bluelien
she/her | 20s | bioengineering student | big fan of ✨️horror and thrillers✨️ but I read anything that tickles my fancy | I especially love me a book with some emotional weight to it🤧
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bluelien commented on GinaLollobrigida's update
1h
GinaLollobrigida TBR'd a book
3h
Listen to Your Sister
Neena Viel
For fans of Jordan Peele’s films, Stranger Things, and The Other Black Girl, Listen To Your Sister is a laugh-out-loud, deeply terrifying, and big-hearted speculative horror novel from electrifying debut talent Neena Viel.
Twenty-five year old Calla Williams is struggling since becoming guardian to her brother, Jamie. Calla is overwhelmed and tired of being the one who makes sacrifices to keep the family together. Jamie, full of good-natured sixteen-year-old recklessness, is usually off fighting for what matters to him or getting into mischief, often at the same time. Dre, their brother, promised he would help raise Jamie–but now the ink is dry on the paperwork and in classic middle-child fashion, he’s off doing his own thing. And through it all, The Nightmare never stops haunting Calla: recurring images of her brothers dying that she is powerless to stop.
When Jamie’s actions at a protest spiral out of control, the siblings must go on the run. Taking refuge in a remote cabin that looks like it belongs on a slasher movie poster rather than an AirBNB, the siblings now face a new threat where their lives–and reality–hang in the balance. Their sister always warned them about her nightmares. They really should have listened.
“A knockout debut." -Ashley Winstead
“Incredibly original and seriously scary.” – Nick Medina
“A brilliant fever-dream of a novel that effortlessly dances between horror, literary, and family saga—sure to appeal to fans of Grady Hendrix, Tananarive Due, Mona Awad, and Stephen King. – Maria Dong
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2Reply
bluelien TBR'd a book
1h
Listen to Your Sister
Neena Viel
For fans of Jordan Peele’s films, Stranger Things, and The Other Black Girl, Listen To Your Sister is a laugh-out-loud, deeply terrifying, and big-hearted speculative horror novel from electrifying debut talent Neena Viel.
Twenty-five year old Calla Williams is struggling since becoming guardian to her brother, Jamie. Calla is overwhelmed and tired of being the one who makes sacrifices to keep the family together. Jamie, full of good-natured sixteen-year-old recklessness, is usually off fighting for what matters to him or getting into mischief, often at the same time. Dre, their brother, promised he would help raise Jamie–but now the ink is dry on the paperwork and in classic middle-child fashion, he’s off doing his own thing. And through it all, The Nightmare never stops haunting Calla: recurring images of her brothers dying that she is powerless to stop.
When Jamie’s actions at a protest spiral out of control, the siblings must go on the run. Taking refuge in a remote cabin that looks like it belongs on a slasher movie poster rather than an AirBNB, the siblings now face a new threat where their lives–and reality–hang in the balance. Their sister always warned them about her nightmares. They really should have listened.
“A knockout debut." -Ashley Winstead
“Incredibly original and seriously scary.” – Nick Medina
“A brilliant fever-dream of a novel that effortlessly dances between horror, literary, and family saga—sure to appeal to fans of Grady Hendrix, Tananarive Due, Mona Awad, and Stephen King. – Maria Dong
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bluelien commented on Bookishwormish's update
3h
Bookishwormish completed their yearly reading goal of 25 books!
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Bookishwormish's 2026 Reading Challenge
25 of 25 read
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6Reply
bluelien TBR'd a book
3h
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
From the rubble-strewn streets of U.S.-occupied Baghdad, Hadi--a scavenger and an oddball fixture at a local café--collects human body parts and stitches them together to create a corpse. His goal, he claims, is for the government to recognize the parts as people and to give them proper burial. But when the corpse goes missing, a wave of eerie murders sweeps the city, and reports stream in of a horrendous-looking criminal who, though shot, cannot be killed. Hadi soon realizes he's created a monster, one that needs human flesh to survive--first from the guilty, and then from anyone in its path. A prizewinning novel by "Baghdad's new literary star" (The New York Times), Frankenstein in Baghdad captures with white-knuckle horror and black humor the surreal reality of contemporary Iraq.
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bluelien TBR'd a book
3h
The Last Syrian (The Pride List)
Omar Youssef Souleimane
A rare narrative of gay love in the Arab world that travels into the lives of a group of spirited youth during the Syrian Revolution.
Youssef’s mother has always told him that he is named after the biblical prophet Joseph who had the power of foresight. But when Youssef participated in the first demonstration in Damascus in 2011, he felt that the uprising against the Bashar al-Assad regime after forty years of silence and fear was “a miracle more powerful than that of the prophet.”
While Josephine, a charming young Alawite, gathers in her home a group of youth to fight for their visions of a promising future, a forbidden love story unfolds between two men, Youssef and Mohammad. Meanwhile, young Khalid’s love for Josephine is brutally interrupted by the agents of the oppressive regime. Homosexuality clashes with tradition, emancipation with persecution, and feelings with loyalties, leading to an upheaval that sweeps away the destinies of the young as well as that of an entire nation.
Omar Youssef Souleimane’s eloquent novel is not only a narrative of the Syrian Revolution; it is also a story about inter-generational conflicts, rebellion, and liberation. With intense, poetic prose, he brilliantly captures the indomitable yearning for freedom that, despite all obstacles and setbacks, always survives in a hopeful person’s heart until it’s attained.
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bluelien commented on fearlessfictionalfem's update
11h
fearlessfictionalfem earned a badge
11h
Sapphic Across Genres
Platinum: Finished 20 Main Quest books.
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1Reply
bluelien commented on flungoutofspace456's review of Margin of Error
12h
➥ 4 stars ⋆˚࿔
I can’t believe the academia duology is over now
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bluelien wrote a review...
12h
I read this for the queerlitreadathon and admittedly had no expectations. Imagine then my surprise at how much I enjoyed this story! Aside from one plot device which I'm not a fan of, I really loved the pacing of this book. The characters were well written and I couldn't help but root for them individually and as a couple. The plot held its own and the mystery kept me intrigued throughout the book. I've only got good things to say about this one! And speaking of good things, the cover art is gorgeous!!
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bluelien finished a book
13h
Margin of Error
Rachel Lacey
From Rachel Lacey, author of Learning Curves, comes a tender, hopeful romance about how fate is what you’re given but love is what you choose, and how small sparks can change everything.
Two years after Marin almost died in Manhattan, she thought she’d never run into the stranger who read her horoscope moments before the accident. So it seems like fate when they remeet in the small town where she’s teaching statistics, healing from a painful divorce, and feeling that she’s been in the wrong kind of love all along.
Charlotte came back to Vermont for two to sell homes, and to make one for herself by solving the mystery of her mother’s disappearance long ago. As she house hunts for Marin, who’s started coming out to friends and family with mixed reactions, she feels a spark she’d never dared to imagine. After sharing family secrets and a night with just one bed, new feelings emerge.
But as they get to the heart of the mystery—and the heart of who they are—what brought them together could tear them apart…if Charlotte’s reluctance to speak her truth doesn’t do it first.
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bluelien TBR'd a book
3d
The Loudest Silence
Sydney Langford
Two disabled, queer teens find belonging in this poignant platonic love story about singing, signing, and solidarity.
CASEY KOWALSKI once dreamed of becoming a professional singer. Then the universe threw her a life-altering curveball— sudden, permanent, and profound hearing loss—just before her family's move from Portland to Miami. Now, she's learning to navigate the world as a Deaf-Hard of Hearing person while trying to conceal her hearing loss from her new schoolmates.
HAYDEN GONZÁLEZ-ROSSI is also keeping secrets. Three generations of González men have risen to stardom on the soccer field, and Hayden knows his family expects him to follow in their footsteps, but he wants to quit soccer and pursue a career on Broadway. If only his Generalized Anxiety Disorder didn't send him into a debilitating spiral over the thought of telling the truth.
Casey and Hayden are both determined to hide who they really are. But when they cross paths at school, they bond over their shared love of music and their mutual feeling that they don't belong, and the secrets come spilling out. Their friendship is the beating heart of this dual-perspective story featuring thoughtful disability representation, nuanced queer identities, and a lovably quirky supporting cast.
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bluelien TBR'd a book
3d
Free from Falling
E.L. Massey
Justin “Matts” Matthews is good at a lot of things: Rubik’s Cubes, playing guitar, herding cattle, and most importantly for his career in the NHL, hockey. He’s not good at human interactions or social cues, especially when it comes to women. This deficiency is an annoyance rather than a problem, right up until he meets Sydney Warren. If it’s not love at first sight, it’s sure something close.
Sydney Warren, frontwoman for up-and-coming rock band Red Right Hand, is fierce, driven, and she doesn't do relationships. Being an out trans woman in the music industry is more than enough pressure—a romantic entanglement would be added stress she doesn’t need. A romantic entanglement with a professional hockey player who, to all accounts, is only just learning to be an ally is definitely not what she needs. And yet.
After a chance encounter, Matts and Sydney become unlikely friends. However, in the stolen moments of their busy schedules––late-night phone calls between NHL games and concert tour dates—they start to question if maybe “friendship” isn't so apt a description for whatever this is between them.
But can they overcome the outside pressures from family and media that would rather their relationship end before it has a chance to start?
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