Predicting the Next Queer Book I Give 5 Stars
I love watching five-star prediction videos on BookTube, partly because we’re often so wrong about what we’re going to like. I can pretty reliably predict which books I’ll give a four-star rating because that’s where the majority of my reading falls: they’re books I enjoyed but haven’t risen to the level of all-time favourites. Five stars is a trickier prospect, though—almost by definition, they need to surprise me. They’re the books that really knock my socks off, and it’s hard to see those coming.
So, today I’m placing my bets on the next book I’ll give five stars. I have five options, ordered from least to most likely. There are two factors here: the first is which book I’m actually going to read soon, and the second is my rating.
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Foreign Fruit: A Personal History of the Orange by Katie Goh (May 6)
I’m starting off with the wild cards. Memoirs can be some of my favourite reads, but that comes down to the author’s writing style more than anything else. I’m also really interested in exploring history (or literature) through a very specific lens like Goh does with oranges. (Oddly enough, I wrote an article called Not the Only Fruit: The Significance of Oranges in Queer Literature.) If I do read this one, it will be for the May 6th All the Books podcast episode, which means I probably won’t pick it up until April. Hopefully, I find a queer five-star read before that!
Kiss Me, Maybe by Gabriella Gamez (May 6)
Here’s another one on my list to read for the May 6th All the Books episode. It’s also one of my most anticipated releases of the year. But I’ll be honest: a lot of that is due to the cover. It’s gorgeous. The premise sounds fun, and I love a sapphic librarian main character, but romances are a bit of a gamble for me—they tend to be either three-star or five-star reads.
Monk and Robot by Becky Chambers
Now we’re getting into the more likely options. I’ve been meaning to read the Monk and Robot books for ages because I love cozy queer SFF. I really enjoyed A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. This paperback edition with both books in one volume is out May 6th, so I could read it for the podcast, but I also might pick these up for Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon, which is happening April 26th. I’ve been participating in Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon twice a year for more than ten years now!
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Here’s another book that’s been on my TBR for ages. This is the title I’m most confident I’ll give five stars, based on everything I’ve heard about it. The gamble is whether I’ll actually pick it up, since by all logic I should have read it already. Because it’s short, though, it’s another good choice for the readathon.
A Song for You and I by K. O’Neill
And the most likely book I’ll give five stars to next is K O’Neill’s newest! I adore The Tea Dragon Society: I have a print framed beside my desk, and I’m planning my first tattoo to be a tea dragon. This is a cozy queer fantasy graphic novel by one of my favourite authors/artists, so I’ll be surprised if I don’t love it. I also was very kindly sent a copy by the publisher, so it will likely be my next read. In fact, I may have already read it by the time this post comes out!
What do you think your next five-star read will be? Let’s chat in the comments!
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