Hello and welcome to the December edition of the Queer Lit Review! This month we have a biologist falling for a battle-weary cyborg soldier, an exterminator fighting a deadly centipede the size of a dragon, and exes, Marshal and Marshal, attempt to clean out their shared cabin together.
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Happy Reading!
Title/Author: Black Blood
Reviewer: Jordan
Summary: Ethan, a battle-weary cyborg soldier, retreats to a tranquil planet in search of peace. There, he meets Mihail, a gentle botanist whose warm smile and delicate touch seem almost fragile. Ethan finds himself inexplicably drawn to Mihail, experiencing feelings that are very much human and confusing.
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Genre/Sub-Genre: Graphic Novel. Science Fiction/Romance
Book Format: Physical book
Length: 242 pages
LGBTQ+ Orientation: Gay
HEA/HFN: HFN
Content Warnings: One of the main characters does lose a limb and there are some dangers outside the dome they live in and explosions within!
Ratio of Sex/Plot: More plot heavy with two sex scenes, though it is a light plot.
Well-Written/Editor Needed: Well written.
Artwork: The artwork was well done, I thought. It was clear what was happening.
Would I Recommend it?: Yes
Personal Thoughts: I feel like it’s rare to find a manga story that fills one volume and is not just a short story in a one-volume anthology. So this was an exiting find even just for that aspect, never mind that romances with cyborgs and whatnot are one of the things I enjoy reading when they’re done well.
There were some things I wished for as I was reading but they did not really break the story in any way. The first was that while the romance was very sweet, gentle, and well-done, it did feel a tiny bit like insta-love and I wanted to see it build over a little more time. Second, we do get just enough of Mihail wondering about the plants he’s looking at and some of the experiments he’s doing to make it seem like an important part of the story, and a full plot with that along with the romance would have been great. (How many romance characters are botanists?! I need more of this!) Third, there were side characters I would have liked to have gotten to interact with more but they were interesting enough to carry this short story through. Fourth, I loved the suspenseful scenes where something huge has happened and we don’t know whether Ethan or Mihail will survive. Again, I wanted that suspense to be drawn out, to really keep me on the edge of my seat. Adding more of these elements might have made for a really good trilogy or even a duology.
THAT SAID, this IS a manga, and a short one at that. It does not disappoint at all for what it is and I do recommend it, especially if a quick and cute romance with a little bit of suspense is what you’re in the mood for. It was great and perhaps that is why I really just want more of it!
I will also say that it reminded me very much of a novella by Ginn Hale entitled Feral Machines: Andrew, the only human on an interstellar wildlife sanctuary. falls for one of the military surplus synthetic life-forms that help him to keep the place going at the same time something scary is stalking the wilderness. (Unfortunately, this eBook-only novella is not available for libraries to purchase, but it is one I’ve read many times and highly recommend. And now I think I need to go reread it again... )
Title/Author: The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes
Reviewer: Dani
Summary: In Tiliard, a stratified city built into an ancient tree stump infested with monstrous bugs, aesthetics is an obsession. Guy is an exterminator by trade, wielding toxins derived from the very creatures he hunts, and an opera buff at heart. Aster is a skilled perfumer who mixes toxins into scents that allow the vicious elite to project whatever qualities they choose. As they are caught up in events far larger than their undervalued lives, they will test Tiliard’s capacity for transformation, artistic and political alike.
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Genre/Sub-Genre: Fantasy/horror
Book Format: eAudiobook
Length: 19 hours, 33 minutes
LGBTQ+ Orientation: Trans, queer
Content Warnings: Body horror, murder, torture, confinement, violence/injury, blood/gore, police brutality, child abuse, chronic illness, animal cruelty, sexual assault
Well-Written/Editor Needed: Well-written
Would I Recommend?: Yes.
Personal Thoughts: If you like fascinating and ambitious world-building, have I got a book for you.
There is so much going on here that I feel at a loss for what to base a review on, in a good way. Sure, The Works of Vermin is packed full of inventive ideas and sharp social commentary, driven by compelling characters with strong motives, with a surprising twist. But really, it’s one of those books that, for me, amounted to more than the sum of its parts, one I finished and couldn’t wait to talk to other readers about.
I can’t say enough good things about the audio version, in particular. Based on reader reviews of the print version, I’d expected to get mired in the occasional lengthy and opaque description, but Max Meyers’s performance made the whole experience enjoyable. Their narration is grandiose in just the right way to fit prose that’s densely imaginative and sly, and they bring each character to vivid life. (Their catty rendering of Aster’s best friend, lauded painter and bridezilla Elspeth, is my personal favorite.)
This book will not be for everyone (note my content warnings, and then, probably, look up some more). The bugs, for one, are phenomenally gross, and they get even grosser when they’re killing people. It’s a dark, visceral read about a few powerful people doing many terrible things and the rest left with only impossible choices. But within that darkness is a profound interrogation of the meaning of art in the face of vast inequity — and a quiet celebration of trans masculinity, too.
Title/Author:Marshmallow Mountain by M.A. Wardell & A.J. Truman
Reviewer: Lo
Summary: Initially, the only thing Marshall and Marshall had in common was a name. Marshall (aka Data) lived his life around spreadsheets, while Marshall (aka Marsh) was an F5 tornado of chaos. Yet for eight years, they were madly in love. Until Marsh abruptly ended things with a half-baked excuse.
Six months later, Data gets a text from Marsh out of the blue that they need to clean out their cabin in Maine and sell it ASAP. He can make it through one more weekend with the man who broke his heart.
But when a massive snowstorm traps them in their small cabin for days, they’re forced to confront hard truths about their breakup…as well as resist the sweltering heat raging between them.
Series/Standalone: First book in a series but can obviously be read as a standalone Genre/Sub-Genre: MM Romance Book Format: Print
Length: 296 pages
LGBTQ+ Orientation: Achilean/ Gay
HEA/HFN: HEA Content Warnings: asthma, dementia, car accident
Ratio of Sex/Plot: There is a hefty dose of sex and lots of sexual tension; as this is a second chance romance there are also flashbacks to their past sexual encounters together.
Well-Written/Editor Needed?: I felt it was well-written, this is not a book of prose but it is well-written and the two authors have distinct voices from each other so the respective characters also have distinct voices.
Would I Recommend it?: Yes, I would recommend it with the caveat of the amount of sex.
Personal Thoughts: The beginning was a little bittersweet since we meet them in the six months since they broke up. Once Data and Marsh are reunited at Marshmallow Mountain the dynamic between them starts to shine and allows the reader to see why they were together for so many years. I think an important thing to note is that despite not currently being together for most of the book, they never stopped loving each other and this point is brought up continuously throughout the first 2/3 ‘s of the book.
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