Alyssa > Recent Status Updates

Just finished one of the most gay and most trans books ever for the end of Pride Month. Now it’s July and I’m IMMEDIATELY hopping into one of the straightest books ever, and it’s giving me severe whiplash xD

I am SO stoked to end Pride Month 2026 by reading this, because this is such a cornerstone of queer literature

This was my first foray into mystery in years—what a wonderful re-entry! Loved the exploration of the ways the queer community would turn against each other for the sake of self-preservation in the 1950s. It’s a side of queer history we don’t read about often, and it’s worth more examination

Okay you know what, I think I’m calling it here. Usually I wait until 30% to DNF, but 27% is probably close enough to tell, in this case. I can feel myself tuning out half the time and I unfortunately don’t see that changing, I’d like my audiobook hold to go to someone who might enjoy it more

The premise of this sounded awesome, but the execution is falling flat and the characters all feel pretty bland :/ If this doesn’t improve quickly then I may DNF, unfortunately

…I’ve only had Vex for one scene, and that scene was mostly her attacking and scaring the living daylights out of the leading couple. But I would already kill for her and die for her and I cannot get to Vex’s book fast enough

‘I sometimes have that same greedy impulse when it comes to your friends, though. I want to devour them. To consume them, so that everyone you love is me. So that everyone you see, everyone who sees you, is me.’

ahahaha wooowwww what an unhinged and obsessive and toxic thing to say to your gay crush!!

. . . And for that, this book is immediately getting 4 stars at least

Started reading this on a whim and I’m glad I did! It’s cozy enough to be a palate cleanser from my lineup of horror books, but also has a melancholic, almost dark atmosphere that keeps me engaged. It’s a Spring-coded book with themes of hope and renewal, but also one that remembers that traces of winter can still linger

Me: Wow, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter was so good! Maybe that’ll be my favorite book of 2026–
The Poet Empress: hi
The Poet Empress: **promptly tears my heart out**

Not to be dramatic but I feel like this book is devouring me as much as I’m devouring it — and I mean that in a good way! It’s so well-written that it inspired me to take up a pen and annotate a book for the first time in three and a half years

A lot of the negative reviews put me off at first, but this is much better (and gayer!!) than I expected! Particularly enjoying all of the commentary on modern, consumable feminism, as well as the critique on the growing TradWife movement

Hey authors, if you’re gonna comp your book to Mean Girls, then like . . . you’ve gotta let your protagonists be actually mean

It’s otherwise a cute and fluffy book, but rn I don’t really think it deserves the comp

‘“Love is supposed to be a kind thing, a beautiful thing. That is what the world has always told me.”
“The world lied,” Miriam said.
“Yes,” Esther replied. “It did.”’

Your honors this book has me going NUTS

So apparently my last book of the year is my kryptonite! I don’t even just feel attacked, I straight-up feel DISEMBOWELED

Trying very hard not to DNF my third sapphic rom-com of the year, but the relationship between Bailey and the rest of the town piss me off

Like what do you mean Bailey tries to take one vacation for herself, the town guilt trips her into cancelling it because they’re used to her solving the Wonderfest festival problems, and then the narrative blames Bailey for just not having enough Christmas spirit?!? WTF

‘“Haven’t you told me repeatedly to trust my gut?”
“You don’t have a gut,” she said, dry as a bone. “You’re dead.”’

I am already in LOVE with this book

I’m so pissed at both Ali AND JT’s parents at this point

In a good way! Their parents have understandable reasons for doing what they do, at least in their minds, but at the end of the day they’re excuses and I just want to strangle all of them :)

On one hand, I appreciate the emotional maturity from our leads. On the other hand, they both constantly reassure each other and usually sound like they’re each others’ therapists, and it’s grating on me

Yeah, I’m definitely gonna need to read a bunch of Christmas rom-coms after this one. This book is EXTREMELY dark.

Still good! I’m enjoying it! But it is NOT for the faint of heart

…And I’m only in the first quarter 😅😬

C.L. Clark as an author is doomed to be my kryptonite. The way they can write not just one, but SEVERAL hot, compelling, badass women, and make me have crushes on literally all of them— excuse you, this is UNFAIR

I fear if this doesn’t improve soon, I’ll be DNFing 😭 I want to like this so badly but I’m nearly halfway through the book and still can’t connect to either of the characters

Wow, I chose a perfect time to read this, because it’s seriously hitting the spot for the post-Halloween season

Two thoughts:

-This is a perfect book for Fall
-I love Emily with all my heart, but I am so glad her flaws are getting more called out in this book. I think it’s slowly starting to inspire growth!

I knew this was Jewish-coded beforehand, but I was NOT prepared for the amount of antisemitism in this sapphic fantasy

That’s not a bad thing, when its brutality is the point. But I wish I’d known what this was going in, because this gets pretty fucking dark at points

The writing is quite lovely and the atmosphere is dark and haunting, but I can’t deny I’m struggling to feel connected to the protagonist. Crossing my fingers that this changes soon

I am enjoying this SO MUCH

I definitely expected this to be good, since I liked The Phoenix Keeper, but the sheer entertainment value is immense. It doesn’t even feel like 200 pages have passed

A sapphic spy rom-com sounded SO delightful but instead it’s been tough for me to get through

Like maybe it’s me going in with the wrong expectations, but I do feel like ‘sapphic spy rom-com’ sounds like a book that should be balls to the walls zany. Instead it’s taking a more grounded approach and IDK how to feel about that

…Okay, that was actually a GREAT plot twist that just happened and I’m really interested to see where this ends

I’ve been taken off-guard by how surprisingly hilarious this book is xD

‘“Let the world be as I see it, for just tonight, without too many gray areas and caveats. Where I know I’m mortal, but I’m not sure you’re not a god,” she said, and then her voice got barely above a whisper as she leaned in. “Can you do that for me?”

And what escaped Joan’s lips was, “Yes.”’

😳😳😳

Ahem. GAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY