Staff Review: Razorblade Tears

Title/Author: Razorblade Tears - S.A. Cosby

Genre(s): Mystery, Detective Stories, African American Fiction

Full to the brim with rage, bloody revenge, and grief, Cosby's writing also bursts with humor and redemption. A Black father and a white father begin a desperate search for the murderer of their gay sons. Their sons fell in love, married, and started a family before being mysteriously murdered. Both fathers are plagued by their pasts and go through difficult transformations of character as they confront the harsh reality of the pain they caused their sons by not fully accepting them. An insightful exploration of racism, homophobia and parenting. Its a mystery crime thriller at its core with plenty of violence and fast paced action, as Cosby fuels every shocking twist and turn with visceral character development and emotional depth.

Reviewed by: Rosemary

Staff Review: Honey Girl

Title/Author: Honey Girl - Morgan Rogers

Genre(s): Literary Fiction, BIPOC Experiences, Psychological, LGBTQ+

28 year old Grace just completed her PhD in astronomy and is looking towards her future in STEM, where her status as a biracial, gay woman means she is going to have to work three times as hard to gain respect as her white, male, heterosexual peers...and so she drunkenly marries a woman she doesn’t know in Vegas. This book divides it’s time between being a rom-com and being an examination of women’s trauma. When it’s being cute, it is very, very cute, but it truly shines when it looks at the hoops marginalized identities, particularly women of colour, have to jump through against the establishment of primarily straight male dominated fields, and the psychological toll that can take, a toll we often overlook.

Reviewed by: Alex