Finn Hughes

Finn HughesI’m so happy I decided to read it before watching the movie bc for some reason they always take out the sibling in the adaptation. I don’t know why they would take so much out lol. It was such a fun book. Alex’s undiagnosed ADHD is so relatable and the fact that he doesn’t even realize that he’s hyper focused until he misses 2 dinners with his sister.

Finn HughesI understand why this is a part of the gay literary canon. It’s so well written but I wish it didn’t have to end so tragically. The way Giovanni never felt proper love before David breaks my heart! He deserves all the love. But him then going and killing Guillome because instead of comforting him, Guillome is a creep who comes onto Giovanni and tells him all the reasons why he can’t give him his job back. The book is full of shame and pride in the same breath. This book is so important to us as a community! So much history

Finn HughesOK, this is number one on my top 20 book list of 2024. Casey Plett is the present and future of trans literary fiction. The protagonist is a trans woman going through some ****. And the last 2 months of her year she loses a grandmother, finds out that her grandfather was gay, loses a best friend, goes through a lot of trauma and has to deal with the ******* worst of winter because she lives in Winnipeg which is basically like living in the arctic! Like what the ****? lol This quote makes me feel so much, My best friend is dead. My best friend killed herself. I’m getting laid off and I’m doing tricks again and I’m scared a thing that happened to my friend is going to happen to me. But I’m making money. I’m almost certainly making more money than you. A man did something to me in an alley weeks ago, and I’m burying it because too much else has happened. Your father might’ve been a woman, but I can never tell you that, ever, ever. I don’t want to kill myself, but I don’t know if I want to live either. I’m taking new hormones and I like my boobs better and it’s made me calmer and less angry, and they might also kill me faster. Maybe. No one really knows. My best friend is dead. Every man I like and am attracted to would never love me, ever. Every man who thinks they like me is either an awful creep or is paying for the privilege and sometimes both. More and more, I feel like life is something that’s just happening to me. My choices don’t feel like choices at all. It’s like they’re things that have been decided and I just react to them the way anybody would. The older I get, the more life feels like a blank, gauzy haze where every direction is just the same thing. It seems like other people have this way of pushing back against things in their life they don’t like, and I just don’t have that. Doing tricks the second time is harder. I think sex work is work like anything else, but there isn’t agency the way the smiley ones say there is. I feel like it was all predetermined and inevitable and it was silly to think I could ever stop. I feel that way like I feel about the fact your grandpa had to be a farmer and your dad had to be a man. I could never tell you this, nor could I tell you that I’m safer than you think, being white and working indoors. I don’t mind I could never tell you any of this. Could I get a different job? I don’t know. Jobs never worked out for me, except for the one I’m about to get laid off from. I’m always either too much of a goon or they don’t like that I’m trans. What would my life be like if only one of those things were true? I can’t tell you any of this. I know I can’t. But I don’t think my life is bad. It’s funny—does all this stuff seem dark to you? Even though you’re no stranger to hardship. I don’t feel like my life is bad. I have friends I can trust; I have a good house; if I feel weird about a trick, I don’t have to take it. Yet. I feel hopeless and powerless, but I’m genuinely grateful. That’s a true thing. I don’t know if you’d understand that. Maybe you would. What can I tell you about my life? Last night at my friend’s funeral, I hooked up with a girl for the first time in years. It was hot and sweet, it was so nice. But you know what, Dad, I barely remember it. I only remember patches, bits and pieces, I got so ******* dru— The complicated nature of Wendy’s relationship to alcohol, her issues with being objectified, and her messed up sleep habits (having dreams of being chased, having a ***** even tho she had bottom surgery 3 years ago, or getting violent with potential lovers) this book said “you’re messy? You’re okay, don’t forget it ❤️” Chapter 25 being shown in vignettes is so perfect because it shows how the days flow in and out for Wendy. I read all of this book today! Like I finished Rubyfruit jungle this morning and started it AND HOLY **** IT WAS SO AMAZING!!! It’s always good to follow up a **** book with something like Little Fish. Casey is amazing! 💐

Finn HughesI love love loved this movie! I was a kid who grew up with very few friends. I found solace in Musical theatre, which got me interested in shows like Wicked, RENT, and other popular musicals from the early aughts. This movie was one of my favorite adaptations of a musical where I saw both the stage version and the screen version. Some highlights for me (i.e. made me cry, laugh, say "oh my god this movie is gay as hell"): THE POPPY FIELDS IN THE BACKGROUND BEHIND GLINDA DURING GOOD NEWS WERE THE LESBIAN FLAG COLORS...COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT!!! What is this feeling?- The feeling was lust/hatred. Especially when you see them both trying to sleep and they're clutching at their chest over "my head is reeling" "my face is flushing" bitch you're gay, get it through your head. lol Dancing Through Life- Jonathan Bailey is the suave Prince Fiyero who wins every individual's affection regardless of gender in this sequence. I always loved the song because it's silly, it's the bridge that gets us into the meat of act one, the song that has us seeing Gelphie become as close to canon as possible. Because the back of their hands touch, I have a headcanon that as much as she sang "I'm not that girl" about her and Fiyero, if there were different circumstances, "I'm not that girl" would be more about her relationship to Galinda. ALSO WHEN GALINDA FINALLY SEES ELPHIE FOR THE FIRST TIME ON THE DANCE FLOOR AND DANCES WITH HER AT OZDUST, I CRIED A RIVER!!! IT LIKELY HEALED MY INNER CHILD One Short Day- The unexpected favorite. Not my favorite selection from the OBCR but it featured a surprise guest appearance from our MOTHERS, Idina and Kristen!!! (trying to one-up each other) iconic moment with the OGs getting to shine! Another moment where I was saying in my head "KISS ALREADY YOU STUPID GAY IDIOTS!!!" was the "Just two friends. Two Good friends. Two *best friends*" like the tension is there, and then you're going to just look at Elphie like you don't want to ****?

Finn HughesI finished this on Thanksgiving day and I have to give it props for being one of the best TV shows. I’ve watched in a while. This show had incredible storytelling and allowed indigenous people to shine. The best part about it is that it doesn’t allow for the actors to take a backseat every single actor gets screen time. And I think that one of my favorite characters is big because you see his growth throughout the series and the episode where the uncles take cheese to fish and they go around in a circle like cheese did in that group home, I think that that was one of the most powerful moments because it acknowledged that elders have a lot of pain, and especially indigenous elders. The entire last season was about preserving a legacy for the next generation. And I believe that this was one of the most important TV shows of this generation because of the story you told. One of my favorite parts of it is that we have little moments here and there Where somebody has a spirit guide and they basically end up following that person around the entire series and bear has that William knifeman. But the uncles day out was such an awesome episode because we got to hear some of the anxieties that the elders felt. That finale had me sobbing. Rez dogs 4 life!

Finn HughesAn enby who was AMAB? The world needs more stories like Sam’s! I loved the love story between Sam and Lily because of how they talk about their gender through music specifically! Short book! I wish it were longer!

Finn HughesSo, how do I explain the visceral reaction to this book? It’s a cutting satire about toxic masculinity, body Dysmorphia, cancel culture and the “healing” culture. This book was funny but dark and disturbing in the way that Dyson decided that he would bring a shitton of people to an abandoned campsite to work out his daddy issues. It’s deranged. I thought that Sasha would stop everything after Dyson’s Death but she didn’t!

Finn HughesI am really good at this! I read this one just today! It’s so cute and real to have a protagonist like Cade who struggles with Sexual Dysfunction. Also, I didn’t realize in the first book that Alex was Selena’s teacher. She groomed her! She took her power and said “**** you” so **** that bitch and I’m glad Selena told the administration!!!

Finn HughesIt took me a year and a half to finish this book. I wish there were more books that were written about the cooking life! I loved Chef’s kiss and Love & other disasters and I thought it would be just as fun but it was kind of a boring start so I put it off. The amount of books where a queer person has daddy issues and decides to push people away because of those issues is so real!

Finn HughesThere’s something to be said about writing a queer studies book from experience. I think the idea of the author using his experience as a gay man who has cruised in parks. The history of queer people cruising is just as important as any other history! I love that the people involved in community in Toronto decided to take their frustrations out on the police by practicing civil disobedience. The fact that people were still being prosecuted for this in 2016 is bizarre!