Lakelore

Anna-Marie McLemore — 2022

In this young adult novel by award-winning author Anna-Marie McLemore, two non-binary teens are pulled into a magical world under a lake - but can they keep their worlds above water intact? Everyone who lives near the lake knows the stories about the world underneath it, an ethereal landscape rumored to be half-air, half-water. But Bastián Silvano and Lore Garcia are the only ones who’ve been there. Bastián grew up both above the lake and in the otherworldly space beneath it. Lore’s only seen the world under the lake once, but that one encounter changed their life and their fate. Then the lines between air and water begin to blur. The world under the lake drifts above the surface. If Bastián and Lore don’t want it bringing their secrets to the surface with it, they have to stop it, and to do that, they have to work together. There’s just one problem: Bastián and Lore haven’t spoken in seven years, and working together means trusting each other with the very things they’re trying to hide.

Reviews

Bria@ladspter

May 31, 2024

McLemore never fails to make me feel seen. They always fills their books with groups that need to be shown in media more and I love that.

kelsey@horrorforlove

May 28, 2024

gonna start this off by saying i am not a contemporary person at all, but anna-marie’s books are just so magical and otherworldly they don’t feel like contemporaries. they make the world more magical. i love that. i always finish their books feeling like i was given a hug. each and every one of their books are pure grace and beauty to me. if you haven’t picked up one of their books i highly recommend doing so <3

grace @gracelucille

Apr 23, 2023

this book is soso sweet, beautifully written and relatable !! if you're looking for authentic non binary rep, i 100% recommend this :)))) only real issue i had was that, ironically, i wish the lake lore was explained/explored more !

Jamieson@jamiesonk

Jan 23, 2023

I really love anna-marie mclemore but this wasn't my fave of theirs? it was well written as always and very pretty, I just wasn't that connected to the world under the lake or felt it was fully brought into fruition? I still liked this tho! just not as much as I hoped

Latitude Tamarind@geographreads

Aug 17, 2022

“So many of us are haunted by versions of ourselves we wish we could exile. But the pieces of our beings don’t pull apart that easily.” Look, I absolutely loved this. It’s about Being Neurodivergent and Having A Gender in a way that isn’t, I don’t know, overblown? It doesn’t, at any point, feel like they are nonbinary for the sake of being nonbinary, and it also isn’t just an aside (which seems to be the only other option a lot of the time). Honestly, I feel like I’m going to be thinking about this one for a long time. I want to get a print copy of this so I can highlight passages. Okay, but it’s also all of these things and it’s a magical realism story, which is so — intense, and weird, and incredible. I really liked this one, pals. Five stars.