Author Hangout with Lio Min
- Jul 22, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 14, 2025
Join us from 5:00-6:00PM on Saturday, August 2 for a special after-hours hangout with local Oakland YA author Lio Min in celebration of their new book release, The L.O.V.E. Club. Don't miss Lio's author talk around the corner at the Oakland Public Library's Asian Branch from 3:30-4:30pm that same afternoon. Make it a double feature!
MacDowell fellow and fullmetal optimist Lio Min is the acclaimed author of Beating Heart Baby. The L.O.V.E. Club is Min's second novel.
From McMillan Publishers:
"From the acclaimed author of Beating Heart Baby, an immersive novel following three estranged high schoolers who are pulled into a video game to pursue the disappearance of their friend."
"Three years ago, Elle (the “E” in the self-proclaimed L.O.V.E. Club) disappeared from Calendula, an affluent Chinese American suburb in inland California. Soon afterward, Liberty and Vera (“L” and “V”) moved away, leaving O alone with her grief, abandonment, and confusion. . . until Liberty and Vera return for their senior year of high school.
Though the L.O.V.E. Club’s three remaining members once bonded as outcasts and gamers, they can’t pick up the pieces of their friendship. But the girls are drawn back to their old clubhouse, where they discover, loaded for them to play, a new game created by none other than the missing Elle.
One click, and Liberty, Vera, and O are ported into Morning Glory, an ever-evolving botanical fantasy coded with their lived experiences, complicated history, and repressed insecurities. Unbeknownst to the others, O can’t remember the events surrounding Elle’s disappearance—but within the game, Elle has sent O a cryptic hint about Morning Glory’s real nature.
While Liberty and Vera defeat increasingly sinister bosses, O grapples with the secret knowledge that her deepest wish, to reunite with Elle, might just come true. But as the girls progress through Morning Glory, O begins to wonder how well she actually knew any of her former best friends and if she’s ready to confront the hard truths—and dangerous revelations—about Elle in her returning memories."
"Lushly detailed worldbuilding by Min makes for an immersive adventure that explores hard truths and dangerous revelations about the Chinese American characters’ friendships and differing upbringings. Raw, emotive prose captures each girl’s grappling with bullying, familial tumult, loneliness, and sexual, racial, and gender identity." —Publishers Weekly
"Min’s sophomore novel is full of vivid and imaginative action and horror elements, but its true heart lies in the mystery (and gut-punch reveal) of the circumstances behind Elle’s disappearance. An emotional thriller that explores themes of memory and friendship." —Kirkus
"A modern cross between the original run of the quasi-isekai anime Sword Art Online (2012) and Zach Snyder’s 2011 fantasy-action film Sucker Punch."—Booklist
Snag your copy of Beating Heart Baby, as well as Lio's new release, The L.O.V.E. Club, on Bookshop.org, where your purchases support Oakland Public Library when you choose the Bookmark as your affiliate bookstore. Take a bite out of Amazon while shopping local!
Questions? Reach out to bookmark@fopl.org or give us a call at (510) 444-0473.
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