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jake

@queerbooktakes

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author, bookseller, enjoyer of words

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🚨 PAPERBACK ALERT!! 🚨

I'm so thrilled to announce the paperback release date and the spanking new cover for SHOULDER TO SHOULDER - isn't it gorgeous?! I'm working on a few more exciting announcements too, like a London launch event, and another mini tour 🙏🏻

I reckon meeting wonderful readers has been the best part of this whole process, so I'm keen to do it again - indie bookshops, definitely DM me if you'd be interested in setting up an event!

finally, the paperback is updated with an afterword reflecting on the queer solidarity we've seen with Palestine over the last year in particular (these movements trace back decades), and the paperback will be available for £10.99 - the lowest price I could get it. as always, thanks go to dream editor @katieogunsakin for the freedom to make these revisions, and to @trapeze_books for giving my words a home. very grateful 🥹💖

pre-order link in bio! by @queerbooktakes

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2 years ago

incredible news - my first short story EVER is being published in the UK by @cipher_press in July! even more incredibly, it's in this anthology curated by the inimitable @michelleteaz, and it's being published by @dopaminebooksla in the US!!!

THE FREAK REVOLUTION is about an abandoned kid adopted and raised by a glorious troupe of circus weirdos. it's a light-hearted glimpse into the life of a fledgling clown stuck working shitty unpaid gigs at kids' parties, but it's also a mini deep dive into legacies of queer art and commerce - I fell into many an online wormhole working on this! I've never managed to shake off imposter syndrome as a writer, so this was a dream brief: shake off the self-doubt, and just have FUN!! naturally, I ended up writing about drag, and the flash of homicidal impulse I'm sure we've all felt when life beats us to a pulp.

i'm so proud of this baby, and over the moon to be in an anthology with other legends, like @vivekshraya and @anderlawlor and loooooads of others. grateful always to Cipher for investing in the kind of mind-bending, headfucking queer stories that made me fall in love with reading in the first place.

pre-order link coming soon 🤡🤡🤡🤡 by @queerbooktakes

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4 months ago

they're here, and they're GORGEOUS!!

The Art of Drag paperback will be landing in all good bookshops early next month, I'll pop a pre-order link in my bio. thankyou @nobrowpress for giving this book a new lease of life, and again to the wonderful illustrators - @helen.of.koi @sofiebirkinillustration @jasjyotjasjyot - for making this project so special and beautiful, and to dream editor @immortanayo
for bringing me on for what is still one of my proudest achievements ever 💖

you can't properly see, but there are pink sprayed edges (!!) and a BLOODY STUNNING holographic foil on the cover. a true work of art 🎨🎭 by @queerbooktakes

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a year ago

I had the loveliest time on Thursday eve chatting to @annielord8 for @junobookssheff about her really funny, smart, page-turning new novel, The Project! if you've ever dismayed at how shite modern dating can be, or questioned whether you can - or should! - try to fix a man, this is the book for you.

better still, we both look great in the event photos (no easy feat on a v sweltering day) and I'm now mates with Annie's dad, who bought a copy of my book 🥹 by @queerbooktakes

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17 hours ago

something i don't shout about often is that my first book, The Art of Drag, won an award back in 2022 - and even more happily, it was an award voted for by young people across the UK!

I got the book deal when I was in my mid-20s. I had no idea how publishing worked, nor what an advance was, but I was blessed with the world's best editor in the form of @immortanayo, who advocated for me to get a better rights deal. together, we worked for months to get the copy finished, and the artists involved did the most incredible work to elevate the text. I had zero expectations for this book, and yet, six years later, it still pops up in the world in its shiny paperback edition.

The Art of Drag has been translated into multiple languages, but perhaps the biggest honour is that it's popped up on a few banned book lists. I've had readers send me photos of 'PRIDE = SIN' bookmarks slipped into copies on sale in the US; I even had a journalist in Kentucky get in touch to say that a group of dedicated local evangelicals had been withdrawing the book from the library and refusing to return it, as an act of protest. tbh, I'm just grateful for the library royalties (god bless ALCS!), and to the librarians across the world who have championed this book.

it's a fucked-up time to be a queer author, but honestly, when hasn't it been? my latest book opened with the Hirschfeld book burnings. history is cyclical, and oppression doesn't die, it just reincarnates in different guises. but that's why this award felt extra special, to know that this illustrated book about drag, the pinnacle of queer artistic excellence and genderfuckery, has crept its way onto school curriculums; that kids - the ones who voted for this award at least - can appreciate drag as an aesthetic marvel and be awed by its beauty.

whenever i feel shitty about the state of the world, looking at this award really helps. by @queerbooktakes

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6 days ago

what risks would you take to survive? that's the question at the heart of Sisters In Yellow, a book about friendship, betrayal, and life on the breadline.

first thing to know: this isn't a crime novel in the conventional sense, so don't go into it expecting a thriller. the story starts with 40-year-old Hana in the early months of 2020. she finds an article which details the arrest of her old friend Kimiko, who had tied up a woman in her apartment and abused her for 15 months. the news plunges Hana back into her past.

this book is, first and foremost, a character study. we zip back in time to when Hana is 15. her dad is dead, her mum is barely making ends meet at her bar job, so her life is work, money stress, and not much else. everyone thinks she's strange for not caring about love and romance, but she's single-minded in her quest to make enough money to live a comfortable life.

one day, Kimiko - who's 20 years older - appears like a beacon of light. she feeds Hana when her mum abandons her, boosts her confidence, and teaches her independence. they eventually set up a bar together, Lemon, and their lives further intertwine.

I LOVED this book! Mieko writes working-class life and the constant anxiety really well, and she spends enough time with each character to ask: what circumstances led them here? it's a story of ethics and empathy, but also about manipulation; the friendship between Hana and Kimiko is so questionable, but I think the side characters - namely Kotomi and Yeongsu - are my favourite. a side note is that this book made me listen to X Japan properly for the first time, and they're very, very good.

This might be my favourite of Mieko's books? I loved Breasts and Eggs, did NOT like Heaven, and found All The Lovers In The Night forgettable, so I held off on this for a little while as it's a big book for me, 430 pages. The fact that I've basically finished it in the space of a weekend is testament to how pacey the writing is, how engrossed I was in Hana's life. I found it devastating, too; girl can't catch a break 😅 by @queerbooktakes

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7 days ago

I didn't expect to love this book, but I really did! Long Live The Post Horn is written from the perspective of a detached, depressed narrator, a woman who describes herself as being surrounded by people she doesn't really care about, in a PR job that's tolerable, just about.

Shortly after stumbling upon the epiphany that her life has ground to a halt, she's assigned a mission. She must work with the downtrodden postal workers of Norway to rally against an EU directive, which, if passed, could crush their industry.

A pal recommended this to me by saying: "you'll learn more than you ever thought you needed to know about letter weights and different stamps." It didn't exactly strike me as a ringing endorsement, but this book sucked me in, taught me to see wonder in the complex, underdiscussed systems that keep our modern world ticking along. What a miracle that we can send letters across the globe, that there are postal workers trudging through the Arctic Circle in subzero weather to keep us connected.

Some might find this book a bit too optimistic, maybe utopian. But I thought it was a celebration of solidarity, an exercise at clinging to hope in the everyday. It's definitely one of my most memorable recent reads, and now I really wanna read another Vigdis Hjorth, but which one? Is Mother Dead is currently top of my list, but I'm open to persuasion... by @queerbooktakes

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14 days ago

spent an incredible few days at @roskildefestival courtesy of @neucomms and had the chance to properly explore Roskilde as well, rounded off with a night in the gorgeous @1hotelcopenhagen 🙏

thoughts and full reports coming soon for @the.independent / @ferocemagazine, but I'm leaving with loads of new artist recommendations (@kingongolokiniata_officiel / @ditte_kroyer in particular!!) and awe at how seamlessly Roskilde seems to weave sustainability into everyday life.

I'm a sucker for medieval landscapes and long fjörd walks, so I'm leaving feeling very grateful, and also very snotty 🤧 I wish every festival experience could end with room service in bed! by @queerbooktakes

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20 days ago

HONK HONK CALLING ALL CLOWNS 🍌

Come and join us at @wearebardbooks on July 16th with contributors @sophiepoetry, @maz_murray, and @queerbooktakes to talk about @michelleteaz’s new anthology CLOWNS 🤡

We’re buzzing to be launching this next anthology with three unreal UK-based authors so don’t miss it!

Tickets at the link in our bio/stories

🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡 by @queerbooktakes

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24 days ago

highlights from a trip to the @tate gift shop 🎁 📚 by @queerbooktakes

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a month ago

this is easily one of the best books I've read this year, I wanna recommend it to everyone!

Amrita / Amy was a Twitter Communist, now she's a young woman living in London and trying to figure out her life. After a brief stint on reality TV, she finds herself going viral in the most hideous of ways when she's the victim of a deepfake porn video.

Amy, already shamed by her family in Delhi for her sex life, quickly feels the wrath of the Indian manosphere; as the torrent of online abuse rains down, she goes on a hunt for the truth behind the ever-multiplying fakes.

I gulped this book down in two sittings. Amy's voice is hilarious, sarcastic, and acerbic in all the best ways. She wields it like a machine gun, taking aim at the incels and misogynists trying to make her life hell. The chapters are short and snappy, with brilliant satirical whatsapp interludes from faraway aunties quick to cast their judgement on Amy and her mother.

There's also a developing, sometimes thorny relationship with her best friend and confidante, who gives solace amidst the chaos, but also reminds Amy frequently of her caste privilege. The plot is twisty and fast-paced - it's always a good sign when you don't want a book to end!!

I came because of the @nussaibahyounis blurb and because @brazen.books seems to have an excellent list. I definitely wasn't disappointed; I can't recommend this book highly enough. by @queerbooktakes

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a month ago

anyone who knows me well knows this is my dream commission 🥹 huge thankyou to @narratively for commissioning 3000 words on histories of molly houses, from the raid on Mother Clap's to the sporadic appearance of gender chameleons like Miss Muff and Princess Seraphina.

another huge thankyou to @anthonydelaneyhistory for sharing his wit and wisdom, and to @claireewyman for the gorgeous illustrations. I'll pop the link to the story in my much-neglected linktree, and please do support Narratively if you have the means; as a writer, opportunities to delve deep into these histories with continued editorial support are few and far between! happy pride 🥰 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ by @queerbooktakes

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a month ago