Stockport Noir Crime Festival

On the 31st of January I headed over to Stockport to go to a crime fiction festival. I saw it advertised absolutely forever ago and bought myself a ticket. I would have been better if Lee had been there with me to carry books and so on, but I didn't want to spend the money on two tickets, so I sucked it up and went by myself. I took my things in a backpack, which did help. I took my lunch and drinks and snacks etc with me too so that I didn't have to leave the venue. I set off really early which meant I did get a space in the car park. Such is life with a disability! 

Even though I was there early I still had to queue a bit to get in. It was fun though, everyone was just really excited to be there. Once I got in I picked up a lanyard and a goodie bag. Inside was a proof copy of a book that I haven't even heard of, so I'll look forward to reading that! 

There was tea and coffee and then everyone went in to the main hall for the first panel. The first panel was debut authors and I think they all did brilliantly. Immediately after each panel were signing lines. I have to say that these could have been better organised. Plus when I've been to other lit festivals, I - as someone who uses a walking stick - have been pressed to go to the front of the lines so that I didn't have to queue. That didn't happen here so I ended up in some pain, which was a shame. After the second panel I even asked one of the organisers if I could go to the front of the queue, and while he did help me he did it with some bad grace which made me feel even worse. If I could give feedback on this to the authors I absolutely would, but I haven't seen how to do that (yet?). It left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. 

The panels were all great though. The moderators asked some really amazing questions and everything was funny and insightful. I really liked the sound of a LOT of the books, so I bought four from the bookstall that was in the venue. I do think their prices were very high, but I had some Christmas money to use so that's okay. 

I ate my lunch in the break out room, which was also where the signings were, so it made space a bit squeezed. I would prefer if they could do that differently next year too! I got talking to a woman I was sitting next to in the main hall, so that was nice. 

The final panel of the afternoon had Elly Griffiths on it. I have read most of her books and have met her twice before, but I hadn't bought any of her new series which features time travel, mostly because it sounds a bit weird. But it sounded interesting so I did buy it so that I could get her to sign it. I wore my Bruce Sprinsteen t shirt especially for her as she's a big fan (which is why Ruth Galloway is also a fan!) so we talked about him and how much we love him, haha. 

I didn't stick around too long after the last panel, and managed to get home in good time so that I could rest for a bit. I had ended up carrying a lot of books and other stuff, by myself, which I'm proud of, but I was tired! 

My freebie tote bag

All the panels, these are backwards in time but not to worry! 

Proof I was with Elly! 

And here's what I came home with! Bad Deeds was the book I got for free. The top right is a chapter sampler but Rebecca was really interesting and her book sounds really good so I got her to sign this sampler for me and will probably buy it when it's out. Everything else just sounded really interesting so I bought them and got them signed!

What You Are Looking For Is In the Library by Michiko Aoyama - Review

This was one of the books that I got in the swap I did at Christmas, where the person I was swapping with was actually my friend Sarah Beth, which was really nice because it meant we knew each other and it was nice to choose books for Sarah Beth and really lovely to receive books that they really rate. I wasn't sure about this one at all, but was obviously willing to give it a go. My friend Stacey had also read this one and said I should get to it, so I did. As a reminder, I was trying to read all the books I got as gifts for Xmas in February, and I managed it! I'm thrilled that I did this, but it's not even the end of February and I have finished all five books! 

Anyway, this book. It is a book in translation which I always really like to read, although I don't get to many. This one is translated really beautifully which I think added to my enjoyment of the book. 

The book has five different protagonists, all of whom are struggling with something in their lives. They each end up in this one community library, either accidentally or because they're encouraged to go. There, this mysterious librarian called Ms Komachi, who sits needle felting in a little cubby by herself, will find for them several books. Among them will be a curve ball, something they weren't expecting, but which gives them exactly what they need in life. 

The first person is a young woman who works as a sales assistant who needs a push to educate herself a little better. She also makes some kind of rice ball things and maybe ends up starting a relationship with someone she works with. The second person is an accountant - a boring, safe life, but he really wishes to open an antiques store. He has his reasons for that, from his past. Some of his story ends up being reflected in someone else's story further on, too. I liked how all five people's lives were interwoven in this way for the reader to know even if the protagonists themselves don't realise it. 

The third person in the book had my favourite story. She used to be a magazine editor but then got pregnant, and was replaced while she was on maternity leave. She is struggling with life now - it's busy, she has to think about her daughter and deal with all the admin, etc. Her husband is trying, but she feels very alone. She's forty, and I just really liked her story arc. I like how her little section ended up, too. It felt very real for a lot of forty year olds. 

The fourth person is a manga artist, a young man who needs the library to help him learn new things. He's not in education or employment and he's flailing a bit. I liked him, and the fifth person, who is newly retired and isn't sure what to do with himself. 

As I say, all the stories do interweave a bit, in a really clever way. I did mostly like this book, but found it drifted a little bit. I'm giving it three and a half out of five - it didn't quite get to four stars but it was close. 

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston - Review

This was the last book in my LGBTQ+ January reading, and it also segued well into February's theme - I decided to try to read all the books I was given for Christmas. It's past halfway through February now and I am not doing that great at this as I've just not been reading much/ February has been busy so far. But all the books I've read were gifts, so that's one thing! 

This was one of the books I got in the Book Flood swap that Gwen and Janet organise. My partner was Sarah Beth, who is already a friend of mine, so that was nice as we know each other fairly well and could choose books accordingly. I was intrigued by this one and am glad I picked it up, but it was a bit too long for me. 

I generally liked it and think there are flashes of brilliance in it, but overall it just didn't do it for me. My friend Chloe has it on her Goodreads wishlist so I'm going to pass it on to her and see what she thinks about it. I would try something else by the same author but this one just didn't quite do it for me. 

So the story is this: August is twenty- three and she moves to New York. She's from New Orleans (I think) originally and her life has been tainted by her mother. Her mother's brother, Augie, went missing as a teenager, way before August was born, and her mother has spent her life trying to find him. August has spent her life trailing round after her mum in records offices and so on. She's fed up of it, so she's moved. 

She gets a room in a flat with three roommates - Niko, who is psychic, Myla, an artist, and Wes, who is a trust fund kid who doesn't talk to his family. August is a lesbian and all her roommates are queer - I really liked how this came out bit by bit. She gets a job at Billy's Pancake House and she meets a drag queen who lives across the hall. I loved his side story too, I could have read more about that. 

Anyway August is riding the subway a lot to get to her classes. She's on the Q line and keeps seeing a girl who catches her eyes. This girl is a butch lesbian type, with  ripped jeans, red Converse, and a leather jacket. She is usually listening to a Walkman. August invites her to meet her for drinks, but Jane - because that's her name - doesn't turn up. But August keeps seeing her on the train. As it turns out, Jane is stuck there. She's actually from the mid 1970s and she's been stuck for years. Her memory is hazy and she's obviously confused when August tells her that it's actually the late 2010s, but August seems to have revived something in her. 

August and Jane do start a relationship and August then forgets her entire life for like a month by getting on the train all the time as she and Jane try to figure out how to free Jane. I found this bit annoying because there's no way August would have been able to call in sick so much and keep her job, or not be earning anything, and be able to keep her room in the apartment. I didn't entirely buy the relationship between the two, either. I guess I'm just not used to romance novels that much, and the instant love that abounds in them. I found Jane a bit passive in general - she does freak out at one point about her situation but it felt to me like it came way too late in the book. August is cute and I liked her mostly, but she makes some stupid decisions at times. 

I liked the queer community around August - this felt very natural and real. I loved how they came together at the end - no spoilers - and thought this worked well. But the book was just a bit too long for me, too. Cutting even fifty pages out could have made it way better for me. 

In all I'm giving it three out of five. I felt it dragged in parts and I didn't love the main relationship, so I can't score it higher. 

Trans Like Me by C N Lester - Review

I've had this book absolutely forever and I think I followed the author on Twitter at one point way back in time and probably ordered this then. I picked this book up as part of my LGBTQ+ reading month in January. I am really glad I got round to it. I don't tend to read a lot of non fiction but enjoyed this. 

C N Lester is non binary and talks in this book about that and their experiences as a trans person, but alongside that are parts where they talk about sex and gender, break down myths about trans people, cite up to date research and so on about trans people. It is at once both personal and clinical, in a was that I really liked. There's no sugar coating reality for trans people, but equally there is a message of hope for the community. 

One thing I did think was, well this book was written a decade ago (it was published in 2017) and really I feel like we've gone back politically for trans people. With pressure groups barring trans women from using the loo in public and people like J K Rowling using their vast wealth to push their backward thinking viewpoints, it feels like we've gone backwards in that decade. I find that upsetting and as always I stand behind my trans siblings in the community. 

I don't have a lot to say about this - I just really liked reading it and am grateful that C N Lester laid their soul bare in such a way. I'm giving this five out of five. 

Boy Friends by Kai Spellmeier - Review

I got this book on Netgalley so thank you very much to Bloomsbury Publishing for granting me access to it. This book will be published in May 2026. I was given an electronic copy of this book for review purposes, but was not otherwise compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Okay so first of all I was really excited to read this book. I understand that it is the first book that Kai Spellmeier has written in English. Maybe that's why I just couldn't gel with it. My main issue with it is that I do not understand where it is set. It's set in a small town called Lombard which seems to be on an island... but where? I thought at first it was American, but no, Luca and Simo use a lot of British phrases. It's a cute seaside town, but I cannot get to grips with where in the world it's supposed to be located. It comes off to me like a Channel Island or something. I also felt like the town just wasn't rooted enough in reality. It wasn't described well enough. I found this issue was enough to stop me from loving the book. 

However, it does have its high points. Luca lives with his dad, who owns a bakery slash cafe, where Luca sometimes works. Luca is gay and so is his dad. Luca's mum is off doing some kind of scientific research like in a volcano or in Antartica or something, I'm not sure. She's not around, anyway. Luca has a huge crush on his best friend, Simo, and has done for years. 

The two boys are really close. They have sleepovers and trust each other implicitly. Simo lives with his parents. His older brother died a long time ago and Simo misses him, but no one in the family will really talk about him. Simo kind of has a crush on Luca, but not really? It's complicated. His parents are pretty homophobic so that puts him off talking about how he feels. 

Anyway there's this noticeboard in Lombard where every week something gets put up. Luca always rushes to see what it says so he can share the news with an elderly neighbour, but one week the noticeboard says "LUCA AND SIMO ARE IN LOVE". Both boys are absolutely shocked by this. Simo especially is just cringing - because it might be true but he doesn't want the whole world to know! Besides how would someone else know when they don't?!

But they do both want to be boyfriend not boy friends. I do think there are very sweet elements of the book - the way they fall in love is good. But I found it a bit ethereal and not really grounded enough for me. It ended on a cliffhanger so I kind of would be interested in the next part of the story - but the writing just didn't do it for me. I'm giving it three out of five. 

The Passing Playbook by Isaac Fitzsimons - Review

 

I have absolutely no idea where I got this book. I don't remember buying it, but that doesn't mean I didn't. I don't remember someone giving me it, either. But it was on my shelves and I picked it up as part of my LGBTQ+ books only in January thing. I wanted to really like it, but unfortunately I just didn't. 

It's a book about Spencer, who is a trans boy. He is fifteen and he's just moved schools, for complex reasons that get forgotten later. His younger brother is autistic and struggles with school, which I felt was portrayed in quite a stereotypical way which I didn't like. Their parents are incredibly involved in their lives. Their dad is Black and their mum is white, I think, which is not entirely relevant to the plot but it is a nice little side plot. 

Spencer came out as trans as a kid as went on puberty blockers aged thirteen, and now uses testosterone gel. This isn't a huge part of the book either but it is relevant to Spencer's history. His parents are really supportive but due to what happened at his old school they don't want him to play soccer at his new school. But Spencer is a brilliant footballer and really wants to play, so he ends up going behind their back and tries out for the team anyway. He ends up getting selected, of course, and his team is happy to have him on board. But they don't know he's trans, and Spencer doesn't want to come out. His coach eventually - seriously, it takes forever to get to this point in the book - needs some ID for his permission stuff, and of course this means Spencer will be outed. He does eventually tells his parents but that takes forever too. A lot of the book goes really slow. 

Meanwhile, Spencer does join the Queer Straight Alliance. There's a non binary kid there called Riley, who fears using the boys toilets at another point in the book, and Spencer helps them. I did like this bit. Riley wants to push for gender neutral bathrooms but the leader of the QSA isn't too keen on this. Spencer knows he needs to step up for himself and others, but it's a whole thing that he can't.

Then there's Justice. He's also on the soccer team and he rides a motorbike and Spencer immediately has a crush. He and Justice have Music Appreciation class together and end up playing soccer together too, so they get really close. Justice's family is Christian evangelists and they won't accept Justice's sexuality, and Spencer knows they won't accept him either. A lot of the romance between the two is really cute, but again, it drags. 

I also feel like the book skews a lot younger than if it was written for fifteen year olds. Spencer and Justice often come off more like twelve or thirteen and a lot of the whole thing comes off like Middle  Grade. A lot of how the teens talk to each other just doesn't ring true at all. There are no girls in the book, which annoyed me, and the ones who briefly appear are portrayed as silly and too 'girly'. There are flashes of loveliness - like the Homecoming Dance - but in general it just didn't ring true for me. The whole thing was a bit like an After School Special. I'm giving it two out of five. 

Boy Queen by George Lester - Review

I bought this book at Northern YA Lit Fest a few years ago. George was there talking about the book, so I bought it and got him to sign it. I was so glad to get to read it. George himself is a drag queen and from what I gather an editor or someone else in publishing suggested he wrote a book about it, and this is what he came up with. That's an interesting way for it to happen, but I don't think it's to the book's detriment!

Robin Cooper is in his last year of sixth form and he's really into performing arts. He really wants to go to a performing arts school in London, that he has auditioned for. The dream is that he will go there and his best friend, Natalie, will go to university nearby, and they will live together and have a fabulous time. Robin spends a lot of his time rehearsing and dancing. He has a secret boyfriend, Connor, who doesn't want anyone to know they're together, and who does not deserve Robin in any way. He and Natalie hang out with a lad called Greg who is their token straight friend; Greg is incredibly sweet and would do anything for his friends. Robin is also friends with a girl called Priya who goes to dancing with him. I love a set of supportive friends and these are fab! He also lives with just his mum and I loved her too - she's funny and sassy and loves him deeply. After Robin got beaten up and bullied for being gay the previous summer, his mum worries about him and doesn't want him to put himself out there too much. This is relevant later. 

Anyway, the future looks set - but then Robin doesn't get into the school of his dreams. He is crushed. His friends are of course crushed for him. He literally has no idea what he wants to do next. I loved the depiction of that - when you're eighteen and about to leave school or sixth form and you're all on that precipice and you're not going to be together anymore. It's scary! George put it across so well. 

To cheer Robin up his friends take him to a drag show in a queer pub in the next town over. They have a great time and little by little, Robin gets involved in drag. He has a drag mother whose name I forget but who is a great character. At college, there's a new boy called Seth who has a dangerous reputation, and he starts driving Robin back and forward to the queer pub. He and Robin get close - I liked Seth and I loved his back story when it came out. Robin's drag coming out is done in such a fantastic way, but I also really liked everything going on under that.

Robin and Natalie's relationship starts to fall apart, and there's just a lot of rubbish going through the friendship group which I thought was dealt with really well. I feel like I could read books and books of George writing about friendship groups and what being seventeen/eighteen is really like. I'm giving this four out of five, and I'll definitely read something else by George in the future.