#emily is a Gay Disaster (TM)

[arwainian]

Reading This Week 2024 #30

This week took me to the very final page of the notebook I have been keeping my reading journal in since last October! which is very convenient, but also now i have to dig around my book shelf to find what half used notebook i want to convert toward this purpose. As a heads up I skimmed some articles this week I wont be including, but there will be a subsection in started/ongoing on books from the library that I've tested (lots of holds coming in at once) and whether I'll pick them up again or not

quick question, this log jumps between different genres pretty wildly [academic work on sexual violence to cute romance manga back to academic work on sexual violence]... would anyone prefer if i also sorted by genre/type? or are we cool with me mostly sticking to the timeline that i actually finished reading stuff? because my life and reading experience really does flip back and forth between these things

Finished:

settle the tab by blacksatinpointeshoes on ao3 reaching a point where I can return to friends at the table fanfiction after the post-project break is such a godsends bc there is so much good fic to catch up on! this fic by bsps (if you remember, an author i really loved during the reading project) is about Grand Magnificent being miserable and drinking martinis, a drink for people who hate themselves

The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang, audiobook read by Emily Woo Zeller this book was blurbed by Shelley Parker-Chan, author of She Who Became the Sun which I am obsessed with, so I picked The Water Outlaws up on a whim when I saw it at the library a few weeks ago. i ended up having an easier time starting the audiobook just because it fit well with my chores and errands after I returned from visiting family. if you like badass women and chinese-inspired historical and fantasy action, go check this out! I had a good time

"Toward Acknowledging the Ambiguities of Sex: Questioning Rape Culture and Consent-Based Approaches to Sexual Assault Prevention" by Tuulia Law, Ch.12 in Violence Interrupted: Confronting Sexual Violence on University Campuses a really loved reading this. it gives a good history of various feminist approaches to sexual violence, and says some things that have been on a mind in my research. love to have a place where i can justify and cite my opinions (btw, cause the title is ambiguous, its about acknowledging that Obtaining Consent(tm) does not always prevent sexual harm for various reasons, and consent-based approaches often individualize the broad social issues at play

A Sign of Affection, Vol. 1 by suu Morishita, translated by Christine Dashiell shojo romance between polyglot boy and Deaf girl. not really feeling the chemistry between the leads, but I finished the first volume for the lush art and how sign language is represented in static images. not sure if i'll continue with further volumes but i might check out the anime

"Thinking Woman-to-Woman Rape: A Critique of Marcus's "Theory and Politics of Rape Prevention"" by Kelly Anne Malinen a very incisive critique, a great and critical literature review on different feminist theories of rape (including radical feminist text with their gender essentialism). i will definitely be using this in my writing!

"The Font of Liberty" by Elizabeth Porter Birdsall, narrated by C.J. Lavigne on the Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast i kinda forgot what this is about.... newspapers in Les Miserables era France?

Go For It, Nakamura! and Go For It Again, Nakamura! by Syundei, translated by Amber Tamosaitis the art style for this is charming, the disaster gay is at absolute maximum disaster for comedic effect, and it really does get you shouting "just make a move! you have a good chance!" at this shy teenager's crush on his outgoing classmate/friend

"Sex Wars and the Contemporary French Moral Panic: the Productivity and Pitfalls of Feminist Conflicts" by Cornelia Möser provides a much needed outside perspective on the U.S. feminist "sex wars" between "pro-sex" and "anti-porn" camps, and reminds me of the need for a multiplicity of approaches: what feels empowering for some overlaps with what feels oppressive for others

Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture by Sherronda J. Brown, audiobook read by Yu-Li Alice Shen if you are not, like me, a graduate student familiar with writing on anti-black oppression and on asexuality, a lot of this stuff might be new to you. but me as I am a lot of this felt like fairly obvious comparisons/parallels/intersections, so reading it was a bit tedious. however those chapters were worth getting through for Chapters 10 and 11. Ch.11 gives a pretty thorough amateur history of different namings of asexual experiences in theories of asexuality prior to the internet age (its not new!), and Ch. 10 does a really beautiful and compassionate re-reading of the lives of Langston Hughes and particularly Octavia E. Butler through asexuality and aromanticism

Gyo: The Death-Stench Creeps by Junji Ito, translated by Yuji Oniki the volume I read also included "the enigma of amigara" fault as a backup story! excited for the shelved by genre episode on it. made me go eugh.

You've Always Been There by kingofwickedskulls on ao3 if you really wanna leave, I'll never make you stay by hornyonside (birdlord5000) on ao3 first is pickman/collette hookup, second it jesset/brnine hookup, both are nice!

Just Sex? The Cultural Scaffolding of Rape, Second Edition by Nicola Gavey maybe the best book I've yet read on rape culture, and specifically on the gendered aspects of all kinds of sexual violence (pressure, coercion, etc) and let me be specific that the praise I am heaping on it is specifically for the 2nd edition, which in a completely new chapter contextualizes the way the arguments of the 1st edition were written and limited by its time of publication, as well as eloquently expanding on some of the arguments which had at first given me pause with reliable qualitative research. this makes me want to go out and write a gender based analysis of sexual violence against and among trans people, like Gavey calls for in her acknowledgement that a lot of her argument relies upon presuming she's talking exclusively about cisgender subjects

Started/Ongoing:

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle, audiobook read by Mara Wilson reading this for queer lit book club! currently on audiobook for the sake of doing chores and not reading everything with my tired tired eyes

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu reading for sff bookclub which i have been absent from for a bit! this is short and written in an experiemental style, so I'm excited to get deeper into it

Boys Run the Riot, Vol. 1 by Keito Gaku, translated by Leo McDonagh, Status: DNF This is a manga about a closeted trans boy, Ryo, starting a fashion branad with his cool slack off held-back-a-year classmate Jin. It was very cool to see a manga with a trans protagonist, but I'm not interested enough in the fashion stuff to stick it through all the volumes, and the art style didn't grab me enough to want to finish this one... Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid, Status: to be continued! the cover of this book was done by an artist i like so I'm checking it out, first chapter or so it promising fairytale inspired stuff Black Water Sister by Zen Cho, status: to be continued! looks popular, its queer modern fantasy i think? first chapter is intriguing

Reading Plans:

continue with book club reads more articles on sexual violence there's a book on feminism and foucault i need to read i have stone butch blues out from the library i am slowly crumbling to dust under a pile of books please help

[ssa-lesbian]

my character’s strong but my head is loose

word count: 2.3k words

So maybe Emily Prentiss is a little jealous.

-> read on AO3

(Contains alcohol. Except I’ve never had alcohol before, so I’m just guessing what drunk people are like.)

—

“Maybe you guys should stop,” JJ says, the voice of reason covered by the crowd around her and her friends’ excited shrieks as they down another shot. There’s concern etched all of her face, but her mouth is curved in a smile of amusement, and Penelope laughs as she pinches her cheek.

“Oh, JJ, sweet, gorgeous, angelic Jayje,” she croons, cheeks flushed pink from all the alcohol, “our dear Em challenged me, and you know I can never back down from a challenge.”

The new agent laughs a little breathlessly, her cheeks so much more red than Penelope and pupils a little blown, and JJ can only shake her head. Penelope had insisted they all go out for drinks today, as the team had been gone for the entire week and she hadn’t seen them since last Saturday, and once they sat down, Emily commented she could hold more alcohol than the other. Penelope took it to heart, with JJ dutifully sitting out and standing as judge, but from the red glows of her friends, she starts to regret letting them compete.

“Well, I have to go,” she says, standing up and sliding a ten dollar bill to the other agents, smiling at their cries of protest. “I told you guys already, my brother’s in town, I’m going to meet his kid.”

“Oh, the Thomas brother?” Emily asks, eyebrows furrowing as she desperately tries to recall any mention of the media liaison’s family through her drunken haze, and JJ and Penelope laugh at her confused expression.

“Yes, the Thomas brother,” JJ mimics, reaching for her phone. “The one who was disowned when I was two and didn’t even know existed until he found me a couple weeks ago.”

“Ah, the Thomas brother,” Emily says, her face breaking into a goofy grin that makes it clear she hasn’t processed any of what JJ had said. “Tell him I— we— I said hello!”

JJ scrunches her face up in a pained expression, and she sticks her tongue out at the dark-haired woman. 

“Oh, I will,” she says. “Take care of yourselves, okay? Bye guys.”

She presses a quick kiss to Penelope’s cheek before waving goodbye, disappearing out of sight after ducking out of the doorway, and the remaining blonde turns to her companion, eyes narrowed in mischievousness before frowning at the dull expression on her face.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

Emily stares sullenly at the table before declaring, “I’m like, super drunk,” and downing the remaining full shot on their table, wincing at the burn. Penelope giggles, but it quickly fades when it’s clear the shot didn’t help her at all.

“How come she only kisses you?” Emily blurts out, and the tech analyst stares at her.

“What?”

“She—”

Her normally pale skin is incredibly flushed, spreading all over her face and dipping into her cleavage, and she fumbles for words as Penelope watches, fascinated by the normally held-together agent unraveling. I guess she can’t do tequila.

“She always kisses you,” Emily says, “but not me. Why won’t she kiss me?”

“I— what?” Penelope starts laughing, serving only to edge on the flustered agent as she continues, her voice rising in pitch and volume.

“I always see her kissing you! Like, on the cheek, but she never kisses me. Do you think she doesn’t like me? Is that why she won’t kiss me?”

“Emily, sweetheart, JJ likes you plenty—”

“I like her too!” Emily says loudly, drawing heads from the surrounding customers, and Penelope has to stifle a laugh when she realizes the brunette is swaying on her seat. “I like her, like, a lot, and I want her to kiss me—”

“As much as I absolutely adore you, sweet Em, I’m going to take you home,” Penelope interrupts, standing up and offering her arm to the brunette agent, who blinks dumbly at the sudden movement before groping for her arm to stand shakily. “You, my pretty, have had too much to drink.”

The taxi ride back to Emily’s apartment is surprisingly quiet, the only sign of Emily’s distress her bouncing knee, giving Penelope plenty of time to analyze everything that came out of her friend’s mouth. Walking up three flights of stairs is surprisingly easy, considering how drunk Emily is (she only slips twice), and she’s able-bodied enough to unlock her door and close it behind the two before collapsing on her couch, eyes glazed over and lip trembling. Penelope chortles to herself as she pours a glass of water for the two of them from her kitchen before hurrying over and setting the glass down on the coffee table between the couch and armchair, taking a seat and biding her time in the plush armchair..

Dark beauty wants golden angel to kiss her, huh? she muses. She snorts as she remembers how just last week, JJ had sprinted into her lair in a flustered mess, fanning her pink cheeks and nearly hyperventilating as she brokenly explained to Penelope how she had bumped into Emily and dropped her papers and they both bent down to pick them up and when JJ looked up she was literally an inch away from Emily’s face and her eyes were so dark and her lips were so dark and red and plump and--

“What’s so funny?” Emily says suddenly, eyes snapping back into focus to stare down Penelope, who doesn’t bother smothering her giggles.

“Hm?” Penelope asks.

Emily narrows her eyes in suspicion, and she begins biting her lip before blurting out, “I really like her, Garcia.”

“Oh sweetie, I know—”

“I really, really like her! She’s so pretty, and whenever we’re on cases and I look at her, it’s like she’s glowing. Glowing. Like the sun.”

“And the way her eyes pierce you, like they can see right through you,” Penelope prompts, and Emily nods enthusiastically.

“Yeah, her eyes! They’re so blue, when I look at her and she sees me, it’s like— it’s like we’re the only people in the room. She’s so stunning, so—” she waves her arms around, poised as though to demonstrate some abstract concept, and she settles for, “perfect. JJ is perfect. You know when I first came here, she was the first person I talked to?”

The blonde shakes her head, unable to hide the wide grin on her face as Emily continues, emboldened.

“She asked me where I was going and I thought I was going to faint, she was wearing a pencil skirt and her legs were so toned and her eyes were so bright, I said she was pretty and I was looking for an Agent Hotchner—”

Penelope gasps. “She never told me that.”

JJ did tell her that. Showed up in Penelope’s office without warning, cheeks flushed and knees shaking before announcing that a new agent just told her she was pretty and that said-new agent was also very pretty. Penelope let her cool down in the lair for a bit before sending her out to chase after this new agent, but not before sneaking into all the available cameras in the FBI building just to see how pretty this new agent was.

“Her lips look so cute, Garcia,” Emily says dreamily. “Have you seen them? It’s hard not to, they’re so pink, and they look so soft. Are they soft, Garcia?”

“Well, that’s for you to find out, isn’t it?” Penelope teases, and Emily lets out a sigh as she starts fanning herself. “Sweetheart, you’re all red, and you’re horribly drunk.”

“I am,” Emily agrees. “Why are you in my home?”

“Oh baby,” Penelope coos, standing up to help Emily to her feet. “I’ve had my fill of stories and tellings from you today, but I’m thinking maybe you should clean yourself up and get to bed. Here, let’s go.”

Emily is a vaguely put-together drunk, the blonde notes, despite having no filter in her mouth. She comes out of the bathroom in one piece (Penelope has to help her fix her robe, which she put on backwards), and after only minimal coaxing, curls up in bed, breathing steadying out within moments. Penelope stands at the bedroom doorway, studying the now-passed out agent, and with a grin, she exits the apartment, making sure to lock the door on her way out. Her Uber driver makes no comment when she spends the entire ride on her phone, texting someone.

—

“Hey, how was the shot contest?”

Emily looks up from her papers and smiles at the media liaison, who’s now perched on the edge of her desk, leaning over slightly, files pressed tightly to her chest.

“Hey JJ,” Emily says, pushing her papers to the side. “Ah, it was fine— Pen took me home ‘cause she was worried I was too drunk.”

“Too drunk?” JJ laughs, hand reaching up to brush away a few strands of golden hair, and Emily’s breath catches.

“Yeah, well, I think she was just scared of losing,” she manages, and JJ snorts.

“Really?” JJ says. “From what I heard, you were pretty drunk.”

“What you heard?”

Usually, it’s Emily making JJ flustered, but it’s the way she’s perched on her desk and the way her white button-down is buttoned maybe a button too low and the way it fits perfectly to her body and the way her sleeves are rolled up and her lips—

“You don’t remember?”

JJ’s dubious voice snaps Emily out of her daze, and she frowns slightly at the look of disbelief on her face.

“I—” Emily says slowly. “I remember you left early, and then Pen took me back to my apartment.”

“Do you remember anything else?” JJ asks, and Emily has a flashback to grade school, being called out in front of the entire class only to have no idea what was going on.

“Am I supposed to?”

JJ studies her, mouth slightly open, tongue poking out, and Emily squirms under her piercing gaze. “Jayje—”

“I guess you really don’t, huh,” JJ finally says.

There’s a silence as Emily struggles to find something to say, and she offers a meek, “Sorry.”

JJ, to her credit, laughs, and there’s a twinkle in her eyes that makes Emily’s stomach flip inside and out as she slides off her desk easily.

“No worries,” she says before, “Oh, I’ve got a new file for you.”

Emily groans as she takes the file, but she also knows JJ could hand her twenty files and she wouldn’t complain. Holding it, however, Emily notices that it’s light, and she frowns, but before she can protest, JJ smiles, and Emily’s voice dies in her throat.

“Take care, Emily,” JJ says. “I’ll see you around.”

And she leans forward and kisses Emily.

The only thing Emily can register is how soft her lips are. It’s a quick kiss on the cheek, and it happens so quickly, she wonders if it even happened at all. Her hand flies up to her cheek, mouth hanging open as JJ leans back and shoots her a grin, the corner of her mouth quirking up in— satisfaction?— before spinning on her heel and almost sauntering back to her office. Her face is burning-- her face is definitely burning-- but she can still feel the ghost of JJ’s tender lips pressing against her.

The file in her hand— she opens it, and there’s just a single sticky-note in JJ’s signature wide-looped cursive.

I can kiss you however much you want on a date.

“Better close your mouth before you catch any flies, princess,” someone sings, and Emily whirls around in her chair, mouth snapping shut immediately as she glares at her coworker.

“Shut it, Morgan,” she manages, but he only barks out a laugh as he turns to his deskmate.

“Reid, you see that?” Morgan crows. “Our resident hot-shot just got demolished by blondie’s little kiss.”

“I did see that,” Reid confirms, and Emily swings her glare to him. He only smirks and adds, “Her pupils are completely blown—”

“Goodbye,” Emily interrupts, getting up from her seat and almost bolting out of the bullpen, and now her ears are burning and her hands are shaking and she does not need to be here right now and maybe she could go and find JJ right now and see if that note is genuine—

Rossi joins Hotch at the railing of the bullpen, just in time to see Emily scrambling out of the bullpen, leaving a cackling Morgan and Reid in her wake.

“Well?” the Unit Chief asks, raising an eyebrow.

Rossi grunts. There’s a flicker of a smile on Hotch’s face. “Sorry, could you say that again?”

Another noise from the senior agent. Hotch waits patiently, one hand on the railing and the other holding the next case’s files, and then finally Rossi responds.

“You win,” he grumbles. “JJ made the first move.”

“Oh, did she now?” Hotch teases, and Rossi scoffs.

“Only barely, it was a kiss on the cheek! She kisses Garcia like that all the time—”

“But this was a first for Emily,” Hotch interrupts, a cheeky grin on his face. “Considering all they do is dance around each other, I think a kiss on the cheek is definitely a move.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Was it $20?”

“Ah, I believe it was $25.”

Another grumble as Rossi passes Hotch the two bills, and the younger agent tucks it away discreetly. He hands Rossi his folder, and when Rossi takes it, he asks, “How did you know?”

“Hm?”

“How did you know it would be JJ? Emily had always been the one to flirt first. I thought for sure she was dominant enough to make the first move.”

Hotch smiles.

“Dave, I handpicked JJ for the media liaison role at the BAU. I trained her myself. There’s a lot more to her than she shows.”

And as Hotch saunters back to his office, leaving Rossi $25 lighter, the senior agent has to agree.

[qqueenofhades]

20+ Books That You (Might Actually Want) To Read During Pride Month!

Right, so. I got annoyed after seeing the list referenced in this post last night, told myself that my books are all packed up so I couldn’t do anything about it, and lasted all of a whopping 10 minutes before picking up my phone and attempting to make my own list instead. Behold, my from-memory attempt to present 20 books with strong LGBTQ plots, characters, and/or authors, that DON’T just rely on Suffering and Identity Politics and are... you know... fun.

Listed in alphabetical order by title. Links take you to Bookshop.org, where you can buy them from your local independent bookstore at a discount and NOT from the evil empire.

1. A Master of Djinn – P. Djeli Clark * author of color * steampunk Cairo in 1912 * djinn! magic! murder mystery! * butch Arab lesbian main character * devout hijabi Muslim badass assistant * anticolonial alternate history

2. An Accident of Stars – Foz Meadows (Sequel: A Tyranny of Queens) * trans author * bi, pan, trans, aro representation * racially diverse characters * all female POV characters * high-fantasy world adventures

3. Boyfriend Material – Alexis Hall * queer author * look I love this book SO MUCH and have absolutely screamed about it before but also I LOVE IT SO MUCH * contemporary M/M fake dating in modern London, complete with full cast of disaster found-family queer friends * it is. fucking. HILARIOUS. I almost died the first time reading it * there is a sequel called HUSBAND MATERIAL scheduled to be released in 2022; I am a normal amount of excited for this book

4. Gideon the Ninth – Tamsyn Muir (Sequel: Harrow the Ninth) * the book cover says “Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted palace in space!” * that is exactly what you get * slow-burn enemies-to-lovers F/F main romance * I cannot describe this book, it is dark, genre-bendy, science fiction-y, Hunger-Games-with-lesbian-necromancers-in space? Kinda? I have literally never read anything like it * also fucking HILARIOUS

5. One Last Stop – Casey McQuiston * queer author (who wrote Red White and Royal Blue) * bisexual fat girl from the South/lesbian-daughter-of-Chinese immigrants from the 1970s-riot-grrl main romance * time traveling mystery involving the Q train in Brooklyn (mentions Brighton Beach ahem) * magical realism * many more found-family chaotic queers including a trans Latino psychic and a Black accountant by day/drag queen by night and the mean little gay disaster who has a hopeless crush on them

6. Parasol Protectorate (series) – Gail Carriger * this is one of my favorite series, and there are five books: Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, Heartless, and Timeless * steampunk vampires/werewolves late Victorian London, like Jane Austen crossed with P.G. Wodehouse (they are all fucking hilarious) * pretty much everyone is queer; we got your flamboyantly camp gay vampires (Lord Akeldama ftw!) We got your gay werewolves! We got your lesbian French inventors! We got your big disaster idiot werewolf main male love interest! We got your crazy adventures! You name it we got it! * two spin-off novellas: Romancing the Werewolf (M/M) and Romancing the Inventor (F/F) * she has a ton more books in this same universe and writes sexy queer supernatural romance as G.L. Carriger

7. Plain Bad Heroines – Emily M. Danforth * queer author * historical horror-comedy set between a haunted girls’ school in early-1900s New England and in the modern day * all sapphic female main characters * plays with style/form/voice, a story within a story within a story

8. Red White and Royal Blue – Casey McQuiston * you’ve probably heard of it but here I am reccing it again * the biracial son of the first female POTUS falls in love with the Prince of England; shenanigans absolutely ensue * yes, the British monarchy still absolutely sucks a big fat dick * hilarious, heartfelt, reads like fanfic, just go get it, it will change your life

9. Rosaline Palmer Takes The Cake – Alexis Hall * same author as Boyfriend Material, this is his newest * bisexual female protagonist * absolutely perfect satire of The Great British Bake Off (you can tell this man has watched EVERY SINGLE SERIES and all of the holiday specials) * sweet and surprisingly thoughtful

10. Starless – Jacqueline Carey * genderqueer/transmasculine main character of color * almost all main characters are brown people! * lush Middle Eastern/India-inspired fantasy world * gods, prophecies, monsters * the best Oh God Why Me I Am A Horrible Mentor wise-old-mentor

11. The Future of Another Timeline – Annalee Newitz * nonbinary (they/them) author * time travel but make it The Handmaid’s Tale * will probably make your head explode * feminist, queer, subversive * diverse characters

12. The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue – Mackenzi Lee * queer author * technically YA but historical/magical adventure set in the 1700s * bisexual disaster main protagonist and love interest of color * (mis)adventures across Europe * has a sequel (see below) with the badass asexual sister of the protagonist

13. The Hate Project – Kris Ripper * nonbinary/genderqueer author * M/M enemies to lovers/sex with no strings attached (spoiler alert: strings attached) * HECKING HILARIOUS * sweet, escapist, and very low stakes * diverse characters, including fat protagonist with realistic anxiety disorder

14. The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy – Mackenzi Lee * PIRATES, obviously * sequel to Gentleman’s Guide * asexual female protagonist * strong queerplatonic f/f friendship * more historical/magical 18th century adventures

15. The Last Rune (series) – Mark Anthony * Imma be real with you chief, I haven’t read this series since I was a clueless teenager with no idea why I liked Gay Stuff so much, so if it does turn out to suck now, don’t throw rotten veggies at me * but especially since it was written in the NINETIES, this series was hella progressive?! * gay characters, disabled characters, characters of color, all playing significant and heroic roles in six-book epic fantasy cycle * people from Earth end up in high-fantasy world of Eldh * endgame M/M romance for the main character * books out of print, I think, but you can find them cheap somewhere like AbeBooks; first one (Beyond the Pale) linked above

16. The Library of the Unwritten – A.J. Hackwith * queer author * heaven-hell-Valhalla supernatural adventures * The Good Place x Good Omens x Lucifer x The Librarians * Pansexual Black badass female heroine * Queer found families * The Sassiest TM Bisexual Villain Turned Reluctant Hero (is he my favorite? Why on earth would you think that.)

17. The Priory of the Orange Tree – Samantha Shannon * epic doorstopper science fiction/historical fantasy set in a vaguely 16th-century world * main F/F romance between a queen and her sorceress bodyguard * sassy old gay alchemist whose backstory will give you Feelings * so many strong women and characters of color * no homophobia! marriage is fully gender-neutral, spouses are called “companions”

18. The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller * likewise one you have probably heard of but still * a little light on the myth/historical part imho, but the writing is beautiful and will give you many feelings * M/M romance between Achilles and Patroclus  * reimagining of The Iliad (her other book Circe is also really good)

19 The Stars are Legion – Kameron Hurley * all-female apocalyptic space opera * messy messy antiheroines * grimdark war fantasy * queer sci-fi drama

20. Witchmark – C.L. Polk * author of color * M/M romance * main character is a veteran and a doctor dealing with his own hidden magic and repressed war trauma * gaslamp fantasy set in a world reminiscent of post-WWI England * strong sibling relationship