I have this love/hate relationship with LGBT fiction. Either it's too sugary sweet for me, or so bitter and miserable that I want to lie in bed with the covers pulled over my head and not turn another page. I was trying to describe this to a friend, and they explained the concept of queer fiction being ‘hug-boxing' – as in everything is bright and shiny with rainbows – or scab-pulling, where it looks at the messy side of being an outsider in a world that isn't really made for you. (Apparently this was from a Twitter thread centuries ago in internet time.) This book by HS Kallinger strikes a medium approach. There's trauma and depression, but it's more about getting over it and forming connections with others. Gabriel Belmont, our protagonist, is a high school-aged dhampir (half-vampire, via Dad), who starts the book with no friends and has to cut himself to feel things. And then he summons a demon, Lex, using a pentagram made of his own blood. But when the demon arrives, there's no…
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