Lost Boi

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Titles or Covers That Made Me Want to Read/Buy the Book

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl. As the title suggests this week it’s all about the book covers or titles that stood out to us and made us either buy them or make a note to check them out later.

Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn
This is a book I got from a friend who was unhauling a load of books years ago (probably 10 years ago?!). She posted the titles of the books she was getting rid of an this title just leapt out at me and had to claim it. I read it so long ago I can’t really remember anything about it but I do know it was a memoir.

The Beast Player and The Beast Warrior by Nahoko Uehashi.
As I said in my WIT Month TBR post, these two were complete cover buys. I saw The Beast Warrior first as it was on one of those stands in the bookshop and after reading the blurb and realising it was a sequel hunted on the shelves to see if the first book was in stock and luckily it was and it was just as beautiful.

Lost Boi by Sassafras Lowrey
I got this from City Lights bookshop in San Francisco when I was on holiday there. I could’ve spent hours in that shop as there was certainly a lot of treasures to find but this one is what stood out to me. It’s a queer retelling of Peter Pan and was unlike anything I’d read before.

A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston
Another cover buy because the naked hardcover was just stunning and I loved how the dust jacket complimented it.

Uprooted by Naomi Novak
I loved the colours and the illustration on this cover. Pity I didn’t like the story inside it so much.

The Secret Fire by C.J. Daugherty and Carina Rozenfeld
This was both a cover buy and a title buy. The title intrigued me and the cover was simple but effective – still haven’t read it yet though.

Man in the Empty Suit by Sean Ferrell
This was another cover and title buy. I liked how simple it was and how the colourful silhouette stands out. The title was intriguing too.

Sekret by Lindsay Smith
I found this cover and the font used to be simple but striking. I did try reading Sekret a couple of times but couldn’t get into it so unfortunately, I unhauled it recently. It’s a shame when the cover doesn’t live up to the book inside.

Five Ghosts Vol. 1: The Haunting of Fabian Grey by Frank J. Barbiere and Chris Mooneyham
One of my favourite cover buys when it comes to comic books. Loved the story and the art style and I’m so pleased this cover caught my eye.

Would any of these book titles or covers have made you want to pick them up?

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Top Ten Books I Enjoyed That Have Under 2000 Ratings On Goodreads

Top Ten Tuesday is a feature run by BrokeAndBookish each week. This week it’s all about underrated books and to be more subjective about it, I’m gonna see what’s underrated by having them be under 2,000 ratings on Goodreads. For those interested my Goodreads is here and I’m finally getting the hang of updating it! So without further ado, here are some underappreciated books I think you should read!

FullSizeRender (94)Techbitch by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza (51 ratings on Goodreads)
This book is some great chick-lit that doesn’t go for all the tropes you might expect it to. It’s about a woman coming back to work at a major fashion magazine to find her former assistant has been filling her roll and the whole magazine is going to become a digital one. It’s a great culture clash of ideas about PR and how magazines should be and it’s a lot of fun. My review is here.

 

emancipatedEmancipated by M.G. Reyes (524 ratings on Goodreads)
Admittedly I hadn’t heard of this book till fairly recently but I really enjoyed it. It’s a contemporary YA about a house full of teenagers who have been emancipated from their parents or guardians for various reasons and they all have their own secrets and problems. It’s an addictive read. My review is here.

 

FullSizeRender (20)Rocket Girl Vol. 1: Times Squared by Brandon Montclare and Amy Reeder (913 ratings on Goodreads)
This comic is so fun and very feminist. DaYoung is a teenage cop from the future is sent back to 1986 to stop scientist creating a machine that will destroy the future. The art is brilliant; it really feels like DaYoung is flying through the pages (yeah she can fly because of her future tech) and while the 1980s setting is a lot of fun there is still a mystery to solve. My review is here. (more…)

TOP 5 WEDNESDAY: Books with “Hard” Topics

Top 5 Wednesday is a great feature created by GingerReadsLainey and hosted by ThoughtsonTomes. To find out more about Top 5 Wednesday and the upcoming topics, check out its Goodreads page. This weeks it’s all about hard topics which could mean books about mental health, sexual assault, terminal illness or other books you found tough to read.

FullSizeRender (96)The Hounding of David Oluwale – Kester Aspden
This is the true story about how the police didn’t bother to look into the death of David Olwale, a homeless immigrant from Nigeria and a former patient in a mental hospital, until eighteen months later when a lengthy campaign of harassment by two high-ranking policeman was uncovered. This is one of those true stories that are tough to read and it shows how racism and police discrimination has been around for decades and while some stuff has changed, it is not enough.

lost boi elenasquareeyesLost Boi by Sassafras Lowrey
This is a retelling of Peter Pan that really isn’t child-friendly. There’s a lot of BDSM elements but the view of it is still incredibly childlike it’s a little disturbing. It is a good book full of queer characters but it’s definitely full of hard topics including drug use.

 

everydaysexismEveryday Sexism by Laura Bates
This is a non-fiction book full of true stories and statistics about everyday sexism. It encompasses many things, school life, discrimination at work, street harassment and more. It’s a fascinating book but it’s tough to read sometimes because you can’t help but get frustrated by society’s gender expectations that fall on both men and women, and how women are discriminated against every day, even if it’s just small macroaggressions that many people have just learnt to ignore.

illustrted mumThe Illustrated Mum by Jacqueline Wilson
This features two sisters whose mother has bipolar and how difficult it is living with her but they still love her. It’s great at showing how you might still love your mum but you might not always like them.

 

 

FullSizeRender (78)Seed by Lisa Heathfield
Seed is often an uncomfortable book to read. There’s no two ways about it, Seed is a cult. As a reader you can see the signs but to fifteen year old Pearl, everything is normal and how it should be. It’s also a hard book to read because while nothing is explicit, sexual abuse of children is implied throughout and it’s a slow build for some of the characters to realise or react to what’s happening.

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Top Ten Quotes I Loved From Books I Read In The Past Year Or So

Top Ten Tuesday is a feature run by BrokeAndBookish each week – I’m thinking I might not take part every week but just see if a week takes my fancy. As the title suggests this week is all about favourite quotes I’ve read in books recently. Some of these I knew I wanted to feature straight away because they stuck with me, others I had to think about a bit. Also this could have quite easily been ten quotes from The Martian but I managed to restrain myself.

I can’t stand seeing girls hate on girls. There’s enough of that in the tabloids.
– #scandal by Sarah Ockler

If a hiker gets lost in the mountains, people will coordinate a search. If a train crashes, people will line up to give blood. If an earthquake levels a city, people all over the world will send emergency supplies. This is so fundamentally human that it’s found in every culture without exception. Yes, there are assholes who just don’t care, but they’re massively outnumbered by the people who do.
– The Martian by Andy Weir (more…)

REVIEW: Lost Boi by Sassafras Lowrey

lost boi elenasquareeyesPan’s best boi Tootles narrates the story of the Neverland squat home, how the lost bois have created a home and their own version of a family and how the arrival of Wendi changes everything. The lost bois are loyal to Pan and refuse to join Hook and the leather Pirates, as they battle and learn they all refuse to grow up but sometimes things don’t always work out how they planned.

Lost Boi is a retelling of the Peter Pan story but it’s filed with a different sort of magic. It’s full of sex and drug references so it’s definitely not for younger readers but it somehow makes these things seem otherworldly and dangerous yet appealing. The writing is strangely beautiful sometimes as it shows the world of Neverland through a child’s eyes, a world which is in fact pretty grim and dangerous suddenly seems appealing when Tootles talks about it.

As the reader you get thrown into the world that the lost bois are living and it’s sometimes a bit hard to figure out what’s going on and how these characters that you know like Tinkerbell are really so different and how they fit in this version of the tale. Tootles does his best to describe what’s happening in Neverland but it’s almost like it has a different language and it takes a while for you to grasp what is really happening like with the “battles” between the lost bois and the pirates. (more…)