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Book Review: "Just Like Christmas" by Annabel den Dekker

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Are you a fan of Hallmark Christmas movies? Do you love cute tropey goodness served with a cup of holiday cheer? Do you enjoy reading? Well we’ve got a book for you! “Just Like Christmas” is a newly-released holiday romance that follows the story of Niall and Sam, childhood friends now drifted apart, but brought back together through fake-dating hijinx! While we’re all familiar with the idea of “enemies to lovers”, this story explores the delightfully fun “frienemies to lovers”- as well as many other classic romance story prompts. We, of course, will not be listing them all here because Spoilers, but suffice it to say, if you’re the kind of person who likes a tale that makes you kick your feet and say “Squee!” you’ll be delighted with the many festive-flavored misadventures that befall our protagonists. Beyond the squee-worthy romance, we enjoyed that this love story is supported by well drawn and interesting secondary characters. Niall and Sam both have siblings who add depth to the ...
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“Satan is Our Only Hope:” Jennifer’s Body and Making Women's Sexuality A True Monster

The week of Halloween has finally arrived! But since our definition of the Halloween Season starts September first, (when the weather drops below 65 degrees and a leaf somewhere gets just the slightest tinge of not-green), Remy and I got together a few weeks ago to rewatch the 2009 movie Jennifer’s Body for more reasons than just the wonderful soundtrack. One of those reasons is because it is a masterpiece cobbled together with themes such as sexuality, feminine rage, and friendships that develop into lust.  In case you happened to somehow miss the movie that is quickly becoming a cult classic, allow me to recap (spoilers abound, proceed with caution):  To begin, Diablo Cody, the amazing human being who also brought us Juno and, most recently, Lisa Frankenstein, wrote this raunchy, gory rollercoaster ride that shaped some of my formative years. The movie opens with our leading lady Needy already in isolation, living life in some sort of institutionalized setting. This deligh...
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Horrors Persisting: Discussions on Queer Identities in the Horror Genre

  WELCOME FOOLISH MORTALS!!!!!! Friends, we are SO excited to announce our partnership with Transplaining for a virtual Halloween lecture series! Starting next week, we'll be coming live from our haunted house to yours with a series of three spine-chilling talks dedicated to queer themes and artists in the horror genre. (NOTE- all lectures will be recorded, so if you buy a ticket but can't join us in real-time, you can always watch later.) Throughout history, there has always been a link between the supernatural, the otherworldly, and queer identities. Historically this has led to thinly veiled references to LGBTQ+ identities in the monsters and villains of many stories. In today’s world, LGBTQ+ content in stories has taken on a new label of “villainous”; that of the “forced inclusion”, of “everything is gay nowadays.” We at the Virtual Queer Library reject both of those narratives; that of LGBTQ+ characters as perpetual villains and as queer representation being a new, fr...
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Thank You Random Acts!

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Hey everyone! We wanted to tell you all about an amazing gift we’ve received- a mini grant from Random Acts ! In addition to this being a public thank you note, we’d like to take some time to tell all of you about this amazing organization. What is Random Acts? “Random Acts was founded in 2010 by actor Misha Collins after an earthquake hit Haiti, causing massive damage. Collins, who had been involved in charitable projects since college, decided to harness the energy and resources of the followers he had gained during his acting career in order to raise funds for the UNICEF disaster relief program. Within days, over $30,000 was raised. Using this momentum, Random Acts was created to inspire kindness in Haiti and beyond.” What Do They Do? “We fund proposals for acts of kindness. If you have an awesome idea for an act of kindness, but need some assistance with funding, we can help you out!” Application Process: Submit Your Proposal Complete  the Act P...
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Making the Yuletide Gay- An Ode to "Dashing in December"

  'Tis the season for a thousand and one holiday films bursting with evergreen farms, surprise snowstorms, last-minute flights, and of course, snow-capped romantic happily ever afters. But for many years, the movies all seemed to share the same glaring omission- a lack of representation. In the past decade or so, Hallmark and Lifetime and the like have made an effort to increase racial diversity of their holiday romances. (NOTE: They have not always been successful at this and they have not done nearly enough.) Still, pairings other than a man and a woman were nowhere to be found in the holiday lineups. Hallmark specifically has struggled with LGBTQ+ equality,  making headlines  in 2019 when they aired an ad that showed a lesbian couple, promptly pulled the ad after public backlash, and then apologized for pulling the ads. But in 2021, the company appointed a new CEO, Wonya Lucas, who said that Hallmark was committed to a “seismic” shift in their expansion of diversit...
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Virtual Queer Halloweenposting Part 1: Queer Themes in the Scream Franchise

 It's September 1st, friends!!!! The day where I personally think I am allowed to start publicly celebrating Halloween without judgment. In honor of this most auspicious day, we are posting our first of many articles discussing queer themes in Horror. In this post, C is tackling one of her favorite horror series, "Scream". ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What’s your favorite scary movie?      Well, Creepy Caller in a Universally Known White Mask, that list is so long, you will get bored and find another target fairly quickly. But since you asked… my favorite scary movies are the ones that can laugh at themselves, that are so meta, they quickly became a satire of themselves. Forget the fourth wall, the fifth and sixth walls are coming down, too. Ones that don’t use gore just for the sake of gore (unless you’re anything in the Evil Dead series, but that’s another blog post for anothe...
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