Gay – Page 2 – Marked for Plot

Interview With The Vampire – A Turning Point in Vampire Stories

Interview with The Vampire has been on my read list for a while. Actually, I’ve been interested in exploring the history of vampires a bit more deeply once I realized that the three original vampire novels (The Vampyre, Carmilla, and Dracula) are all super queer. Interview with the Vampire represented a shift in how modern vampires were written. Rice placed them at the center of the tale instead of as an antagonist to be vanquished. As with its predecessors, it’s also super queer-coded. I think I came into the novel with incorrect assumptions about what this book would be, which led to this being a more disappointing read than I was hoping for. In the end I enjoyed it, but I wish discussion about the book was more accurate to the reading experience.

Read If Looking For: musings on the nature of immortality, immoral protagonists, interesting monologues

Avoid If Looking For: two gay-coded dads raising their vampiric daughter together, main characters who didn’t own slaves, traditional plot structures

The Gay Who Turned Kaiju – Monstrosity & Internalized Homophobia

I really don’t know what to make of this manga. The Gay Who Turned Kaiju is the type of book where it makes a single really big choice, and how a reader responds to that choice is going to define their experience with the entire book. The story walks a tightrope between important (and uncomfortable) themes and wantonness. I can’t figure out which side it falls on. If protagonists committing sexual assault is a hard no for you, then avoid this one.

The Fall of Kings – Political Intrigue in Medieval Academia

I finally got around to reading the third – and final – novel in the Riverside series. While it is a sequel, they can really be read in any order or can stand alone just fine. In this entry, we trade swordplay for academic debate. Other than the shift from sword to pen however, the structural DNA of The Fall of Kings fits with its predecessors. Expect gorgeous prose, political intrigue, problematic queer leads, and lots of guys cheating on their wives.

Read If Looking For: the cluttered posturing of university professors, morally and emotionally dubious characters, slow pacing, the importance of idle gossip

Avoid If Looking For: fleshed out female characters, the swordfights of earlier Riverside books, a book where you understand how the magic works

Comparable Media: Greenwode, The Goblin Emperor, Downton Abbey

An Inexplicable Act of Doom – Percy Jackson, but Make it Gay

I grew up loving Greek Mythology and imagining that half the characters in the books I read were actually gay. I would have loved An Inexplicable Act of Doom, and wish more books like this had been published when I was a kid. While written with kids in mind, I think adults looking for a more low-key reading experience will enjoy it a lot as well. Plus who doesn’t love a sweet romance between a god of your inevitable and unexpected doom with a guy who’s supposed to perish horribly while flying through the air on mechanical wings?

Read if Looking For: harmless bickering, Greek Gods as narcissistic assholes, cozy adventures, witch Aunties who give great advice

Avoid if Looking For: typo-free books, positive depictions of Theseus, nuanced or complex themes & characters

Disclosure: I was asked to be an ARC reader for this book in exchange for an honest review, though I think this was closer to a final Beta-Read than a true ARC. I did also request that Cavehill would donate a single copy of the physical book to my classroom library for my students to read. I think they’ll quite enjoy it.

Wynd – A Casual and Delightful Middle Grade Adventure

I picked up the first book in this series as I collected books for a class on Queer Comics and Cartoons. It didn’t end up making the cut as a whole-class read, but it quickly found its way into my classroom library and has become quite popular. While the series isn’t quite finished – final book is releasing this year! – I figured finishing book 4 was enough to write a review about the series more generally. It won’t tickle the fancy of anyone looking for serious or deeply thematic fare, but it’s fun and quick and a truly delightful kids book that I think many adults would enjoy as a casual read.

Read if: you love classic fantasy tropes, comics with vibrant illustrations are your style, faeries-as-bugs sounds fun

Avoid if: simplistic morality will bug you, you dislike chosen ones & prophecies, fantasy racism isn’t a worldbuilding trope that works for you

Comparable Media: Fablehaven, Septimus Heap, Cece Rios, Amulet

Winter Romance Roundup

I’m almost positive that my yearly romance kick has faded away for the time being. I’ve been settling back into some meatier fantasy/science fiction as I try and clear my shelves to prepare for r/fantasy’s yearly bingo to pick up again and I pivot to reading a lot of gay stuff again (probably including romances). It was a tough winter in Minnesota this year, which explained why I binged so many romances. They’re listed below in approximately the order I enjoyed them.

Striker V: Elements of Change

This was meant to be a book I read when I was on the treadmill, taking a break from curriculum writing, or when I couldn’t fall asleep. The type of story it didn’t matter much if I drifted in and out of. I was reading it on my cell phone, not even a damned e-reader. Striker V gripped me in the early chapters and didn’t let me go for a good long while. This novel examines Superheroes from a more person-first perspective than the standard, caring just as much about how humans would react to the constant violence of superhero activity as the fights themselves. It didn’t quite stick the landing, and I have some issues with the resolution of the story. However, it did things I haven’t seen much in superhero stories, and those bits felt just as interesting as The Watchmen.

Read if Looking For: mental health struggles, governmental bureaucracy (and sometimes humor), dystopian superheroes, happy endings

Avoid if Looking For: nuanced climaxes to nuanced conflicts, creative superhero powers, villains that make sense, tonal consistency

Shirewode

December this year has, apparently, been the month of mildly disappointing sequels. If you’d like to see my review of book 1 in this take on gay Robin Hood, see Greenwode. It lost a lot of the things that made it interesting, rehashed old ground, and didn’t succeed in raising the stakes of book 1 in a satisfying way. Just frustrating all-around. I think it’s a good recommendation for people who want fantasy gay yearning, but I needed the series to move past that.

You would think from this cover art that archery and action were going to be at least a little more prominent in this book? Too bad! Think again!

If you loved and wanted more of the ‘enemies by fate and religion’ vibes in book 1, you may like this one a lot more than I did. It remains the focal point of the series.

Flesh Eater

I didn’t know much about Flesh Eater going into the story other than it involved spiders and a queer male protagonist. I’m not totally sure what I expected, but Zootopia for Adults setting up an Epic Fantasy trilogy wasn’t it. Lots to love here, with a really fantastic take on an everyman protagonist. However, it’s not quite as dark as the title and cover might lead you to believe.

Read if Looking For: extended spider-riding scenes, a normal person who acts (mostly) like a normal person would, animal societies, organized crime

Avoid if Looking For: Overpowered protagonists, clear villains, medieval tech levels, lots of magic

A Rune in the Rubble

One of my goals in 2025 was to read more truly unknown books. Some of my favorite reads have been nearly unknown, and popularity is no indicator of quality. Steven Cavehill’s pitch for his book on r/queersff caught my eye, and I mentally bookmarked it for when I started one of my kindle binges. It’s got some classic high fantasy and dystopia elements, and was a fun read. I’ll definitely pick up the sequel, but I also hope that Cavehill goes through a final round of line-edits on his writing next time around.

Read if Looking For: asshole families, always another secret, tropey fantasy characters, overly-dependent relationships, notices at the start and end of sex scenes

Avoid if Looking For: polished writing, characters who see the plot coming at them, books free from fantasy racism (elves)