starsong

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starsong commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

starsong

Book Recs - WLW

Hey all! Looking for some sapphic wlw book recs; have been reading through a lot of rec lists from various sources around the web and coming up a bit short on finding books that really scratch the itch. Here's what I'm looking for/hoping to find:

Wants in a book:

Books with a genuine plot, not just cozy/fluffy low stakes books solely focused just on them falling in love (they for sure have their place and I do love them in a certain mood, but not what I'm looking for right now)
By plot, I'm pretty flexible on genre, I just want an actual plot that isn't about the romance itself, so anything amongst sci-fi, fantasy, horror, thriller, etc.
Fully down with a slow burn romance and such, just want a good meaty storyline to be just as fleshed out, and balanced between plot/overarching story, and romance

Do not want:

Heavy smut; I'm okay with a small or trace amount, so long as it's limited and brief and not a huge part of the plot
Unrequited love or anything heavy on the tragedy (example: Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo)
So many lesbian-oriented books are about teens and coming-of-age, and again, those have their place, but not what I'm looking for right now

Realizing I may be too picky but appreciate if anyone has any recs you can offer!

starsong started reading...

The Mercies

Kiran Millwood Hargrave

After a storm has killed off all the island's men, two women in a 1600s Norwegian coastal village struggle to survive against both natural forces and the men who have been sent to rid the community of alleged witchcraft. Finnmark, Norway, 1617. Twenty-year-old Maren Bergensdatter stands on the craggy coast, watching the sea break into a sudden and reckless storm. Forty fishermen, including her brother and father, are drowned and left broken on the rocks below. With the menfolk wiped out, the women of the tiny Northern town of Vardø must fend for themselves. Three years later, a sinister figure arrives. Absalom Cornet comes from Scotland, where he burned witches in the northern isles. He brings with him his young Norwegian wife, Ursa, who is both heady with her husband's authority and terrified by it. In Vardø, and in Maren, Ursa sees something she has never seen before: independent women. But Absalom sees only a place untouched by God and flooded with a mighty evil. As Maren and Ursa are pushed together and are drawn to one another in ways that surprise them both, the island begins to close in on them with Absalom's iron rule threatening Vardø's very existence. Inspired by the real events of the Vardø storm and the 1620 witch trials, The Mercies is a feminist story of love, evil, and obsession, set at the edge of civilization.

starsong finished reading and wrote a review...

starsong

Dec 29, 2025

1.0

Enjoyment: 1.0Quality: 1.0Characters: 1.0Plot: 1.0

This was an easy, fast-paced thriller overall, just wasn't quite for me.

What Worked For Me:

Author's style is approachable and makes it easy to get sucked in
Despite predicting most of the plot and ending about 30% in, the writing was engaging enough to stick with it and see how it all played out

What I Struggled With:

The predictability of this; the writing was engaging, but I kept thinking, 'the author can't really be going this direction can they?' Because it felt so obvious, but I stuck with it just because I kept expecting an ending that would subvert my expectations, and that did not end up coming to fruition.
As characters, Ellie and Poppy were the most accessible and easy to connect with, and my heartstrings were pulled for them a thousand times over. The rest of the characters fell flat for me, in particular the mother.

Post from the Pagebound Club forum

10h

starsong

Book Recs - WLW

Wants in a book:

Books with a genuine plot, not just cozy/fluffy low stakes books solely focused just on them falling in love (they for sure have their place and I do love them in a certain mood, but not what I'm looking for right now)
By plot, I'm pretty flexible on genre, I just want an actual plot that isn't about the romance itself, so anything amongst sci-fi, fantasy, horror, thriller, etc.
Fully down with a slow burn romance and such, just want a good meaty storyline to be just as fleshed out, and balanced between plot/overarching story, and romance

Do not want:

Heavy smut; I'm okay with a small or trace amount, so long as it's limited and brief and not a huge part of the plot
Unrequited love or anything heavy on the tragedy (example: Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo)
So many lesbian-oriented books are about teens and coming-of-age, and again, those have their place, but not what I'm looking for right now

Realizing I may be too picky but appreciate if anyone has any recs you can offer!

starsong TBR'd a book

14h

Last Night at the Telegraph Club

Malinda Lo

A story of love and duty set in San Francisco's Chinatown during the Red Scare. “That book. It was about two women, and they fell in love with each other.” And then Lily asked the question that had taken root in her, that was even now unfurling its leaves and demanding to be shown the sun: “Have you ever heard of such a thing?” Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father—despite his hard-won citizenship—Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.

starsong is interested in reading...

14h

Hijab Butch Blues

Lamya H.

A queer hijabi Muslim immigrant survives her coming-of-age by drawing strength and hope from stories in the Quran in this daring, provocative, and radically hopeful memoir. When fourteen-year-old Lamya H realizes she has a crush on her teacher--her female teacher--she covers up her attraction, an attraction she can't yet name, by playing up her roles as overachiever and class clown. Born in South Asia, she moved to the Middle East at a young age and has spent years feeling out of place, like her own desires and dreams don't matter, and it's easier to hide in plain sight. To disappear. But one day in Quran class, she reads a passage about Maryam that changes everything: when Maryam learned that she was pregnant, she insisted no man had touched her. Could Maryam, uninterested in men, be . . . like Lamya? From that moment on, Lamya makes sense of her struggles and triumphs by comparing her experiences with some of the most famous stories in the Quran. She juxtaposes her coming out with Musa liberating his people from the pharoah; asks if Allah, who is neither male nor female, might instead be nonbinary; and, drawing on the faith and hope Nuh needed to construct his ark, begins to build a life of her own--ultimately finding that the answer to her lifelong quest for community and belonging lies in owning her identity as a queer, devout Muslim immigrant. This searingly intimate memoir in essays, spanning Lamya's childhood to her arrival in the United States for college through early-adult life in New York City, tells a universal story of courage, trust, and love, celebrating what it means to be a seeker and an architect of one's own life.

starsong TBR'd a book

14h

The Color Purple

Alice Walker

Read the original inspiration for the new, boldly reimagined film from producers Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, starring Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, and Fantasia Barrino. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance and silence. Through a series of letters spanning twenty years, first from Celie to God, then the sisters to each other despite the unknown, the novel draws readers into its rich and memorable portrayals of Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery and Sofia and their experience. The Color Purple broke the silence around domestic and sexual abuse, narrating the lives of women through their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery. Deeply compassionate and beautifully imagined, Alice Walker's epic carries readers on a spirit-affirming journey towards redemption and love. “Reading The Color Purple was the first time I had seen Southern, Black women’s literature as world literature. In writing us into the world—bravely, unapologetically, and honestly—Alice Walker has given us a gift we will never be able to repay.” —Tayari Jones “The Color Purple was what church should have been, what honest familial reckoning could have been, and it is still the only art object in the world by which all three generations of Black artists in my family judge American art.” —Kiese Laymon

starsong TBR'd a book

14h

Rubyfruit Jungle

Rita Mae Brown

Bawdy and moving, the ultimate word-of-mouth bestseller, Rubyfruit Jungle is about growing up a lesbian in America--and living happily ever after.

starsong TBR'd a book

14h

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Emily M. Danforth

When Cameron Post's parents die suddenly in a car crash, her shocking first thought is relief. Relief they'll never know that, hours earlier, she had been kissing a girl. But that relief doesn't last, and Cam is soon forced to move in with her conservative aunt Ruth and her well-intentioned but hopelessly old-fashioned grandmother. She knows that from this point on, her life will forever be different. Survival in Miles City, Montana, means blending in and leaving well enough alone (as her grandmother might say), and Cam becomes an expert at both. Then Coley Taylor moves to town. Beautiful, pickup-driving Coley is a perfect cowgirl with the perfect boyfriend to match. She and Cam forge an unexpected and intense friendship—one that seems to leave room for something more to emerge. But just as that starts to seem like a real possibility, ultrareligious Aunt Ruth takes drastic action to 'fix' her niece, bringing Cam face-to-face with the cost of denying her true self—even if she's not exactly sure who that is. The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a stunning and unforgettable literary debut about discovering who you are and finding the courage to live life according to your own rules.

starsong made progress on...

I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself

Marisa Crane

100%

starsong finished a book

I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself

Marisa Crane

In a United States not so unlike our own, the Department of Balance has adopted a radical new form of law enforcement: rather than incarceration, wrongdoers are given a second (and sometimes, third, fourth, and fifth) shadow as a reminder of their crime—and a warning to those they encounter. Within the Department, corruption and prejudice run rampant, giving rise to an underclass of so-called Shadesters who are disenfranchised, publicly shamed, and deprived of civil rights protections. Kris is a Shadester and a new mother to a baby born with a second shadow of her own. Grieving the loss of her wife and thoroughly unprepared for the reality of raising a child alone, Kris teeters on the edge of collapse, fumbling in a daze of alcohol, shame, and self-loathing. Yet as the kid grows, Kris finds her footing, raising a child whose irrepressible spark cannot be dampened by the harsh realities of the world. With a first-person register reminiscent of the fierce self-disclosure of Sheila Heti and the poetic precision of Ocean Vuong, I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself is a bold debut novel that examines the long shadow of grief, the hard work of parenting, and the power of queer resistance.

starsong completed their yearly reading goal of 2 books!

starsong's 2025 Reading Challenge

3 of 2 read

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starsong set their yearly reading goal to 2

starsong's 2025 Reading Challenge

3 of 2 read

starsong finished reading and wrote a review...

starsong

Dec 25, 2025

5.0

Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 5.0Characters: 5.0Plot: 5.0

🤯

😩

👻

Oh my gosh, this BOOK! What an incredible story from start to finish!! At about 70% of the way through this, I stalled out for a day only because I knew I was close to finishing it and I didn't want it to be over. :(

Everything about this was pitch perfect, I wish I could erase my memory and read it again.

Loved: The pacing; never once did it falter. Tananarive Due is masterful at kicking this off with a bang of intrigue right out of the gate, and then threading the needle so perfectly, giving us little hints of a steady creeping dread and things steadily becoming more bizarre. The way you begin to question real vs. not, and the whole world building behind the nature of death in this is just astounding.

Lacked: Nothing. Perfection!

starsong TBR'd a book

Patience & Sarah

Isabel Miller

Set in the nineteenth century, Isabel Miller's classic lesbian novel traces the relationship between Patience White, a painter, and Sarah Dowling, a farmer, whose romantic bond does not sit well with the puritanical New England farming community in which they live. Ultimately, they are forced to make life-changing decisions that depend on their courage and their commitment to one another. First self-published in 1969 (titled A Place for Us) in an edition of 1,000 copies, the author hand-sold the book on New York street corners; it garnered increasing attention to the point of receiving the American Library Association's first Gay Book Award in 1971. McGraw-Hill's version of the book a year later brought it to mainstream bookstores across the country. Patience & Sarah is a historical romance whose drama was a touchstone for the burgeoning gay and women's activism of the 1960s and early 1970s. It celebrates the joys of an uninhibited love between two strong women with a confident defiance that remains relevant today. Features an appendix of supplementary materials about Patience & Sarah and the author, as well as an introduction by acclaimed novelist Emma Donoghue.

starsong finished reading and wrote a review...

starsong

Dec 24, 2025

3.5

Enjoyment: 4.0Quality: 4.0Characters: 3.0Plot: 3.0

Very very fond of mythical retellings that include queer representation and inclusion, so that's already a plus for me!

Loved: The prose - absolutely gorgeous! I love the creativity of just this plot alone, too. Will always love and appreciate the chance to enjoy women loving women in stories, especially ones set in a historical setting like this.

Lacked: I think this is probably just because of the constraints of a novella, but I felt like we didn't get to sit with characters enough. Something would happen and the scene was over fast and we didn't get to sit with things for very long. There was a nice little throughline of a plot in this, but I didn't feel like by the end I knew the characters well or felt emotionally connected to them.

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Spear

Nicola Griffith

100%

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