Matt Cain’s The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle is a heartbreakingly sweet story about how times of crisis can trigger moments of rewarding growth. Melancholic and romantic, it charts one man’s realisation that it is never too late to live life to its fullest. Albert Entwistle is a postman in an English country village. A... Continue Reading →
Indie comic publishers A Wave Blue World's new queer comic romance anthology, Young Men in Love is drawing a lot of attention. This collection of 20 gay love stories spans genres, art styles, and relationships, with a top-tier collection of queer creative talents including Sina Grace, Josh Cornillon, Chris Shehan, Charles Pulliam-Moore, David Booher, Anthony... Continue Reading →
Nonbinary merpeople on a magical journey of self-discovery meets teen swim team relationship drama, Jason June (author of Jay’s Gay Agenda) has delivered a queer rom-com that’s, well, okay… silly and cheesy and a bit daft, but also adorable AF. Crest is about to start their Journey, a tradition for teen merfolk (mer are nonbinary,... Continue Reading →
TJ Klune wraps up his YA superhero trilogy, The Extraordinaries, with Heat Wave which sees teenager Nick launching into his superhero career, as well as launching into his fully-fledged relationship with Seth. Quick note: being the last part of a trilogy, there’s no way to avoid spoilers for the previous books in this review. Nick... Continue Reading →
If you’re looking for a cute, contemporary gay romance to snuggle up with then Kris Ripper’s Book Boyfriend is a good place to start. Behind it’s rom-com trappings, it has hidden depths and a beautifully flawed lead character in PK. Preston ‘PK’ Harrington is an editorial assistant (and wannabe author) working at a book publisher... Continue Reading →
With the end of this challenging year in sight, we asked some friends of The Queer Review, including prominent creators, performers, artists, and activists to share the LGBTQ+ culture or events that sustained, stimulated, or inspired them in 2021. The eclectic list features two deserving mentions for a Spanish-language limited TV series that was released... Continue Reading →
For some people, life starts at 40. For miserable, corporate manager Wallace Price, life started when he died. Better late than never. TJ Klune’s new novel, Under the Whispering Door, takes his breezy fantasy stylings and tackles a love story beyond the grave. When Wallace attends his own sparsely attended funeral, he meets Mei—a reaper... Continue Reading →
Ashish Gupta, best known for his eponymous fashion label, has departed from his usual creative practice to photograph intimate, frequently unashamedly explicit portraits of men, that capture the queer male gaze with tenderness, joy, and humour, while challenging established notions of masculinity and sexiness in mainstream gay culture and porn. The result is GAZE for... Continue Reading →
“Everything is about sex. Except sex, which is about power”—the quote, apocryphally attributed to Oscar Wilde—sums up much of the machinations at the heart of Neil Blackmore’s brilliant The Dangerous Kingdom of Love, a thrilling retelling of the later years of Francis Bacon’s life with the seductive frisson of Choderlos de Laclos’ Les Liaisons Dangereuses... Continue Reading →
The gap between real support and performative allyship—the lurking fear that beneath the flag waving veneer of equality hides something untrustworthy, the thought that when push comes to shove straight people may not really have our backs—is the starting point for Matthew Clark Davison’s debut novel, Doubting Thomas. Thomas is an openly gay fourth grade... Continue Reading →
