Love is Love

Self-Love

Whether it’s a good face mask, a whole pizza and a Netflix binge or a fancy new present to yourself that comes with 5 speeds and a rechargable battery – we’re putting self-love front and center on V-Day. Find a little time for some TLC with Kaleigh Trace’s Hot, Wet and Shaking (Invisible Publishing), the story of a disabled, queer sex-educator who unabashedly explores and recounts her sexual adventures, her bodily negotiations and attempts at adulthood, turning the mystery of sex into newfound bliss. 

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Platonic love 

This one’s for all the ride or dies – the besties that can (and have) followed you to the ends of the earth and back even when they know whatever you’re up to is sure to devolve into chaos. If you’re celebrating friendship today, check out Boring Girls (ECW Press) by Sarah Taylor. In this coming-of-age story, misfit metalheads Fern and Rachel instantly click,  starting a band in what they’ll soon discover is a dark and misogynistic music industry. When violence begins to escalate along with the success of the band, these two bff’s go into revenge-mode. 

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Queer Love

Like magic, love can lead us to finding those who bring out the best in us, or help us discover our truest selves. Julie Maroh’s colourful graphic novel Blue is the Warmest Colour (Arsenal Pulp Press) is a great example of this honest journey to selfhood through love. When Clementine is taken to a bar by her openly gay best friend, she meets the punkish Emma who opens up her world, testing all the relationships in her life and everything she thought she knew about herself. 

Monogamous Love

Many of us have that one person in our lives that handles their business like a true boss and still manages to take time and care for their loved ones – those full on superhero’s who brave 5 a.m. wakeups, hit the gym, knock off their entire to-do list and still manage to put dinner down on the table at the end of the day. This one’s for them. In All My Friends Are Superheroes (Coach House Books) by Andrew Kaufman, all of Tom’s friends are superheros – even his new wife. But when she becomes hypnotized by an ex during their wedding, Tom becomes invisible to her and he must do all he can to convince her he’s still there, before she leaves him for good.

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Anti-love 

If Valentine’s day makes you want to close the blinds and wear black in protest, we get it. Sometimes love ain’t easy, and it’s your right to say ‘fuck it’ and go full hermit today if you want to. Keep warm on the flames of a burning copy of Pride and Prejudice and feed your skepticism about love with Kelli Maria Korducki’s Love is Hard to Do (Coach House Books). Korducki explores the short history of romantic partnerships through a Marxist lens, finding motives not just in love, but also in financial security and even plain old masochism. 

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