It turns out bookshops are happy to have you pop in and sign books! So I got a train to Wynyard Station and began to walk to Newtown, popping into bookshops en route.
First it was Dymocks Sydney - Dymocks was one of my favourite bookstores back when I was a kid.
Second Kinokuniya - where I used to spend a silly amount of my earnings back when I was working in the Sydney CBD.
The first Goodreads review is in and it couldn't be more positive!
Kai Ash writes: This is an absolutely objective and unbiased review of The Boy Maeve, which I wrote: 5 stars. No, 6 stars. Ceud mìle - a hundred thousand - stars. Top notch book. Possibly the best book ever written. Certainly the best book written by me so far.
Hey, look what arrived today! The absolute filthiest, wrongest story I've ever written is in the Monsterfck anthology. If you'd like a copy of this salacious collection of abject naughtiness, here's where to get it.
https://incisionpress.com/product/monsterfck/
#anthology #smut #QueerBooks #TransBooks #SpeculativeFiction #bookstodon #LGBTQIA2S
The Boy Maeve will be in bookstores this Tuesday 26 May 2026! | Bidh The Boy Maeve a' tighinn a-mach! (Ann an Astràilia co-dhiù.)
#LoveOzYA #DebutCrew2026 #PublicationWeek #Gàidhlig #TransBooks
Herculine (Grace Byron) – A young trans woman recovering from religious trauma, conversion therapy and being stalked by literal demons ends up at an all-trans-girl rural commune run by her toxic ex. Alas, the little utopia hinges on some very dark supernatural secrets.
I was expecting to love this a lot more than I did. The pacing really let things down and didn't allow for any suspense to be built up. Major escalations happened in the space of a sentence or two with no real weight or pause appropriate to what happened. It felt very "then this happened, and then this happened" which I don't think works for the themes it attempts. It could do with being given more time to breathe, sit with its fear and let the characters develop more. Even the sex seemed rushed, which feels like a first for a trans authored story.
On the plus sides though, I enjoyed the demonology and commune aspects, and it felt like a very real and dirty T4T novel; the kind of internal trans cultural narrative you don't often see in print; and a critical one at that. Grace clearly has some gripes with how shitty we can all be with each other, yet the necessity of our community.
#Bookstodon #Books #QueerBooks #Queer #LGBTQ #Fantasy #TransBooks #Trans
Lean Cat, Savage Cat (Lauren J. Joseph) feels like when you're at a house party past 2am and you're starting to wonder if your hosts' raucous and hilarious excess is less charismatic and more disturbing.
Carli has stumbling through her arts degree project Romy Haag in London when she bumps into the mysterious and charming Alexander Geist in a Soho bar. Entranced by his confidence and potential as the next David Bowie, she drops everything and follows him to Berlin overnight. What begins as a whirlwind affair develops into her managing his burgeoning signing career; and her love for his dominance over her in and out of the bedroom slowly unravels into ever more abusive behaviour.
I had only read-and-forgotten the blurb a few months back so I went into this quite blind; and I am glad for it. It's hard to discuss what I love about this book without giving any spoilers. For the first half I was reading this as another book about a spiral into excess and self destruction. But as I clocked where we were actually going with it I really began to enjoy Carli as character that embodies so much tragic humour.
While I am not a fan of the prose and the pacing, and most of the individual elements have been done plenty of times before, the way it comes together bounces you between the hilarious, the horny, the shocking and the depressing within the space of a sentence and a half.
#Bookstodon #Books #QueerBooks #Queer #LGBTQ #TransBooks #Trans
🔥The Boy Maeve is being launched!🔥
🔥Sydney Gadigal Launch
When? 6.30pm, Thu 28 May
Where? Better Read Than Dead Bookstore, Newtown
Tickets available at https://www.betterreadevents.com/events/the-boy-maeve-launch-kai-ash-in-conversation-with-margi-brown-ash
🔥Melbourne Naarm Launch
When? 6pm, Thu 4 Jun
Where? The Little Bookroom, Brunswick East
RSVP at https://events.humanitix.com/the-boy-maeve
🔥Brisbane Meanjin Launch
When? 4pm, Sat 13 Jun
Where? Where the Wild Things Are Bookshop, West End
Tickets available at https://wherethewildthingsare.com.au/pages/14315-TheBoyMaeve-BookLaunchwithKaiAsh
🔥 MELBOURNE NAARM BOOK LAUNCH 🔥
Come join me in conversation with Dr Margi Brown Ash (my mother!) for the Melbourne launch of The Boy Maeve
Where? The Little Bookroom, Brunswick East
When? 6-7.30pm Thursday 4 June
Ponyboy (Eliot Duncan) – I'm a sucker for atmospheric prose, and Ponyboy seemed to give prose that echoed the protagonist's own chaotic, drug scrambled perception of his world in Paris and Berlin. It can make it a confusing read at times, but I felt that very much kept you inside Ponyboy's head as he gets trapped in his cycle of drugs, booze and godawful relationship choices.
For as much as I enjoyed that, I felt it was lacking enough threads in the final act to tie the themes together. On it's own, it's strong. But set against a large number of tragic and self destructive queer stories, it was hard to see this standing out and offering something beyond a final movement past hopelessness and into recovery. In many ways, that mirrors stories that stem from the personal. But for a story that can be so evocative, I felt it had more to give in this current climate than what was said on the page.
#Bookstodon #Books #QueerBooks #Queer #LGBTQ #TransBooks #Trans
🔥 SYDNEY GADIGAL BOOK LAUNCH 🔥
Come join me in conversation with Dr Margi Brown Ash (my mother!) for the Sydney launch of The Boy Maeve
Where? Better Read Than Dead Bookstore, Newtown
When? 6.30-8pm Thursday 28 May
Tickets available at https://www.betterreadevents.com/events/the-boy-maeve-launch-kai-ash-in-conversation-with-margi-brown-ash
#GadigalCountry #Sydney #LoveOzYA #DebutCrew2026 #TransBooks
Kai Ash
Shantell Powell
Jaelyn 🏳️🌈