Oct. 16th, 2022 08:59 pm
Some Book I Love By Trans Authors
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binary_sunsetJK Rowling being Back On Her Bullshit again means that there's a fresh crop of people claiming that you should never ever ever read Harry Potter ever again. Now, I'm not going to comment on that claim, but I've noticed that this trend towards bashing transphobes has ultimately overshadowed conversation about trans authors in the publishing world. I'm seeking to remedy this.
Below the cut is a list of books from trans authors, most of which I absolutely love. I'm only choosing authors who openly identify themselves as trans or nonbinary. Authors who haven't said anything on the subject but write a lot of queer material will not be considered (as I'm not interesting in speculating on anyone else's identity). I have actually read them unless otherwise stated (my darling friend almost-annette is providing a few additional recs!). My taste tends towards sci-fi, fantasy, and romance. Her tastes lean much more… high brow, I suppose. Memoirs, history, and serious literature abound. Between the two of us, hopefully you can find something you like below. I also encourage everyone to please leave books by their favourite trans authors in the comments!
Title: Iron Widow
Author: Xiran Jay Zhou (they/them)
Genre: Young Adult Sci-Fi
Trigger Warnings: violence and abuse, suicide ideation, discussions of and reference to sexual assault,, alcohol addiction, and torture
Summary: Iron Widow is a loose, sci-fi retelling of the life of Wu Zetian, China's only female emperor. It takes place in a world where humanity is defended from monsters by mechs in the shape of Chinese mythical creatures, piloted by one boy and one girl. Problem is, the female pilots always die, including Zetian's sister (who was actually murdered by one of the strongest pilots in cold blood!). Zetian enlists as a concubine-pilot to avenge her sister's death, only to overpower his mind and murder him in the mech! But now she's been paired up with Li Shimin, a dangerous pilot and convicted murderer. How can she survive him and the insidious, deeply misogynistic military she's now a part of?
Notes: I actually pre-ordered this book bc I am deeply in love with Zhou's YouTube channel and online presence. The book is steeped in their humour and pulls from the media they love, but it doesn't feel heavily derivative. I think this is due to Zhou's heavy use of inspiration from Chinese history, myth, and culture. I don't read a lot of Chinese-inspired works (and I certainly don't read a lot of sci-fi with that inspiration), but the narrative is still familiar if you love things like Pacific Rim (and other, less-known properties here in the west like Neon Genesis Evangellion or Darling in the Franxxx) or The Hunger Games (which I think is a more apt comparison than The Handmaid's Tale, which is often found in the publisher's promos).
Also if you're worried about the trigger warnings, definitely take them seriously, but keep in mind that Zetian is a strong protagonist. Despite everything she goes through, she comes out of it stronger. The whole reason she's able to survive as long as she does is her considerable willpower. It also twists her, making her warped, vengeful, and untrusting. She's on of the messiest abuse survivors I've ever seen on page, and she's damaged in a way that feels authentic to me (as a fellow survivor of abuse).
Annette is also a fan of this one, but didn’t give me a statement to pass on!
Title: Nimona
Author: N.D. Stevenson (he/him)
Genre: Fantasy Graphic Novel
Trigger Warnings: N/A
Summary: Fearsome villain Ballister Blackheart is trying to prove that Sir Ambrosius Goldenlion and his bosses at the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics aren't quite the heroes that they're cracked up to be. Now saddled with a new, shapeshifting sidekick named Nimona, Ballister is better equipped than ever to reveal his nemesis and the Insitution for scoundrels they are! ...provided he can keep Nimona's cartoonish love of murder in check.
Notes: I couldn't not put Nate Stevenson (aka Gingerhazing) on here. Preferably, I would have wanted to put She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (since that's probably my favourite project of his), but this is a book list, not a cartoon list! Nimona originally started its life as a webcomic over on tumblr, before it was bought by a publisher and distributed physically. Though it starts out as a cartoonishly fun and silly comic, but as the plot develops, it starts to be about something much more than a sophisticated villain and his feral sidekick. I ate it up in about 1 day and fell in love with it!
Nate was also in charge of Lumberjanes (which I read as a twenty-something and found much more obnoxious than endearing, but I am decidedly Not The Target Audience, and I could see plenty of middle schoolers enjoying it).
Title: Red, White, & Royal Blue
Author: Casey McQuinston (they/she)
Genre: Contemporary New Adult RomCom
Trigger Warnings: implied/referenced homophobia, subtle racism, forced outing
Summary: Alex Claremont-Diaz is the half-Mexican son of the current president of the United States, who has a likely-very-one-sided dislike of the Prince of England, Henry Fox-Mountchristien-Windsor. After the two get into an argument at the royal wedding and end up toppling a cake, their respective handlers decide to send Alex to England to hang out with Henry as a publicity stunt. And while Henry is not nearly as awful as Alex originally thought, he really ought to be focusing on his mom's reelection campaign to ensure she doesn't lose to the bigoted Republican opposition. But how can he keep his budding relationship for Henry in check without jeopardising both his mom's reelection and his country's future?
Notes As much as I loved RWRB, Annette liked it much less. It's definitely set in a fantasy world where the US isn't a political shitshow. I read it around the 2020 election and, uh, I kinda needed the escapism. It's set in a world where a divorced-and-remarried woman with biracial kids won the 2016 election, so you can see why it's very cathartic for me. But you kind of have to go in accepting that it's an idealised fantasy and it isn't intended to accurately reflect real life. She also thought Alex's narration mocking the British felt very xenophobic. Personally I was able to excuse it because I'm Irish-American (so mocking the English is my god-given right), but maybe if you are English and the idea of a Mexican-American twenty-something mocking the fact that you eat beans on toast is really gonna bother you, give it a skip.
But yeah, if you can suspend your disbelief (and not be too precious about your regional breakfast foods), it's a very well-done, very high-stakes romance. I'm not normally a huge fan of the gay-relationship-is-a-secret-and-it-gets-out plot point, but it works here because these idiots can literally cause a minor international incident (which is played for laughs when teased, then played dramatically when it does happen). But the characters aren't only tied up in their romance: both boys want to try and make their countries a better place. Henry has a lot of baggage around the history of English colonialism and Alex plans on running for office to fix the idea that the southern US is a homogenous white supremacist zone. (There's a whole subplot about his plans to get Texas to turn blue for the first time in a generation). I'm always impressed by how well it weaves between the interpersonal relationship between Alex and Henry and all the plot happening around them. I also love the way it handles Alex's sexuality crisis once he starts catching feelings for Henry, which is honestly worth the read even on its own.
Casey has released 2 more books since RWRB, and I've read none of them. Whoops.
Title: Dragon Pearl
Author: Yoon Ha Lee (he/him)
Genre: Middle Grade Sci-Fi
Trigger Warnings: discussions of prejudice, death of a family member
Summary: Min is a fox spirit living on the planet Junjo, a dusty wasteland that has been abandoned by the interplanetary government that convinced them to settle there. The only thing that can fix it is the Dragon Pearl, a powerful magical artifact that can permanently terraform entire worlds. Her brother, Jun, joins the Space Forces (nominally to help provide for their family, but likely to find the Pearl and fix their home). After he's reported missing and assumed dead, Min disguises herself as an older girl to sneak onto his ship and investigate his death. And, potentially, to save her home planet.
Notes: If you're a sci-fi fan, you're probably already familiar with Yoon Ha Lee for his debut novel, Ninefox Gambit, a sprawling space opera about a soldier haunted by the ghost of a mad general. And I'm sure that book would be very happy on this list if it wasn't approximately 5,000 pages and if I'd actually managed to read it yet.
Instead, I've read Dragon Pearl, a middle grade novel about a girl lying her way through the galaxy to try and find her brother. Don't let the target audience fool you: I'm well into my twenties now and I loved every second of this! Min has a series of smaller adventures as she tried to find Jun (which involve a bunch of fun side characters). And I will never forget this book's gorgeous climax. Just... get yourself some prawn crackers while you read. One of the characters has an affinity for them and I was craving them the whole time.
Title: Captive Prince
Author: C. S. Pacat (he/him, she/her)
Genre: Speculative Fiction, Political Drama
Trigger Warnings: Rape, Child Sexual Assault, Incest, Abuse, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Sexual Slavery
Summary: Damianos, the rightful prince of Akeilon, has fallen victim to a coup led by his older half-brother. In order to get him out of the way, he’s been “gifted” to the prince of a rival kingdom as his pleasure slave. Prince Laurent is best known for being cold and cruel, a snake in the form of a man, and Damianos knows he would not hesitate to kill him the moment he learned who he was (especially since Damianos is the one who killed his brother). How can he reclaim his throne and begin to rebuild his kingdom if he can’t even survive the palace of his enemy?
Notes: One of my favourite things to do in bookstores is see if I can find where the Captive Prince trilogy is shelved. It’s almost always in the romance books, which I ardently disagree with. As someone who is an avid reader of romance novels, this is a political drama that happens to also involve the two main characters falling in love. I’ve classed CaPri as a political drama because most of the actual prose is dedicated to talk of political machinations, military strategy, and what it means to be a king.
But please, heed the trigger warnings! This book is in no small part about sexual violence and what it does to the people who fall victim to it. Tonally, I’d consider it on par with Game of Thrones, so tread lightly!
That being said, I personally went into it expecting it to be a trashy, problematique dubcon romance novel. I will not justify myself. But instead, I got this heart-pounding, high-stakes story of leadership and compassion that also happened to have a morally dubious twink and his big strong eventual-boyfriend at the centre of it. It is genuinely a work of art, and I cannot recommend it enough for the right audience.
Title: Cemetery Boys
Author: Aiden Thomas (he/they)
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Trigger Warnings: Deadnaming (character’s dead name is never revealed), gender dysphoria, transphobia, homophobia
Summary: Yadriel comes from a family of brujos (Latin American witches) living in a cemetery in Southern California. According to tradition, male witches (brujos) summon and exorcise spirits, while female witches (brujas) use their blood magic to heal. But Yadriel is transgender, and his community is not sure what to do with him, so even though he is old enough to meet La Muerte and gain his powers, his family won’t let him. After Yadriel and his cousin Maritza summon La Muerte in secret, Yadriel uses his newly-minted brujo powers to summon a ghost. Specifically, the ghost of one of his classmates, Julian Diaz. In order to exorcise Julian’s spirit, Yadriel has to solve the mystery of his murder before time runs out.
Notes: Aiden Thomas is one of those authors who I’m fairly certain would be incredibly well-respected if he didn’t write pulpy YA. This is one of those books that just… really struck me as a queer person. Aiden Thomas understands my queer experience in ways that I can’t quite articulate. There’s this one scene early on where, after learning that Yadriel is trans, Julian scratches out his dead name in his yearbook and writes in Yadriel. Reader, I tell you I cried.
Personally, I got kind of annoyed with Maritza after a while (Maritza is a vegan, so she won’t use animal blood to heal, which I found incredibly obnoxious. Like… the chicken is already dead, Maritza. Are you gonna try and put the blood back in? You might as well use it to help people.) But when she’s not bitching about animal blood, she is genuinely a good friend and ally to Yadriel, so I found myself softening to her after a while.
Also this book will make you want pan de muerto. Sorry in advance.
Title: Café con Lychee
Author: Emery Lee (e/em)
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary RomCom
Trigger Warnings: homophobia (internalised and external)
Summary: Theo Mori’s parents run one of two ethnic cafes in their sleepy, Vermont town. The other cafe is owned by the Puerto Rican Moreno family, and the two have been business rivals for as long as Theo can remember.
But when a new cafe opens selling gentrified fusion cuisine, the Mori’s cafe is on the verge of closing. In order to make ends meet, Theo concocts a plan to deliver food to his classmates under the nose of the administration. But when he sprains his wrist during soccer practice, he has to ask Gabi Moreno for help. Will the two boys be able to save both their family’s shops? Or will their rivalry prove more powerful than their love for their family’s businesses.
Notes: This is the one book on here that doesn’t have me frothing at the mouth with rabid affection. It’s by no means a bad book (it’s a fun high school rom com, which are hard to mess up), but I have a few sticking points.
The boys are supposed to be rivals, but it feels incredibly one-sided. Theo is frustrated and annoyed with Gabi the entire first chapter he narrates (they’re on the same soccer team and Gabi is terrible at soccer) and then we switch to Gabi’s PoV and he’s just absolutely smitten with Theo. Then we switch back to Theo, who still hates Gabi and thinks he’s a useless member of the team and it just feels icky. Like, the fun of rivals/enemies to lovers is watching people who do hate each other find reasons not to. It’s only fun when it’s mutual. I read this the same month I reread Captive Prince and the difference was insane.
There’s also a subplot where Gabi’s friend is in charge of homecoming, and gets really pissy at him for not attending their meetings and I’m like… girl, the business he grew up with is going to close and his parents might be moving out of the only home he ever knew. Let the kid deal with his feelings.
Theo is a massive jerk to everyone for seemingly no reason (other than hating living in the suburbs I guess. Which, same). He doesn’t really get a character arc: there’s no moment where he realises that he’s been acting terribly to the people who care about him, he just kind of… stops being a jerk. I think the book would’ve worked better if it was just Gabi’s story because his arc is much stronger and I found myself looking forward to his chapters. He ends up having to come out to his very toxically-masculine father and there’s some really good emotional payoff. The book is a mixed bag, but if it sounds like your cup of (bubble) tea, I’d recommend giving it a try!
Title: A Lady for a Duke
Author: Alexis Hall (he/him)
Genre: Regency Romance
Trigger Warnings: Deadnaming (character’s dead name is never revealed), ableist language, war-related PTSD, addiction
Summary: Viola Carroll was presumed dead at Waterloo and uses this to start living as a woman. While it’s extremely liberating to be able to live her truth, she had to leave several things in the past, including her childhood best friend, the duke of Greenwood.
Greenwood’s time at Waterloo has left him a broken man. He’s traded his leg and his best friend for an empty castle and a laudanum addiction, and he’s been left for two years to stew in his trauma and grief.
But after Viola sees what’s become of her beloved friend, she decides to do everything in her power to help him. And realises that maybe there was more to her feelings for him than she originally imagined.
Notes: Sorry to end it with a heavy one, but this is…. So good. Alexis Hall is slowly becoming one of my favourite authors working today. Ironically, I’ve not yet read his breakout mainstream hit Boyfriend Material (the waiting list at the library is very long), but this is my favourite book I’ve read by him so far.
One of the most refreshing things about this book is how unapologetic Viola is about being trans. She’s not shy about the fact that she used to be a Viscount, nor does she angst over her trans body for pages on end. She’s quite content to live her best trans life, but she’s also aware of the limitations of that. One of the central issues, once she realises her feelings for Greenwood, is that she feels like she can’t get married to him. Since he’s a Duke, he’s supposed to continue the family line, and Viola can’t get pregnant. In an era where being in the aristocracy actually meant something, this is kind of a big deal. But the bigger issue is that she’s worried about losing her friend. Would it hurt him more to tell the truth (that’s been lying about being dead for two years while he mourned her) or lie to him (and never be able to pursue their love because it could never go further than a kiss and also she rightfully feels icky about seducing him under false pretences). And then on top of that, she also has PTSD from her time at Waterloo! It’s incredibly emotionally charged, and, while Viola’s trans-ness is part of that complexity, it’s not all of it.
But you also root for them to get together the whole time because their chemistry is just so electric. Like I said, Alexis is a really good writer and he pulls out all the stops for these two.
…and now it’s time for a LIGHTNING ROUND!
Annette couldn’t write full blurbs for her recommendations, so here they are in list format.
Below the cut is a list of books from trans authors, most of which I absolutely love. I'm only choosing authors who openly identify themselves as trans or nonbinary. Authors who haven't said anything on the subject but write a lot of queer material will not be considered (as I'm not interesting in speculating on anyone else's identity). I have actually read them unless otherwise stated (my darling friend almost-annette is providing a few additional recs!). My taste tends towards sci-fi, fantasy, and romance. Her tastes lean much more… high brow, I suppose. Memoirs, history, and serious literature abound. Between the two of us, hopefully you can find something you like below. I also encourage everyone to please leave books by their favourite trans authors in the comments!
Title: Iron Widow
Author: Xiran Jay Zhou (they/them)
Genre: Young Adult Sci-Fi
Trigger Warnings: violence and abuse, suicide ideation, discussions of and reference to sexual assault,, alcohol addiction, and torture
Summary: Iron Widow is a loose, sci-fi retelling of the life of Wu Zetian, China's only female emperor. It takes place in a world where humanity is defended from monsters by mechs in the shape of Chinese mythical creatures, piloted by one boy and one girl. Problem is, the female pilots always die, including Zetian's sister (who was actually murdered by one of the strongest pilots in cold blood!). Zetian enlists as a concubine-pilot to avenge her sister's death, only to overpower his mind and murder him in the mech! But now she's been paired up with Li Shimin, a dangerous pilot and convicted murderer. How can she survive him and the insidious, deeply misogynistic military she's now a part of?
Notes: I actually pre-ordered this book bc I am deeply in love with Zhou's YouTube channel and online presence. The book is steeped in their humour and pulls from the media they love, but it doesn't feel heavily derivative. I think this is due to Zhou's heavy use of inspiration from Chinese history, myth, and culture. I don't read a lot of Chinese-inspired works (and I certainly don't read a lot of sci-fi with that inspiration), but the narrative is still familiar if you love things like Pacific Rim (and other, less-known properties here in the west like Neon Genesis Evangellion or Darling in the Franxxx) or The Hunger Games (which I think is a more apt comparison than The Handmaid's Tale, which is often found in the publisher's promos).
Also if you're worried about the trigger warnings, definitely take them seriously, but keep in mind that Zetian is a strong protagonist. Despite everything she goes through, she comes out of it stronger. The whole reason she's able to survive as long as she does is her considerable willpower. It also twists her, making her warped, vengeful, and untrusting. She's on of the messiest abuse survivors I've ever seen on page, and she's damaged in a way that feels authentic to me (as a fellow survivor of abuse).
Annette is also a fan of this one, but didn’t give me a statement to pass on!
Title: Nimona
Author: N.D. Stevenson (he/him)
Genre: Fantasy Graphic Novel
Trigger Warnings: N/A
Summary: Fearsome villain Ballister Blackheart is trying to prove that Sir Ambrosius Goldenlion and his bosses at the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics aren't quite the heroes that they're cracked up to be. Now saddled with a new, shapeshifting sidekick named Nimona, Ballister is better equipped than ever to reveal his nemesis and the Insitution for scoundrels they are! ...provided he can keep Nimona's cartoonish love of murder in check.
Notes: I couldn't not put Nate Stevenson (aka Gingerhazing) on here. Preferably, I would have wanted to put She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (since that's probably my favourite project of his), but this is a book list, not a cartoon list! Nimona originally started its life as a webcomic over on tumblr, before it was bought by a publisher and distributed physically. Though it starts out as a cartoonishly fun and silly comic, but as the plot develops, it starts to be about something much more than a sophisticated villain and his feral sidekick. I ate it up in about 1 day and fell in love with it!
Nate was also in charge of Lumberjanes (which I read as a twenty-something and found much more obnoxious than endearing, but I am decidedly Not The Target Audience, and I could see plenty of middle schoolers enjoying it).
Title: Red, White, & Royal Blue
Author: Casey McQuinston (they/she)
Genre: Contemporary New Adult RomCom
Trigger Warnings: implied/referenced homophobia, subtle racism, forced outing
Summary: Alex Claremont-Diaz is the half-Mexican son of the current president of the United States, who has a likely-very-one-sided dislike of the Prince of England, Henry Fox-Mountchristien-Windsor. After the two get into an argument at the royal wedding and end up toppling a cake, their respective handlers decide to send Alex to England to hang out with Henry as a publicity stunt. And while Henry is not nearly as awful as Alex originally thought, he really ought to be focusing on his mom's reelection campaign to ensure she doesn't lose to the bigoted Republican opposition. But how can he keep his budding relationship for Henry in check without jeopardising both his mom's reelection and his country's future?
Notes As much as I loved RWRB, Annette liked it much less. It's definitely set in a fantasy world where the US isn't a political shitshow. I read it around the 2020 election and, uh, I kinda needed the escapism. It's set in a world where a divorced-and-remarried woman with biracial kids won the 2016 election, so you can see why it's very cathartic for me. But you kind of have to go in accepting that it's an idealised fantasy and it isn't intended to accurately reflect real life. She also thought Alex's narration mocking the British felt very xenophobic. Personally I was able to excuse it because I'm Irish-American (so mocking the English is my god-given right), but maybe if you are English and the idea of a Mexican-American twenty-something mocking the fact that you eat beans on toast is really gonna bother you, give it a skip.
But yeah, if you can suspend your disbelief (and not be too precious about your regional breakfast foods), it's a very well-done, very high-stakes romance. I'm not normally a huge fan of the gay-relationship-is-a-secret-and-it-gets-out plot point, but it works here because these idiots can literally cause a minor international incident (which is played for laughs when teased, then played dramatically when it does happen). But the characters aren't only tied up in their romance: both boys want to try and make their countries a better place. Henry has a lot of baggage around the history of English colonialism and Alex plans on running for office to fix the idea that the southern US is a homogenous white supremacist zone. (There's a whole subplot about his plans to get Texas to turn blue for the first time in a generation). I'm always impressed by how well it weaves between the interpersonal relationship between Alex and Henry and all the plot happening around them. I also love the way it handles Alex's sexuality crisis once he starts catching feelings for Henry, which is honestly worth the read even on its own.
Casey has released 2 more books since RWRB, and I've read none of them. Whoops.
Title: Dragon Pearl
Author: Yoon Ha Lee (he/him)
Genre: Middle Grade Sci-Fi
Trigger Warnings: discussions of prejudice, death of a family member
Summary: Min is a fox spirit living on the planet Junjo, a dusty wasteland that has been abandoned by the interplanetary government that convinced them to settle there. The only thing that can fix it is the Dragon Pearl, a powerful magical artifact that can permanently terraform entire worlds. Her brother, Jun, joins the Space Forces (nominally to help provide for their family, but likely to find the Pearl and fix their home). After he's reported missing and assumed dead, Min disguises herself as an older girl to sneak onto his ship and investigate his death. And, potentially, to save her home planet.
Notes: If you're a sci-fi fan, you're probably already familiar with Yoon Ha Lee for his debut novel, Ninefox Gambit, a sprawling space opera about a soldier haunted by the ghost of a mad general. And I'm sure that book would be very happy on this list if it wasn't approximately 5,000 pages and if I'd actually managed to read it yet.
Instead, I've read Dragon Pearl, a middle grade novel about a girl lying her way through the galaxy to try and find her brother. Don't let the target audience fool you: I'm well into my twenties now and I loved every second of this! Min has a series of smaller adventures as she tried to find Jun (which involve a bunch of fun side characters). And I will never forget this book's gorgeous climax. Just... get yourself some prawn crackers while you read. One of the characters has an affinity for them and I was craving them the whole time.
Title: Captive Prince
Author: C. S. Pacat (he/him, she/her)
Genre: Speculative Fiction, Political Drama
Trigger Warnings: Rape, Child Sexual Assault, Incest, Abuse, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Sexual Slavery
Summary: Damianos, the rightful prince of Akeilon, has fallen victim to a coup led by his older half-brother. In order to get him out of the way, he’s been “gifted” to the prince of a rival kingdom as his pleasure slave. Prince Laurent is best known for being cold and cruel, a snake in the form of a man, and Damianos knows he would not hesitate to kill him the moment he learned who he was (especially since Damianos is the one who killed his brother). How can he reclaim his throne and begin to rebuild his kingdom if he can’t even survive the palace of his enemy?
Notes: One of my favourite things to do in bookstores is see if I can find where the Captive Prince trilogy is shelved. It’s almost always in the romance books, which I ardently disagree with. As someone who is an avid reader of romance novels, this is a political drama that happens to also involve the two main characters falling in love. I’ve classed CaPri as a political drama because most of the actual prose is dedicated to talk of political machinations, military strategy, and what it means to be a king.
But please, heed the trigger warnings! This book is in no small part about sexual violence and what it does to the people who fall victim to it. Tonally, I’d consider it on par with Game of Thrones, so tread lightly!
That being said, I personally went into it expecting it to be a trashy, problematique dubcon romance novel. I will not justify myself. But instead, I got this heart-pounding, high-stakes story of leadership and compassion that also happened to have a morally dubious twink and his big strong eventual-boyfriend at the centre of it. It is genuinely a work of art, and I cannot recommend it enough for the right audience.
Title: Cemetery Boys
Author: Aiden Thomas (he/they)
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Trigger Warnings: Deadnaming (character’s dead name is never revealed), gender dysphoria, transphobia, homophobia
Summary: Yadriel comes from a family of brujos (Latin American witches) living in a cemetery in Southern California. According to tradition, male witches (brujos) summon and exorcise spirits, while female witches (brujas) use their blood magic to heal. But Yadriel is transgender, and his community is not sure what to do with him, so even though he is old enough to meet La Muerte and gain his powers, his family won’t let him. After Yadriel and his cousin Maritza summon La Muerte in secret, Yadriel uses his newly-minted brujo powers to summon a ghost. Specifically, the ghost of one of his classmates, Julian Diaz. In order to exorcise Julian’s spirit, Yadriel has to solve the mystery of his murder before time runs out.
Notes: Aiden Thomas is one of those authors who I’m fairly certain would be incredibly well-respected if he didn’t write pulpy YA. This is one of those books that just… really struck me as a queer person. Aiden Thomas understands my queer experience in ways that I can’t quite articulate. There’s this one scene early on where, after learning that Yadriel is trans, Julian scratches out his dead name in his yearbook and writes in Yadriel. Reader, I tell you I cried.
Personally, I got kind of annoyed with Maritza after a while (Maritza is a vegan, so she won’t use animal blood to heal, which I found incredibly obnoxious. Like… the chicken is already dead, Maritza. Are you gonna try and put the blood back in? You might as well use it to help people.) But when she’s not bitching about animal blood, she is genuinely a good friend and ally to Yadriel, so I found myself softening to her after a while.
Also this book will make you want pan de muerto. Sorry in advance.
Title: Café con Lychee
Author: Emery Lee (e/em)
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary RomCom
Trigger Warnings: homophobia (internalised and external)
Summary: Theo Mori’s parents run one of two ethnic cafes in their sleepy, Vermont town. The other cafe is owned by the Puerto Rican Moreno family, and the two have been business rivals for as long as Theo can remember.
But when a new cafe opens selling gentrified fusion cuisine, the Mori’s cafe is on the verge of closing. In order to make ends meet, Theo concocts a plan to deliver food to his classmates under the nose of the administration. But when he sprains his wrist during soccer practice, he has to ask Gabi Moreno for help. Will the two boys be able to save both their family’s shops? Or will their rivalry prove more powerful than their love for their family’s businesses.
Notes: This is the one book on here that doesn’t have me frothing at the mouth with rabid affection. It’s by no means a bad book (it’s a fun high school rom com, which are hard to mess up), but I have a few sticking points.
The boys are supposed to be rivals, but it feels incredibly one-sided. Theo is frustrated and annoyed with Gabi the entire first chapter he narrates (they’re on the same soccer team and Gabi is terrible at soccer) and then we switch to Gabi’s PoV and he’s just absolutely smitten with Theo. Then we switch back to Theo, who still hates Gabi and thinks he’s a useless member of the team and it just feels icky. Like, the fun of rivals/enemies to lovers is watching people who do hate each other find reasons not to. It’s only fun when it’s mutual. I read this the same month I reread Captive Prince and the difference was insane.
There’s also a subplot where Gabi’s friend is in charge of homecoming, and gets really pissy at him for not attending their meetings and I’m like… girl, the business he grew up with is going to close and his parents might be moving out of the only home he ever knew. Let the kid deal with his feelings.
Theo is a massive jerk to everyone for seemingly no reason (other than hating living in the suburbs I guess. Which, same). He doesn’t really get a character arc: there’s no moment where he realises that he’s been acting terribly to the people who care about him, he just kind of… stops being a jerk. I think the book would’ve worked better if it was just Gabi’s story because his arc is much stronger and I found myself looking forward to his chapters. He ends up having to come out to his very toxically-masculine father and there’s some really good emotional payoff. The book is a mixed bag, but if it sounds like your cup of (bubble) tea, I’d recommend giving it a try!
Title: A Lady for a Duke
Author: Alexis Hall (he/him)
Genre: Regency Romance
Trigger Warnings: Deadnaming (character’s dead name is never revealed), ableist language, war-related PTSD, addiction
Summary: Viola Carroll was presumed dead at Waterloo and uses this to start living as a woman. While it’s extremely liberating to be able to live her truth, she had to leave several things in the past, including her childhood best friend, the duke of Greenwood.
Greenwood’s time at Waterloo has left him a broken man. He’s traded his leg and his best friend for an empty castle and a laudanum addiction, and he’s been left for two years to stew in his trauma and grief.
But after Viola sees what’s become of her beloved friend, she decides to do everything in her power to help him. And realises that maybe there was more to her feelings for him than she originally imagined.
Notes: Sorry to end it with a heavy one, but this is…. So good. Alexis Hall is slowly becoming one of my favourite authors working today. Ironically, I’ve not yet read his breakout mainstream hit Boyfriend Material (the waiting list at the library is very long), but this is my favourite book I’ve read by him so far.
One of the most refreshing things about this book is how unapologetic Viola is about being trans. She’s not shy about the fact that she used to be a Viscount, nor does she angst over her trans body for pages on end. She’s quite content to live her best trans life, but she’s also aware of the limitations of that. One of the central issues, once she realises her feelings for Greenwood, is that she feels like she can’t get married to him. Since he’s a Duke, he’s supposed to continue the family line, and Viola can’t get pregnant. In an era where being in the aristocracy actually meant something, this is kind of a big deal. But the bigger issue is that she’s worried about losing her friend. Would it hurt him more to tell the truth (that’s been lying about being dead for two years while he mourned her) or lie to him (and never be able to pursue their love because it could never go further than a kiss and also she rightfully feels icky about seducing him under false pretences). And then on top of that, she also has PTSD from her time at Waterloo! It’s incredibly emotionally charged, and, while Viola’s trans-ness is part of that complexity, it’s not all of it.
But you also root for them to get together the whole time because their chemistry is just so electric. Like I said, Alexis is a really good writer and he pulls out all the stops for these two.
…and now it’s time for a LIGHTNING ROUND!
Annette couldn’t write full blurbs for her recommendations, so here they are in list format.
- "Freshwater" by Akwaeke Emezi is super interesting because it blends Nigerian mythology/folklore with the transgender experience and the immigrant experience, in a way that feels truly unique. I've never read anything like it before. Emezi draws a lot on their own life experience for that book, so their memoir "Dear Senthuran" can kind of serve as a companion book to "Freshwater", too. (Trigger warnings for self-harm and suicidal thoughts for both books iirc)
- "The Death of Vivek Oji" by Akwaeke Emezi is a stunningly beautiful coming-of-age story set in Nigeria and deals with gender expression, forbidden love and many facets of queerness. (TW: death, violence, homophobia, transphobia, incest, eating disorders iirc).
- "Variations" by Juliet Jacques is comprised of different short stories which all deal with a different period in British trans history and each story is written in a different style (e.g. a blog, a movie script, a diary etc.) (TW: transphobia, homophobia iirc) Very informative, highly engaging and I sincerely hope Jacques will publish more fiction in the future (Sunset’s note: Indiebound doesn’t carry it, so the link is direct from publisher)
- It is so well-known that it doesn’t need an introduction, but "Stone Butch Blues" by Leslie Feinberg is a true modern classic and I not only truly fell in love with the book and so many of the characters while learning a lot about trans history and labor history in the US! (TW: homophobia, transphobia, violence, suicide iirc) (Sunset’s note: Indiebound doesn’t carry this one, so the link is to Better World Books)
- "The Black Tides of Heaven" by Neon Yang is a part of a 4-part-series of novellas, but each of them can be read as a stand-alone apparently. It follows a pair of twins who are the children of a tyrannical ruler and as they grow into adulthood, they make the decision to oppose their mother. (TW: very messed-up family dynamics, violence) (Sunset's note: It's part 1 of a series according to goodreads)
- "From Female to Male. The Life of Jack Bee Garland" by Louis Sullivan is an interesting piece of US trans history and since Sullivan used so many historical documents in his book, you really get a glimpse of what life must have been like for a trans man like Jack, who didn't always pass, adopted various aliases throughout his life and generally lived quite an adventurous life, it seems. Definitely recommend it if one wants to learn about US transgender history ca. 1900! (Can be read for free on the Internet Archive) (Sunset’s note: No Indiebound, Better World Books instead, if you’d like to purchase it)
- "Our Lives, Our Words. Telling Aravani Lifestories" by A. Revathi was also compelling for me because it shows facets of transness in a distinctive, non-Western context. It can also be read for free on the Internet Archive (Sunset’s note: I couldn’t find anywhere to buy it. Just use the Internet Archive.)
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