Their Troublesome Crush (by Xan West)

I'm so sorry to read that Xan West has passed away. This is #ownvoices rep like never before! The main characters are metamours (meaning they are both polyamorous, in a relationship with the same third person) and I have to pull all the representation from the description or I'll miss something: Ernest is a Jewish autistic demiromantic queer fat trans man submissive, and Nora is a Jewish disabled queer fat femme cis woman switch.  

Mostly this is like a geeky queer kink scene come to life, complete with Ernest singing showtunes. Xan West was an autistic queer fat Jewish genderqueer writer, so represented themselves in lots of dimensions. I would have loved to continue reading the series if it had continued.  Sorry to those of you who knew Xan; may their memory (and their writings) be a blessing.

Hello I Want to Die Please Fix Me (by Anna Mehler Paperny)

This was my RHC pick for a book that "demystifies a common mental illness"; in this case, depression.  I thought the first half, Paperny's own story of her suicidal depression, definitely did help me gain more understanding of what the experience of depression is like and was extremely powerful.  (A note that as you might expect, this would likely be extremely triggering for anyone with suicidal ideation.) 

The second half of the book is more in the reporter vein (Paperny works as a Reuters reporter) and covers mental health stigma, the extremely inadequate research around depression, various treatment modalities, healthcare in Canada, and personal stories of other people experiencing depression. I found a lot of interesting info here but also it was less compelling for me that the more personal material.

Two More YA Books

Chaos on CatNet (by Naomi Kritzer) 

So excited to learn there was a sequel to Catfishing on CatNet! The original book in the series is an absolute gem. This has the same sparkling characters and fun speculative fiction elements, handling all its queer teenagers (and its poly adults) in an affectionate way.  The plot isn't quite as gripping to me as the plot of Catfishing on CatNet but that book is near-perfect so I can't really complain.  I hope the fact that this is "CatNet #2" means there will be a CatNet #3! (Disclaimer: I tagged this "I know this person" because although we've never met, Naomi and I are friends on Facebook.)

Here the Whole Time (by Vitor Martins) 

This is translated from the Portuguese and set in Brazil, so qualifies as "a realistic YA book not set in the U.S., UK, or Canada."  I tagged it novella because it's very short. I looked down thinking I was maybe halfway in and I was almost done! This is about a fat, gay teen in Brazil whose handsome neighbor comes to stay with him for two weeks. Although he is dealing with profound own body image issues and they are handled sensitively and movingly, the book really lacks conflict.  I definitely was hoping for more out of this one.

Two Very Different YA Books

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Firekeeper's Daughter is an #ownvoices book and as a young adult mystery/thriller, it also qualifies as  "a genre novel by an Indigenous, First Nations, or Native American author" in the Read Harder Challenge. This book does a great job of immersing the reader in Ojibwe culture and community, and I loved our protagonist Daunis, who is biracial and straddles both her father's Ojibwe culture and her mother's white family.  I loved her choices and the ending especially is powerful. I highly recommend this one as a deep dive into present-day (well as of 2004, when it's set) Native culture.

A couple of caveats with spoilers, so skip this paragraph if you don't want to know. Firstly, the romance element is pretty squicky because of how utterly unethical her romantic interest is.  I liked him as a character in many ways but it's reallllly hard to get past that.  And secondly, although the sexual assault storyline is ultimately handled well, it really seems put in there just to make a point about the lack of justice for Native women. I loved the scene with the pansies though so ultimately I was on board with it. 

I guess the other thing is that consider it's a thriller, it's a bit slow going. The ultimate bad guy is telegraphed very obviously very early, although there is a lot more to the twists that I did not see coming. And the pacing is pretty slow.  Still, it's worth it for the exploration of culture and for Daunis as a character.  

Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli 

Of course I'm always going to read a Becky Albertalli novel! This one also has some problems, although maybe I'm feeling picky this weeekend. This is about a girl and her gay BFF, theater kids who tend to have "communal crushes" on the same guy.  I mean, any of us former nerdy teenagers with gay BFFs (and we are legion) can relate to this unhealthy level of enmeshment, I'm sure.

Some issues: the side characters are not explored well at all. I got no sense of Matt as a character, Raina and Brandie are just kind of there, Harold might as well not exist. I appreciate the efforts at representation a lot, but it did seem a bit like Glee: throwing in the token trans character or token girl in a wheelchair, just kind of ticking off boxes rather than writing them as fully three-dimensional characters. (Some characters are great though, including Anderson, Noah, Ryan, and Kate herself.) 

Another issue: the Anderson and Kate relationship. It turns incredibly toxic and is really repetitive. I especially had issues with Anderson and how he kept having these "I love you more than anything!" talks and then giving Kate the silent treatment over nothing in the next scene.  I think the idea is good (and I like the reveal of his motivations) but the balance here is off.  I was not really rooting for their friendship as much as I think I was supposed to.

Still, did I stay up late finishing this one? Did I love the musical theater setting? Did I love Kate unreservedly? I sure did.

Fugitive Telemetry (by Martha Wells)

Part of the Murderbot Diaries series, which obviously I have written about a lot (since this is book 6) and you probably already know if this is for you. This is another novella, and I love the scope of this one (basically Murderbot solves a murder).  It is, as always, clever and very funny. Murderbot is, as always, an incredible character. The worldbuilding is delightful. Really, a gem of a series.

Martha Wells is nominated for a Best Series Hugo and despite the fact that my friend John Scalzi's excellent Interdependency series is also nominated, I can't imagine anything winning other than Murderbot! (Sorry, John. Love you, John.)