ladybusiness | Our Favourite Media of January 2024

Each month, we look back over the media we loved in the previous month, from books to film to video games and more.

Jodie

Friday I'm In Love by Camryn Garrett — I looooved Camryn Garrett's debut novel, Full Disclosure, & was super excited for her bi YA romance. Was my excitement justified? Yeah, it was pretty good! So good I stayed up until midnight because I wanted to know what happened (but then had to stop with 30 pages to go because I'm an old now).

At the centre of the novel is Mahalia's dream of having a big coming out party to replace the Sweet 16 party she missed. The story follows her as she saves up to pay for the party & there's a little money tracking headline at the top of every chapter.

Garrett is really great at creating lots of layered, real life world-building so spinning off from that main goal is tons of stuff about family, Mahalia's relationship with her best friend, the cute new girl in town, church, and Mahalia's mothers struggles with money. Garrett also puts in all these background things (like the attitudes of teachers at school, issues at her grocery store job, Mahalia's love of music) that add to the plot, character & world, and make Mahalia's life feel rounded & fully alive.

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner — I definitely thought Godkiller looked too grimdark for me when it came out, but I decided to test Godkiller out by borrowing it from the library, and I ended up enjoying it much more than I thought I would.

Lucky for me, it turns out Godkiller isn't grimdark. Don't get me wrong, some really bad things happen to some of the characters. But the book never treats physical suffering like a banquet to be salivated over descriptively & it never includes a close, intense focus on torture or pain. Don't come for me if you love grimdark - it's just not for me.

Kissen - the main character - is great. She's a woman who has been hardened by life, doing a murderous job, but she also has a strict code, an open heart & a desire to help; especially when someone's struggle reminds her of her own tough journey as a young girl. Sure, she disguises all of that with a gruff exterior & a cynical understanding of how the world works but these parts of her personality are just designed so she never gets taken advantage of again. There is a lot of nice found family stuff that surrounds Kissen. And, as a part of that, the book includes a sign language (only the second fantasy book I've read that includes signing) & thinks really hard about why hearing characters use it to communicate around a deaf character.

I also thought it was really special that this dark fantasy world was packed with LGBTQ+ relationships. I think every romantic relationship mentioned includes a bi, gay or lesbian character & no one ever queries the existence of these relationships - Godkiller sets them up as everyday relationships in a world without homophobia.

The only thing I found a bit dull were the fight scenes (again a me thing). And I'm not sure I'm sold on the reveal at the end, but I will for sure read the next book.