bladelikesbooks's reviews
201 reviews

Adult Dark Romance

I am on my knees PLEASE, 2 seasons and they just KISSED

The son of a gangster runs away from his family home in attempts to have an ordinary life when he gets kidnapped by a rival gang and falls in love with the body guard sent to rescue and protect him

Rep - Bisexual, Gay, Korean

TW/CW - Attempted Sexual Assault, Blood, Child Abuse, Gang Activity, Kidnapping, Murder, Violence (this is not an exhaustive list, i didn’t keep track while i was reading so this is just from memory)

‘Bound In Flesh’ is an adult trans horror anthology. A collection of 13 horror short stories focusing on body horror. I rated each short story separately and got an average rating of 4 stars. Horror isn’t my usual genre so starting with this was like jumping into the deep end but I had a great time! 

My favorite short stories included ‘In The Garden Of Horn, The Naked Magic Thrives’ by Hailey Piper; ‘Show Me’ by Amanda M. Blake; ‘Looking For The Big Death’ by Taliesin Neith.

I loved how different the stories were from each other even though they were all within this one specific genre and I loved how diverse the casts were. There were so many different types of representation in this and so many different stories, I feel like there’s definitely something in here for everyone. 

I’d definitely love to check out the other works of the authors and editors who contributed to this anthology and I’ve also joined the Ghoulish Books book club which has been so much fun. Overall, I had a really fun experience reading this book and it has introduced me to a whole new community of readers. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves the horror genre or queer books or anthologies. 

Representation - Autistic (A); Bisexual (A); Disabled (A); Fat (MC/A); Gay (SC/A); GenderFluid (A); He/They (A); Mobility Aid (Colostomy Bag - MC); NeoPronouns (It; A); Neurodivergent (A); NonBinary (A); Queer (MC); Sapphic (MC/A); She/Her/They/Them (A); She/He/They (A); They/Them (MC/SC/A); Trans (A); Trans (FTM, MC/SC/A); Transmasculine (A); Trans (MTF/MC/A)

TWs/CWs - Abortion; Amputation; Animal Cruelty; Animal Death; BDSM; Birthing; Blood; Body Horror; Bugs; Bullying; Cancer; Car crash (graphic); Child Abuse, Child Death; Corpse; Cult Activity; Cussing; Death; Emotional Abuse; Exorcism; Fatphobia; Financial Abuse; Gore; Homophobia; Medical Detail; Murder; Necrophelia; Needle; Nudity; Physical Abuse; Prison; Sexual Assault; Sexual Content; Suicide Attempt; Transphobia; Violence; Vomit

Ask The Brindled is a poetry collection about the body, indigenous queerness, Native Hawaiian culture and decolonisation. 

I already struggle with poetry and as this is about a culture that is not my own and that I am not familiar with, I’m sure there is a lot of nuance that I didn’t pick up on. However, I still found this collection really beautiful and artistic. 

The exploration of self, queer identity, and commentary on tourism and colonisation really had me in a choke hold. There’s something about poetry that is just so beautifully genius. I appreciate that the author didn’t edit their own writing styles to accommodate for people like me who is not familiar with the Hawaiian language or cultures. I like that Revilla was true to themselves in this and I really loved the pieces of this collection that I could understand. Maybe one day I can come back to this and understand all of it. 

My favourite pieces in this collection were “After She Leaves You, Femme” and “For Sisters Who Play With Fire”. I appreciated the explanations of where Revilla drew her inspirations from for each piece and I plan to check out all of the works that she referenced. I’m not gonna lie, the dedications pages made me so emotional, especially the one she wrote to her wife. So sweet. 

To conclude, I would definitely recommend this. Even if you aren’t able to understand every piece, there’s still a lot of great material here that is easily understandable for uncultured people like me. This is definitely worth your time, it is truly a work of art. 

TWs/CWs - Animal Death; Blood; Colonisation; Death; Drug Use; Homophobia; Infidelity; Missionaries; Smoking; War; White Washing

A sapphic romance spanning a few decades where childhood sweethearts get a second chance at their love after having separate families. 

Before reading this, I fell in love with the cover and I did originally think it was going to be about 3 different love stories rather than one couple through their lives but I loved that it was that. This was an incredibly emotional story and the ending absolutely destroyed my soul. The illustrations were so beautiful too. I’d love to see more from these authors!

Tropes - Friends To Lovers; Second Chance Romance 

Rep - Bisexual (MC); Black (MC/SC/BGCs); Pansexual (MC); Plus Size (MC); POC (MC); Queer (MC)

TWs/CWs - Child Birth; Cussing; Death; Dementia; Divorce; Domestic Violence; Forced Marriage; Homophobia; Infidelity; Lesbophobia; Pregnancy