Bookish Kingdom discussion

Hi everyone!

I would like to invite you to read All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages, a collection of short stories about queer figures.
We'll be reading 4 short stories together over the course of two weeks.

We will reflect on the short stories together and hopefully some fun and interesting discussions will arise. I would like to use these discussions for my research project about the thoughts and feelings of Goodreads members with regards to LGBTQ+ books. (For more detailed info on the research project, feel free to contact me!)

You have one week to get your copies and announce your preferences for any of the short stories we'll be reading :)
We'll start reading on the 16th of March.

I'm looking forward to it, hope you are as well! :D


Reading schedule
March 26-28: Read "Walking After Midnight" by Kody Keplinger (p. 261-280)
March 28: Discuss
March 29-31: Reading of your choice
March 31: Discuss
April 01-03: Read "Every Shade of Red" by Elliot Wake (p. 175-197)
April 03: Discuss


Please sign up in this thread if you would like to join!

Participants:

Ilsen
Me

I would like to join! I’m sorry I haven’t answered the interview questions, I’ve been busy. But I do want this group to be active again!

Ilsen wrote: "I would like to join! I’m sorry I haven’t answered the interview questions, I’ve been busy. But I do want this group to be active again!"

Glad you're joining, Ilsen! :D
Don't worry, take your time with the questions :)

And yess, me too. I've missed the monthly discussions and challenges!

Yes!! I’ve joined another Goodreads Group called Middle Grade Madness and we’ve been doing a lot of readathons and challenges! I would love to do those sort of things here along with the buddy reads and monthly discussions.

I want to change our most popular buddy read to something we actually enjoy. (Our most popular buddy read thus far is The Wrath and the Dawn. Yikes...)

Oh, that sounds great! I'll have a look at that one.

Haha, oh god The Wrath and the Dawn, almost forgot about that one... The only reason it's still sitting on my shelves is because of it's pretty cover xD
We should definitely be able to top that with a better buddy read!

Definitely! I got rid of The Wrath and the Dawn a year ago. It was taking up space and I don’t have time for books like those

I will not be joining this one, but I would love to join the next one (if I can get the book) :)

Cordelianne wrote: "I will not be joining this one, but I would love to join the next one (if I can get the book) :)"

Great! I'll let you know once we have a new group reading coming up :)

"Walking After Midnight" by Kody Keplinger (p. 261-280)
(view spoiler)[I really enjoyed this story. It just felt so wholesome to me. I felt immediately immersed in the story, so props to Keplinger, given the short length of the story.

I just thought the scene in the diner was so cute and I really liked the atmosphere of it.
One thing I also really liked, is that the emphasis of the story wasn't on 'the queerness' of its characters. I find stories featuring queer characters are often critized for putting too much focus on the sexual identity of the character, presenting it as 'the main facet' of their identity. For example those early 2000's movies, often featuring a gay sidekick for entertainment purposes. However, those movies were often critized for being stereotypical, and rightly so, as using stereotypes too often can result in harmful representation.
Anyway, maybe I'm getting a bit too carried away here xD

Just thought this story in particular was an interesting and refreshing use of queer characters in the sense that the main emphasis was on their different paths in life and how they made sense of their uncertain futures and not so much on their sexual identities.
I half expected them to not even kiss in the end, which would've been fine with me as well. The story felt wholesome as it is and it was clear to me already the two fell within the lgbtq+ spectrum. But of course, the ending was a nice touch. (hide spoiler)]

I'm curious to hear what you thought, Ilsen!
I might even read some of the other stories, outside of the reading schedule, if I find the time for it :)

Also, let me know which story you would be interested in reading next! I left an open space in the reading schedule so you could pick a story to your liking as well :)

Walking After Midnight

(view spoiler)[ Like I said in my review, I didn't expect to like this one. I kinda had a bias because I heard she wrote the DUFF and knowing what I know from bits and pieces of the movie, it's very stereotypical and problematic. But I really liked it.

It just focused on their personalities and characters. I really liked their talks together and their cute bonding moments, especially when they danced on the streets. That was my favorite scene. They had a lot of scenes of them opening up and being vulnerable and I really appreciated those scenes. I did like the kiss but like you said, I would have been fine without it but I am sucker for romances.

Yea all those stereotypical gay side characters that only have the characteristics of being gay, fun, and sassy. A good example would be in the House of Night series, there was one gay character. I literally couldn't tell you anything about him except those three things. The only character developed well in that series is the mean girl who turns into one of the best friends, Aphrodite. And there's also those movies that is literally called Gay Best Friend when the whole point is to try to win the gay best friend just for popularity points. Yikes.

I feel like we are slowly turning away from those storylines and just focusing on the fact that their sexuality doesn't change anything about their personality. It's just a part of them. (hide spoiler)]

Every Shade of Red

(view spoiler)[ I really enjoyed this story especially since it had so many different queer representations. The main character was deaf as well and Robin was trans. I felt like this could have been fleshed out into a whole story where they would rescue other queer characters and live on their own.

The only thing that really bothered me about this story is the ending. It was a tragic ending that had a forced coming out and it just made it seem like all queer stories must end in a tragic forced coming out. It was hinted that Robin was trans but it was never revealed to the main character and it made the coming out a plot point which I disagree with it. I am not saying that characters cannot face hardships and tragedies but there has been a pattern of queer characters ending in tragedy and it must be something that shied away. If the author wanted to make it a tragic ending, I believed that it could have been executed better.

Overall, because of that I lowered a star on my rating but I really enjoyed the story with the camaraderie of all the queer characters in the historical time period. (hide spoiler)]

I know this next one is a story of our choice but I want to know which story you want to discuss whether good or bad and I know you haven't finished it yet. I will say my favorite stories (that we haven't discussed) are:

Roja by Anne Marie-McLemore
Burnt Umber by Mackenzi Lee
Three Witches by Tessa Gratton
The Inferno and the Butterfly by Shaun David Hutchinson
New Year by Malinda Lo
Molly's Lips by Dahlia Ahdler
The Girl with the Blue Lantern by Tess Sharpe
Healing Rosa by Tehlor Kay Mejia