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Paper Planes - Review

Title: Paper Planes

Author: Jennie Wood

Illustrator: Dozerdraws

Genre: Contemporary

Audience: Young Adult

Format: Graphic Novel

Representation: Nonbinary POV character

Summary: After a violent incident lands them in a summer camp for troubled youth, former friends Dylan and Leighton must work together with each other and the other campers to get a good evaluation if they want to return to their high school and their lives. As they do, they rehash their friendship over the years and everything that led up to the incident. 

Reflections: I enjoyed watching these characters stumble through their friendship as they grew up and apart and then worked to reconnect. It captured the teenage experience of the easy friendships you had as a child, drifting away or complicating as you grow into different people and understand more about the world, but still meaning something special to you. It was comforting to see Leighton and Dylan start to understand each other more, even if their relationship could never go back to what it was when they were younger. And I appreciated that they were finding connections and making a place for themselves outside of each other. 

Warnings: Depictions of misgendering. Mentions of gender dysphoria.

Notes on Rep: Dylan identifies on page as not a boy or a girl.

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Tao, Undead - review

Title: Tao, Undead

Author: Charlotte Amelia Poe

Genre: Fantasy

Audience: Adult

Format: Novel

Representation: Nonbinary POV character

Summary: Tao is living a quiet life. Born a necromancer in a world that would see necromancy eradicated, they keep their head down and their power hidden. While their secret has kept them distant from the people they care about, they nevertheless have settled into a comfortable enough life with a job they love, tattooing people with protection spells. Until their co-worker’s power of prophecy bleeds over and Tao begins having nightmares of fire and ruin. Until they sense the stomach-churning echoes of recent death and reanimation that could only come from another necromancer – one with none of Tao’s qualms about using their powers. 

At the same time, they begin to fall for the only boy they’ve ever been able to imagine accepting them for who they are. But how can they accept him when everything is telling them that they are a danger to anyone who would love them? 

To protect their friends and their budding romance, Tao may have to risk everything in a battle like nothing they’ve faced before. 

Reflections: I had issues with the pacing and the tone throughout this book. The dialogue and the narration play up all this drama (the love, the tragedy, the tension) without either the necromancy plot or the romance doing much to actually build up to or support that tone. The melodrama of the characters’ interactions gave the impression that Adam and Tao were these star-crossed lovers torn apart by a great cataclysm, while all I had actually gotten narratively up to that point was two strangers and some vague dreams. For the romance, Tao can equate touch starvation and infatuation with true love and trust all they want, but if I’m being asked to believe they’re right, there’s got to be more to this relationship than the story gave me. For the evil necromancer plot, for more than half of the book, it didn’t progress in any meaningful way. For all the characters started to talk like a grand finale was just on the horizon, I was not seeing many signs of it coming until it just happened. Tao tried and failed once to use their power to find the other necromancer, which led to no new information nor any consequences for Tao, and that was it. The rest of the build-up was talking more and more about the coming confrontation as inevitable and imminent, even when nothing had significantly changed from page one and it wasn’t clear why the characters thought the date was set for the fight. 

The reveal of who the other necromancer was also fell flat for me as the reader, while it should have been and was treated by the characters as dramatic and impactful. I had no sense of the necromancer’s ideology or goals up to that point nor much of a connection to the person Tao had known them as. 

There were certainly the bones of a good story here, but it just wasn’t developed well enough as is.

Warnings: Depictions of misgendering. 

Notes on Rep: Tao identifies on-page as not a boy nor a girl. 

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You Weren't Meant to be Human - Review

Title: You Weren’t Meant to be Human

Author: Andrew Joseph White

Genre: Horror

Audience: Adult

Format: Novel

Representation: Trans man POV character

  Trans woman and nonbinary supporting characters

Summary: A hive of alien worms and flies nests in the back room of a West Virginia gas station, drawing in the desperate and vulnerable to protect and feed it. When it approached Crane, he was still Sophie, still closeted, masking, and consumed by constant thoughts of self-mutilation and sexual violence. The hive came to him on the night he’d finally decided to do it – to set himself alight and burn till his face was something unrecognizable. Under its care, he can become someone else without the need for the fire. He starts transitioning. He stops speaking. He finds something – not love, but violent and satisfying -- with Levi, an ex-marine and enforcer of the hive’s control, who sees Crane as a man and still wants to fuck him. 

It’s a strange and violent life, but unlike what he had as Sophie, it's one Crane can survive. Until Levi gets him pregnant. Until the hive demands – after all it has done for him – that Crane keeps and births the child for it. 

Crane spirals as his body begins to distort and the community that saved him now traps him. But as his pregnancy progresses, more of the hive’s motives become clear and the community it built to sustain itself begins to crumble. 

Reflections: Pregnancy horror is really the worst for me because I already find the details of even healthy, wanted pregnancies to make me squeamish. But on top of that, White expertly brought out the unique horror of a forced pregnancy with a trans man — the sickening loss of bodily autonomy, the elements of forced detransition, the mix of dysphoria and body horror Crane feels just from the pregnancy inevitably progressing down its natural course. Despite the sci-fi/fantasy elements, the main horror is all grounded firmly in reality. Crane is trapped in an abusive relationship that is facilitated by his community (read: cult). He is betrayed, manipulated, and violated by the people he thought were his salvation, and isolated from anyone who would help him. He's forced to carry this pregnancy to term even as he's unraveling and spiraling into his violent intrusive thoughts and thoughts of suicide. All because the hive wants the child for its own purposes and sees Crane as nothing but a body to use. 

It was unsettling to see someone already so unwell, pushed and pushed to the absolute extremes of what he can handle, exposing all the raw, disturbing corners of his mind. And it was more sickening to watch how the people around him saw all this happening to him and didn't just turn away, but went ahead and helped keep him in the situation that was killing him.

The ending pulled off a shocking, though not entirely unexpected, escalation to the horror with Crane's actions after the birth of his child. I was unsure near the end how the story would deal with following through on its premise and forcing Crane to give birth, what would happen to the child, and could it fit the tone and themes without going overboard? And it certainly delivered on that end. It was awful and pulled no punches, but gave enough insight into Crane's mind in that moment that, through his jumbled thoughts, he had a sort of twisted but understandable logic behind his actions. 

There were other parts of the ending that came and went too quickly for my tastes. Crane's parents, for example, felt tossed in with how briefly they made an appearance. There were some threads that needed to be tied up a little more to be satisfying. 

Warnings: Depictions of transphobia, misgendering, deadnaming, forced pregnancy/forced detransition, rape and sexual assault, body horror, violence, ableism, childbirth, miscarriage, abortion, suicidal thought, self-harm, domestic abuse, death of a child, cannibalism, intrusive thoughts involving sexual violence and beastiality. 

Notes on Rep: Crane identifies on-page as a trans man.

[solreads]

Catnip - Review

Title: Catnip

Author: Vyria Durav

Genre: Romance, Science Fiction

Audience: Adult

Format: Novella

Representation: Trans woman POV character

  Demigirl POV character

  Trans and nonbinary supporting characters

Summary: When Sol is sent ahead to prepare a failed Venus colony for recolonization, he expects to spend his time alone repairing systems in empty ruins. What he doesn’t expect is to be greeted by a friendly and fully sapient AI, still active after 300 years, or to stumble – literally – into a pool of mysterious nanites. His mission falls to the wayside as the nanites begin to alter his body, gradually transforming Sol into a catgirl. Realizing how comfortable this new body is, Sol – now Callie – comes into a new understanding of herself and her gender. 

At the same time, Alexis, Venus’ resident AI, has had over 300 years to figure out her identity and what she wants for herself outside the control the colony’s Founder had over her. However, her ability to live as herself is still limited by the restrictions that have a hold over her systems and the limitations of her robotic and holographic forms. 

As she revels in the joy of finally feeling at home in her body, Callie commits herself to finding a way to free Alexis and share that joy with her. Along the way, the two uncover the secrets of the colony’s downfall and begin to fall for each other. 

Reflections: This was a lot of cute catgirl antics and not a lot of anything else. It’s pure wish fulfillment, and I can respect that, but it didn't hit for me. I wanted more substance, perhaps more reflection on the non-consent and lack of knowledge on or control over the transformation, or more depth to Alexis and Callie, better incorporating their histories and traumas… but that’s not what this is. It’s about a forced catgirl transformation helping a woman speedrun trans self-discovery so she can have a bunch of cute moments with her polycule. 

From the description, I hadn’t gotten the impression it was going to lean so heavily on fluff at the expense of more developed characters and plot. I don’t think I would have picked it up if I had. There is an underlying plot and the beginnings of complex and interesting ideas, but it never lasts long, like it needs course correct back to the fluff any time it starts to dig deeper. And I just got bored. 

The writing style was also not for me. To me, it reads as fanfic-y in a way that made me cringe just a bit. 

I can see the appeal, though, if you are looking just to see a trans woman main character have some simple joy in her newfound body and with her new girlfriend. 

Warnings: Depictions of transphobia, dysphoria.

Notes on Rep: Callie identifies on-page as a trans girl and Alexis identifies on-page as a demigirl.

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Life Beyond My Body - Review

Title: Life Beyond My Body: A Transgender Journey to Manhood in China

Author: Lei Ming, Lura Frazey

Genre: Memoir

Audience: Adult

Format: Novel

Summary: Raised in rural China and presumed to be a girl, Lei Ming struggles through the neglect and abuse of his childhood and faces a growing discomfort with his body and the assumptions about his gender. Though the path forward for someone like him and even the words for who he is – a transgender man – are elusive, Lei Ming sets out on a journey to physically and socially transition. 

He attempts to navigate the convoluted requirements of the medical and legal systems and the black market alternatives. Financial difficulties hold him back as the mismatch between his legal and social gender complicates getting a job and housing. Throughout his transition, he falls in and out of love, and his relationship with God and the Christian church shifts and strengthens. 

Reflections: While I found the writing style somewhat plain, Lei Ming poignantly captured the profound frustrations of a circuitous path to transition. He faces requirements for legal and medical transition that are unclear, inaccessible, or have steps that seem to loop back on themselves. He reveals the moments when relief or comfort are once again undercut by the realities of cisnormative society asserting themselves. And he conveys a palpable sense of that impotent energy when knowing what you need and deciding to pursue it, but still being held back. 

At the same time, his story was hardly mired in frustration and struggles. Christianity features prominently in his story, and – especially since that’s something I can’t relate to – it was compelling to see how it shaped his understanding of himself and his life as well as how that narrative evolved along with his faith to eventually settle into acceptance. The community he found within Christianity stood out too – how some rejected his identity outright, while others could assimilate it and understand it within their beliefs with almost no trouble at all. 

I knew nothing about transgender care in China prior to reading this, and I was interested to see through Lei Ming’s journey both what official channels exist and his personal experience, which was much more reliant on DIY and black market methods. 

Warnings: Depictions of transphobia, misgendering, deadnaming

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Dreams in Times of War - Review

Title: Dreams in Times of War/Soñar en tiempos de guerra

Author: Oswaldo Estrada

Translator: Sarah Pollack

Genre: Contemporary

Audience: Adult

Format: Short Story Collection

Representation: Trans woman POV character

Summary: When the Peruvian government deems his stay in the country illegal, a boy born in the US and raised in Peru is sent away from his family to the US and the father he’s never known. A Salvadoran trans woman tries to build a life for herself in the US after fleeing transphobia and violence and being granted asylum. A young girl faces an uncertain future as her mother’s work harvesting tobacco poisons her. 

Dreams in Times of War presents twelve stories of the varied lives of Latinx immigrants, the discrimination and desperation, together with the solidarity and triumphs. 

Reflections: I enjoyed the diversity of experiences the author tackled in this collection. He brought together many quick, but immersive snapshots of immigrant experiences to create a sense of a vast community. 

Lupe’s escape from the hate crimes she faced in El Salvador for being transgender, to still face harassment and prejudice in the United States, was painful. It captured a subtle sense of loneliness and exhaustion amidst her determined creation of a safer life.

Warnings: Depictions of transphobia, misgendering. Mentions of transphobic violence and murder.

Notes on Rep: Character identifies on-page as a trans woman.

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Homegrown Magic - Review

Title: Homegrown Magic

Author: Jamie Pacton, Rebecca Podos

Genre: Romance

  Sub-Genre: Romantasy

Audience: Adult

Format: Novel

Representation: Nonbinary POV character

Summary: On the day of their graduation party, Yael Clauneck, the scion of a wealthy and powerful banking family, flees from their parents’ estate and from the life their family has decided for them. Directionless and driven by impulse, they stumble upon the village where their former childhood friend had disappeared to years ago. The friendly little town is refreshingly different from the city and they can’t help but feel drawn back towards one of few people they ever felt truly close with. It seems, for a while, like somewhere they could settle into. 

Margot Greenwillow is wearing threadbare. With her parents trapped in a cursed sleep and their mountain of debts coming due, the plant witch spends every moment trying to balance between maintaining the greenhouses for the family business selling enchanted remedies and formulating the mythical magic restoration potion her parents’ creditors – the Claunecks – demand. If she falters or fails the land on which the town she loves sits will be reclaimed. So when her former friend and crush rides into town, she knows she doesn’t have time to rekindle what they used to have… but Yael, clueless as they are in a greenhouse, is eager to help however they can. And how Margot needs a helping hand. So she lets them stay. 

They fall into a comfortable routine and love begins to regrow between them. Margot can almost see a future where her home is safe and Yael can almost believe they’ve escaped their parents’ control. But as the deadline to present the potion grows nearer the Claunecks come calling to collect not just their debts, but their wayward heir as well. 

Reflections: The execution of the conflicts, both in Yael and Margot's budding romance and with the Claunecks, fell flat many times for me. 

I wasn’t really taken with these two’s reasons for not getting together and later breaking up. First Margot just doesn’t like to fuck her friends and mess up a platonic thing… okay, fair enough, but weak reasoning when you both are not only so obviously hot for each other, but also just as obviously interested in not keeping this a friendship. Though you can find other reasons for these two to tread carefully when getting into a relationship, that was the one that got articulated the most while being the most shallow. 

Then their third act break-up — they are both acting so dumb. Yes, flawed, damaged people make flawed choices, but they had proven capable of communicating and supporting each other before. It would have been a nice progression of their relationship for them to actually choose to face the threat of Yael’s family together and make a plan together, demonstrating both of how functional their relationship could be despite their various hangups and their individual growth (Margot accepting that she needs to trust others and accept their help; Yael having a cause that means something to them and the strength to go against their family purposefully rather than only impulsively). Something like that comes later, but I think it’s made weaker by the fact that Margot had little role in their triumph, Yael’s choice felt less their own or less considered, and the later placement in the book ended up making it feel rushed. 

I had similar feelings of interesting concepts for conflict deflating as well with Margot's parents. I was disappointed when it was revealed that Margot didn't actually do this thing that she harbored so much guilt over. It wasn't her arrogance/foolishness/naive hope or anything at all that really led to her parents being cursed, despite how she presented it. It made her more boring to me honestly. The resolution with Margot’s parents also felt rushed. As much as Margot’s guilt was misplaced and brushed away by some encouraging words from Yael, it was initially an important part of her character. Combine that with the complicated feelings she (and the rest of the town) must have for them regarding their role in everything, I wanted to see… something, anything from Margot and their reunion. Instead, it happens off page and there are no interactions between the Greenwillows. It left the magic sleep feeling very noticeably a contrivance to get the older Greenwillows out of the picture. 

Notes on Rep: Yael does not identify on-page as nonbinary, but is referred to with they/them pronouns and gender neutral language.

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Boy Island -Review

Title: Boy Island

Author: Leo Fox

Genre: Fantasy

Audience: Adult

Format: Graphic Novel

Representation: Trans man point of view character

  Trans women supporting characters

Summary: Fairy, the spirit of order, has imprisoned his counterpart, the spirit of perversion, and split the world into two islands – Boy Island and Girl Island. Lucille, a young trans man, lived on Girl Island with his mother, but now leaves his home and his family to make the dangerous journey to Boy Island. Fairy’s daughter who seeks the husband her father has kept her from and Fairy’s son, the ferryman between the islands. At sea, they encounter the lost souls of those who could not find a home on either island or who refused to conform to Fairy’s beliefs and the idea of a different world begins to take shape in Lucille’s mind. 

Reflections: I enjoyed the strange world these characters inhabit. It had the feel of a classical fairytale setting, where any unhinged creation could pop up and seem completely natural. The art style perfectly complemented that tone. Lucille was sort of a non-entity for much of the story, but the characters he encountered were all compelling. I have a soft spot for Starman, Fairy’s son, but the trans characters of old, who struck out into the sea when the land was split, stuck out as well. They grounded the story. The story mixed its fantastical weirdness with very on-the-nose allegory for real-world transphobia and trans experiences and with these characters, those elements really began to mesh into something moving. 

Warnings: Depictions of transphobia, misgendering.

Notes on Rep: Lucille identifies on-page as a trans man.

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Power to Yield and Other Stories - Review

Title: Power to Yield and Other Stories

Author: Bogi Takács

Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy

Audience: Adult

Format: Short Story Collection

Representation: Nonbinary POV characters

  Trans and nonbinary supporting characters

Summary: A candidate to become a liaison to an alien race reflects on their own alienation as their suitability is evaluated. An AI grows into themself as they learn Jewish mysticism. A mother is stuck in the form of a houseplant as her child prepares for their bar mitzvah. Two lovers separated by war find each other again, though one is no longer entirely human. 

In eleven science fiction and fantasy stories, Power to Yield and Other Stories explores gender, neurodiverse, religious, and cultural identities, community and alienation, and the complexities of privilege and marginalization.

Reflections: I enjoyed the breadth of experiences and worldviews, both human and inhuman. The science fiction and fantasy elements were well utilized to show expansive ways of being and understanding, from human-like AI to alien hive minds to the slow, strange plant-senses and aid the themes relating to communication and connection/alienation. 

These stories were excellent at creating rich worlds and characters with the quick sketch provided by a short story, and it must be down to the care and interest in how all sorts of intersecting identities might interact and evolve in these environments.

Warnings: Depictions of misgendering, transphobia.

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Servant Sovereign - Review

Title: Servant Sovereign

Author: Michael G. Williams

Genre: Fantasy

Audience: Adult

Format: Novella Collection

Representation: Genderqueer POV character

Summary: With real estate speculators and exploitative startups, consuming and gentrifying increasingly more of San Francisco, Madge and Iria find their home and community in danger of being taken from them. But as they discover this threat is not only from human avarice but is driven by Mammon, the demon of greed, himself, the witches devise a plan to strike back against him. They summon, from the moment of his death, Joshua Norton, self-declared Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, and bind him to do their bidding. Up against devastating fires, gang warfare, and police violence, along with the demon and his servants, Emperor Norton travels through time to collect four keys to the city, symbolic items with significance to San Francisco’s history that will give Madge and Iria the power to wrest the city from Mammon’s grasp. 

Reflections: Told in four novellas, Servant Sovereign is half urban fantasy and half a love letter to San Francisco. The structure is more the sort of thing you see in kids' media where the plot is as much a vehicle for learning something (in this case, San Franciscan history) as an adventure story in its own right. I found it charming, especially since it’s written with obvious love for these parts of history, and because I don’t know much about San Francisco and did learn something from it. It does leave the main plot feeling sparse at times to make room for the historical details. 

What took me out, though, was the execution of some of its messages/themes and the shallowness of certain characters that was related to this. There’s a lot of "both-sides" waffling on most social issues that are brought up, which is very discordant with the extremely blatant anti-capitalist message that underpins the entire story. The protagonists are queer witches who literally fight off a manifestation of capitalist greed who goes out of his way to almost cartoonishly show off gentrification, exploitation, corruption, and valuation of wealth over human life under this system. But mixed in with all that the queer trans witch who gets dropped into a historic instance of police brutality against the queer community doesn't get to express a stronger opinion of the police force in America than ‘there's some problems with it, but we should try to have sympathy for them too.’ There's a historical missionary brought into the story who 'rescued' Chinese women from human trafficking but then held them captive till they learned English, converted to Presbyterianism, and married men of her choosing. The author's note addresses this somewhat, but the story itself very much tiptoes around this side of things to keep her in a heroic role and settles on the idea that she was just fighting back the best she knew how. (The Chinese American protagonist doesn't get a voice in this, just the white guy.) In general, the author seemed unwilling to engage with the unsavory aspects of most historical figures he writes into the story, particularly ones who ally with the protagonists, even when these aspects would be relevant to the story and its themes. It felt noncommital, like trying not to be too radical and not to speak ill of the dead by fully characterizing them. But then why tell an anti-capitalist story? Why make a large portion of the cast real, imperfect historical figures? I just felt some disconnect here.

Warnings: Depictions of misgendering, transphobia.

Notes on Rep: Iria identifies on-page as genderqueer.

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The Hades Calculus - Review

Title: The Hades Calculus

Series: Gunmetal Olympus #1

Author: Maria Yang

Genre: Fantasy

Audience: Adult

Format: Novel

Representation: Trans woman POV character

  Trans and nonbinary supporting characters and love interests

Summary: On an unforgiving planet, twelve gods preside over the only bastion of civilization, the walled city of Elysium, as it’s inexorably ground down by assaults from the monstrous colossi roving the lands beyond its gates. 

Hades, the reclusive Lord of the Machine Dead, and her allies, Ares and Hephestus, track disturbing new developments in the colossi’s behavior, growing signs of organization, intelligence, and unnaturally rapid adaptation. With the other gods dismissive and fractious and the threat outside the walls growing unchecked, Hades seeks her own solution. She finds it in the graceful living weapon that is Demeter’s most prized creation.

From the day she sprang from the vat that grew her, the cyborg Persephone has carved out her place from blood and viscera. Fighting her way out from under her godly mother’s control to the unlikely sanctuary of the Underworld is only another step to seize a life for herself. Her agreement to pilot the flagship mech of Hades’ arsenal is not to save Elysium but to make herself indispensable and quell the bloodlust that fills her. Yet Persephone is drawn closer to Hades and Hephestus as she explores who she is outside of her mother’s creature. A fierce loyalty to both settles in, even as their devotion to the city remains inscrutable to her. 

Taking up each other’s causes, they face not only the colossi, but the web of politics within the city and Demeter’s inscrutable and cruel designs for her daughter. 

Reflections: Persephone is a fun protagonist. She’s deeply unempathetic and thinks nothing of human lives despite her position as an eidolon pilot making her a protector and champion of the citizenry. (Her hunger for violence and disregard for the lives she protects are contrasted even with the inhuman and oft uncaring gods.) She’s an abused child who has eschewed any compassion even for (most) of her siblings suffering the same abuse and found strength in embracing and excelling at her role as a weapon. This fundamental aspect of her character is allowed to persist without being “fixed” by the lovers or friends who are at odds with her mindset. But she still grows as a character, the simplicity of her worldview beginning to show as childish and born of isolation and abuse as she has a chance to grow beyond her mother's control.

As strong as she is as a character, many of the relationships and side characters on her side of things didn't feel developed nearly enough. The lack of depth to Persephone’s relationship to Khrysothemis, which stuck out to me any time her sister was brought up, got an explanation in the end at least. But her quick and intense attachment to her godly suitors also wasn't as fleshed out or enmeshed with the rest of her character as I hoped would be and that got no further explanation.

On the other hand, Hades' relationship to her sister was rich with (often kind of fucked up) detail and had the history to support it all.

The world of Olympus was a fascinating place. Elysium, huddled behind its defensive walls, ruled over by capricious, inhuman gods, and still feeling the reverberations of the Titans' rule and overthrow, creates a strange, tenuous society equal parts ancient and futuristic. Seeing how these adaptations of the gods straddle that line, in many ways becoming unrecognizable, but still carrying enough of the original myths to make them who they are was one of the pleasures of this book. I enjoyed even the hint of the gods that did not feature prominently.

I don’t have a clear understanding of the limitations of the gods’ powers, though. In fighting the colossi, they are nearly powerless except to give life to their eidolons. But otherwise, they demonstrate abilities that seem like they could turn the tides of these fights with ease, or if nothing else, at least save their pilots. Their teleportation and ability to exist in multiple places, as well as the ability to create their own little realities around themselves, especially stand out as underutilized. The colossi interfere with the functioning of the eidolon and other technology, but did they restrict the gods themselves as well? I was always being surprised when the gods showed off a powerful ability because much of the time they seemed less actually divine and more superpowered humans only venerated as gods.

Notes on Rep: Hades is described as having been assumed a boy and now identifying as a woman.

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Galaxy: The Prettiest Star - Review

Title: Galaxy: The Prettiest Star

Author: Jadzia Axelrod

Genre: Science Fiction

Audience: Young Adult

Format: Graphic Novel

Representation: Trans girl POV character

Summary: Fleeing war on their home planet, the princess of the planet Cyandii and a handful of other survivors settled on Earth. To keep the princess safe from the enemies who still hunted her, they disguised themselves as humans and the Galaxy Crowned, Princess Taelyr became Taylor Barzelay, average human boy. 

Six years later, Taylor is cracking under the pressure of living in a body not her own, always at a distance from her classmates and friends to keep her secret. When she starts to fall for a new girl in town, one who she desperately wants to be herself around, she can’t resist the desire to change back to her original body any longer, even if it puts her and her ‘family’ of fellow survivors at risk. 

Reflections: The further the story progressed, the worse it seemed to balance the story it was telling literally (fugitive alien princess breaking cover) and the allegory (trans girl coming out and facing transphobia). For example, it can’t give much ground for the people disguised as Taylor’s brother and father to have their fear and anger legitimized because metaphorically they are being transphobic (in universe they are scared of being hunted down and slaughtered by their enemy and angry that they are permanently stuck in bodies not their own). This left the resolution of the conflict between them feeling incomplete. The story only really wants to be a trans coming-of-age story, and it’s good at that. It's pretty solid, if occasionally heavy-handed, in its depictions of gender dysphoria, euphoria, transphobia, and the experience of coming out within the confines of the allegory it set up. It’s just muddled by the sci-fi/superhero elements that go undeveloped and the fact that the character isn’t just actually a trans woman.

Warnings: Depictions of misgendering, dehumanizing language, allegory for transphobia.

Notes on Rep: The main character is written not as literally a trans woman, but as an intentional allegory for being trans. 

[solreads]

Werecockroach - Review

Title: Werecockroach

Author: Polenta Blake

Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction

Audience: Adult

Format: Novella

Representation: Agender POV character

  Trans woman supporting character

Summary: An alien ship appears in the sky over London on the day Rin moves into their new flat. As the ship lingers there, silently, the aliens making no other move, Rin tries to settle in with their odd new roommates, Pete, a conspiracy theorist, and Sanjay, who seems almost normal if not for his tendency to fill his room with hoarded cardboard. When the ship suddenly makes it move, Rin and their roommates are left behind as the rest of London's residents disappear. As they try to flee the city together, Rin discovers a secret about them that might hold the key to opening communications with the aliens. 

Reflections: It puts me off a story when it's making a point of being inclusive and realistic in portraying certain forms of neurodivergence, mental illness, disabilities, etc., but then throws in the same old shallow cliches for others.  Here, Pete and Rin's interactions with and thoughts about him triggered that feeling for me. Pete's the crazy conspiracy theorist, believing what reads very much as paranoid delusions about being monitored and targeted. That's most of his character, and its ridiculousness serves as comedic relief.  Rin frequently sarcastically or jokingly feeds his beliefs or laughs at them. I don't know how I'm meant to take that versus the casual, but respectful acknowledgements of his sensory processing disorder or Rin's dyslexia. Some neurodivergence and disorders can be named and spoken of realistically and seriously; other times, behaviors that track to real disorders are thoroughly relegated to being unexamined jokes.

Setting that aside, I enjoyed the initial sense of daily life uneasily continuing after the aliens’ appearance because nobody knows what else to do. The whole story is throwing some wacky premises together. That beginning grounded it a bit in these ordinary, uncertain people who just have to keep living and working. It had early pandemic energy despite being written pre-pandemic, but with a more whimsical, less horrifying inciting event. It could have used some more excitement when that ordinary life peeled away. Everything stayed very easy and low energy.

Notes on Rep: MC identifies on page as agender.

[solreads]

Herculine -Review

Title: Herculine

Author: Grace Byron

Genre: Horror

Audience: Adult

Format: Novel

Representation: Trans woman POV character

  Trans women love interests and side characters

Summary: Visions of demonic beings stalk the narrator of Herculine, growing from bouts of sleep paralysis to monsters appearing in the waking world. She wards them away with superstitions she’s revived from her childhood in evangelical Christianity, but as they feed into her traumas and fears it becomes too much. 

Her ex-girlfriend offers a way out – run away from life in New York City to her trans girl commune tucked into the backwoods of rural Indiana. Drawn by the lure of community and support, the narrator hopes this can be the escape she needs, not only from the demons but from the isolation and cruelties of the wider world. However, even as she falls into her lover’s arms, even as she tries to slot herself into the commune, she can’t ignore the signs of something malevolent beneath the surface. And instead of escaping her demons, she may have fed herself right to them. 

Reflections: The horror works best first before the demonic deals the commune members make are revealed, when it’s just the mounting unease, then in moments like rituals with Dagon where the demons’ capricious and cruelty alongside the gifts they offer to create the sense of a horrible balancing act, but one someone could convince themselves they can benefit from if they are careful. Later when everything goes off the rails and people start dying left and right, demons are running rampant, it feels like too much happening without substance.

Some pieces of life on the commune, the relationships between the inhabitants, mixing support and toxicity, and the cult behavior the leader, Ash, had cultivated even disregarding the demons, could also be enjoyable, but weren’t explored much. The narrator's introspection on her experiences as a trans woman raised by a fundamentalist Christian mother, her past experiences with cults and conversion therapy gave her an interesting view on the commune -- half cutting through the idyllic portrait of trans community, self-sufficiency, and pure T4T love with a practiced eye for the darker side of things and half an increased vulnerability and longing to believe in Ash's vision.

Warnings: Depictions of transphobia, conversion therapy, use of slurs, dysphoria.

Notes on Rep: Character identifies on-page as a trans woman.

[solreads]

Notes From a Regicide - Review

Title: Notes from a Regicide

Author: Isaac Fellman

Genre: Science Fiction

Audience: Adult

Format: Novel

Representation: Trans men POV characters

  Trans woman and trans man love interests; trans women side characters

Summary: A thousand years in the future, from a flooded New York City, Griffon Keming reckons with his adoptive parents’ death by endeavoring to tell the story of who they were. Working from the journal his father wrote while awaiting execution, the fragmented stories they told him, and interviews with others who fled their homeland, Griffon traces Etoine and Zaffre’s stumbling path from artists to revolutionaries to refugees, the traumas that hounded them, their desperate love, the pain and joy of self-discovery. 

Griffon weaves his own story through with an impression of his parents achingly, lovingly familiar, and yet held at a distance from the life they had together. From the moment he recognized himself in Etoine, the first other trans man he’d met, to the uncertain early days after he found refuge from an abusive home with them, up to his care for his father in his last days, Griffon reveals the healing and the hurt they found in becoming a family, a love deep but troubled. 

Reflections: Despite the strange, futuristic setting and the slowly revealed backstory to the titular regicide, this was much more a literary character study than a sci-fi or an epic story of revolution. All three of the central characters — Griffon, Etoine, and Zaffre— were pulled apart to expose their flaws, their rage, arrogance, and indifference, their struggles with addiction, mental illness, trauma, and repression, their strain and fumbling but earnest attempts to be a family, their tragedy and how they kept living through it.

The two aspects that grabbed me the most were the reflection of Griffon as an adult on Etoine and Zaffre’s parenting of him -- the difficulty and in some ways failure to fit a certain idea of family, and the complexities of all three’s experiences/journeys with gender and transition. As Griffon grew from a teenager to an adult, his understanding of his parents and himself deepened, becoming more empathetic, but also unforgiving in a way. There was no doubt to the love within their family. Still, their relationships were also so much them desperately clinging to each other to stay upright, a necessity as much as a choice. And there was no shying away from the difficulty of parenting just because they chose to be a family, especially with all of them fighting so hard with their own struggles and trauma.

Then with their transitions and understanding of being trans -- I enjoy the way they navigate societies with different norms for trans people. Stephensport's "acceptance" for trans people that allows for social transition but not medical transition touched on some interesting commentary around policing how people can be trans. Zaffre's and Etoine's different responses to this edict and the effects it had on their journeys were integrated into their characters so well.

I wish Zaffre’s perspective could have been incorporated somehow. She’s fascinating through others' eyes, but I longed for her story through her own. There must have been so much unseen.

Warnings: Depictions of misgendering, transphobia, deadnaming, dysphoria

Notes on Rep: Characters identify on-page as trans men.

[solreads]

Corrupted Vessels - Review

Title: Corrupted Vessels

Author: Briar Ripley Page

Genre: Horror

Audience: Adult

Format: Novella

Representation: Trans boy POV character, nonbinary POV characters

Summary: In an abandoned house deep in the woods, Ash and River wait for the end of the world. 

Angels swim across Ash’s vision. They guide them to unite the other four elemental vessels, the fragmented soul of God, and bring on the end of days. As the vessel of Fire, they have become the spiritual guide, tasked with awakening the others from their human lives. 

River wants to believe. He takes the name Ash christened him with and the role of the vessel of Water. He studies their words and sits at their altar, entranced by Ash and the promise that he is more than a homeless trans runaway. He’ll believe to have his place, always, at Ash’s side.

Linden is a restless college student with a habit of tromping through the woods that draws them into Ash’s and River’s world. What they are not is the “vessel of Earth”. But they might be willing to play along for a while to keep their hot and fast romance with the ethereal beauty that is Ash going. 

When Linden’s skepticism, Ash’s fanatical faith, and River’s jealousy clash, it ends in tragedy that leaves none unscathed. 

Reflections: Linden’s death is horrifying. The dissociated, casual way River watches them die and the imagery of their body failing from the poison was disturbing. What bits we see of Ash’s manipulation of River also brought in some subtler horror, but could have been delved into more. Ash’s renaming of River along with controlling how he dresses had an extra layer of insidiousness from their trans identities. There’s the general cultishness of it, with the sense that Ash, who is also trans, must know on some level exactly what they’re doing co-opting and manipulating River’s trans self-discovery and defining of their identity to suit their vision. 

While there was definitely some solid horror to be found, I was left feeling like there could have been more to the story. I don’t know what I would need for it to feel more complete, but it didn’t to me. More to Ash’s character? More moments between River and Linden before Linden died? Resolution with Linden’s friend? Just more time with these people and their world?

Warnings: Depictions of misgendering, dysphoria.

Notes on Rep: Characters don’t describe themselves as transgender on-page, but are written intentionally as transgender and depicted as afab and medically and socially transition.

[solreads]

The Duke Steals Hearts & Other Body Parts - Review

Title: The Duke Steals Hearts & Other Body Parts

Author: Elias Cold

Genre: Fantasy

Audience: Young Adult

Format: Novel

Representation: Trans boy POV character

Summary: With the magic ability to pull off and reattach body parts from other people with just a touch, Phyllis is sure he will always live in the margins, feared by even the people he considers family. Only Lucent, Phyllis’s partner in stealing and ransoming body parts, looks at him without fear and all Phyllis has to do to keep this love is keep stealing for them.

Wycliff is nothing but another mark for Phyllis and Lucent – rich enough off his sister’s earnings to pay the ransom. But when Phyllis learns Wycliff cannot pay the ransom because his sister, Adeline, has disappeared and he sees the misery his theft has caused, his guilt catches up with him.

Despite his partner’s urging to forget about it, Phyllis starts poking around for clues to the mystery of Adeline’s disappearance. His investigations lead him in the direction of nobility which he infiltrates in the guise of Lord Philip, Duke of Rabbiton. When he finds Adeline and another missing girl, dead but reanimated by a magic not unlike his own, Philip is drawn into a web of secrets and crimes greater than he could have known. Even as the danger grows Philip can’t convince himself to escape back to his life with Lucent. The longer he keeps up the act the more ‘Philip’ and the life he’s creating feel more right and real than ‘Phyllis’, the isolated, guilt-ridden girl he used to be ever did.

Reflections: The ending brought down what had been an enjoyable book for me. Around 80% through the book, I realized how few pages were left and how much story there seemed to be left to tell, and I wondered how it would all fit. And then it didn't. The ending was abrupt. Many of the plot threads felt hastily resolved and some of the characters fell away. First Wycliff, then Adeline and Nyx, started with strong presences in the narrative in terms of their personalities and goals -- Wycliff and Adeline even being point-of-view characters -- before dwindling away. Lucent had a lot of set-up as a complex, tragic villain, but not a lot and not consistent development of those ideas. His main motivation ended up not really seeming to matter to him or anyone else. He drops it with very little prompting considering he's been pursuing this one goal for 400 years, killing for it and ruining his own happiness for it the whole time. **spoilers** (Also, if he cared so much about resurrecting his sister or at least tells himself he does, why kill the one man who's been shown to have resurrection powers? At least pretend a bit to consistent goals, you killed your lover for this.) **spoilers** Also, the tragedy of him living so long, but by his nature always falling into the same miserable and inescapable patterns is a compelling concept, but not shown off all that well.

What I liked:

Phillip's coming into himself as a trans man. Despite the fantastical setting and his unusual past, he reads true and relatably as a young trans person figuring it all out, both in his insecurities and fears and in this bright new self-assurance and comfort he starts to find as Phillip.

The trio of Phillip and the two undead girls. They had a sweet friendship developing even if, like many things in this book, I think it could have used more time to keep developing. Their support of each other and attempts to be honest and open with each other (a work in progress but something) were a nice contrast to the unhealthy relationship Phillip had been trapped in.

Lucent's love. Lucent's worst actions are done out of love and to people he genuinely loves. He's not just pretending to manipulate Phillip or Weevil. I think it adds something to the book's discussion of unhealthy relationships to acknowledge that there can be real love, care, and affection mixed with or driving the cruelty. And where other attempts to add complexity to Lucent's character fall flat, this one does work for me.

Warnings: Depictions of misgendering, deadnaming.

Notes on Rep: Character does not identify on-page as transgender, but is written as such, assigned female but identifying as a boy.