Hello and welcome to the May 2025 edition of the Queer Lit Review! This month we have a juicy Hollywood memoir, lifelong best friends falling in love, and an isolated woman finding out she's a lesbian.
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Happy Reading!
Title/Author: Say Everything by Ione Skye
Reviewer: Laura B.
Summary: Ione Skye, best known for her role in the movie Say Anything..., recounts stories from her life in this juicy Hollywood memoir.
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Subject/Topic: Celebrity memoir
Book Format: Physical Book
Length: 291 pages
Well-Written/Editor Needed: Well-written
Would I Recommend?: Yes, if you like celebrity memoirs!
Personal Thoughts: I had seen a few of Skye’s films and heard her on a couple podcasts, but didn’t know a ton about her before reading this book. I picked it up because I love a celebrity memoir, and I heard this was a pretty juicy one. Even without being a massive fan of Skye’s, this was a really compelling memoir.
As promised, Skye names names and spills details in her book. This includes stories about her absentee father (folk musician Donovan), her relationship with Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis while she was a teenager and he was at the height of his heroin addiction, and her experiences working with actors like John Cusack, Keanu Reeves, Drew Barrymore, and Madonna. When she has negative experiences with people, Skye does a masterful job of sharing the truth without excusing bad behavior, seeming bitter, or placing too much blame.
Just as Skye spills the details on others, she’s as open with her own flaws. In particular, she owns up to being a serial cheater, including a string of women with which she cheated on her ex-husband, Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys, after realizing her bisexuality. I find that a lot of memoirs, particularly celebrity memoirs, suffer from the author being unwilling to own up to their own mistakes, and I really appreciated Skye’s willingness to expose herself just as much as she exposes other people.
Skye’s memoir is very heavily focused on relationships and hookups, so if reading about someone’s sex life is going to make you uncomfortable, this probably isn’t the book for you. But if you’re looking for a celebrity memoir that is the perfect mix of juicy gossip and well-written self-reflection, I definitely recommend checking out Say Everything!
Title/Author: The Broposal by Sonora Reyes
Reviewer: Ana
Summary: Lifelong best friends and current roommates Han and Kenny are going through it; Han lost the job that promised to sponsor his work visa, and Kenny is trapped in an on-again off-again relationship with an abusive girlfriend. When Kenny suggests to Han that they get married so Han can get a green card, both realize the love they thought was platonic might be something else.
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Genre/Sub-Genre: Adult Romance
Book Format: Physical
LGBTQ+ Orientation: Gay male MC, bi male MC who does drag, nonbinary and queer side characters
Content Warnings: ICE/police, conversations about deportation, physical and emotional abuse, racism and microaggressions, on-page panic attacks, familial death, homophobia and bi erasure, blackmail, on-page sex, vomiting, mentions of drug addiction, mention of abortion, (spoiler warning) unplanned pregnancy
Well-Written/Editor Needed: Well-Written
Would I Recommend?: Yes! Just mind the content warnings.
Personal thoughts: I absolutely adore this author’s young adult books (The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School and The Luis Ortega Survival Club), and their adult debut solidified them as an auto-buy author for me! Han and Kenny are fantastic, both as individuals and as a couple. Plus, the representation that Sonora Reyes always includes is once again top-notch. In addition to both leads being Mexican (as are most of the side characters), Han is also autistic and undocumented, and Kenny begins performing as a drag queen.
To be fully transparent, it got a little hard to read about abuse, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. Yes, The Broposal is sweet and funny and even sexy at times, but it's also heavy. And telling these stories could quite literally save lives. I respect and admire Reyes more than words can describe for how they chose to portray domestic violence and how people get trapped in its cycle. It isn't always as easy as simply walking out. Talking about abuse (especially when the abuser isn't a man) helps people know what to look for, and reminds victims that none of it was their fault. And being able to do all that while also telling a heartwarming story about love? That takes an astronomical amount of talent.
Book/Author: The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
Reviewer: Tali
Summary: In the Netherlands in 1961, Isabel lives a rigid and solitary life in her family’s country home. But her routines and her understanding of herself are turned upside down when her brother’s uninhibited girlfriend, Eva, comes to stay for a summer.
Genre: Literary fiction, historical fiction, romance
Format: Physical
Length: 262 pages
LGBTQ+ Orientation: Lesbian main character, sapphic love interest, gay male side characters
Content Warnings: Mild physical violence, explicit on-page sex, unwanted male attention (incl. groping and threats of sexual assault), antisemitism (incl. mentions of the Holocaust), homophobia, mentions of wartime trauma, familial death
Well-Written/Editor Needed: Polished prose but predictable plotting
Would I Recommend?: Yes
Personal Thoughts: The Safekeep has been shortlisted for several literary awards and buzzed about on sapphic social media, so I was excited to pick it up when I spotted a copy in one of the BPL’s Lucky Day collections. While I’m not sure that it lived up to the hype of its critical acclaim and word-of-mouth, it was an engaging read that I would recommend despite some reservations.
The Safekeep blends two intertwining plotlines. At its core, the book is a romance about Isabel’s growing connection with Eva and her realization of her lesbian identity. Layered within is an examination of the Holocaust's legacy in the Netherlands, as this historical context informs the events of the novel. These are heavy themes to tackle in a romance, and I’d recommend this for readers looking for a weighty, thought-provoking read rather than something fluffy and feel-good.
The slow ratcheting up of heat is where The Safekeep excels. The romance takes its time to simmer before boiling over, as Isabel’s initial prickly dislike of Eva slowly transforms into attraction and eventually love. (This tension includes lots of descriptions of desire and some steamy on-page sex, so this is not a closed-door romance and is best for readers who are comfortable with frank eroticism.) Isabel’s gradual change from a miserable, uptight recluse to a more open and fully realized person is the most satisfyingly-written aspect of the novel.
My biggest critique of The Safekeep is its predictability. Anyone familiar with romantic media will know exactly where Isabel and Eva’s story is going. Its basic plot structure is beat-for-beat that of the average Hollywood romance. Similarly, the revelation late in the novel of Isabel’s house’s history and previous occupants feels telegraphed, and I say this as someone who normally does not see twists coming or solve mysteries at all when reading.
In the end, I came away feeling like the novel’s conclusion is overly neat. Van der Wouden’s decision to tie everything up in a bow risks undercutting her critique of Dutch complicity in the Holocaust and trivializing her heavy subject matter. That said, I did enjoy the journey of reading The Safekeep, even if I found the destination disappointing. I would recommend it for readers seeking a literary, erotic, and thought-provoking sapphic novel.
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