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The Graceview Patient by Caitlin Starling

Margaret lives with a rare autoimmune condition that has destroyed her life, leaving her isolated. It has no cure, but she’s making do as best she can—until she’s offered a fully paid-for spot in an experimental medical trial at Graceview Memorial. The conditions are simple, if grueling: she will live at the hospital as a full-time patient, subjecting herself to the near-total destruction of her immune system and its subsequent regeneration. The trial will essentially kill most of, but not all of her. But as the treatment progresses and her body begins to fail, she stumbles upon something sinister living and spreading within the hospital. Unsure of what's real and what is just medication-induced delusion, Margaret struggles to find a way out as her body and mind succumb further to the darkness lurking throughout Graceview's halls. PUBLISHER: St. Martin's Press YEAR: 2025 LENGTH: 320 pages AGE: Adult GENRE: Horror RECOMMENDED: Highly Queer Rep Summary: No canon queer rep. *I...

The Second Rebel by Linden A. Lewis (The First Sister Trilogy #2)

Astrid has reclaimed her name and her voice, and now seeks to bring down the Sisterhood from within. Throwing herself into the lioness’ den, Astrid must confront and challenge the Aunts who run the Gean religious institution, but she quickly discovers that the business of politics is far deadlier than she ever expected.

Meanwhile, on an outlaw colony station deep in space, Hiro val Akira seeks to bring a dangerous ally into the rebellion. Whispers of a digital woman fuel Hiro’s search, but they are not the only person looking for this link to the mysterious race of Synthetics.

Lito sol Lucious continues to grow into his role as a lead revolutionary and is tasked with rescuing an Aster operative from deep within an Icarii prison. With danger around every corner, Lito, his partner Ofiera, and the newly freed operative must flee in order to keep dangerous secrets out of enemy hands.

Back on Venus, Lito’s sister Lucinia must carry on after her brother’s disappearance and accusation of treason by Icarii authorities. Despite being under the thumb of Souji val Akira, Lucinia manages to keep her nose clean…that is until an Aster revolutionary shows up with news about her brother’s fate, and an opportunity to join the fight.

This captivating, spellbinding second installment to The First Sister series picks up right where The First Sister left off and is a must-read for science fiction fans everywhere.

CONTRIBUTOR(S): Jennifer Aquino (Narrator), Neo Cihi (Narrator), Farah Naz Rishi (Narrator), Gary Tiedemann (Narrator), Emily Woo Zeller (Narrator)
PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster Audio
YEAR: 2021
LENGTH: 512 pages (18 hours 30 minutes)
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Science Fiction
RECOMMENDED: N/A

Partial Queer Rep Summary: Lesbian/Sapphic Main Character(s), Bi/Pan Minor Character(s), Genderqueer/Nonbinary Main Character(s).

DNF 14 hours 6 minutes in (76%).

I found myself much less interested in the the story than in the first book. I'm still uneasy with some of the character choices I mentioned in the first book's review and I couldn't tell when or if they would be resolved. Ultimately, while I'm unable to pin down exactly what I don't like about this book, trying to make myself finish it resulted in a period of several days where I barely read anything and could only handle re-reads. As soon as I officially DNF'd this I was able to read other stuff again. For me, that's enough.

Graphic/Explicit CW for mental illness, grief, blood, violence, death.

Moderate CW for cursing, sexual content, classism, xenophobia, sexism, misogyny, fatphobia, body shaming, disassociation, dysphoria, transphobia, trafficking, sexual abuse, child abuse, terminal illness, blood, gore, injury detail, medical content, medical trauma, torture, suicide.

Minor CW for drug use, drug abuse, excrement, abandonment, confinement, self harm, epidemic.

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