With the end of 2024 quickly approaching, it’s time to look back on the year that was. And yeah, what a year. So much has happened, both good and bad, great and terrible. To really get into it all would take too many words for me to properly get into here.
For this post, my last one for the year, I want to take a moment to look back on my 2024 in reading.
I Found A Community
I started reading sapphic literature in June 2022. For the 18 or so months that followed, I didn’t have many other people with whom I could talk about the sapphic books I was reading. I slowly started connecting with people in the sapphic literature community online near the end of 2023, thanks in large part to Macon Leigh from the Strictly Sapphic podcast, but even then I did not have a sense that I belonged to the community. I still
Twelve months and two conventions later and so much has changed. In February, I fought through an incredible amount of nerves to attend Read Out, a queer literature and arts convention in Florida. There I got to meet so many awesome people who welcomed me with open arms. I even got invited to take part in a panel at GCLS where I met even more awesome writers and fans of sapphic literature. We talked, we drank, we danced, we sang karaoke, and above all, we built community. I still look back on that day at Read Out and that week at GCLS and can say that they were some of the best experiences I have ever had meeting and getting to know new people.
Between conventions, it’s also been a treat getting to connect with people in the community online. Even with the migration to Threads and Bluesky and away from the site formerly known as Twitter, I love getting to interact with friends, both those I’ve met in person and those I’m just now connecting with solely through social media.
Now in December, a full two and a half years since picking up my first sapphic romance, I can firmly say that I have found my community. And I am so thankful for each and every member of it.
I Read A Lot
A few years ago when I was exclusively reading comics, I set a reading goal of 1,000 single issues of comic books. I read 1,077. In a similar vein, I made the casual goal of reading 100 books this year. I say casual because unlike that previous goal, I didn’t make a Google Sheets to track it nor did I push myself too hard. My goal this time was more like, “Yeah, that’d be cool,” rather than a “Let’s do it!!” Plus, I had another goal: read nothing but queer books.
And, y’all, I got close. Yes, I read nothing but queer books, but I didn’t hit 100. At the time of writing, I am a dozen books short.
While I could try to push through and get the final 12 read in the remaining two weeks of the year, I don’t feel like I need to. I read so much more this year than I ever have and I am including my years in graduate school. I’ve also read so many different things. Yes, all but a few books have been sapphic, but there is such an amazing breadth and depth within sapphic literature that I really got to delve into this year. From contemporary romance to science fiction/fantasy to graphic novels and manga, there were just so many wonderful stories that I got to experience this year. It’s been a blast.
I Read Some Amazing Stuff
Not only have I read a lot, but as I alluded to at the end of the last section, so much of it has been absolutely phenomenal. Stories by authors like Milena McKay, JJ Arias, Haley Cass, Erica Lee, Stephanie Shea, Anna Burke, Ana Hartnett and so many others have touched me deeply. They’ve made my cry. They filled my heart with hope and joy. They’ve enriched my life and made me a better person in so many ways. So many of them have also been spicy as hell, which I love.
I want to take a moment and highlight two books that, as I look back over the past 12 months, stand out the most to me. The first is Macon Leigh’s The Flight Risk. This sapphic take on the red thread of fate, the idea of an invisible connection between two lovers, is all about letting yourself accept the good things in your life. It’s a masterfully crafted story that switches back and forth in time as we see Baylee Harper, our main character, struggle with allowing herself to love and be loved. This book left me in tears over and over again, the last ones being ones of pure joy as I set the book down and just sat there in the emotions of the moment. I was not shocked at all when this book rightfully won two very well deserved Goldie Awards this past July. To read my full review of The Flight Risk, follow the link below.
The other book I want to mention is Carrie Byrd’s Loser of the Year. This enemies to lovers (second favorite trope, btw) follows Mattie Belman as she returns home after a failed acting career and takes a job as a drama teacher at the local all-girls’ Catholic high school. Almost instantly she crosses paths with the prickly soccer coach Jillian Reed, a woman who’s used to bulldozing her way to get what she wants. What starts off as a tantalizing story about two women dancing around their mutual attraction through sexually charged adversarial banter becomes a deeply moving story about breaking through religious trauma to find love and acceptance. This is another book that brought me to tears multiple times and left me a blubbering happy idiot by the end of it all. To read my full review of Loser of the Year, follow the link below.
I Grew This Platform
The last thing I want to mention in this year-end recap is this Substack page itself. I started this site in February with the goal of putting my reviews and thoughts about what I was reading out there. It was an idea I had toyed with for forever, starting my own review blog, but it truly wasn’t until Read Out that I felt like I could go for it. Since that first introductory post, I have posted 36 other articles here sharing my reviews as well as articles about being a trans woman and a member of the sapphic literature community. I’ve even shared an original short story as well as some of my, let’s say serviceable, poetry. In that time, I’ve gone from just a small handful of subscribers to over 60, while views on my articles have gone from a couple dozen to well over 50, with some of my recent posts going over 100 views. It has meant so much to me to see more and more people read these little things I write and share them with others. After all, I’m just a silly little reviewer here talking about other people’s works of art.
To all of my readers and followers, thank you so much for your support. It truly means the world to me. I hope that I can continue to bring you reviews and other things that enlighten and uplift in 2025. No matter how dark the days ahead may be, I have faith in the power of queer joy and I hope that I can be part of that joy for you.
I wish you all a very happy holiday season and New Years.
With love,
Jamie Rose
I love this! And I also love that you’re not another faceless reviewer to me since we crossed paths at GCLS. I’m glad you found your/our community.
What an awesome year! Cheers to more books in 2025!