness, Death of Love One, Homophobia, Being Outed (this not a big deal, but does happen technically twice), Diet and comments about eating,

Disclaimer: I received e-arc of this off the Publisher for review. My reviews are always honest.

Book Review: The King of Crows by Libba Bray

After all these ghosts, are we ever never haunted?

After the horrifying explosion that claimed one of their own, the Diviners find themselves wanted by the US government, and on the brink of war with the King of Crows.

While Memphis and Isaiah run for their lives from the mysterious Shadow Men, Isaiah receives a startling vision of a girl, Sarah Beth Olson, who could shift the balance in their struggle for peace. Sarah Beth says she knows how to stop the King of Crows-but, she will need the Diviners' help to do it.

Elsewhere, Jericho has returned after his escape from Jake Marlowe's estate, where he has learned the shocking truth behind the King of Crow's plans. Now, the Diviners must travel to Bountiful, Nebraska, in hopes of joining forces with Sarah Beth and to stop the King of Crows and his army of the dead forever.

But as rumors of towns becoming ghost towns and the dead developing unprecedented powers begin to surface, all hope seems to be lost.

In this sweeping finale, The Diviners will be forced to confront their greatest fears and learn to rely on one another if they hope to save the nation, and world from catastrophe...

Back for the fourth and final book of The Diviners series by Libba Bray. I have only reviewed the even number of the series, it was not a conscious decision, just happens to be the ones I have received e-arcs of. I have given each book in the series 4/5 stars, so the average is pretty easy to figure out. In summary, I have liked all the books but had minor issues with them and was excited to see how this series finished. I'm gonna write this review on the basis that you have read the last three books, so expect spoilers for those but as always I will avoid spoilers for the actual book I'm reviewing.

They are a lot of major characters in this series, and Bray does handle the challenge well. This time the characters are forced to split up meaning that we get a lot of new interactions between characters that have not spent a lot of alone time with each other through the series.

Ling is the character I relate to the most being an asexual Disabled character, having a disabled character in a world where she could have been healed, has always been a little weird, but I have always been glad she wasn't magically clued as that is a hurtful trope when comes to disability. I mean I guess if she had been born with a disability instead of gaining one from illness, then she could not have been healed. For some reason, I felt more for her in this book, and I'm not sure why. Maybe I'm just feeling more sensitive than a few months ago when I read the third book. This book series continues to be Diverse and I think done well. I wish more books were like this, a Diverse group of people fighting ghosts; or more likely trying to save the day.

I ended up listening to the audiobook of this book like I consumed the last book in the series. I'm not been doing a lot of physical reading lately (finally getting back to reading my e-arcs) and being really excited for this book I ended up getting the audiobook once I had been missed the released date. The audiobook as read by January LaVoy is great and a good way to consume this book.

My only complaint is that pacing in the middle was a bit slow, but I also understand why it ended up that way. It just seemed very slow re-pacing to the main action.

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for Black Feathers. A satisfying end for this story and characters. They were things I wish we knew more about but I get that realistically not everything can be explored especially when we have so many major characters. This is a great series about ghosts literal and historical. Honestly, I'm not sure how to review the last book in series.

Read: 10/2/2020 to 8/2/2020
Reviewed: 12/2/2020
Published Date: 4th February 2020
Publisher: Atom
Source: Netgalley/Audible
I received this book as an e-arc from the Publisher for free, my reviews are always honest and my own opinion.
Content Warning for Book: Domestic Abuse; Death; Death of children; racism; hate crimes;

Book Review: Wranglestone by Darren Charlton

In a Zombie Apocalypse, you may as well live next to a Super Volcano.

Winter was the only season every Lake-Lander feared…

In a post-apocalyptic America, a community survives in a national park, surrounded by water that keeps the Dead at bay. But when winter comes, there’s nothing to stop them from crossing the ice.
Then homebody Peter puts the camp in danger by naively allowing a stranger to come ashore and he’s forced to leave the community of Wranglestone. Now he must help rancher Cooper, the boy he’s always watched from afar, herd the Dead from their shores before the lake freezes over.
But as love blossoms, a dark discovery reveals the sanctuary’s secret past. One that forces the pair to question everything they’ve ever known.

This another post-apocalyptic Zombie book but this time it's Queer, therefore better than all the other zombie books. This book did take me a while to read, not the book's fault. I found myself enjoying the book but also having no will to physically read, which is how things go sometimes. I only say that as an excuse to as why I'm realising this review a day away from the publication date and if I get the beginning blurry.

I love zombies and love stories with Queer stories. Okay, I don't love zombies, but I'm was excited to see a Queer genre YA book. I do like zombie stories if done well. It's nice that the characters being queer isn't made a big deal of, and never comes into the plot. It's just character trait and just happens to be a Queer romance. This is M/M I have seen most reviewers calling this book "Gay" but no labels are used within the text and M/M doesn't make the characters gay. LGBTQ+ people, or Queer as an easy, assessable umbrella term when describing people's whose labels you don't know. It's not discussed at all in the book, but its apocalypse you would hope that people would just get on their lives in the best way possible.

Though, don't worry it does sticks to the zombie format of humanity being capable of terrible things.

The romance is really good, even some hot moments which makes me feel odd now that I'm so much older than the characters. I wished we spent more time with character development which I guess is kinda odd for a genre book. I just want character development in the backdrop of zombies waiting to eat everyone.

Peter is a Soft boy who is good at sewing (important skill once clothes shop stop being a thing) and not so much Survivalist skill, despite having spent most of his life during the zombie apocalypse, not remembering a time before.

The setting is a natural park, where people were evacuated to during the start of the outbreak. More specifically, the community lives on a lake in still houses, to keep the zombies away from them. So definitely cool.

This book is set up for a series, with a lot of plot elements that happen m. There are things I would like explored.

I can't comment on how gory this book is because I don't notice gore unless someone is being distractedly over the top with it. This is a zombie apocalypse so there is some gore.

Overall, I give this 4/5 stars for Car Holes. This a debut and I know I didn't read it in the best way for full enjoyment. I will stick with the series, a book two has been confirmed by the author and will buy my own copy of this book once I recover from investment in concert tickets.

Read: 21/12/2019 to 2/2/2020
Reviewed: 4/2/2020
Published Date: 6th February 2020
Publisher: Stripes Publishing
Source: Netgalley
I received this book as an e-arc from the Publisher, my reviews are always honest and my own opinion.
Content Warning for Book: Sexual Assualt referenced; Violence; Violent Death; enslavement; murder;

Book Review: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

I just wanted a well rounded dyslexic character kicking butt, bonus if not a boy.

Kaz Brekker and his crew of deadly outcasts have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn't think they'd survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they're right back to fighting for their lives.

Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz's cunning and test the team's fragile loyalties.

A war will be waged on the city's dark and twisting streets - a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world.

I have no pressing reason to review this book as it's not by a British writer or book I received for free off a publisher/author. But like I said in my review of the first book, this series has rep that affects me and is hard to find. This review will have spoilers for the first book but I try best to avoid spoilers in my reviews of the actual book I'm reviewing.

So one of the characters is coded Dyslexic. Weasley is unable to read and his dad is a dick about it because he's evil. The rep is okay I guess. I mean, it's mostly Weasley wishing he could read so things would go faster and a little talk about the failure of him being taught. It's kinda raised that he could have been taught wrong. Dyslexic people do process information differently, meaning they have to be taught differently. It never goes into details and he has no other symptoms of Dyslexia except being capable of non-reading things.

I listen to the audiobook of this whole series, and Weasley voice actor sure did make a choice when it came to doing Kaz. He's an old man with him and Weasley has a bigger part than the last book so it never came up till now. I don't mind multiple voices in audiobooks but I do when the voice actors do completely different things for a character. It's very distracting. I guess it's meant to show how Weasley sees Kaz compared to the other characters.

There are high emotion moments, that I feel are meant to be devastating but I just felt whatever about. I don't understand the choice. I guess I just wasn't that invested. There is a lot of characters at play and I did feel for the most of them. That part just didn't have an impact for me.

Overall, I give this book and the series 4/5 stars for Sugar Eating. This was fun, dark read so my type of reading. The world-building was great and it's definitely great to have multiple Disabled characters in one series. Having read this series now, I'm really interested in reading Ninth House on how it had to be an adult novel. I guess maybe you get away with least in Urban Fantasy over straight-up fantasy.

Book Review: All the Better Part of Me by Molly Ringle

Bi, Gothic and 26, who is spying on me?

It’s an inconvenient time for Sinter Blackwell to realize he’s bisexual. He’s a twenty-five-year-old American actor working in London, living far away from his disapproving parents in the Pacific Northwest, and enjoying a flirtation with his director Fiona. But he can’t deny that his favorite parts of each day are the messages from his gay best friend Andy in Seattle—whom Sinter once kissed when they were fifteen. Finally he decides to return to America to visit Andy and discover what’s between them, if anything. He isn’t seeking love, and definitely doesn’t want drama. But both love and drama seem determined to find him. Family complications soon force him into the most consequential decisions of his life, threatening all his most important relationships: with Andy, Fiona, his parents, and everyone else who’s counting on him. Choosing the right role to play has never been harder.

I really liked this book. I enjoyed the Bi nonsense. It has a lot of Tropes and enjoyed those tropes. Is the plot of this book realistic? Not fully. But sometimes it nice to read fluffy angst where you know everything will work out in the end.

This book does have darker stuff like questioning your sexuality and gaining the courage to come out. There's also the idea of staying closet if you're Bi because it might never come up. It kinda goes over how self-denial is bad and how Sinter is messed up by having done this for the past. So as a Bi-romantic person, I was fine with the rep. He's questioning and messed up with how he was raised so that rep for someone else. Not my personal experience, living my Tumblr live s

Now time for one of my famously weird tangents: There is a British character called Sebastian in this book, which is fiction code for posh arsehole. Sorry, any Sebastian out there. This character is Trans (rep is not a spoiler, yes sometimes a nice surprise but also I'm allowed to talk about it in reviews). In non-expert or in my non-lived experience, the trans rep is fine. Sebastian is his own character. My problem is that being trans means that he picked that terrible name for himself. No arsehole or old fashion parents here to blame. Also, Sebastian speaks very working-class and is roughly the same age as me so I must conclude that he named himself after the crab. My point is that Sebastian is a weirder name than Sinter. It's a Rom-Com myth that they exist. Sebastian is the lead singer of a band, so enjoy that YA Readers.

The rest of the Englishness stuff is fine. It's very rom-com but go ask an English person. Not a lot of British TV movies get made, it definitely sounds more like an indie film than a TV movie. Miniseries are more our thing. It doesn't really matter because its in the effect of a fun plot. Who needs reality?

Overall, I gave this book 5/5 stars for Queers Messing Up. I really enjoyed this book, it's fun Angst which a constant fanfiction reader so I'm here for it. This is the Bi Rom-Com that I've never gonna see when I'm the same age as the character because I'm 26 now and close to the Grave. There are also lots of Queer named characters so I'm happy. I think enjoyment will come down to the tropes you're okay with or like. I know some people will hate the tropes (see Content warnings)  in this but I'm fine with the execution. This is not the best book ever, but it made me aw a lot.

There's a playlist for this book made up of 80s songs in the acknowledgements/chapter titles, and as we all love the 80s I made that playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ex31veWRCdLcKdLf1iwdW

I received this e-arc for review and it was published by Central Avenue Publishing on 3rd September 2019 (Yesterday).

CW: Accidental Pregnancy; Adoption; Abortion mentioned; Homophobia; Parents messing you up; Disownment; Being Outed;

Book Review: Solitaire by Alice Oseman

Funfact: Radio Silence technically spoils the end of this book.

'I don't ever remember not being serious. As far as I'm concerned, I came out of the womb spouting cynicism and wishing for rain.'

My name is Tori Spring. I like to sleep and I like to blog. Last year – before all that stuff with Charlie and before I had to face the harsh realities of A-Levels and university applications and the fact that one day I really will have to start talking to people – I had friends. Things were very different, I guess, but that’s all over now.

Now there’s Solitaire. And Michael Holden.

I don’t know what Solitaire are trying to do, and I don’t care about Michael Holden.

I really don’t.

This is a book I have owned since it came out, many years ago. So many years ago, I do not remember why I brought it. Well, probably because it says it's not a Love story and even then I hated the fact that every book seemed to be a love story at it's centre and they were often very bad. 

This book is more about friendship than romantic love, but it's also sort of there. We also have sibling relationships and as well as dealing with being a family with a sick sibling, which from my experience was done pretty well.

The way mental health is dealt with in this book is so great. If you're someone who wants to know nothing then leave this paragraph now. I related to Tori hating everything because I too kinda hated everything when I was seventeen and then I realise that this book was slowly showing beginning to related even more to my seventeen old self in an important way. It's done so fucking well. It's remind me of my slow dive into that state of numbness and then mixed in with the guilt because wasn't allowed to be sick. But haha that doesn't stop it.

I've seen others hate on the mental illness rep and the fact the main character is a teenager. Tori is shitty person, most teenagers are, I think that's pretty realistic to the story. Reading other reviews is interesting because you can see where other people get real hanged up on.

The plot is about this website called Solitaire.com that is playing planks on the Grammar School that Tori goes to. It used to drive the characters interactions with each other to figure out whose behind it/why.  With the plot description, it might seem like a thriller but it's really not, especially it's usually going on in the background. The focus is very much on the characters and their relationships together.

In terms of rep, we have Queer supporting characters as well as the mental health side. It sort of comes into the plot, but it's realistic and fine besides that. They function for the most part like a straight couple. There's also autistic feel to some characters, not saying they meant to be coded autistic but you could read them that way.

Overall, I give this book 5/5 stars for soft muttering. I related to this book a lot so I really loved it. I don't know if I liked it so much because I related to it so much, but I think either way it was done pretty well. In terms of her other books, I like this book better than Radio Silence. They have similar themes/issues and I think it works better in this one. I'm doing an review of Radio Silence so I talk about it there. Both are good, but I think this one was better, I also get why that might be a me thing. This book does have issues, but I like intention over all.