KJ - Romance Reader 😍❤️‍🔥

I haven't read something this academic since college so let's see if I still got it.

Plus I've been reading quite a bit of nice fluffy gay romance recently so I figured I'd switch it up and read something that would make me sad and angry about the world lol

Cover of "Who's Afraid of Gender?" by Judith Butler. The majority is a plain off-white, while the left edge is yellow and the right edge is purple.

Next up is Who's Afraid of Gender by Judith Butler. I believe I added this to my readlist after watching a Philosophy Tube video (ty Abigail Thorn!). I picked this up at the Boulder Book Store, they had an entire queer section including a dedicated trans section! Hell yeah!

I haven't read something this academic since college so let's see if I still got it.

Plus I've been reading quite a bit of nice fluffy gay romance recently so I figured I'd switch it up and read something that would make me sad and angry about the world lol

The dialogue is charming, the characterization is so relatable and believable, and there's a kitty!

You might say it's cheating to use queer coded orphans as a way to get you invested but damn it got me INVESTED. If protecting queer youth doesn't get me pumped up, kill me cuz I'm already dead.

Finished this one last night, had me full sobbing. To be honest while I was reading I was really expecting this to be a bit goofy and YA but it was very funny, heartfelt, and at times heartwrenching. It's far from a usual romance but it earns the climax so well.

im ms earth cuz I eat dirt :)

well cuz you obvi gotta re-establish alpha/omega post snip

me when I run a vasectomy clinic in seattle

Cover of the book The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. The cover art depicts a house on the edge of a very precarious cliff jutting out. A windy road leads to it with a small red bus parked near the front door. Flanking the road are two windswept leafless trees. The sky is a blue tinged with streaks of pinkish purple clouds.

But first for this coming week is The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. I'm happy to be back to a longer read after this week, especially one with such critical acclaim!

I got the Judith Butler and Moonflow from Boulder Book Store in Boulder, CO, I got Cosmic Love from The Read Queen in Lafayette, CO, and then I got Alice Isn't Dead as a gift! (TY sylf 💜💜)

I plan on reading them all this year!

A stack of four books from top to bottom: Who's Afraid of Gender? - Judith Butler Alice Isn't Dead - Joseph Fink Cosmic Love at the Multiverse Hair Salon - Annie Mare Moonflow - Bitter Karella

Back from vacation! I had such a blast seeing friends but I am so glad to be back with my cats. I managed to snag quite a few books while I was away.

The spicy scenes were nice, nothing I haven't read before but enjoyable nonetheless.

I probably won't continue this series, but it was nice to read something with lower stakes.

Finished this last night, not as bad as I was expecting based on the cover but still not amazing. The emotional highs felt unearned and the protagonist felt underdeveloped. Both of these are probably because of the short length of the book.

I'm going into this one with low expectations given the reviews and my worry that the cover art might be AI. It's also quite short at just over 100 pages.

Cover for "Summoning Mr Wrong (Or Maybe Right)" by Callie Colby. The cover depicts a shirtless demon man with horns and wings sitting across the lap of a blonde man with glasses. The blonde man appears to be holding a book (which looks like it only has one cover, and the hand that's holding it looks strange which sets off my AI alarm). Art style is vaguely anime-like, looks almost like a comic panel.

Week 5 of a book every week is one my partner wanted us to read together. They are much more into monster romance than I am, but next week is our vacation so I was wanting to share a book that might be an easy read.

...I'm going to try and read something a bit more lighthearted next time 😅

Not that I want to stay away from fiction like this or horror in general, just need a break when the horrors are outside and in my reading.

I really appreciated just how dire and casually monstrous this society was, and it was clear how living within that system can make you just as awful.

It brings to mind how casual actions of utter nightmarish evil can be taken when they are normalized and even incentivized.

Just finished this one today...wow this one is not for the faint of heart. Some of the most horrific descriptions and language I've ever read. It's clearly meant to be a parallel and criticism of factory farming, the scale of cruelty brought into stark focus by exploring it happening to humans.

This. Exactly this. I felt this so thoroughly in my bones I wrote a poem about it last year.

more horrors 😮‍💨

*me talking to my therapist*

"You know, I'm just worried that I haven't opened notepad for so long...what if they're lonely? 😭"

A painting of a girl. Text reads: "my passions: - the moon - hot drink - this thing" Next to "this thing" is a little painting of an unknown insect.

This is what I'm all about.

Me holding the book Tender is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica. The cover is stylized to have a black and white photo of a feminine face below the eyes facing to the left while everything above the eyes of replaced with a red silhouette of a cow's head and horns. A quote on the cover from Christina Dalcher, author of Vox, reads: "This book will pull you in, take hold, and not let go until you reach the final page. Without a doubt, my favorite read this year."

Here's the next book! Tender Is The Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica. I found this one at my local bookshop and its premise caught my attention. It's set in a world where all animal meat has been rendered poisonous by an infection and the world has turned to human flesh instead.

Speaking of, this is the exact kind of stuff I would love to be writing. I almost felt a sense of grief reading this because I knew this book was finished and I'd never be part of it. I'm so far from the possibility but still.

My goal is to work on my writing so I might be in something like this.

It's also just really nice to immerse yourself in media that has unabashed representation for trans people by trans people. It's not sappy about it, it just is, and that's a breath of fresh air.

It gives me so much inspiration and hope for my own writing.

Just finished this up, what an enjoyably horrific read. I particularly enjoyed Tonsilstonespunksplatter666!, Gender Envy, and The Divine Carcass, but there were so many other standouts too. The vivid descriptions of bodies and viscera meeting gender and autonomy speaks to me at such a deep level.

Mx. Morgan Illustration

Just realized this cover art is by the same Mx. Morgan I follow here on Bluesky already, what a lovely surprise. Check out their rad art! mxmorgan.com

(That is also their @ here if you wanna follow them too!)

Cover of Your Body is not Your body. Cover art by Mx Morgan G Robles. Art features an illustration of a goose being strangled and torn asunder by an amorphous mass of blue spikey tentacles with eyes. The tentacles are outlined and shaded in red. The title of the book appears above in a scratchy cursive font that gives a disconcerting tone.

Week 3 of reading a book every week of 2026 is a go! This week I'm jumping into queer horror again with Your Body is not Your Body, a horror anthology featuring trans and gender non-conforming authors. "Featuring murderous pleasure-bots; proselytizing zombies; acid-filled alien cops" and much more!

Finished Frankenstein yesterday. It was one of the more enjoyable gothic classics I've read, particularly the portion of the story told from the monster's perspective.