Tag: LGBTQ

Book Review: Devils Like Us by L.T. Thompson

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

Author: L.T. Thompson
Title: Devils Like Us
Narrator: Stephanie Cannon
Publication Info: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2025
Summary/Review:

Three young adults in a fictional Massachusetts town find themselves in adventure involving pirates, supernatural powers, and an evil society called the Order of Lazarus. Cas Sterling lives with visions of the gruesome deaths of people in the community.  One of these deaths is the father of friend Remy DeWindt, but Remy breaks off the friendship when she learns of Cas’ vision.

They are reunited when Remy’s father goes missing, and Remy’s research leads her to believe that he’s been abducted by the Order of Lazarus and taken to their compound on Mount Desert Island in Maine.  Cas’ brother Henry has also been taken by the order.  They are joined by Irish immigrant friend Finn Robinson as they stowaway on ship crewed by pirates. While the pirates may prove to be unexpected allies, shipboard life also exposes Cas, Remy, and Finn to greater women’s equality, racial diversity, sexuality, and gender expression than they’ve ever though possible in their white, Christian town.  The novel works as a coming-of-age story – and a coming out story – within a supernatural adventure tale!

Recommended books:

Rating: ****

Book Review: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

Author: V.E. Schwab
Title: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
Narrator: Julia, Whelan, Katie Leung, Marisa Calin
Publication Info: Macmillan Audio, 2015
Summary/Review:

This historical novel interweaves the stories of three different women.  First, there’s Maria, a Spanish commoner in the 16th-century trapped in an unhappy marriage with a viscount.  Then, there’s Lottie, a young English woman from an aristocratic family who is unwillingly being prepared to be presented for marriage.  And in 2019, there’s Alice, a Scottish woman attending university in Boston.

What do they have in common?  They’re all vampires!  Or, they each become a vampire over the course of the novel. Perhaps more importantly, all three women are lesbian, and even before they’re turned this is something that feeds their feelings of loneliness and being an outsider.  As the story plays out over the centuries, things get really messy.  The author is shown on her website wearing a shirt that says “Toxic Lesbian Vampires” which really sums things up.

One thing this book really captures is that the life of a vampire is a long slog.  The constant hunger and longing defines the vampire’s life and creates a kind of prison.  Unfortunately hundreds of pages of hunger and longing (and toxic relationships) felt like a long slog to read.  I’m definitely thinking that this is the type of book that’s not my kind of thing, but if historical fiction about Toxic Lesbian Vampires appeals to you, you’ll probably love this book.

Recommended books:
Rating: **1/2

Theater Review: Fun Home at The Huntington Theater

~ Liam ~ 1 Comment

Fun Home

Music by Jeanine Tesori
Book & Lyrics by Lisa Kron
Based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel
Directed by Logan Ellis

November 25, 2025: The Huntington Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts

Cast

Alison – Sarah Bockel
Medium Alison – Maya Jacobson
Small Alison – Lyla Randall
Bruce Bechdel – Nick Duckart
Helen Bechdel – Jennifer Ellis
Christian Bechdel – Odin Vega
John Bechdel – Caleb Levin
Roy/Pete/Mark/Bobby Jeremy – Wyatt Anton
Joan/Dance Captain – Sushma Saha

I’ve been waiting 10 years to see this musical, so I’m grateful that The Huntington Theatre has brought it back to Boston.  The musical is adapted from Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir – a book I love – in which she grapples with her conflicting feelings regarding her father, a closeted gay man who died by suicide when she was 19.  Bruce Bechdel was a talented English teacher, a restorer of old houses, and ran the family-owned funeral home (the “fun home” of the title). He could be alternately a kind and loving father, but also had a volatile temper.

The musical depicts the adult Alison working on the graphic novel at her drafting table when a younger version of herself literally emerges from the page.  Scenes in the show alternate between Small Alison as a young child, and Medium Alison when she went to college with the adult Alison always on stage observing and sometimes adding commentary.  The Small Alison scenes deal with growing up in a museum-like historic house, the weirdness of a family funeral home, Bruce sneaking around to have affairs with young men, and his strictness about Alison confirming to gender roles.  In college, Medium Alison joyously comes out of the closet and then is gobsmacked to learn that her father is also queer. The show doesn’t go into all the literary references from the book, which is probably something that wouldn’t have translated well to the stage, so it’s a good decision.

I’ve been listening to the cast album for years, and I was surprised to learn that pretty much all the music and dialogue from the show is on the recording.  But seeing it is still revelatory, with the staging at the Huntington using minimalist sets to represent the Bechdel home, Medium Alison’s dorm room, and the ever present (and versatile) drafting table. The cast is strong, but Lyla Randall steals the show as Small Alison, and appropriately got the final bow.  My favorite songs include “Come to the Fun Home” (a hilarious TV ad the Bechdel children make for the funeral home), “Changing My Major,” “Ring of Keys,” and “Telephone Wire.”

Fun Home continues at The Huntington through December 14th.  See it if you can!

 

Book Review: The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

Author: Annalee Newitz
Title: The Future of Another Timeline 
Narrator: Laura Nichol
Publication Info: Macmillan Audio, 2019
Summary/Review:

In an alternate version of our world, time machines are discovered embedded into various spots in the earth’s crust. Time-traveling scholars use them to study history.  But bad actors have used time travel in “edit wars” to change history.  One of the novel’s protagonists, Tess, is a scientist from 2022 who is a member of the Daughters of Harriet, a feminist organization determined to protect women through history.  Their antagonists are a group of misogynist “men’s rights activists” who’ve rallied behind 19th century anti-vice activist Anthony Comstock to create a world hostile to women, and then lock it by destroying the machines.

In a parallel story set in 1992, a teenager named Beth who enjoys the riot grrl scene of Southern California.  Things take a dark turn when her best friend Lizzy begins killing sexually abusive men.  Beth wants no part of murder while still desiring to maintain their friendship.  Tess travels back to the Chicago world’s fair in 1893 where she joins “hoochie coochie” dancers and a pioneering woman reporter to organize against Comstock and his followers.  But she also visits 1992’s punk festivals and attempts to keep an eye on Beth for reasons that are made clear over the course of the novel.

This is an interesting take on the time travel story with strong feminist and LGBTQ themes.  In this version of the world the advances of women and queer people are literally erased by the Comstockers, representing how these voices are erased in history.  The book also takes the debate over “the great man” versus “collective action” in history as a central theme.  Beyond that it’s a fascinating (and confusing) adventure!

Recommended books:

Rating: ****

Book Review: The Lilac People by Milo Todd

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

Author: Milo Todd
Title: The Lilac People 
Narrator: Max Meyers
Publication Info: Dreams Scape Media, 2025
Summary/Review:

Set immediately after Nazi Germany’s surrender to the Allied Powers, The Lilac People is a novel about a transgender man named Bertie (the contemporary term “transvestite” is used throughout the novel) and his partner Sofie.  They survived the Holocaust by taking the identity of ordinary farmers in a remote corner of Germany.  A frail trans man named Karl escapes from the concentration camp and is taken in by Bertie and Sofie.  While the Allies are liberating the camps, they are continuing to imprison homosexual and transgender people.

Bertie decides, ironically, that their only hope for freedom is to flee to the United States and to blend into a German-American farming community in the Midwest.  They plan their escape under the watchful eye of a suspicious American officer.  In flashbacks, the narrative returns to the early 1930s in Berlin where Bertie worked at the Institute for Sexual Science with pioneering sexologist Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld.  Bertie’s memories of a joyous time of liberation for transgender people is haunted by the rise of the Nazi Party who targeted LGBTQ people first in their rise to power.  He also remembers his dear friend Gert who went missing as they fled Berlin and is assumed dead, and is heavy with survivor’s guilt.

The Lilac People is a moving and often hopeful story even as it details the worst trauma of the Holocaust.  Like all good historical fiction it’s a great entry into understanding historical events as they affected people beyond the names and statistics.  It’s also chilling how the current rise of transphobia in the United States and United Kingdom echoes the patterns of rising fascism.

Rating: ****

Book Review: Black Flame by Gretchen Felker-Martin

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

Author: Gretchen Felker-Martin
Title: Black Flame
Narrator: Dana Aronowitz
Publication Info: MacMillan Audio, 2025
Summary/Review:

I feel bad about reviewing this book since I don’t think I quite “get” what happened in this book.  What I can tell you is that it is psychological and body horror set in New York City in the 1980s set around the protagonist Ellen Kramer.  Ellen is a film archivist tasked with restoring The Baroness, a queer and sexually-explicit movie made in Germany’s Weimar Republic that was long believed to have been destroyed by the Nazis.

While working on the film, Ellen begins experiences the characters and scenarios of the movie in her real life, with the tension being whether she’s delusional or experiencing the supernatural.  But the horrors in this book go beyond the occult to the horrors of reality – the psychological damage Ellen suffers from her abusive family, sexual violence, and the Holocaust.  But through the restoration of the film, Ellen begins to transform as well revealing deeply repressed sexuality and gender identity.  Again, I can’t really say if I totally figured out everything that happened in this book, but I can say that it’s unlike any work of fiction I’ve ever read before.

Recommended books:
Rating:

Theater Review: Lizard Boy at Speakeasy Stage

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

Lizard Boy

Book, Music & Lyrics by Justin Huertas
Directed by Lyndsay Allyn Cox
Music Director by Violet Wang

November 6, 2025: Stanford Calderwood Pavilion, Boston, Massachusetts.

Cast

Peter DiMaggio as Cary
Keiji Ishiguri as Trevor
Chelsie Nectow as Siren

20 years ago a dragon emerged from Mount St. Helens terrorizing children at recess before being killed.  Today it’s commemorated annually in Seattle with Monster Fest, a second Halloween where people go out dressed as lizards.  This is an important night for Trevor, who survived the encounter with the dragon as a child but got scaly, green skin in the process becoming the titular Lizard Boy.  While Monster Fest literally commemorates his childhood trauma, it’s also the only night he feels able to go out into public because everyone else is dressed as lizards.

On this particular night, Trevor naively sets up a date on Grindr, but fortunately matches up with the charming goofball Cary who is also willing to explore a friendship.  They go to a concert by the rock singer Siren, a woman who has been haunting Trevor’s nightmares and has magical powers. A series of events ensues that may lead to the return of the dragons and the end of the world.  At heart, the comic book story of this show is an unsubtle metaphor for how LGBTQ and people of color feel like outsiders, and that embracing themselves they can embrace their superpowers.

The profound silliness and pure joy of the music helps the show expand on its simple plot.  Despite it’s punk rock club scenery, all the music in this show is played on acoustic instruments.  The cast show their musically versatile by picking up various unusual instruments including cello, kazoo, a toy xylophone, and even banging a guitar case for percussion.  The change of instruments also reflect Trevor’s character development through the show.  The big flaw of this show is that Siren, the only woman in the play, has very little characterization compared with Trevor and Cary.  But Chelsie Nectow remains on stage throughout providing excellent musical accompaniment.

Lizard Boy continues at the Speakeasy Stage through November 22.

365 Movies in 365 Years: Cathedral (1971)

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

This year I’m trying to watch one movie every day of the year, with the provision that the movie be no longer than 36.5 minutes long. I’ll be selecting movies randomly from this list that’s already way too long, but I still welcome suggestions for short films.

Title: Cathedral 
Release Date: January 1, 1971
Director: Ronald Chase
Main Cast:
Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

It is one of the earliest of the gay films after Stonewall, and one that refused to see touch, affection, and sensuality only in pornographic terms. The films final scenes use footage filmed in the St. Chapel, Paris, and connect the sensual with the spiritual. The patterns of movement and the inter-cutting align the film to dance.

My Thoughts:

An artistic short in which naked men gently caress and kiss one another in soft focus building to be intercut with the stained glass of the titular cathedral.  Groundbreaking for its time.

Rating: ***

 

Book Review: Lucy Undying by Kiersten White

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

Author: Kiersten White
Title: Lucy Undying
Narrator: Nicky Endres, Linda Jones, Elizabeth Knowelden, Billie Bulford-Brown, Kiersten White, Jeremy Carlisle Parker
Publication Info: Books On Tape, 2024
Summary/Review:

If a feminist expansion of Bram Stoker’s Dracula crossed with sapphic romance is your jam, you might like this novel.  The premise is that Lucy Westenra was not killed but survived as a vampire to the present day.  The story is told from three points of view.  First, there’s 19-year-old Lucy’s secret journal where we learn that she puts on a front to deceive her controlling mother and has no interest in the men courting her, but is infatuated with Mina Murray.  Second, is a transcript of Lucy talking about her life since becoming a vampire with her therapist in 2024. Finally, there’s the story of Iris Godalming, a woman who has inherited property in England and wants to sell all the valuables to make money to get away from the cult-like MLM company started by her evil mother.  She forms a romantic attachment with Elle, an appraiser from an antique store.

I don’t think it’s a spoiler, because it’s pretty obvious from the start, but “Elle” is in fact Lucy, which Iris only discovers well into the book.  The early parts of the novel are interesting in developing Lucy’s character and addressing the sexist assumptions of Stoker’s characters.  But the final third of the novel gets way too silly, and not in a good way, as Lucy and Iris head off to Utah to kill Dracula and bring down the MLM empire.  It’s unfortunate after a promising start.  There are a lot of good moments in this book but it’s overall way too long and drags a lot in places.

Recommended books:

Rating: **

Book Review: Relentless Melt by Jeremy P. Bushnell

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

Author: Jeremy P. Bushnell
Title: Relentless Melt
Publication Info: Melville House (2023)
Summary/Review:

This novel begins in 1909 with Artie Quick attending the first class of a Criminal Investigation course at the Evening Institute at the Boston YMCA.  The instructor, Professor Winchell, quickly deduces that Artie is a perceptive student but also that she’s a woman in disguise.  Before Artie can immerse herself in the course, she finds herself involved in a mystery involving the abduction of young women and girls, including Winchell’s daughter.  With her eccentric friend Theodore, a young man from a prosperous family who is an amateur magician, Artie uncovers a conspiracy involving the highest members of Boston’s government.  Worse, it all is in service to a Lovecraftian horror within the tunnel excavated for Boston’s new subway!

The paranormal aspect caught me off guard since I was expecting a more straightforward mystery, so I’ll mention it hear in case anyone else enters this book unaware.  I think the book starts strong establishing the setting and characters but over time if becomes more rushed and overly complicated. Artie is a great character and I enjoy her process of learning criminal investigation while also her growing awareness of gender identity.  The chemistry of Artie and Theodore’s friendship is well done.  I feel this book had the potential to be great but ended up merely good, but it also sets up a promising sequel.

Recommended books:

Rating: ***