October 2024 reads...

Below are the books that I read in October and my thoughts on each. 

I'm trying to do the Fold Reading Challenge to diversify my reading. In October, I was to read non-fiction by a nonbinary and/or transgender author. Instead, I read fiction by a transgender author with two transgender characters. In November, I'm to read an ACCESSIBLE book by a marginalized author. That means a book that is available in Braille, Audio, and Large Print. I'm not sure what I'm going to read for that yet. I'll see what The Fold recommends.

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THE SPIRIT BARES ITS TEETH by Andrew Joseph White

The Spirit Bares its Teeth reminds me of a book I read earlier this year where young people fight back against those working to oppress them. Only this book is set in a Victorian paranormal setting, and the fighting back is not in secret and much more gruesome. It is important to read the Letter from the Author at the beginning of the book to know the trigger warnings. But I kept reading and enjoyed this story of friendship, betrayal, found family, and revenge. The main character, Silas, is Trans and Autistic, both which play an important part in the story. The Spirit Bares its Teeth is an intense fantasy horror story that portrays only a minimal amount of the real cruelties if human nature. It's the second book by Andrew Joseph White that I've read, and I will definitely read more!

Here are some memorable quotes from the story:

"When something terrible happens--or at least, when you learn about it--it feels like it should affect the entire world. It feels like something should change. But it doesn't."

"I think the entire world depends on people pretending they don't know they're doing terrible things."

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BLOOD SISTERS by Vanessa Lillie

Blood Sisters is an intense read, both in terms of suspense and the Indigenous issues it tackles head on. Syd is a BIA officer who is sent back home to help with a case, leaving behind her pregnant wife. She hasn't been there for a couple years, and her contact with her family has been fleeting at that. But when she returns to Picher, Oklahoma, she can no longer avoid them. And her priority changes from the case she's supposed to help with to finding her missing sister. 

Syd's assumptions about her sister and her stubbornness that has her doing everything alone instead of waiting for help, get her into a lot of trouble and prevent her from finding the clues she needs to find her sister. Once she begins to let others into her investigation, she learns the connections between her sister, her own traumatic past, and the case she was sent there for.

In Blood Sisters, Vanessa Lillie wrote a very suspenseful novel that kept me reading from beginning to end. And it also weaves in many Indigenous issues that need to be learned in both Canada and the US, including government land grabs, broken treaties, and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People.

I highly recommend Blood Sisters as both a suspense novel, as well as one  to learn more about important Indigenous issues.
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Here are some memorable quotes from the story:

"If he wasn't so ignorant, he'd see that the people he hates and villainizes have more in common with him than the better-off white people where he thinks he belongs."

"As with justice and as with the earth, there can always be a balance returned. There is healing in the very pursuit."

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