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melissabrinks's reviews
37 reviews

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

Queer Werewolves Destroy Capitalism by M.J. Lyons

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funny hopeful inspiring

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

Apparently I'm not the only person who bought this based on the title without realizing it was erotica!

Queer Werewolves Destroy Capitalism is a collection of short erotic stories about queer men set in a variety of pulpy settings—the Wild West, the far future, et cetera. Not all of them contain werewolves and not all of them destroy capitalism, but there is a pervasive sense of queerness that goes beyond the relationships between the characters. Each one in some way challenges societal conventions, not just because they contain queer men, but because they resist some element of the normative world and prove it to be constructed.

I don't read much erotica so I can't compare it to much else on that basis, but it IS refreshing to read something focused on romance that I know is friendly and accepting; Lyons isn't going to suddenly bust out tired or offensive language that throws readers out of the fantasy by being bigoted. The book is quite spicy—Lyons makes full use of the titular werewolves, if you catch my drift—but while the sex may be a shade beyond vanilla, it matches the tone of each story. Some are more aggressive or challenging than others, depending on who is having sex and for what reason, but each one works within its context and gives us an interesting view into what sex is like in each world, and what sex means to each set of characters.

My only real gripe with the collection is that it could have used a stronger editing hand, both for clarity and for brevity. Still, it's a solid collection, but they're not joking on the cover when it says "smutty stories."

The werewolves do try to destroy capitalism though.

Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced