queer representation – Reading While Fat

Is This a Cry for Help

Is This a Cry for Help? (publication day January 13, 2026) by Emily Austin was so, so good! This is the third book of Austin’s I’ve read and reviewed (Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead, and We Could Be Rats), and it lived up to my already-high expectations! Darcy, a queer librarian whoContinue reading “Is This a Cry for Help”

The Measure

My book club chose The Measure (2022) by Nikki Erlick for our October 2025 read, and we had a great discussion! The premise is that one day, everyone who is older than 22 receives a box at their front door (later, you receive a box when you turn 22). On the box is an inscriptionContinue reading “The Measure”

The Fall of Whit Rivera

The Fall of Whit Rivera (2023) by Crystal Maldonado didn’t deserve to sit on my TBR shelf for as long as it did, because it is a sweet fat-positive YA romance from the author of Fat Chance, Charlie Vega and Get Real, Chloe Torres. Whit (Whitney) Rivera is getting ready to have the best seniorContinue reading “The Fall of Whit Rivera”

These Heathens

I was a big fan of Mia McKenzie’s 2021 Skye Falling, so I was thrilled to come across her newest, These Heathens, (publication day June 15, 2025), on NetGalley! Told from the perspective of Doris, a seventeen-year old pregnant Black girl in 1960 rural Georgia who had to leave school at fifteen to take careContinue reading “These Heathens”

A Jingle Bell Mingle

So . . . I was able to attend one of the book tour events for A Jingle Bell Mingle (2024) with the authors, Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone. I’ve been a Julie Murphy fan since Dumplin’ (excellent book and Netflix movie). They are hilarious, as expected, and my funniest experience had to be talkingContinue reading “A Jingle Bell Mingle”

The Vanishing Half

I’m late to The Vanishing Half (2020) by Brit Bennett, which was deservedly named a best book of the year by many popular news outlets, and was one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of the year. Beginning in 1968, when one of the “lost twins” of Mallard, Louisiana, returns after having run away at 16Continue reading “The Vanishing Half”

The Sound of Stars

The Sound of Stars (2020) by Alechia Dow blew me away! I wish I remembered how I found out about it, given that it’s been out nearly 4 years and I want to read more just like it. Ellie (Janelle) Baker is 17, living in a building in New York with her parents, after anContinue reading “The Sound of Stars”