Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

Prompts Filled: N/A

Tags: Nancy Whitman, Eleanor West, Sumi Onishi, Kade Bronson, Jaqueline “Jack” Wolcott, Jillian “Jill” Wolcott, Katherine Lundy, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Murder Mystery, Novella, Young Adult, Boarding School, School, Alternate Universe, Magical Worlds, Magic, Missing Children, Runaways, Death, Murder, Dismemberment, Animal Death, Pet Death, Morbid, Macabre, Asexual, Asexuality, Asexual Character, Transgender, Trans Character, Transphobia, Trauma, Therapy, Outcasts, Misfits

Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children takes in children from the ages 10 to 19 who display a strange trauma after disappearing for various amounts of time. Miss West implores the desperate parents to leave their children in her care, and she educates them as in a normal school and offers therapy so that the children may recover and eventually return home.

Though “home” may be somewhere else entirely.

Nancy Whitman has just returned from the Halls of the Dead to her original world, to her dismay. She longs to return to the Underworld, and her parents don’t understand what happened to their daughter. So they send her to Eleanor West.

Nancy meets her new roommate, Sumi, and the other students who have also gone to different worlds and come back. Sumi went to a candy-and-rainbows world called “Confection.” Kade went to a land of fairies and goblins. Jack and Jill went to the Moors, a horror world of vampires and mad scientists. Nancy discovers that there are hidden doors to all sorts of worlds that only open to the right child, and that it is rare that a child who comes back ever finds that door again. But Nancy hopes. All the students hope.

Hope, Sumi says, is a bad word.

And then, only a few days after Nancy’s arrival, tragedy strikes: a student is found murdered. Nancy, having traveled to the Halls of the Dead, is a prime suspect, but she respects the dead, she doesn’t make them. With her new friends, Nancy must find the murderer, before their beloved school—a sanctuary from their parents, who don’t understand them, who can’t understand them—is closed for good.

Sparked Joy: 4/5 I loved the exploration of the aftermath of visiting another world. What happened to Alice after she returned from Wonderland? How did the Pevensie children cope after returning from Narnia?

Well, possibly with murder.

I think Eleanor actually does a really bad job helping the children under her care cope with coming back different and not being able to go back to the other worlds where they believe they belong. The therapy sessions that Lundy facilitates and everything that Eleanor and Lundy tell the children are… really unhelpful. Which is probably because Eleanor and Lundy also want to go back to their other worlds, but still. These people need real therapy.

I really liked this book, but Nancy’s ending made me knock it down from 5/5 to 4/5. Like I mentioned in my review of The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee, I actually find the “ideal” character arc very satisfying: a character wants something, but in the end they get what they need. I feel like Nancy and the other children need to come to terms with what happened to them and what their life will be like going forward. But perhaps that’s not the story McGuire wanted to tell, and that’s okay. I still really liked this book.

Something I Learned: I suppose I learned that not every character needs to get what they need instead of what they want to make for a good story. Maybe Nancy’s arc was a tragedy, and that’s the point.

Something I’m Inspired to Do: I definitely want to read more of the Wayward Children series. I’m fascinated.

Every Heart a Doorway was published in 2016. Here is Seanan McGuire’s website. Support your local bookstore if you can, or visit your local library!

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Prompts Filled: (2) A bildungsroman

Tags: Ged (a.k.a. Sparrowhawk, Duny), Fantasy, Adventure, Magic, Wizards, Magic School, Coming of Age, Bildungsroman, Quests, Dragons, Seafaring, Sailing, Boats, Rivalries, Animal Death

On the isle of Gont, a boy named Duny shows a great aptitude for magic. After he uses his magic to save his village, and the larger island of Gont, from raiders, he becomes an apprentice to Gont’s resident wizard, Ogion. Ogion gives Duny his true name, Ged, and Ged moves to Ogion’s home and studies magic. But Ogion lives a quiet life and emphasizes patience and restraint, and Ged is young, impatient, and arrogant. Ogion recommends him to the School on the isle of Roke, where he can study under other wizards and learn alongside students his own age.

Ged makes friends on Roke, but he also makes rivals and enemies. On the night of a seasonal festival, his rival Jasper challenges him to raise the dead. Ged, arrogant and proud, attempts to do so, and he opens a rift into the realm of the dead and out of it comes a shadow that attacks him and flees. His teachers warn him that the evil creature will pursue him for the rest of his life and try to possess him.

And so Ged must go on a journey to defeat the shadow he unleashed upon the world and restore balance.

Sparked Joy: 3/5 I am so glad I read this at last. As a foundational fantasy text, it was about damn time I read it. Though much of it seemed cliché to me, I recognize that that’s only because it originated many of those clichés, including magic school and boy wizards. (And apparently also the idea that names hold power? I think that actually originated in faerie folklore, though.)

Something I Learned: I feel like I should have learned a lot about sailing and seafaring, because Ged does so much of it, but I can’t recall a specific piece of knowledge that would help me if I were stranded on a desert island and needed to make a boat or raft to escape.

Something I’m Inspired to Do: I know Le Guin hated it, but I kind of want to watch the Studio Ghibli film…

A Wizard of Earthsea was published in 1968. Here is Ursula K. Le Guin’s website. Support your local bookstore if you can, or visit your local library!

Pageboy by Elliot Page

Prompts Filled: (30) A book with a one-word title you had to look up in a dictionary, (41) A memoir that explores queerness

Tags: Memoir, Celebrity Memoir, Trans Memoir, Queer Memoir, Trans, Transgender, Trans Man, Gender, Sexuality, Heteronormativity, Cisnormativity, Queer, LGBTQIA, Homophobia, Transphobia, Dead Names, Misgendering, Gender Dysphoria, Closeted, Coming Out, Hollywood, Child Stars, Child Actors, Child Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Bullying, Sexual Assault, Rape, Statutory Rape, Mental Health, Mental Illness, Eating Disorders, Anorexia, Anxiety, Therapy, Grief, Healing, Acting, Juno, Inception, Hard Candy, Permaculture, Friendship, Relationships, Trans Rights

Elliot Page came out publicly as trans in December 2020, sparking a national conversation about trans rights and the pain of being closeted. In his memoir Pageboy, Elliot writes about his personal journey, about “wanting to be a boy” as a child, and relates the struggle and pain he experienced in being closeted. In several speeches, he has said that he hopes his coming out will help other people discover and embrace themselves. His memoir is an extension of that.

Sparked Joy: 5/5

Fun fact! I actually went to the San Francisco stop on Elliot’s book tour in 2023. He was in conversation with Jes Tom, and they talked about the memoir, about being trans, about their shared struggles, about their inspirations. I had not read the book yet, but my friend had tickets, so I tagged along. It was a wonderful conversation, and the shared joy and pain in the theater was magical. I remember people asking thoughtful questions and sharing their gratitude for Elliot’s presence and for his sharing his story. He seemed a bit shy, but I hope we made him feel welcome and loved.

Anyway, the memoir itself: It’s beautifully written. Painful, heartbreaking, but also hopeful. Hopeful that, by telling his story and sharing it with cis and trans people alike, readers will better understand what it’s like to be closeted, the suffering it causes, and the joy of accepting oneself, coming out, and coming into one’s own.

Something I Learned: So, Elliot came out as gay in February of 2014, before the Supreme Court legalized same-gender marriage in June 2015 (Obergefell v. Hodges). Then he came out as a trans man in December 2020. Both times were brave and fraught decisions, because Hollywood has been and still is very queerphobic and unfriendly to out and open LGBT people. I didn’t realize exactly how queerphobic Hollywood is. I sort of thought that it was an LGBT-friendly industry, more so than other industries. But here I learned I was way off.

I also learned about permaculture!

Something I’m Inspired to Do: 😭 I want to own a small house so badly and have a garden with native plants and vegetables and practice permaculture. I have a bunny! I have a perfect source of compost material!

Pageboy was published in 2023. Here is Elliot Page’s website and his Instagram. Support your local bookstore if you can, or visit your local library!

You Are Asexual by A.C. Evermore

Prompts Filled: (2) A bildungsroman, (13) A book originally published under a pen name, (23) A book that features dragons, (31) A book with a title that is a complete sentence

Tags: Asexuality, Asexual, Queer, LGBTQIA, Choose Your Own Adventure, Adventure, Fantasy, Mystery, Science Fiction, Dystopian Fiction, Dystopias, Utopias, Second Person Narrative, Self Discovery, Coming Out, Sexuality, Sexual Orientation, Allonormativity, Compulsory Sexuality, Hermeneutical Injustice, Injustice, Sex, Sex Scenes, Non-explicit Sex Scenes, Sex Toys, Conversion Therapy, Kidnapping, Death, Sudden Death, Murder, Assassination, Conspiracy, Fascism, Censorship, Rebellion, Revolutions, Revenge, Secrets, Secret Society, High School, Puberty, Magic, Dragons, Cake, Crack Fiction, Crack Taken Seriously

It’s Orientation Day, the day you get a beam shot at you and you receive your sexual orientation. But something seemingly goes wrong, and while other students around you are experiencing sexual attraction and lust for each other, you feel… nothing. Did the beam not work? Are you just broken?

Or are you… something else? Something outside the norm. Something unexpected, secret, and… non-sexual.

Maybe… asexual?

You Are Asexual is a choose-your-own-adventure novel in which you navigate a series of decisions that lead you to discovering that you’re asexual. Or maybe you don’t and you just channel your passions into inventing the perfect sex toy. Or maybe you turn into a dragon!

Sparked Joy: 3/5 Okay, this book is fun, and I really enjoyed discovering all the endings, but I always wanted… more. Something deeper. The worldbuilding felt shallow, and I really wanted more. Always more.

I also found the portrayal of allosexual people somewhat… problematic. Like, these teenagers get hit with the sexuality ray and are suddenly horny and crawling all over each other in an orgy. That seemed… kind of an icky way to portray sexual attraction and how it works for allosexual people. I guess I just don’t like the stereotype that allosexual people are all hypersexual. And I think that stereotype is harmful for allosexuals.

That said, again, this book was really fun to read! On my first try, I ended up at a speakeasy for asexuals! That was cool. I think it was also a really accurate exploration of hermeneutical injustice when it comes to sexuality (and gender).

So, if you’re looking for something fun and not too deep (but also scary; there is conversion therapy—mind the tags!), this is a good book to check out!

Something I Learned: I learned that wearing a black ring in your right middle finger can turn you into a dragon!

(I’m kidding, of course. For those not in the know, a black ring worn on your right middle finger signals to other asexual people that you are asexual. Polyamorous people and swingers also often wear black rings on the right hand, but there is an unofficial agreement amongst these communities that the middle finger is reserved for asexuality.)

Something I’m Inspired to Do: A little while ago, I went to a Powerpoint Party and presented on Why I Hate Funko Pops. I’m thinking maybe next time, I want to write a collaborative Choose Your Own Adventure presentation!

You Are Asexual was published in 2021. Support your local bookstore if you can, or visit your local library!

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee

Prompts Filled: (2) A bildungsroman, (6) A book about pirates, (23) A book that features dragons

Tags: Felicity Montague, Johanna Hoffman, Simmaa, Henry “Monty” Montague, Percy Newton, Young Adult Fiction, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure, 1700s, 18th Century, Pirates, Piracy, Travel, Sailing, Ships, Science, Medicine, Doctors, Feminism, Sexism, Misogyny, Not Like Other Girls, Internalized Misogyny, The Glass Ceiling, Siblings, Sibling Relationships, Friendship, Asexuality, Asexual, Aromantic, Running Away from Home, Kidnapping, Extortion, Dragons, Sea Serpents, Maps, Dogs, Social Anxiety, Anachronisms, Historical Inaccuracy

Felicity Montague, daughter of an English earl and aspiring practitioner of medicine, has spent the last year of her life petitioning various universities and doctors to study medicine under them, and she is at her wit’s end. When Callum Doyle, a kind baker in Edinburgh who hired Felicity to work for him when she was down on her luck, makes a proposal of marriage to her, Felicity panics and says she’s leaving for London. She flees Edinburgh and arrives on her brother’s doorstep with a new plan: petition for entrance into a London hospital to study medicine. When that fails, too, she resolves next to go to Germany to petition to her hero, Dr. Alexander Platt, who is about to marry her estranged childhood friend Johanna.

A mysterious woman named Sim offers to pay Felicity’s way if Sim can come with her, so the two travel to Stuttgart and bluff their way into the house. Felicity and Johanna begin to make amends, but everything is thrown into chaos when suddenly, Sim steals a letter from Johanna and disappears.

And then, the night before the wedding, Johanna disappears, too.

Determined to solve the mystery and endear herself to Dr. Platt, Felicity leads him to Zurich in pursuit of Johanna, but when she finds her, Felicity discovers that there is more going on than it first appeared.

Johanna does not want to marry Platt. Platt is only after Johanna’s mother’s research and her uncle’s money. And both Johanna and Sim need to steal the research before Platt can get his hands on it, to protect a secret.

The three women endeavor to steal the research together, launching them on a grand adventure involving pirates, betrayal, and a mystery hiding beneath the seas. While they try to protect their own secrets and reach their own dreams, the women bond over their shared struggles as women in an unfriendly world and ultimately come to understand each other and share a final goal to make a splash, even if they themselves are never remembered for starting the ripples.

Sparked Joy: 4/5 Oh, I liked this. I haven’t read the previous book in this series, in which Felicity goes on an adventure with her brother and his lover, Percy, but I’m hooked.

This book is a perfect example of the ideal character arc, which is something I’ve been thinking about recently. A good story starts with a character striving for what they want but ending up with what they ultimately need. Felicity started out wanting to study medicine at a prestigious university, or to apprentice under a famous doctor, but what she ultimately needed was to realize that she could discover scientific truths her own way, outside of a male-dominated, patriarchal institution.

And also, she needed to learn that women could be feminine and be smart and worthy of respect.

Something I Learned: I learned what a marlinespike is!

Something I’m Inspired to Do: Well, I definitely want to read the first book in this series, The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue. I’d love to read more about Monty and Percy and their romance.

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy was published in 2018. Here is Mackenzi Lee’s website. Support your local bookstore if you can, or visit your local library!

Bandit: A Daughter’s Memoir by Molly Brodak

Prompts Filled: (2) A bildungsroman, (4) A book about a writer

Tags: Memoir, Nonfiction, True Crime, Parents, Fathers, Sisters, Sibling Relationships, Parentification, Trauma, Child Abuse, Financial Abuse, Bank Robbers, Robbery, Armed Robbery, Gambling, Gambling Addiction, Addiction, Sociopathy, Sociopaths, Loneliness, Childhood, Infidelity, Cheating, Rape, Incest, Child Sexual Abuse, Mental Illness, Depression, PTSD, Bipolar Disorder, Suicide, Suicide Attempts, Shoplifting, Identity Theft, Tumors, Brain Tumors, Surgery, Detroit, Vietnam War

Bandit is Molly Brodak’s memoir about growing up with a compulsive liar, gambling-addicted father who eventually became infamous in the Detroit area for robbing eleven banks in the summer of 1994. Brodak delves into her own childhood memories and the history of her family, covering her paternal family’s liberation from a Nazi concentration camp, the post-war move to America, the deterioration of Detroit, her parents’ first date, their marriage, their divorce, their second marriage, their second divorce, and her father’s crimes and arrests.

Brodak and her older sister suffered greatly growing up, often in ways that weren’t apparent until they became adults. Through constant moves and the turmoil of the time and place and her parents’ relationship, Brodak fought to survive and to understand her father, a bewildering and inscrutable man.

Sparked Joy: While I liked this book, I am going to have to give it a 2/5 for sparking joy. In addition to triggering some of my own childhood trauma (definitely not joyful), it suffered from a common problem that poets have with writing prose. It feels like it… tries too hard? The chapters in which Brodak contemplates the nature of gambling, addiction, sociopathy, and crime feel overwritten, repetitive, and disjointed.

But like… damn, what a memoir. What a story. What a history.

Something I Learned: Obviously, I learned about the Super Mario Brothers Bandit!

Something I’m Inspired to Do: In December 2023, I started going through my childhood diaries with the intention of writing a memoir. I had to put it down for a few months, so I haven’t worked very much on it. But reading Bandit made me think of how to approach such a memoir ethically, so that the people I mention in it aren’t harmed.

Bandit: A Daughter’s Memoir was published in 2016. Support your local bookstore if you can, or visit your local library!

Book 9: Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

Prompts Filled: (23) A book that features dragons

Tags: Violet Sorrengail, Xaden Riorson, Tairn, Andarna, Sgaeyl, Violet Sorrengail/Xaden Riorson, Fantasy, Romance, Dragons, Magic, Chronic Pain, Military Fiction, Military Fantasy, Military College, War, Rebellions, Revolutions, School, Boarding School, Training, Young Adults, Siblings, Sibling Relationships, Monarchy, Monarchies, Kingdoms, Sex, Sex Scenes, Explicit Sex, Secrets, Relationships, Jealousy, The Other Woman, Assassins, Assassination Attempts, Betrayal, Treason

The second book in the Empyrean series, Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros continues Violet’s story as she navigates a new enemy, a revolution, and war.

Violet explores Riorson House, where she was taken to after the fight with venin in Resson, and spends some time with her brother Brennan. She learns about the revolution that Xaden has been hiding from her and, angry and distrustful, decides to shut him out.

The revolution’s governing body, the Assembly, needs a luminary (a forge) to create the weapons needed to kill venin (evil dark magic wielders), so Violet & Co. decide they need to return to Basgiath and smuggle weapons out to their allies. Upon their return to Basgiath, they explain their absence with selective truths and rejoin the college to start the next school year—or in Xaden’s case, to start military service.

But something is different this school year. Assassins appear in various forms, targeting the dragon riders who fought in Resson, and the new Vice Commandant of the school, Varrish, is especially good at interrogation and torture. Something is Up, and Violet spends all of her free time trying to find out what’s going on at Basgiath—and how they built the magical wards that protect Navarre from venin in the first place, over six hundred years ago.

Everything comes to a head when Varrish kidnaps Violet and tortures her for information about the revolution. Dain reads her mind and saves her, killing Varrish, Xaden goes on a killing spree to find her, and when Dain and Xaden tell all the cadets the truth… Basgiath loses half of its riders as they leave to support the revolution.

Dragon riders and gryphon fliers must now battle together to save the continent from the venin while the wards are failing, and still there are secrets everywhere that Violet must uncover. Secrets that might separate Violet and Xaden forever.

Sparked Joy: God, this book took me like a month to read. It was 1) way too long at an unnecessary 623 pages (I’m going to have to ask Yarros’s editor to seriously step up), and 2) pretty bad. 2/5.

I went easy on Fourth Wing, because I figured the stuff that didn’t make sense would be explained to Violet and the reader as the series went on, but nope. Character motivations still don’t make sense, the magic system doesn’t make sense—except perhaps the system suspiciously similar to the one in The Owl House—the dragon bonds don’t make sense…

Ugh. Okay, here’s my drinking game for this book:

• Take a shot and try not to throw up whenever Xaden calls Violet by his pet name for her, “Violence.” I hate it.
• Take a shot every time Violet contradicts something she said previously
• Take a shot every time Violet uncovers a secret about Xaden that he could have told her about and even wanted to tell her about, but he waits until she gets frustrated and finds out on her own and then scolds her for not just asking him.
• Take a shot every time a new character is introduced with an endearing quality.
• Take another shot when that same endearing character dies immediately.
• Take a shot every time Violet or Xaden makes up a new rule for their relationship.
• Take a shot every time Xaden doesn’t answer Violet’s questions, despite promising to not hide anything from her anymore.
• Take a shot every time Violet storms out of a room and people call after her.
• Take a shot every time General Sorrengail’s mask cracks.
• Just, like, down the whole bottle when you get to the part where Violet finds out about Xaden’s ex and now we have to deal with two women fighting over a man.

Something I Learned: I learned that when I have a made-up word or non-standard English name in my books, I should double check to make sure I spelled it correctly everywhere in the book. “Tairn” was spelled “Tarin” at least once, so if I were editing, I would do a search for all possible combinations of those letters, lol.

Something I’m Inspired to Do: Damn, write my own dragon book so I can read the one I actually want to read.

Iron Flame was published in 2023. Here is Rebecca Yarros’s website. Support your local bookstore if you can, or visit your local library!

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Prompts Filled: (31) A book with a title that is a complete sentence

Tags: Memoir, Celebrity Memoir, Child Stars, Child Actors, Hollywood Moms, Stage Moms, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Sexual Abuse, Child Sexual Abuse, Child Exploitation, Hoarding, Homeschooling, Mental Health, Mental Illness, Abusive Parents, Eating Disorders, Anorexia, Bulimia, Addiction, Alcoholism, Anxiety, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Unhealthy Relationships, Codependent Relationships, Sexual Assault, Rape, Cancer, Therapy, Grief, Healing, Acting, Nickelodeon, iCarly, Sam & Cat

Jennette McCurdy played the best friend character on the Nickelodeon show iCarly and eventually got her own spin-off show Sam & Cat. And all the while, she was being emotionally, physically, and sexually abused by her mother, Debra McCurdy.

I’m Glad My Mom Died is Jennette’s memoir about her relationship with her mother and acting. McCurdy shares all the details of her abusive relationship with her mother in excruciating, heartbreaking detail. Her mother always wanted to be an actor, so when Jennette is six years old, her mother begins to bring her to auditions. Her mother’s behavior is erratic and frightening to Jennette, so she learns to do anything to please her mother. When she begins puberty at 11, she is frightened that it will upset her mother, so she asks for help, and her mother “helps” her by introducing her to “calorie restriction.”

When her mother finally dies of cancer, Jennette is angry and depressed and spirals further into bulimia and addiction, until a boyfriend tells her to get help. She starts therapy and is confronted with the fact that her mother abused and exploited her.

The healing process is a long road, but her mother dying allows her to quit acting and become her own person at last.

Sparked Joy: 4/5 “Joy” is perhaps not the right word. This book made me furious. I’m also glad McCurdy’s mom died.

Jennette, and probably also her brothers, were sexually abused by their mother. Reading the chapters about that abuse made me think about the book It’s Perfectly Normal and the challenges it has faced. Jennette and her brothers were homeschooled, and Jennette’s reactions to her body changing during puberty made me think she and her brothers did not have access to any form of sex education. I wonder if It’s Perfectly Normal and other books like it would have helped them, the way it helped a 10-year-old girl in Delaware who was being abused by her father.

I’m not against homeschooling altogether; given the restraints of our current underfunded public school system, sometimes it’s necessary for students with different needs. But my god, does it need to be regulated, and sex education needs to be included.

Something I Learned: I learned a lot of things—I’m Glad My Mom Died is basically a tell-all memoir—but the most interesting and innocuous thing I learned is that background actors don’t get the same perks as principal actors. They don’t get as many breaks, and they don’t get access to things like the food service on set, even if they’re children. I dunno, I just think child actors should get more out of what they’re doing.

Something I’m Inspired to Do: I want to thank my mom for not letting me do auditions! As a child, I really wanted to be Britney Spears. I wanted to act and sing. I once recorded an acapella song that I wrote on my tape recorder, in the hopes that we would send it out to agents. In middle school, I took performing arts as my elective. Of course, it was then that I discovered I had terrible stage fright and performance anxiety. I had maybe two speaking lines in my entire three-year career in the performing arts class, and I was glad to not have any more.

I’ve known for a while that child stars have a rough go of it and face a lot of abuse from their parents and the industry, but reading this really hammered the point home.

I’m Glad My Mom Died was published in 2022. Here is Jennette McCurdy’s website. Support your local bookstore if you can, or visit your local library!

Percy Jackson and the Olympians 1: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Prompts Filled: (2) A bildungsroman, (29) A book with a neurodivergent main character

Tags: Percy Jackson, Grover Underwood, Annabeth Chase, Chiron, Dionysus, Medusa, Ares, Hades, Poseidon, Zeus, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Adventure, Mythology, Greek Mythology, Gods, Goddesses, Demigods, Titans, Heroes, Satyrs, Centaurs, Boarding School, Magic School, Middle Grade, New York, Dyslexia, ADHD, Neurodivergence, The Hero’s Journey, Domestic Abuse, Child Abuse

Percy Jackson is a normal twelve-year-old American boy with ADHD, dyslexia, and a penchant for attracting trouble. Or so he thinks.

When a monster attacks him during a sixth grade field trip, his world turns upside down. A pen transforms into a sword, he is expelled from his sixth school in as many years, and when he and his mother, Sally Jackson, go on their annual trip to a vacation home, another monster attacks and seemingly kills his mother. His best friend Grover turns out to be a satyr, and Percy himself?

It turns out Percy is half-god.

After slaying the monster—the actual Minotaur—Percy and Grover find refuge in Camp Half-Blood, a sanctuary for the half-blooded children of Greek gods. The children train to be heroes and long for quests that allow them to leave the camp and make a name for themselves. Percy befriends a daughter of Athena, Annabeth Chase, who hopes Percy will fulfill a prophecy and save the world from pending war.

Because a war between the gods is brewing. Someone has stolen Zeus’s lightning bolt, and Zeus thinks Percy is the thief. To prevent the war, Percy must track down the lightning bolt and return it before the summer solstice.

Which is in only ten days.

Percy, Annabeth, and Grover travel across the United States together in search of the lightning bolt, encountering monsters and gods, and must unravel the mystery of the lightning thief—before it’s too late.

Sparked Joy: 3/5 This is the first time I’ve read any Percy Jackson books. I saw one of the movies on a plane once, and it was… bad. But I heard that the books were very good, from both my brother and other adult readers. And I’ve heard the new series is good, too!

Fast-paced and action packed, The Lightning Thief was a very fun book to read. It’s a perfect Hero’s Journey, and a great middle grade book. I highly recommend it to any middle grade or teenage reader, and it’s an excellent replacement for certain other fantasy series for that age range.

The focus on and obsession with the concept of “the West,” without any criticism of the concept, was a little off putting, but I wonder if the later books tackle that a little. I also personally can’t stand any depiction of an afterlife that isn’t also critiqued, but that’s a personal problem.

Neither of these things really detracted from the story, though. I liked it! I want to read more.

Something I Learned: I learned that Poseidon created horses! I didn’t know that bit of mythology.

Something I’m Inspired to Do: I’ll most likely read more of the Percy Jackson books.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians 1: The Lightning Thief was published in 2005. Here is Rick Riordan’s website. Support your local bookstore if you can, or visit your local library!

Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture by Sherronda J. Brown

Prompts Filled: None

Tags: Asexual, Asexuality, Theory, Nonfiction, Queer Theory, Black Studies, Queer Studies, Queer, Queerness, Blackness, Social Issues, Feminism, Intersectionality, Sexuality, Compulsory Sexuality, Heteronormativity, Allonormativity, Queerphobia, Gatekeeping, Sexual Politics, Sex, Race, Gender, Capitalism, Marginalization, Dehumanization, Liberation, Chrononormativity, White Supremacy, Conversion Therapy, Corrective Rape

Sherronda J. Brown examines ideas about sex and sexuality through a queer, ace, and Black lens, challenging our assumption that everyone wants sex and that every relationship must feature sex. U.S. American society is obsessed with sex, and Brown dives into how that came to be and how it’s connected to capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy. 

Sparked Joy: 5/5 There is so much to say about this book, and I have no idea how to say it. This book is fantastic. I think it should be required reading, at the very least for feminism and gender studies students, but also for everyone. It breaks down the way compulsory sexuality limits and controls our possibilities and our lives. It goes into how capitalism and white supremacy work hand in hand to control people’s behaviors and oppress people seen as less human. Just—holy shit. Read this book.

It’s a heavy read (even only at 180 pages), but it is necessary.

My only complaint? I wish there had been a chapter on ableism and disability, and their interactions with sexuality. There was one point where it seemed like Brown was building up to such a chapter, but then I turned the page and the subject changed.

Something I Learned: I learned so many things, but good god, how did I not know this before: “As the [Freedmen’s Bureau] attempted to rationalize African American sexuality by imposing heterosexual marriage upon the freedman through the rule of law and as a condition for citizenship, the racialization of blacks as pathologically nonheteronormative tightened the link between citizenship and a racialized heteronormativity” (Ferguson, Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique). Many narratives frame the right to marriage granted after the 14th Amendment as something many freed African Americans desired, but there were also many on whom marriage was imposed.

“Marriage is an oppressive institution” gets another tick mark in its column.

Something I’m Inspired to Do: One thing I’ve noticed about the Bay Area ace community is that it is very white, and I’ve worried several times that the community would be alienating to Black aces. This is a problem with a lot of queer spaces, and somewhat especially ace spaces, because asexuality is so widely seen as a white Tumblr girl sexuality. I’d like to work harder to make the Bay Area ace group in particular more welcoming to Black aces.

Refusing Compulsory Sexuality was published in 2022. Support your local bookstore if you can, or visit your local library!