Tag Archives: bisexual

Book Review: HER, HIM, & I: POEMS by Christian Weissmann

Posted in Book Review by

HER, HIM, & I: POEMS by Christian Weissmann

Publisher: Central Avenue Poetry (thank you so much for my gifted eCopy!)

Pub date: 6/11/24—OUT NOW!

Goodreads synopsis:

“Her, Him & I is a love letter to queerness— the joy, grief, ecstasy, and hope that accompanies it. Weissmann offers the readers an unfiltered view into his psyche during several romantic relationships. These poems magnify the reality of exploring emotional and physical intimacy with multiple genders, all while getting to know oneself in the process. 

A bold affirmation of identity and its fluid nature, this book is an unforgettable exploration of what it means to love and be loved in all forms.”

My thoughts:

Wow! HER, HIM, & I features a demographic so often left out of the publishing industry (and thus my own reading): bisexual folks (especially masculine-presenting bisexuals). Not only this but, Weissmann is unapologetic in writing about their bisexuality, which makes reading this collection a breath of fresh air.

Passion and heartbreak flow throughout the language of HER, HIM, & I. While reading it, I was right there along with Weissmann, viscerally feeling all the emotions that come with the end of romantic relationships. I love how the collection doesn’t just skip from a loving relationship starting to break-down to a clean split—Weissmann drags out the feelings of resentment and multiple heartbreaks that go into the *process* of a breakup. There comes a point in the collection where the narrator realizes he should probably break up with his boyfriend, but then switches between having hope that the situation is salvageable and feeling deep resentment for his partner. Weissmann truly has a way with words that moved and affected me deeply.

Overall, HER, HIM, & I is a phenomenal collection of poetry. I was lucky enough to read it during pride month, but the best time to read queer books is all year round. I recommend this to readers looking for something relatively short that really packs a punch emotionally. I think this would make a great choice for someone stuck in a reading slump. Thank you so much to Central Avenue Poetry for my eCopy of HER, HIM, & I!

Book Review: Just Pervs by Jess Taylor

Posted in Book Review by

JUST PERVS by Jess Taylor

Publisher: Book*hug Press

Pub date: 1/1/2019

Goodreads synopsis:

“Two sex addicts meet and fall in love. A woman catches her husband cheating on her with their dog and escapes to her sister’s horse farm. Four friends—fellow pervs—grow up and drift apart, pining for each other in silence until one of them is murdered.

In Jess Taylor’s sophomore story collection, contemporary views of female sexuality are subverted, and women are given agency over their desires and bodies. Through these characters, sex is revealed to be many things at gross, shameful, exhilarating, hidden or open—and always complicated. Reminiscent of the works of Maggie Nelson, Mary Gaitskill and Chris Kraus, the stories in Just Pervs explore the strange oppression and illumination created by desire, the bewilderment of adolescence, and the barriers to intimacy both discovered within and imposed upon ourselves.”

My thoughts:

If you’re a fan of Weird Girl Books, JUST PERVS is the perfect read for you. Furthermore, if you’re a fan of carrying books with stare-worthy titles shown on the covers in public, JUST PERVS is the perfect read for you, too. Though, writing this review and spending too long on the head-turning cover art and title would be doing this book a major injustice, as the stories inside are equally subversive and thought-provoking. Music reviewers sometimes refer to an album as having “no skips” when every song is a jam; I believe JUST PERVS has “no skips” for a similar reason.

Each, individual story in JUST PERVS immediately grabbed my attention within their first page and kept that attention the entire way through. One of my favorite parts about this collection is the lengths each piece goes to queer sexuality (“queer” being a verb here), a description that I know may sound redundant. Truly, though, JUST PERVS takes subverting themes of sex & intimacy and pushes them all the way outside of the box. In fact, I’d say there’s actually no box when it comes to Jess Taylor’s mind. Yes, the results of this are shocking and sometimes disturbing, but I like sitting in that discomfort for a bit.  

I realize I’m not going into specifics about the pieces in JUST PERVS, but I think spoiling their storylines would take away from their fun. I loved starting a new story within the collection and having no idea (but desperately awaiting to learn) what strange, freaky, queer events would be described in the following pages. I gasped, I laughed, and I definitely had looks of concern on my face while reading JUST PERVS in a coffee shop. I loved jUST PERVS and I greatly look forward to reading more of Jess Taylor’s work in the future!

Review- I Hate Everyone But You

Posted in Book Review by

Hi, everyone! I’m sorry it’s been a little over a week since my last post. I came down with a bad cold and was bed ridden for a couple days. I couldn’t even read! It was so frustrating. Hopefully, I can catch back up on my reading goal and power through a few books in the remainder of January. Thanks for sticking with me!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I Hate Everyone But You by Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin

51HmRkrR+4L._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_Genre: YA fiction
Format: Hardcover
Publication date: September 5, 2017
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Page count 352
Star rating: 2.5/5

Ava and Gen are best friends who go their separate ways for their freshman year of college. They still communicate constantly via text and email, and the book is written in these electronic formats. The 2 girls couldn’t be anymore different and sometimes these differences cause small fights. Long distance friendship is hard, but Ava and Gen have a chance to make it work. As Gen experiments with drugs and girls, Ava battles social anxiety and her first college parties. Maybe, their differences can actually make their unique friendship thrive.

I’m so disappointed that I didn’t like this book. It is a quick read, yet it took me almost a week to finish it, because I kept putting it off. I wanted to like it (or love it) so badly! I’ve had such bad luck with young adult books with LGBTQ themes lately…I need a redemption soon!

The main reason that I didn’t enjoy I Hate Everyone But You is because it relied WAY too much on tropes and clichés. Ava is the classic ‘good’ girl who has never been to a party before and Gen is the classic bisexual girl who experiments with girls and drugs. I have been both these people—I am a queer girl who struggles with many forms of anxiety and mental health issues—and it is absolutely not this cut and dry. I found myself rolling my eyes whenever Ava or Gen said something too stereotypical, which happened more than a few times. Queerness and social anxiety have so much more to them than this book talk about, which I’m sure the authors know. As someone who knows what it’s like to spend time figuring out her own sexuality, I had high hopes for Gen’s character. Unfortunately, she was stuck with too many of the ‘bad’ girl clichés and became cringey.

Among all the negative things I’ve said about this title, there were a couple of good lessons hidden in the book. Ava continuously says non-politically correct statements, which Gen, annoyed, corrects. The way that Gen educates Ava about LGBTQ issues is very well articulated and inclusive to all demographics included under the queer umbrella. I’ve had some of these key conversations with friends and family members (who, like Ava, only meant well), and the way that Gen explains queer struggles is very on-point.

I was extremely excited for this book and was, ultimately, let down. More than anything, I’m just sad that this title fell flat because it features both a girl who comes to terms with her sexuality AND a girl who faces her mental illnesses. If the two authors of this title ever released another book, I would love to read it because there is a lot of room for growth to fix these things and make a powerful novel. I’m sorry that I had to post another negative review on here, but I felt inclined to share my thoughts on I Hate Everyone But You because of how pumped I was for this book and how well the themes of the title fit my blog.