every chuck tingle book gets weirder and weirder (complimentary).

intense from the first page, tingle drops you into the world of statistics professor vera who is on the cusp of achieving it all- until she isn’t. everything changes in the blink of an eye, and we’re right along with vera as everything literally unravels around her.

i read most of this book with my mouth open in horror and awe of the things tingle cooks up. in true chuck fashion, there’s gore aplenty but it WORKS. most queer people i know have had the “what good is trying? what does it matter?” talk with themselves, and being inside vera’s brain while she’s having them herself sure was painful!

one of my favorite things about a tingle book (aside from the many existential crises they give me) is his ability to put the characters through hell and back but not break their spirits. queer people are resilient as fuck and chuck gets it.

another 10/10 from tingle as far as i’m concerned.

lucky day publishes 08/12/25!

​do you ever finish a book and just not know how to move on after having read it? that's this book (and honestly, the honeys, too).

a tangled web of grief, the guilt we carry, and the fear of not being good enough, ryan la sala manages to make mirrors and how we see ourselves into the stuff of nightmares.

i never REALLY knew what was happening, and when i suspected i did, i was close but the reveal was much worse (in the absolute best way). i don't think i have ever talked out loud more to myself when reading a book, because i was so INVESTED to what was happening to athan and dom.

the alternating pov chapters were brilliant and terrifying, and it worked so well. from about chapter 20 on you will not be able to stop reading (and in my case, crying). it was fast paced, heart pounding, page turning until the end. and that ENDING.

my heart still hasn't recovered and if i think too long about it, the tearing up starts all over again.

first bees, now mirrors- what else will ryan la sala make me scared of?

i read summer sons by lee mandelo weeks ago and it lives in my head rent free, as the kids say.

if you know me, you know i don’t do spooky, but i was not about to pass up a queer spooky story. so, i sucked it up and holy. shit.

i swear to you i held my breath through the majority of this book. it’s INTENSE and i literally felt the dread in my gut as i was reading. it’s haunting and scorching and i loved every damn minute of it.

also, i will protect sam halse with my life and if you disagree don’t speak to me ever.

this is so good. please, please read it and scream about it with me forever

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i grew up in the midwest, which means i unwillingly experienced the epic highs and lows of high school football firsthand. i still adored this book and the super refreshing take on that high school experience!

it was just such a feel good story, dealing with things that could absolutely have been devastating and heavy to read, but adler handles them so well. It felt true to what i imagine being the only female quarterback a tiny, small-minded town would feel like. scary, exciting, fucking *vindicating*.

i also loved the cheerleading aspect of the story, because it, too, felt honest. these girls were best friends, sometimes enemies, and teammates all rolled into one. it was just so fun and interesting to read about two people fighting to be themselves in a town that didn't want them to be and finding one another in the process.

i caught myself outright grinning while reading several times, and i just really think you're gonna love this book.

​there's just something about queer people healing in nature that gets me emotional. do i like being in nature? absolutely not. will i read about others enjoying nature and lose my mind about it? absolutely yes.

i loved the idea of these two people finding one another and themselves on this absolutely wild hiking journey. no part of me can imagine taking on a hike like this, but i immediately understood the appeal to and how it would be healing to both alexei and ben.

i really enjoyed both their separate and joined journeys in this book, and my sweet, sweet, alexei made me cry several times. while my journey isn't the same as his, parts of it hit so very close to home that i found myself crying and smiling simultaneously.

this is such a beautiful book about healing yourself for yourself, and what beautiful (and sometimes scary) things can happen when you live the life you've longed to.

i’m not sorry for being yet another person to photograph this book in greenery. i’m not.

have you ever read a book that makes your stomach hurt? because this book made my stomach hurt.

it’s SO good and tense and just… one of those things that you want to believe doesn’t happen or exist but very much fucking do happen and exist and i couldn’t put it down. it’s brutal in the most honest way and i have never read anything like it. the religious parts of this were really… hoo, boy. that “we’re here to help you” drenched in hatred is just too real.

it also managed to be hilarious between the moments where i felt like my heart was being ripped out for connor and the other campers. i don’t know how funny, terrifying, heartbreaking, and uplifting all work together but they DO. these queer kids faced the absolutely worst of humanity and fought back just to be themselves and if that’s not the perfect example of the queer experience, i don’t know what is.