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Our very own legendary Andrew has put together a form to see what the most popular books are for the Booksworn. If there's anything readers like as much as reading, its filling a form in about reading, so click on the link and let us know your favourite books!

Hi paid members! Just a reminder that this is the final week to help populate our monthly newsletter with all your cozy, creative joy. This month’s theme is: The Tea Room’s Autumn Notice Board

I'd love it to feel like things have been pinned to the tavern notice board: what we’re reading or brewing, exploring, working on, baking, looking forward to, etc.

Happily accepting any photos, artwork, recipes, etc. that feel in tone with the fall season!

Ready to submit? CLICK HERE to send in your photo, piece of writing, book rec, drawing, etc. by FRIDAY and I’ll include it.

I can’t wait to see what you submit!
Meg

I've got such a bizarre range of books that I've been gettin' into lately so I'm gonna tell ya about those and as always I wanna know what you're been reading (or plan to read) in the comments! PLUS we've got our Fiction/History Sickos Book Club vote results for October. Let's boogie!

READING

REVIEW

THE UNSELECTED JOURNALS OF EMMA M LION: VOL 1-3 by BETH BROWER (epistolary historical fiction)

Progress: Vol. 3 - 101/213

I was sold on this by Maddie (of Kris & Mads) while we bopped around the UK and I'm utterly enchanted. I'll be doing a video on this once I finish vol. 3 (I was told it was best to treat the first three tiny books as one arc), but this is scratching an itch I didn't know I had. The stakes are low enough to be cozy, but all these tiny social interactions feel so much more important than they ought to be. And everybody has this very proper, slightly haughty exterior that I love, but it never dips into overly cynical territory.

I don't know which suitor I "ship" yet, but while I figure that out I'll just delight in the side characters like Agnes (think Daisy from Downton Abbey) and the "goddess divine" Arabella, who is exactly the kind of socialite character who could've been written as a nightmare but is instead genuinely supportive while still taking obvious delight in a bit of mischief and scandal.

My wife found a freshly listed set of eight published volumes for $50 on Pango and swooped in to whisk them away, so I will be getting caught up before Vol. 9 releases early next year.

THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: AN UNNATURAL HISTORY by ELIZABETH KOLBERT (popular science/natural history)

Progress: 70/283

I felt a dum dum for being surprised by how much this book deals with evolution, the dark twin of extinction. I'd just mentally separated non-dino species extinction from the big dramatic mass-extinction events. Nonetheless, this is quite fascinating.

Side bar: there's a piece on a fungus ("Bd") that is presently fucking up frogs, and it on pg. 18 there's this bit of information:

"One theory has it that Bd was moved around the globe with shipments of African clawed frogs, which were used in the nineteen-fifties and sixties in pregnancy tests. (Female African clawed frogs, when injected with urine of a pregnant woman, lay eggs within a few hours.)"

This is known as the Hogben Test, which is remarkably accurate (with virtually 0% false positives!). In that vein, I've been re-watching The Great again, and in S1 Catherine is made to urinate on wheat as a pregnancy test. This less reliable method originated in Ancient Egypt and is considered the first successful pregnancy test. One facet of this was missing from The Great, as both wheat and barley were used and depending on which one sprouted, that would determine the sex (this aspect was bunk).

In summation, I'm unexpectedly learning a lot about pregnancy tests! Huzzah!

BERSERK: VOL 25-27 by KENTARO MIURA [Deluxe Edition Vol. 9] (manga/grimdark fantasy)

Progress: Finished

The Falcon of the Millennium Empire Arc is in full swing now and we just got introduced to a new tool for Guts that's a game-changer. Can't say too much without spoilers but if you stopped at the Golden Age or Conviction arcs, I'd say pick it back up and see how the tonal shift works for ya because I'm loving it so far.

20TH CENTURY BOYS by NAOKI URASAWA [The Perfect Edition Vol. 1] (manga/seinen thriller)

Progress: Finished

I finished Berserk early enough that I had time to crack this open and I ended up devouring the whole damn thing and am fiending for more. Here's the quick blurb on the premise:

Humanity, having faced extinction at the end of the 20th century, would not have entered the new millennium if it weren’t for them. In 1969, during their youth, they created a symbol. In 1997, as the coming disaster slowly starts to unfold, that symbol returns. This is the story of a group of boys who try to save the world.

This feels closer to something like AKIRA than the other manga I've read, only with more mystery and perhaps a dash of Stranger Things. I was pretty locked in once I got past the first handful of chapters but it's the final one, chapter 21, that had me 100% hooked. Also, the art is exceptional in how it blocks scenes to feel cinematic.

PREVIEW/BOOK CLUB SELECTIONS

We have locked in our picks for the Fiction/History Sickos Book Clubs for October so those will be next up for me after these, along with more Berserk and maybe 20th Century Boys if I get the second volume in soon.

The Fiction Sickos will be reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way of thought and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality.

The History Sickos will be reading Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles.

Drawing on a wealth of new research, archaeologist, historian, and master storyteller Richard Miles resurrects the civilization that ancient Rome struggled so mightily to expunge. This monumental work charts the entirety of Carthage's history, from its origins among the Phoenician settlements of Lebanon to its apotheosis as a Mediterranean empire whose epic land-and-sea clash with Rome made a legend of Hannibal and shaped the course of Western history. Carthage Must Be Destroyed reintroduces readers to the ancient glory of a lost people and their generations-long struggle against an implacable enemy.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• Publication News: A Complement of Scoundrels is nearly a week old into its official release and I made this handy dandy guide on how you can support it. This week I've got some audiobook codes to hold a giveaway for so keep an eye out for that as well. Also, after about a bazillion emails and dozens of options poured over, our second acquisition (Grave of Petals by Ofelia J. Vazquez) will be getting a new title that will be announced soon!

• Game of the Week: You know the drill, more Civilization VI. But also! I've linked up with a few other creators and we plan on doing a test stream this week. The hope is to stream weekly at first and go from there. I created a new Twitch account (same handle as everywhere else, "KistReadsBooks") that you can follow for these sessions.

• Show of the Week: As previously mentioned, I'm fully locked in on yet another re-watch of The Great.

• Movie of the Week: I'm actually going to dedicate this space to a documentary I watched last week, The Deepest Breath (2023). It's about a free diver training to break a world record with the help of an expert safety diver. I had some issues with how it withheld key information for dramatic effect but this was a riveting watch with a medicinal gummy.

This week's new releases deserve celebrating, but this feels like the week to take a deep breath before a TON of exciting new releases in October.

Trad Wife by Sarah Langan 5/5 stars

Put this on your TBR if you liked the idea of Yesteryear, but it fell flat. This is also a horror take at the exposing of trad wife influencers.

Something Followed Us Home 4.5/5 stars

Put this on your TBR if you enjoy horror anthologies by marginalized authors (this is Latine horror).

The Radiance by Ayad Akhtar 4/5 stars

Put this on your TBR if you enjoy prose some people would call purple and stories that are a bit meta.

The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman by Deesha Philyaw 3.5/5 stars

Put this on your TBR if you enjoy contemporary fiction that exposes the hypocrisy of the evangelical church culture.

And a couple I didn't get a chance to read yet:

American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee

I got declined for an ARC for this (rude...kidding!), so I'm glad my preorder is on it's way. I want to read this because it's an immigrant story of finding satisfaction by a rockstar author.

The Unhaunting by Micaiah Johnson

I want to read this because it's a haunted house story by one of my favorite science fiction authors. I'm excited what she will do in a different genre. Thankfully this preorder is on its way as well!

October is nearly here! Can't you feel it in the air? I know where I lived the heatwave finally cooled enough for fall to take hold.

Here's what I'm reading this week.

Nightjars by Michael Wehunt

After a horrible first date, Luke finds a disturbing Polaroid picture of himself as a child next to a dead body. As strangers begin leaving more and more polaroids of Luke, he starts to question things about himself...Including if he could be killing people as more and more bodies start showing up.

Worry Box by Chris Panatier

A family and their foster child move into a beautiful home. But as the family grows another child larger, and the adoption grows closer, Lailah's intrusive thoughts become more and more disturbing. Under pressure, things become tense within the house hold. And the girls keep swearing there's a ghost in the house...

I'm listening to this one on audio thanks to Libro.fm ALC

Affiliate link for the audiobook: https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=25361&awinaffid=3093079&ued=https%3A%2F%2Flibro.fm%2Faudiobooks%2F9781696623452

The Cages We Endure: A Woman Trapped Anthology

I'm reading the wonderful anthology I'm featured in. This anthology features so many talented voices in horror!

Something Followed Us Home: Tales of Latine Horror

A horror anthology all written by Latine Horror Authors.

Hi friends! I'm experimenting with making this more of a weekly newsletter rather than just a review roundup. Let's see how it goes!

This was yet another busy busy week for me, which means not a lot of reading got done. I spent the start of the week recombobulating myself and our lives after traveling Fri-Sun for a wedding. But didn't we look cute!

Casey in a pink and white striped dress and her spouse Mix in a blue shirt and gray tie, reflected in a mirror.

On to the book reviews! Books marked with a * were gifted to me, and books marked with a ^ I was paid to read.

More Like Enemigas by Stephanie Hope* - This was so cute. The banter and snark were top notch. I take some issue with this being categorized as romance, though, since that was basically a subplot. I kind of wish that bit had been dropped and the story just focused on Isabella trying to figure out her family's secret. I loved the complicated web of love/hate relationships between the various family members. I also loved that Isa and Valentina's queerness was not an issue at all. Can we all agree, though, that it was kind of a dick move for Isa's dad to make her piece together clues to the family secret after his death?

Broken Healer by David M. Berry^ - A memoir by an emergency room doctor about getting addicted to opioids and how Suboxone saved his life. This was such an interesting story, but could have used some editing. I find that with self-published memoirs, authors often jump between several topics and sometimes even time periods within a single paragraph, and I have to reread things a few times to make it make sense. However, this was a good look at how even if you have all the privilege in the world it can still be hard to get your life back on track due to prejudices against recovering addicts.

Like I said, not a lot of reading got done this week. But I am about halfway through The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman by Deesha Philyaw* and am itching to talk about it, so you can look forward to that!

One good thing: I used to have this section in my old newsletter (RIP Tinyletter) and am bringing it back. One good thing this week is that I have been looking forward to Angry Harpy Polish's collection inspired by The Locked Tomb series, and it finally dropped this week. I rarely buy a full collection, but I simply had to. (Note: the collection is currently sold out but should be restocked on Monday, aka today.)

Seven beautifully sparkly and shimmery polishes.

I think that's all I've got for this week. Here's your weekly cat photo. Onward!

Teddy and Duke cuddling. Their faces are smushed together and the tips of their tails are touching.

You GUYS!

5 days ago, I said I would love to get to 1500 preorders before launch. We were at 1260.

I just got the update last night…. What Feeds Below has 1547 preorders!

I can’t freaking believe it!

We are 9 days from launch. Do you think we can hit 2000? Is that too much of a dream? Is there such a thing as two much of a dream?

If you’ve already preordered, THANK YOU!

If you’ve been posting and reposting our stories, thank you!

Can you convince a friend to preorder this week?

I think the ebook is still on sale (but I still highly recommend a physical trophy!)

This community is so powerful and this week has been such a great one :)

Thank you a million times.

I wanted to do something a little different today. I am uploading this newsletter to everyone, as a sneak peak into what I send out weekly to my free tier! The free tier also has access to the discord Book club, and the October book will be "No Bones About It" by Cassandra Elizabeth. It is about a woman who gets f*cked by her 12ft yard skeleton! Consensually of course. It's a super fun, smutty good time, perfect for the Halloween season!

The $5 tier gives you access to a video book club call each month and a few more perks. Including just feeling good about being cool and supporting me :)

Chapter 14

Icarus tried to inhale, but his head was full of bees. His body wouldn’t respond to him, the limp and disobedient thing. He stared at the demon leering at him with such hate it sent heat along the current of air passing between them.

“I don’t understand,” he heard himself whisper. “What did Daedalus do? Who did he deceive?”

Mariusz snarled again and strained against his bonds in a surge of violence, “Does your Church tell you nothing? Do they not explain to you how they send their priests one after the other into Tir Na Nog? Their effort to rip and tear and force your Pale God into the guts of every creature that walks this world and the next?!”

Icarus didn’t know what to say. He didn’t understand, none of it made any sense, the Church preached the gospel of the Pale God in an effort to spread His word and turn people away from the costly fae netherism that was rotting their souls. What care should a demon have for the business of fae?

That wasn’t exactly true, though, was it. Icarus had a long history with the Church, their way of leveraging Doctrine when it suited and ignoring it when it did not. His entire relationship with Maren existed because of the hypocrisy of that same Church. If he really forced himself to consider it, when had they ever stopped anyone from pursuing a path that would lead them to self-annihilation?

A boom from behind the door broke Icarus out of his stupor, “Shit.”

“Best hurry,” Mariusz taunted. “They will tear your little lock apart.”

His mind raced and he tried to sort out all of his questions, “Daedalus is alive. Somewhere. The Church has been sending, what, evangelists into the Veil? Why?”

“Evangelists once, yes. Now, something else. Doorstops in the efforts made to heal the tears they leave in the Veil. Propping it open so things can… slip through,” it swirled a malformed hand in a gesture and he felt his heart constrict. 

Doorstops. Leaving the Veil open to allow things through. Icarus was going to be sick. The Veil was a thin space, the barrier erected after the Great Fracture to keep the realms of man and fae and demon apart from one another—forged from the sacrifice of the Pale Son when He was at the zenith of His holy magic. Now the Church was allowing creatures through in hopes of grounding them in the bodies of men. Why? 

He tried to pick up the pieces of his scattered brain and put them back together, but he kept dropping them over new and more complicated details. Maren filled in the space his mind left blank, “They’re allowing possessions to happen on purpose.”

Mariusz hummed an affirmation and grinned, “You believe the Pale God of All does not know the faeries? Is God so weak in your eyes that He cannot see what magic He wove into His own world? What began as an effort to save has become… lucrative in encouraging faith.”

“They let people become vessels for demons and fae to increase… Mass attendance?” Icarus heard his voice rise in anger and indignation despite his numbness.

Mariusz bobbed his head in that noncommittal way Icarus was beginning to find loathsome, “Among other reasons. It is costly business, your Church, is it not? What better way to sell it than to let someone see what awaits?”

Icarus tried to exchange a look with Maren, but she was fixed on the Inquisitor in front of them and wouldn’t meet his eyes. He saw it in the tick of her jaw, the tension in her fingers—the incandescent rage bubbling under her skin. 

“What other reasons?” He prompted instead. 

Mariusz sucked black flecks of decay from his gums, “Your Church is more divided than you know. Some wish to see the End of Days, some wish to embrace the secular, some wish to entreat with fae and demon and put an end to these divided existences. The Veil remains ajar for many reasons put forth by many men.”

Another boom followed by the wail of straining wood. Icarus winced. 

“Continue, little priest, or you will lose your chance,” Mariusz drawled, almost bored.

“What does my father have to do with all of this?” He spoke faster. He needed to focus, ask for answers he came to get from this thing. The Church’s business could remain the Church’s business, he needed to know more about Daedalus and what his role was in all of this. 

Mariusz jerked his head as if trying to dislodge something. He barked a half-cry and the muscles in his neck bulged, head tossed back in a seizure constricted by his bonds. Icarus took another step towards him, then retracted—a trick, surely. 

Its head hung and it made a plaintive noise. Its voice changed—whimpering, lost, afraid. The singular tone of a man in pain, “Please… please free me from this… I didn’t know it would be… I didn’t know this is what it would be… please… if you have any soul left, please kill-”

It seized again and a roar ripped through its chest—teeth snapping, chains rattling, white spittle gathering at the corners of its mouth. It growled, low and irritated at something that had nothing to do with the renegades standing before it, “He is lost. Pay him no mind. This is what he has asked for and thusly received, he does not deserve your mercy.”

Icarus tasted bile in his throat, his skin burned, his hand flexed and he raised it as if he would grab the pommel of his sword. Athelde—or a part of him anyway—still lingered in the vessel Mariusz occupied begging to die. This business sickened him, the whole existence of this chamber deep below the Church nothing more than an abscess leeching into the stone and infecting the lifeblood of this place. Maren let out a rattling breath and kept her hand in her salt pouch to stop herself from doing whatever it was her disdain told her to do. 

“Daedalus is a captive, of sorts,” it continued, distracting them both. “Held in the twisting gaol that sits at the crossroads of fae, demon, and mortal. There is strength in threes, Father.”

“Why?” Icarus whispered, “What is he doing? Why is he doing any of this? Why is he there?”

It smirked and opened its mouth to reply. An explosion of wood and metal cut it off, the sound slammed into Icarus and sent him stumbling forward. Maren whirled on the tide of priests pouring into the broken doorway and threw a handful of salt in their direction. It exploded and sparked, sending a wall of ivory light up with it. They let out a collective shout and the closest of them leapt backwards, out of range. Icarus straightened and roared in frustration.

Mariusz’s shoulders shook with graveled laughter, “Your time is up, Father Ulrich.”

“Tell me why!” He whirled and shouted over the din. A spear of gold light pierced Maren’s wall like a thunderclap. Iron halberds stripped and stabbed and parted, forcing the barrier apart. 

She scattered a second handful and tore a page of her Doctrine, sending it along the floor with it. At a whisper and a sign of her hand, the wall bowed outward and burst into a hail of light. One priest shoved his hand into the molten wax of a thick pillar candle atop a brazier by the doorway and threw a handful of the rapidly solidifying liquid in her direction. It spattered along the stones then seethed and twisted into a scythe that cut towards the fresh barrier she wove together.

Icarus looked from Mariusz to Maren to the company of priests and cursed. He had nothing to offer unless he paid the blood price and drew his sword, he had to let Maren take this on. There was no other choice. He turned back to the fray and forced himself to tune out the sounds of holy battle raging around him. 

“What greater role is there for a priest to play than soldier, martyr, saint?” Marius spasmed, face falling, that human voice again coming anguished and hollow, “Please, I am begging you don’t leave me like this, don’t let them-”

Another shake of its antlered head, another snapping snarl of crumbling teeth, and the man who was Athelde was gone again. Maren’s hands wove and worked as she painted her sigil and cast it outward, snaring the guard who had forced his way through. There was nothing more he could gain from this creature now. Icarus wanted to draw his sword and part heads from bodies. 

She barked over her shoulder, “We have to go! There’s no more time!”

One of the priests gathered ivory light in his palm. He wrapped it around his knuckles and struck, punching down into the stone like a hammer. Ground splintered and burst towards Maren. The force sent her sprawling, she yelled in outrage and hit the floor. Her shotgun skittered just out of reach, her salt spilling in a heap beside her. 

Icarus slashed his forearm with his small knife and unsheathed his sword, blue sigilwork flaring blue-hot to mirror his anger. He roared, torn in three between Maren, the priests, Mariusz. He stared at the Inquisitor for a moment longer, questions half answered. It would have to be enough. He couldn’t wait. Another thunderclap and the rock split apart so close to him Icarus tumbled forward into the salt, sending his sword clattering. His foot slippe and his toe struck the line. 

The circle broke. Mariusz lunged. 

A calloused, clammy hand wrapped around his wrist—jaws parted, teeth billowing with the sickly sweet stench of death, dripping which what he prayed was saliva. Cold surged through his skin and shot to his elbow, Icarus cried out in alarm. His vision broke into spots. He yanked himself back, wresting and prying himself from its grip. Had the human body been better maintained, he would never have broken free. He stumbled backwards and fell, landing hard. Chains sang along the stone and ended in a clang, stretched to their limit, squealing against the burst of inhuman strength in the demon’s pull. 

“Icarus!” Maren shouted. 

He turned. She rolled onto her stomach and closed a hand on her shotgun. She shoved hard, sending it across the uneven floor in his direction. He rolled to his feet, wedged his toe under the stock, and kicked, launching it into the air. He caught it, cocked it, aimed, and pulled in less than a breath. 

The explosion was deafening. It sent him right back onto his ass, head cracking off a pillar and making his vision swim. He had the distant feeling of blood tricking down the back of his neck. Mariusz—or what had been Mariusz—had been thrown backwards by the blast, arms and legs twisted like the dessicated husk of a long-dead spider. Someone shouted behind him. Maren yelled incoherently.

Icarus tried to turn, but everything went black. 

**

Pain. That was the first thing Icarus felt. The throbbing agony of his head, the pins and needles feeling in his arm, and a bone deep desire to tumble right back into the abyss of unconsciousness. A kick to his ribs startled him into the world of the living with a yelp. 

“Wake up!” A familiar voice hissed. “You calamitous son of a bitch, wake the fuck up!”

He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment before willing them to open. He’d been dragged from the chamber, apparently, which explained the soreness in his shoulders. It took a moment for everything to come into focus. They’d been hauled into the main lower room beneath the Church, full of splitting hallways venturing to Pale God knew where. 

Maren was crumpled in a heap against one of the pillars—breathing, thank God. She lifted her head and revealed the generous black eye she’d taken, it did nothing to dampen her obvious relief. He gave her a crooked, pained smile and looked up to see who his attacker was. 

Red cassock belted in black silk, everything trimmed and stitched in elaborate gold patterns that probably meant something to someone somewhere in the Church. His bald head crowned in a red biretta, severe hawkish face glaring down a beaky nose at the heaped priest on the floor. 

Icarus’s smile widened, “Cardinal O’Donnell. Lovely to see you again. Looking as mummified as ever.”

“Shut up, Icarus,” O’Donnell sneered. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? The position you’ve put me in?”

Icarus sat up slowly and wiped a hand across his mouth, smearing it with blood. He shook his head and ignored the echo of his own pulse in his temples, “What I’ve done? What about what you’ve done? Keeping a demon on purpose? Do you have any idea how insane-”

“I said shut up!” The kick came from one of the guarding warrior priests and knocked the wind straight out of him. He clutched his ribs and doubled over with a coughing wheeze, “Athelde chose that. He was groomed and trained and offered himself over. We needed the Inquisitor, you miserable idiot. Do you think there’s another way to know what the agents of the Stygian Lord are up to? Do you think there’s some secret method by which we know the Shadow’s plans? How the fuck do you think we keep them at bay?!”

A trickle of relief caught him by surprise, the angry confirmation his shot had done its job. Icarus couldn’t have stopped the laugh if he wanted. It started small, then built until it crescendoed into madness. Each heaving cackle renewed the stabbing sensation in his lungs, but he didn’t care, “Where’s my father, Don?”

The Cardinal’s face twisted in rage, “Dead. Stop chasing this, Ulrich. You will not enjoy it when it’s unraveled. Let Daedalus stay dead and go back to your work.”

The derision made Icarus laugh even harder, he couldn’t reply for a few gasping breaths and had no idea if it was the cracked rib or the outrage. He blotted at tears that formed in his eyes, stomach aching, every inch of him pulsating in response, “Dead. Right. You’ve got no idea where he is, do you?”

There was a long, agonizing silence as a shadow passed over O’Donnell’s face. His expression was a serpent’s venom when he looked at Maren, outright disgust when he turned back to Icarus. He plucked at nothing as if tidying his ornate, elaborate sleeves before he gestured to the warrior priests flanking Icarus. 

“You are hereby excommunicated from this Church. I will send word to the Pope and notices to all Church outfits across Europe,” his deep brown eyes were ablaze. “You are stripped of your access and will no longer be permitted to partake in any exorcisms without the Church’s sanction. From this day forward, you are no longer a priest recognized by the Church. Any calderism you perform will be considered illegal magicks punishable by prison or death. At the discretion, of course, of the Cardinal.”

Icarus stared in naked hatred up at this man who had continued to refuse him an audience, refuse him answers for years, and was now stripping him of the last meagre slip of connection he had to his own past. He expected to care more, to be angrier about it, but the only anger he had was for how full of utter bullshit O’Donnell was. 

“Up,” the guard jammed the butt of his halberd into Icarus’s aching ribs and he hissed at the wave of fire that came with it. 

Maren eased to her feet and swayed, catching herself before she could fall. The Cardinal whirled in a flurry of red silk, not keen to let her think he had forgotten her. The vitriol he had for Icarus cooled, calcifying into pity, “And you, Father Fowler. You, I understand less than him. You have such promise, such talent. You were a gifted Sister and you are a powerful exorcist, you’re smart and competent, but here you are running around with a vagrant who has no respect for our faith.”

She stayed blank and offered him nothing in return. When it was clear she had no intention of responding, he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“I will offer this once to you, Maren, and once only,” he took a deep breath. “Renounce this reckless heretic, come back to us and all will be forgiven. Let us wash your slate clean and start over again, put you back in the good grace of the Pale Father.”

She stared at him for a moment longer before tilting her head and letting all of it show. Her disdain, her anger, her resentment—all of it flooded her usually passive face and broke apart the energy of the room like a battering ram. 

When she spoke, there was no ounce of regret, “Who are you to serve as a mouthpiece of the Pale God when you kept a man chained and shackled and destroyed by the very creatures you claim to be at war with?” He opened his mouth to speak, but her sharpness cut him off, “Do you even know why I left in the first place? Why I followed Icarus out of those doors?”

O’Donnell frowned and tucked his hands into his sleeves, “I am aware, Maren, of what happened. And I-”

“If you offer me platitudes, I will cut them from your throat,” she issued the threat with such alarming flatness even the guards shifted uneasily. “There’s no need to excommunicate me, Cardinal. I renounce my faith in the Church freely. The Pale God knows what you do and now, so do I.”

She limped her way towards Icarus and thrust out her hand. He stared up at her, questioning, but was met with only her steel resolve. He let her haul him to his feet as best either of them could in their sorry state. Before she could release him, Icarus pulled her into a fierce hug that she hardly fought. They moved to leave the chamber and exit the Church for the last time.

“Maren,” Cardinal O’Donnell said. They paused and turned to look back. He sighed and raised his face to her, the amber light making him look so much more tired and worn than he had been a moment ago, “You will not like what you find. Your path is not so separate from his, you know.”

She shrugged her indifference, “My path has been tangled in his since the moment he believed me when none of you would.”

They began the arduous ascent, Icarus mumbling about how much easier it had been to get in than go out. They passed the storage room, guards at their back, and he jerked his thumb towards it. 

“Exit’s there, boys. Unless we’re being given the luxury of exiting through the front?” He smirked and a guard prodded him onward without so much as a laugh, which Icarus found rather rude, “Ah. Old fashioned walk of shame it is, then.”

They were paraded through the narthex and past the bustle of priests and nuns filing in for the daytime vigils and services, all eager and ready to tend to their sickly flock not knowing it was their own hands dripping the poison. Icarus soured, a bitter taste on his tongue. He met every shocked and fearful gaze that settled on them, wondering every time which of them knew what monstrous things were happening right under their feet. He expected to see Father Reed, but was unsurprised when he did not.

Daylight had broken through the clouds and speared Icarus in the head the moment he stepped outside into the bitter winter morning. Doors shut behind them, but the guards lingered in case either of them were inclined to rush back in and beg for forgiveness. He sighed and rubbed his eyes until the sun was swallowed up again by the ever-present gray clouds threatening them with inclement weather. 

“I don’t know about you,” Maren said, it came out dry and cracked, “but I could use a God damned drink.”

He fired her a wolfish grin, “That, my beloved Maren, is the most wonderful thing you’ve said in ages. I know a place.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he started the descent towards the street carrying himself with a new sense of lightness. “My office.”

She huffed a sound that a lesser man would have mistaken for a laugh, but Icarus knew better than to think that—out loud, anyway. He flexed his hand and rubbed idly at his wrist, the ghost of an icy grip still lingering in his skin. He shook it out and shoved his hands in his pockets, ignoring the chill that tingled to his elbow.

The Sunday Prescription

One reading topic, one week of plans, and plenty of books administered weekly for chronic readers.

Symptoms: What Do I Read Next???

Happy Sunday friends! Hope everyone is having a great week, and that you are enjoying your reading in some way, shape, or form. As we head into the later part of the year, I am starting to see everyone's "10 Before the End," or 10 books people want to read by the end of the year, popping up, and it has me thinking about how we all pick the next book or books we want to read!

I think we've all been in this spot before - you finish reading a book, and even if you're a multiple book at a time reader, you have to pick up another one. You stand there, facing your wall of shelves filled with unread books, or your TBR on your app, or your audiobook backlog, and you have no idea where to go next. Maybe there's a few that are grabbing your attention, or maybe nothing is grabbing your attention. So, what do you do, and how do you pick the next one? Well I have a few ideas and suggestions!

• Are you drawn to a few different books, but unsure of which one to read? Grab them all, and sit down and read one or two chapters of each book. This lets you get a sense of the writing and see which one feels most like your current vibe.

• Do you have a bunch of books that you'd be genuinely happy to try out, but there's just so many of them? There are some really fun ways to let fate decide!

  • Assign each book a number 1-6 and roll the dice (or, if you're a D&D fan with a bigger TBR, assign them 1-20 and roll a D20).

  • Make a TBR Jar. Write down each book on a piece of paper, and pick one out of the jar! If you're more into digital solutions, use an online wheel spinner.

  • Ask a friend to pick one for you. If you're on our Discord server, a lot of us would be willing to help! (You could even make a poll)

  • Set them down on the floor if you have a pet, and read whichever one they touch first.

  • Let Libby decide - whatever Libby hold shows up next, that's what you read!

• I've talked to a few people who love a good random draw. Keep your unread books turned backwards on the shelf, spines to the back, and then just grab a random one that looks about the size you want.

• Go purely on vibes. Stand there, look at your shelf, and the first one that gets you feeling its the right one, grab it!

• Just make it easy on yourself if you like structure - read that series all in a row, or make a TBR at the start of each month that you stick to!

Now maybe you're just feeling overwhelmed, or nothing is grabbing your attention. If that's the case, sit and think about what you have going on - is this a bigger issue other than a simple reading slump? If it's just a reading slump, then maybe take a break! Or, pick up an old comfort read (I got back to The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings in these cases), and reread that one. Or, switch up formats - grab an audio if you're normally a physical reader, or vice versa. Just something to shake it up.

So I'm interested to hear from you - how do you pick your next read? Have you tried any of the methods above, or what's your favorite way to pick a book?

The Rx: What I'm Reading and Doing

Life is busy, and there is a ton going on! So first, let's talk Book Clubs:

• For our main book club:

  • September's book, Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman, is wrapping up soon. This is a fantastic book club choice with so much to discuss! Our wrap up discussion will be on the Voice Channel on Discord on Sunday, October 4 at 8 PM EST.

  • October's Choice is Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker. I will be posting the discussion thread on Discord today for anyone who wants to jump in!

• For our Fable book club:

  • September's book, Dust Child by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, is wrapping up. A difficult, heavy read at times, but really well done.

  • October's pick is Carmilla by Sheridan le Fanu. This is a sapphic vampire story that predates Dracula by 26 years, and was apparently a major inspiration for Bram Stoker! I hope to see some of you there.

For our Monthly Reading Challenges:

• September's challenge, Read the Opposite, runs through the end of the month. Remember, you either need to be on the StoryGrapgh Challenge, or in our Discord channel for this. If you are in both, just let me know if your names are different so I don't double count you for the gift card drawing!

• October's reading challenge will be to read something seasonal. More to come on this later today!

In terms of reading, I am jumping into one of my last ARCs for awhile, Victorious by VE Schwab. I love the Villians series, and love VE Schwab, so I am so excited for this. On Audio, I'm doing the Burning God by RF Kuang (yes, I'm going to finish a series!). And then I'm also wrapping up my reread of the Silmarillion - it has been so good on a reread, and I'm picking up so much more. After I'm done with Victorious, I'll be jumping into our book club books.

Our paid members in the Dark Traveler's tier get to pick a book for me to read each month, and for October Leah won the wheel spin. She picked out The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon, and I'm so excited to read that one! It had been on my list as one of the six big series I was considering reading in 2027.

Hobby wise, I'll be leaning back into woodworking. With the weather cooling down, I'll be back on my mountain bike a bit more as well, and looking forward to spending time outside. I have a Lord of the Rings puzzle I started recently, and then I also recently picked up the Lord of the Rings Shire Lego set, so will be doing that as well.

And last but not least, be on the lookout for a new membership tier announcement the first week of October! I have a really fun idea, and am excited to share it with you all! Also going to be adding a perk or two to current tiers.

If you are not on our Discord server, you should consider hanging out! I do exclusive giveaways there, and I have some really exciting ones planned for the next few months! I don't really do giveaways on IG/TT because I like to reward you all in our community, so be on the look out for those. We have two giveaways running right now!

Hope you all have a great week of reading and life, and I'll see you next week!

Want More In-Depth Access?

If you enjoy getting into the details with me about reading, then consider upgrading to The Dark Travelers tier! My Dark Travelers get an exclusive Discord role and channels, a weekly deep dive reading update video, early access to YouTube videos, and each month they get to pick a book for me to read. This can be a book they want to read with me, or something they want me to try for them. I then do a member's only review when I'm done. It's super fun and a great tight knit group that I really enjoy talking books with, and I'd love to have you part of it!

Friends,

I know some of you have received your preorders early, and some stores are getting stock in as well!

We made a Barnes and Noble table! 🍄❤️🍄

Hi friends!

I’m delighted to share my interview with Alex Sanchez, author of Rainbow Boys. Rainbow Boys is a “a coming-of-age novel about LGBTQ+ teens finding friendship, first love, and hope.” On September 29, we will celebrate the 25th anniversary of Rainbow Boys with a special edition featuring a “brand-new look, a note from the author, and an introduction by Gender Queer author Maia Kobabe." Rainbow Boys is also an excellent read for Latine Heritage Month! 🌈

Alex Sanchez (he/him/his) spent almost fifteen years working with youth. He is
the author of the teen novels Boyfriends with Girlfriends, Bait, The God Box, Getting It, Rainbow Boys, Rainbow High, and Rainbow Road, as well as the Lambda Award–winning middle grade novel So Hard to Say. Lambda Literary honored Alex with a Jim Duggins, PhD Outstanding Mid-Career Novelists’ Prize. He lives in Thailand and Hollywood, Florida. Visit him at AlexSanchez.com.

Q: In Rainbow Boys, you tell the story of three queer teens—Jason, Kyle, and Nelson. Each boy’s background, support system, insecurities, and phase in their coming-out journey are different. How did you approach developing their vibrant perspectives and using their distinct viewpoints to depict a variety of queer experiences?

A: As Walt Whitman famously said, “I contain multitudes.” Each of us does. To breathe life into a character, I ask myself, what aspect of me is like this character and how is this character like me? That’s how I connected with each of the three boys and gave them life. Jason embodied my teenage struggle to accept myself. Kyle personified my yearning for someone to love. And Nelson is the flip side, longing to be loved by someone. Those are universal aspects of all of us. They provide access points through which any reader—queer or nonqueer—can connect with the characters and live through them.

Q: On September 29, 2026, we’ll be celebrating the 25th anniversary of Rainbow Boys. Would you expand upon your experience writing what would become the revolutionary Rainbow Boys during a period in which most queer stories ended in tragedy, and what has been one of your favorite parts of seeing Rainbow Boys reach its 25th anniversary?

A: Since until the 1970s homosexuality was widely regarded as both criminal and a mental illness, it’s little wonder that the first queer YA stories ended in tragedy. But by the 1990s the world was quickly changing. Real-life queer teens were making news headlines: coming out at schools, going to proms with same-sex dates, getting elected homecoming kings and queens. Their courage inspired me. In 1993 I set out to write a book that combined my own joys and struggles of growing up gay with the courageous breakthroughs of a new generation. I determined that in my story nobody would end tragically. Instead the teens would experience something I hadn’t seen in YA books: queer joy. One of my favorite parts of watching Rainbow Boys reach its 25th anniversary is seeing how it helped to open the door for many more books that include joyful queer teens.

Q: Rainbow Boys is a humorous, vibrant, and uplifting coming-of-age story of queer joy, love, community, belonging, and pulse-fluttering crushes. It also discusses heavier topics such as homophobia, bullying, HIV, eating disorders, and feeling afraid to be queer. How did you approach balancing the lighter and darker themes to craft an overall hopeful story?

A: To be sure, combining the light and dark was a balancing act. Achieving it took heaps of trial and error, many revisions, and a lot of editing and feedback. Writing is both art and craft—art in the sense of intuiting when a story needs either more levity or more depth, and craft in the work of figuring out how to evoke lighter or darker emotions.

Q: You started writing Rainbow Boys in 1993. Since its publication in 2001, it has garnered numerous accolades from magazines and foundations and has sold more than 120,000 copies. What did writing Rainbow Boys teach 1990s Alex, and what has it continued to teach you as it has reached and changed the lives of thousands of readers?

A: Struggling to write Rainbow Boys in the 1990s taught me the importance of reaching out and getting support. Without a support system I couldn’t have completed the manuscript, found an agent, and gone on to write other books. What Rainbow Boys has continued to teach me is that in addition to getting support, much of my success has been due to grit, grace, hard work, humility, luck, other people, accepting the multitudinous factors that are out of my control, and constantly reminding myself that the only thing I have some slight control over is sitting myself down and writing.

Q: Rainbow Boys has been challenged and banned numerous times since its publication, with the American Library Association including it on its “Top 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books: 2000–2009” list. What advice would you give to aspiring queer authors, especially when facing book banning and queerphobia?

A: We can’t stop the haters, but we can challenge them by writing the stories they don’t want us to write. When I wrote Rainbow Boys, I doubted it would ever be published. I wrote the manuscript for the joy and challenge of it. I wrote it because of a fierce passion, because I had to do it, for me. In the same way, if you have a story you need to get onto the page, DO IT. Do it because you have to, for you. Build a support system. Focus on the journey. Enjoy the process. Let go of the outcome. And maybe, if you’re outrageously lucky, you’ll write a book that will be celebrated in 25 years.

Thank you so much to Alex for joining me in discussing Rainbow Boys and to the Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Team for sharing Rainbow Boys with me! 💕

There is a difference between a book containing a sapphic character and a book a sapphic romance.

The first describes representation. A woman or nonbinary character experiences attraction to women or nonbinary people. The second asks where the story places its emotional weight. Whose desire shapes the narrative? Which relationships receive time, tenderness, conflict, and growth? Whose interior life matters?

A character might identify as lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, or queer. Their presence matters. Representation matters. Yet identity alone does not tell us what the book centers.

What makes a book feel sapphic to you? Is the feeling rooted in romance, desire, community, identity, perspective, or some combination of all five?

Sapphic is an Umbrella, Not a Checklist

First let’s get this out of the way, sapphic does NOT mean lesbian. The umbrella includes lesbians, bisexual and pansexual women, queer women, and some nonbinary people whose identities connect with the term. Protecting the meaning of sapphic should never require excluding bisexual, trans, or nonbinary people.

At the same time, an inclusive umbrella still needs a center.

A bisexual woman remains sapphic when she dates a man. Her identity does not change according to her partner. A romantic relationship between her and a man is still not a sapphic relationship. Both statements can be true at the same time.

This distinction helps us talk about books with greater accuracy. A story about a bisexual woman choosing between a woman and a man might explore sapphic desire. A polyamorous romance involving women and a man might contain a sapphic relationship within its larger romantic structure. Those elements do not automatically make “sapphic romance” a complete description of the book.

What information helps you decide whether a book meets your expectations? Do you want the description to name a male love interest, a mixed-gender relationship, or a male endgame before you begin reading?

When I ask whether a book feels sapphic, I am less interested in counting characters and more interested in following the story’s attention.

Which relationship receives the slow glances, the tension, the vulnerability, and the emotional payoff? Which character gets to be fully known? Whose desire changes the direction of the story? Who becomes the destination rather than a temporary stop along the way?

A sapphic romance should place a sapphic relationship at the center of its romantic arc. A sapphic fantasy or horror novel does not need a central romance, but sapphic identity, desire, relationships, or community should hold meaningful narrative importance. A character mentioning an ex-girlfriend once does not create the same reading experience as a story shaped by sapphic life.

This does not require every sapphic character to receive a happy ending. Sapphic stories deserve tragedy, horror, rage, messiness, obsession, ambition, and moral failure. We should have access to the full range of human storytelling. The concern begins when sapphic desire functions as decoration, bait, or temporary conflict while heterosexuality receives the emotional resolution.

Think about the last book you described as sapphic. What part of the reading experience led you to use the word?

The Sapphic Gaze Matters

A book often feels sapphic through perspective. The story notices women and nonbinary people as subjects of desire rather than objects placed on display.

The difference often appears in small details. A character notices another person’s hands, laugh, confidence, softness, strength, or way of taking up space. Desire grows through attention and recognition. Attraction belongs to the character experiencing the feeling rather than an imagined male audience watching from outside the scene.

Sexual content alone does not create a sapphic gaze. A closed-door romance might feel deeply sapphic because the story understands longing, fear, recognition, and intimacy. An explicit scene might feel disconnected from sapphic experience when written through heterosexual assumptions about bodies, roles, or pleasure.

Which details make attraction feel believable to you? What helps a scene feel intimate rather than performative?

Community Matters Too

Sapphic life involves more than romantic partnership. Friendship, chosen family, intergenerational connection, community conflict, and shared cultural knowledge often shape the experience.

Some books feel sapphic because the characters exist inside a queer world. They know other queer people. They have language for themselves. They argue about identity and politics. They build friendships, attend community events, care for each other, and negotiate belonging. Other stories focus on isolation, closeting, or being the only queer person in the room. Those stories still belong, though isolation should not remain the only version of sapphic life publishers value.

Community also gives characters room to be complicated. One person does not need to represent every lesbian, bisexual woman, trans woman, or nonbinary person. A larger queer cast allows disagreement, humor, desire, jealousy, tenderness, and failure without turning one character into a symbol for an entire group.

Do you prefer sapphic books with a strong queer community around the main character? How does the presence or absence of community change your reading experience?

Who Gets Desired Matters

Questions about sapphic representation must also include race, disability, body size, gender presentation, class, and trans identity.

Publishing often treats white, thin, nondisabled, conventionally feminine queer women as the easiest version of sapphic identity to market. Their stories receive greater permission to feel universal. Black sapphic characters, especially dark-skinned, fat, disabled, trans, working-class, or masculine-presenting Black characters, face a different standard. Their books are more likely to be framed as narrow, educational, or intended for a limited audience.

A story does not become meaningfully inclusive through the presence of a marginalized character alone. We still need to ask whether the character receives interiority, desire, tenderness, agency, and a future.

Who gets to be wanted without needing to become more palatable first? Who receives softness without losing complexity? Who gets to be messy and still worthy of love?

Reader Trust Matters

Genre labels create expectations. A reader choosing a sapphic romance expects the central romantic relationship to be sapphic. A reader choosing an FFM romance expects a man to participate in the central relationship. A reader choosing a bisexual love triangle should receive clear information about the romantic possibilities and, when appropriate, the ending structure.

Clear labeling does not police anyone’s identity. Clear labeling respects readers and gives each story language suited to its actual center. It allows the reader to consent to what they are reading.

Authors and publishers sometimes worry about spoilers, but a romantic structure is not the same as a plot twist. Readers often choose romance based on the relationship promised by the category. Concealing a male partner or male endgame from marketing aimed at sapphic readers does not create a clever surprise. Concealment breaks trust.

What does honest marketing look like to you? Which details belong in a book description, content note, or author post before release?

There is No Single Sapphic Story

Sapphic books do not need one approved tone, genre, relationship model, or ending. We need cozy romances and devastating horror. We need monogamous couples, polyamorous relationships, asexual partnerships, messy breakups, lifelong friendships, erotic joy, and characters with no interest in romance. We need women saving kingdoms, becoming villains, solving murders, raising children, building communities, and making terrible decisions with their whole chests.

The goal is not sameness. The goal is meaningful centrality.

A book feels sapphic when sapphic life shapes the story rather than appearing as a decorative detail. Sapphic desire receives room to exist on its own terms. Sapphic characters hold narrative power. Their relationships matter. Their choices move the plot. Their inner lives receive attention. The story understands them as full people rather than proof of diversity.

So I want to hear from you.

What makes a book feel sapphic to you?

Does the central relationship matter most, or does perspective matter more?

Have you read a book with a sapphic character that still felt centered around men or heterosexuality?

Which book gave you the strongest feeling of being inside a fully realized sapphic world?

What kinds of sapphic stories are you still waiting to read?

Hey, y'all! Wanted to pop in and give you a list of upcoming releases we're excited for! We are so close to being able to list books on our site--we're getting the LLC and everything this upcoming week!

Upcoming releases to watch for!

• It Looks Like You in the Dark by Mathilda Zeller (SO GOOD)

• What Feeds Below by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne (PLEASE OMG)

• Lethal Kiss by Taylor Grothe (SERIOUSLY)

• Victorious by VE Schwab (THAT ENDING!)

• Something Followed Us Home ed by Cynthia Pelayo (BROOOO)

Please consider ordering your copy from us!

Till next time!

-Ryn

Hi Friends,

If you haven’t seen it yet, What Feeds Below is an October Aardvark pick…. And it’s a special edition!

(Which was a surprise to all of us! A very nice one!)

Aardvark said they never received so many requests to carry a title before and that really speaks to the power of this community! I think we are really able to offer authors something that traditional publishing just cannot.

Thank you to everyone who has preordered! Read and reviewed and has hyped this book up! This wouldn’t have happened without you! You all are the best!!!

(I’m pretty stoked on Aardvark and think we have similar tastes, so hopefully I get to make these kinds of announcements more!)

Next stop, bestseller list? 🤞