Jamaican porn

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The Chatelaine by Kate Heartfield (Title With a Title HM, trans male character) - 4*
A fun retelling of a Flemish folktale that I had never heard of. Having a curmudgeonly older woman as a main character is a nice change of pace. Well, I'm pretty sure she's only in her 30s, but 30s was “older” for a commoner in medieval Bruges.
This is a revised edition of the book previously published as Armed in Her Fashion in 2018, and according to the content note, has "much less misgendering" of the trans character than the first edition. I picked up the original from the library to compare, and it's pretty yikes. Claude is a trans man, and in both versions, he's introduced as male and his third person limited sections gender him correctly, but in the original, he's referred to as a "girl" in all other characters' sections, both in their thoughts and by the third person narration. There's no way I would have finished the book with that version (gendering the trans character correctly in the narration is the bare minimum), let alone rated it positively. In The Chatelaine, the only times he's misgendered are in dialogue, some of the dialogue mentions are made neutral, and most of the main characters gender Claude correctly in general. With those simple changes, the representation is surprisingly good. It really goes to show how literally just gendering the character correctly goes so far, but hey, it's cool to see the author learning from her mistakes and I'm glad it got fixed.
Sovereign by April Daniels (Superheroes HM, trans female and nonbinary characters) - 4*
A solid sequel to Dreadnought. Danny is impulsive, angry, and resilient and I love her (and I'm very glad she's gonna go get some therapy after this).
Trans author. In addition to the trans lesbian main character Danny aka Dreadnought, we also get a nonbinary/genderqueer side character Kinetiq. It may be partly due to the types of books I've been reading this year, but I've been noticing more books with multiple trans characters and I really like that. For one, it helps represent a diversity of trans experiences, but also, most trans people nowadays do interact with other trans people at some point, and there are a lot of interesting interpersonal dynamics involved in that. Kinetiq is a bit of a punk/anti-capitalist trans stereotype, but I don't mind because I personally know people are the same, and I don’t think it’s well known outside the trans community anyways. Danny deals with some on-page transphobia and misgendering (plus literal torture) from the TERF villain Greywytch, but I think it's handled well and doesn't come off as "trans trauma porn." This is partly because we experience it from Danny's POV, and she treats Greywytch with exactly the contempt she deserves, plus the torture happens early in the book for not-entirely-trans-related reasons and helps set up some arcs (rather than at the end of the book for "impact" as it would be with trauma porn). I also thought it was funny how Danny's idea at the end to use the wealth confiscated from the billionaire supervillain to provide free transition services is basically the same idea as in Future Feeling by Joss Lake (where a billionaire's kid makes free trans healthcare widely available).
The Will to Battle by Ada Palmer (Bottom of the TBR HM, nonbinary character, genderless culture) - 5*
The Will to Battle is the third book in the Terra Ignota series, and had been on my TBR since 2017. It wasn't the absolute bottom of my SFF TBR (that honor goes to Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson, added in 2015), but it was the third oldest, and the oldest that fit my theme. I originally wanted to wait for the series to be completed before reading, but by the time the fourth and final book rolled out in 2021, it just wasn't a priority anymore, especially since these books are dense and complex and philosophical, making them hard to just pick up on a whim. But I'm thankful for the nudge to finally read them, because once I started back up, I was hooked all over again.
This series is set in a society where everybody uses they/them pronouns and gender is a taboo subject, so the concept of being transgender doesn't exist. If I had to identify some explicit rep, I would point to Sniper, who would almost certainly fall under our modern definition of nonbinary (which usually falls under the trans umbrella because in our current society, nonbinary people inherently have a gender different from the one assigned to them at birth, but that definition breaks down a bit in a society which does not assign genders at all, let alone at birth). Sniper likes using the "it" pronoun instead of the standard "them", though they're not sure if they want it for everyday use by strangers/acquaintances (hence why I will use they/them). At the end of the series, they get put in charge of a committee to study gender for the first time in centuries and decide whether to re-integrate it into society. Their initial thinking is to start with research, particularly with the divisions in sporting competitions that replaced gender-segregated sports (they are an Olympic athlete so it makes sense they would think to start there, but ugh I'm so tired of the whole trans-people-in-sports debate). They also propose a program for people to take a year to explore gender and talk to others about what gender means, which I think would be pretty cool.
Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman (Magical Realism HM, trans male and nonbinary characters) - 4*
It's a bit rambly in parts, but it's refreshing and actually hits the cozy/heartwarming vibe better than a lot of books I've tried that specifically target that "cozy fantasy" niche. I like the take on vampirism-- Sol's vampirism is more like a chronic illness than anything, and used as a treatment/life extension for terminal conditions; instead of getting super-speed, bodily changes happen in slow motion. This is a perfect fit for Mundane Jobs, especially because the author is an archivist IRL, but unfortunately it's not HM for that so I shoved it in the only other slot I could justify it in.
Trans author. The main character Sol is a trans man. He became a vampire at a year on T, and his changes have slowed to a crawl, leaving him stuck long term in that weird middle ground of not-quite-passing (which happens to plenty of people without vampirism involved). He meets and befriends a fellow Jewish trans man at the blood bank. He falls in love with a person who turns out to be questioning their own gender (and ends up settling on nonbinary). I liked getting to see Sol's doubts and dysphoria as Else explores their masculinity while he still supports their exploration and affirms their new understanding of their gender. I'm always wary of books that focus on the cis partnerelative/friend of a trans person, because they so often end up either misgendering or tokenizing the trans person, or trivializing their suffering in favor of the cis person who has it oh-so-hard dealing with a trans partnerelative/friend. But it really can be tough to adjust to someone you know transitioning, so it was nice to see it from Sol's perspective, even if it could have been explored in more depth. Fellman also tries to tie being trans to fanfiction writing but doesn't dig too deep into it other than some surface-level stuff about exploring repressed gender feelings through slash fic. I did see some reviews that accuse the book of being lesbophobic for having a transphobic butch lesbian and a lot of lesbian characters that end up being trans (like Else) or possibly-trans (like Else’s dead wife), but I think this is just a side effect of having a limited cast and a strong focus on the experiences of transmascs who used to be lesbians. It's not trying to erase lesbians, it's just not really about them, and that's ok. Anyways, some of the themes/connections could have been explored more, but I think the rep is great overall. Plus it's got one of the best trans one-liners I've seen in print ("God misheard my very simple request, so he made me a pianist") and a possible nod to the Terry Pratchett book "Feet of Clay" (which introduced trans-coded female dwarfs).
Their Heart A Hive by Fox N Locke (YA HM, nonbinary character) - 3*
I liked the slice of life bits, but wasn't invested in the overarching mystery/plot. I was hoping it would be cozier, but I've been struggling to find books that hit that Legends and Lattes niche quite right.
Trans author. There's a genderqueer Lord and Lady of Honeymoore Manor. For most of the book, they seem to be a fairly standard form of genderfluid, swapping between male and female on a regular basis (though not always completely gender-conforming). At the end, it's revealed that they're an immortal who has faked their death many times to pose as different people throughout the years, with various names and genders, though none of them fit perfectly. After revealing this, they choose a new name meaning "daughter of the stone, son of the sea" and announce themself to be both lord and lady at once (with our modern terminology, they would be considered bigender). The rep is fine overall, though it is some of the most binary nonbinary rep I've ever seen, and that's not a compliment.
The Healers' Home by S E Robertson (Mundane Jobs HM, trans female character) - 3*
This book didn't hit the cozy slice of life vibe as nicely as the first book in the series, which was disappointing. I found Kei's point of view extremely frustrating to read, with his self-hatred and completely illogical negativity. I'm not planning to read the next book in the series. Fun fact— I was the 100th person to rate this book on Goodreads, so I'm sorry if anybody wanted to use it for Self-published HM.
Trans author. Agna's Aunt Naire is a trans woman (note she has a very small role and I don't think she even gets any direct page time, so this wouldn't necessarily count if you're trying to sub the 2021 bingo square in somewhere). Unfortunately, it's mentioned exclusively in the context of her medical transition making her "more susceptible" to certain kinds of cancer. There's a common myth that hormone therapy is "dangerous" and increases the risk of cancer, though this is NOT supported by medical research (source 1, source 2, source 3). I've seen a lot of parents (some well-meaning but misinformed, some blatantly transphobic) try to stop their kids from getting life-saving medical treatment because of it. Given the harm this myth causes to real-life trans people, I think it's irresponsible to legitimize it even in a fantasy setting.
The Bone Doll's Twin by Lynn Flewelling (Published in the 00s HM, gender swap shenanigans but no explicit trans rep) - 5*
I liked this enough that I binged the whole series. No particular book in the trilogy stands out as a 5* on its own, but I'll give the series a 5 for being consistently well-executed throughout. I liked the characters, and I liked the relationship dynamics, particularly between Tobin and the other noble kids in the Companions.
While I found books exploring nonbinary genders through aliens and far-future worlds in every decade from the 60s to 90s, the options for the 00s were pretty limited. Tobin/Tamir was born female, had their body magically transformed into their murdered twin brother's body, and was raised as a boy before ultimately learning that they are "really" a girl and physically transforming back to their original body (I don't think this much is a spoiler as the general story arc is obvious very early on). They're not really trans as we would understand it, but they do go through some similar experiences to trans people. The books generally use he/him pronouns before the transformation, and she/her pronouns after (which makes sense within the story but isn't good practice for most real-life trans people), so I'll just use they/them for simplicity. Tobin/Tamir doesn't show any "signs" other than liking dolls and like-liking boys. They seem to like their male body, are resistant to the idea of being/becoming a girl, and actively miss their penis after it's gone (though it's not clear if that's due to their residual connection to Brother, which causes "phantom penis" sensations and is removed/resolved at the very end of the trilogy), but also seem to accept being a woman at the end. It's not really clear how they would "identify" if given the choice, as neither the author nor any of the characters show any awareness of the possibility of being trans. I would've liked to see Tobin/Tamir connect more to other female characters-- there's a hint of it in the way they relate to the ghost of the first Queen Tamir, but their friend Una was criminally under-utilized. The most relatable part was actually the other characters' reactions to Tobin/Tamir's transformation, in particular Ki (the best friend/love interest) with his struggle to adjust. So overall, the identity aspects were super under-developed by modern standards, but whatever, it was the early 00s.
When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb (Angels and Demons HM, nonbinary nonhuman character) - 4*
This was a fun, easy read with wonderfully endearing characters. I loved the idea of an angel and a demon as chavrusa (Talmud study partners). It was nice to learn some new Yiddish vocab and Jewish mythology.
Trans author. The angel is genderless and uses it/it/its pronouns. It chooses to look like a man for convenience (since women weren't often able to study freely at the time), and it doesn't particularly mind being misgendered. While this was pretty unique, it doesn't really feel like representation because for much of the book, the angel is very non-human and does not think in human ways. However, I did like that even as it takes on a permanent name and becomes more human-like in its thoughts, it remains genderless. The angel and the demon are very close and implied to be more than "just" friends, but their relationship isn't necessarily romantic and certainly isn't sexual-- they could equally be interpreted as close friends, as a romantic couple, or as a queerplatonic partnership, which is cool because you don't often see that kind of ambiguous close relationship represented.
Transmogrify!: 14 Fantastical Tales of Trans Magic edited by g haron davis (Five Short Stories HM, nonbinary, trans male, and trans female characters) - 3*
This is feel-good trans wish fulfillment, and felt like a spiritual successor to my trans bingo anthology from 2021, No Man of Woman Born. Quality-wise, it was a bit of a mixed bag, as anthologies often are, and a lot of the morals/endings were a bit too simple/convenient for my taste, but I enjoyed it overall. My favorites were "Dragons Name Themselves" by A R Capetta and Cory McCarthy and "Espejismos" by Dove Salvatierra. My least favorites were "Bite the Hand" (1*/DNF since the writing style just didn't work for me) and "The Door to the Other Side" (2* since I finished it, but I really disliked the handling of suicide, especially with its placement as the last story of the book). There were a lot of Harry PotteJK Rowling references, and a few stories seemed like direct attempts to reclaim certain tropes (e.g. magic schools, broomstick sports).
Trans authors. Story by story, the written representation itself was great, all the way down to the details. It's at the macro level where this anthology suffers. Out of 14 stories, 11 had nonbinary main characters, 1 had a trans girl, 1 had a trans boy, and 1 had dual nonbinary and transmasc protagonists. All of the authors seem to be nonbinary (at least based on their pronouns listed in the bios). Nowhere in the synopsis or marketing is this nonbinary focus acknowledged. I feel like the editors/publishers should have looked at this and gone "whoops, we accidentally made a nonbinary anthology, let's pivot." For a general trans anthology that specifically sets out to represent "many different genders and expressions and experiences" to include so little binary representation feels like it's saying that binary trans people either don't have a variety of experiences/expressions or don't need/deserve representation. A lot of the characters' struggles were also very straightforward "nonbinary person finds/makes a place for themself in a binary world," which got a bit repetitive.
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White (Horror HM, trans male and female characters) - 5*
I ended up having more YA on this board that I would have liked, just because there's comparatively a lot of trans rep in YA and my choices were limited on some of the squares. I had a bad YA run right before reading this and almost replaced it, but I'm glad I didn't because this was actually really fucking good. I loved the Victorian London setting with a spirit-based magic system.
Trans author. The main character, Silas, is a trans boy. I loved how Dr. James Barry) (a real-life trans man from the early 1800s) is featured as an inspiration for Silas. Silas is autistic, which was also exciting to see because people who are trans are more likely to be autistic than the general population, but I hadn't seen that intersection represented until this year. He meets both a fellow trans person (Daphne, a trans girl and his betrothed) and a fellow autistic person for the first time in this book, and I think the way he sees himself reflected in them really hammers in the importance of representation. I think White also does a good job of highlighting the hazy border between dysphoria about a feature and dysphoria about how society views that feature. For example, before Silas meets Daphne, he's absolutely disgusted by the idea of pregnancy, to the point of researching and fantasizing doing a hysterectomy on himself. After he meets her, he realizes that he "doesn't actually know how much of [his] fear and revulsion is linked to the world's inherent gendering of everything reproductive."
Body After Body by Briar Ripley Page (Self-Published HM, trans male and female characters) - 4*
I quite enjoyed this fever dream of a novel. I don't think it'll ever enjoy mainstream success, and I honestly wouldn't recommend it to most people, but it's a quick read, so if you're in that niche where queer (both in the "weird" sense and in the "trans/LGBT" sense) anti-capitalist body horror appeals to you and you're fine with some weird sex and vulgar language, maybe give it a shot.
Trans author. This book is set in a future where poor people can access advanced medical care by selling themselves into 7 years of indentured servitude (only a slight exaggeration of the current American healthcare system) with their memories wiped. This deal includes medical transition, but only one-size-fits-all binary transitions, and only people who can fully "pass" afterwards are accepted. Even with those stipulations, it's stated that about 89% of the indentured servants are trans. All four of the main characters (3 men, 1 woman) transitioned in this way, though one of them didn't get a fully binary transition despite wanting one (because plot reasons), and another one would have preferred a less binary transition if he were given the option. It's mentioned that rich people have other transition options including nonbinary body mods available, though the general public seems to be transphobic overall. There's some on-page transphobia, mostly in flashbacks as the memory-wiped laborers regain their memories, but it wasn't gratuitous. The book uses terminology that many trans people may find uncomfortable-- for example transsexual/cissexual and references to a trans man's cunt-- but at the same time, some trans people do use these terms to describe themselves. Personally, knowing the author's identity is important to me in this situation; I would not feel comfortable with a cis author using those terms, but I'm okay with it from a trans author. On a separate note, I've been seeing a lot of trans authors writing monsters and body horror, and it makes a lot of sense-- you know, something about the experience of being vilified by society and/or feeling disconnected from (or even disgusted by) one's own body leads a person towards certain themes.
The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia (Middle-East HM, nonbinary and trans male characters) - 4*
A quick read, it brings up some interesting questions for the reader to chew on but doesn't quite have the page length to explore the answers. I really liked the dynamic of Firuz (the main character) and Afsoneh (their blood magic student)-- I've read plenty of stories from the perspective of the young, naturally gifted protege impatient with their older, more knowledgeable but less powerful mentor, but I've rarely seen it from the POV of the mentor.
Trans author. The main character Firuz is nonbinary, their younger brother Parviz is a trans boy, and there are mentions of minor characters using a few different kinds of neopronouns. Firuz and Parviz come from Dilmun, a queernormative culture where people are introduced with their pronouns (as in, they-Firuz or he-Parviz) and medical transition is readily available, but they are currently refugees in Qilwa, where gender-affirming medical treatment is not readily available. Firuz medically transitioned in Dilmun, and is trying to learn the spells to help Parviz to medically transition as well-- in particular, they are trying to learn to perform a version of top surgery, as Parviz has severe chest dysphoria. This dynamic hits pretty hard at a time (May 2023) when some states in the US are passing laws to limit access to medical transition, which tend to affect younger trans people and people trying to start transition more than older, post-transition folks, and I think Jamnia did a great job of showing Parviz's frustration and desperation and anger.
The Chromatic Fantasy by HA (Published in 2023 HM, trans male characters) - 5*
I'm not usually a big fan of graphic novels, but I really liked this. It's whimsical and earnest, the gay romance was cute, and the fantasy trappings (cloaks and castles and all that jazz) in riotous color are exactly my aesthetic.
Trans author. The main characters, Jules and Casper, are two trans men in a relationship with each other, and there's a minor character labeled with she/they pronouns. There are several explicit sex scenes, and I think the author is good at making them look masculine even when drawing them naked without having had any gender-affirming surgeries. I liked the personification of Jules's self-doubts-- in particular, there's a rant about Jules's relationship with his genitals that feels way too specific to be completely made up, which makes the representation feel very personal and real.
The Last Echo of the Lord of Bells by John Bierce (Multiverse HM, nonbinary and trans female characters) - 4*
A solid ending to a great series. The number of side character POV chapters was a little indulgent, but it had plenty of the imaginative uses of magic and cute found family vibes that I love the series for. Note: There are some doors that lead to other worlds in this multiverse, but I consider this HM because doors aren't the main way to travel between worlds, and I feel like traveling to a different plane via labyrinth is a sufficiently unique method that this deserves HM. And technically, I don't think anybody ever walks through a door to another world in this book (though one character flies through one).
I read this book without having planned to use it for bingo and was pleasantly surprised to find some trans rep. There's a prominent nonbinary side character, Shimmering Cardovan, and a minor trans woman (well, minor in prominence, but major in power), Threadqueen Iblint. Shimmering Cardovan is tall, muscular, and bearded, and I appreciate the representation that people can use they/them pronouns without being physically androgynous. Though they're also very flamboyant, and control rainbow gemstones with their magic, so they'd still be considered very queer-presenting by our world's standards. Threadqueen Iblint is the second character in the series noted to have trained in magic to a high level in order to physically transition (the first was Zophor, a mangrove lich briefly mentioned in this book), which implies that medical transition isn't easily available in this world.
Dawn by Octavia Butler (POC Author HM, nonbinary aliens) - 5*
This is science fiction at its best. It's got strong themes (consent/control/freedom) and one of the most truly alien depictions of an alien species that I've ever read. I read the whole series back-to-back-to-back.
The Oankali have three sexes, male, female, and ooloi. Ooloi and ungendered children are properly referred to using it/its pronouns, though a lot of the human characters struggle with this and end up using he or she pronouns instead. Oankali children are not sexed or gendered until they reach puberty, and their adult sex depends on their childhood experiences-- children tend to become the same sex as their favorite parent, and the opposite sex of their closest sibling. So in a way, all Oankali children get some amount of choice in their adult sex. In later books, there's a mention of some Oankali-human construct children developing into a different sex than would be expected based on their childhood appearance, but there's no acknowledgement of human LGBT+ diversity.
The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi (Book Club HM, nonbinary and trans female characters, trinary-gender culture) - 3*
The only major character I really liked was Hassa. Sylah was okay, but Anoor was actively annoying. They didn't have much chemistry and I skimmed through a lot of the romantic bits, but to be fair I find myself doing that a lot when reading YA-- and despite the fact that Sylah and Anoor are 20, and my local library shelves this as "adult," it very much reads like a YA novel. The one part of the romance I did like was how Anoor cut off the relationship after learning just how much Sylah lied to her about— but I'm sure they'll end up just getting back together in book 2. I won't be continuing with this series.
The Wardens' Empire is queernormative, with a trinary gender system of men, women, and musawa. Their god Anyme is musawa, there are several musawa minor characters, and the tritagonist Hassa is a trans girl. The trans inclusion in the world-building felt very surface-level and tacked-on. For example, it's explicitly mentioned out that musawa can use any pronouns, and that anybody can identify as any gender without physically transitioning, which is great, but there's no mention of any way that people might signal their correct gendepronouns to others, and we never see anybody ask for another person's pronouns. There aren't any musawa-specific terms mentioned for things you might expect like family relations (e.g. mothefather, etc), lady/gentleman, boy/girl, etc. It is mentioned that hormone herbs and gender-affirming surgeries are widely available, but it doesn't make much sense that the oppressed Ghosting servant caste would have easy access to affirming surgeries when they're not allowed to have hands or tongues (the Embers literally cut them off at birth) and are forced to work as soon as they can walk. That said, I'd rather have a lazy attempt at queernormativity than an even lazier imposition of real-world transphobia.
Werecockroach by Polenth Blake (Novella HM, nonbinary and trans female characters) - 4*
This is exactly the kind of story that works well as a novella; there's a fun premise with the werecockroaches and the alien invasion, some solid themes about misfits and found families, and it doesn't overstay its welcome and make you question the logistics too much. I liked Rin's dry humor a lot.
Trans author. The main character Rin is agender, asexual, and aromantic, a combination sometimes referred to as AAA (triple-A, as in the batteries). I don't remember ever reading another book with a AAA character, so it was cool seeing that represented for the first time, especially with Rin being poor and a person of color, attributes which also tend to be underrepresented among trans characters. I liked how all of Rin's identity labels are mentioned explicitly in the book, but in a way that made sense and felt natural. Their friend Addie is a Jamaican-British trans woman, but we the audience don't learn she's trans until the epilogue/extra short story from her perspective, which is cool to see. A lot of trans people are not openly trans, either because they are closeted (they live as the gender they were assigned at birth) or stealth (they live fully as their true/target gender), but it can obviously be tough to represent this when all other characters believe they are cis. The best way I know of to represent closeted/stealth trans characters is to give insight into the trans character’s POV as done with Addie. Another option is to go the “Dumbledore is gay” route and reveal the character’s trans status outside of the text. I’ve seen this in The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowel, and while I prefer that over shoehorning in an outing scene, it can make the rep feel “tacked-on” or unsubstantiated.
Dear Mothman by Robin Gow (Mythical Beasts HM, trans male characters) - 4*
A very sweet book about grief, loneliness, acceptance, and growing up. I'm not generally a big fan of poetry-- I probably would've liked the story better in prose-- but I loved Noah's development, and getting attached to the characters is usually one of the most important factors in my enjoyment of any given book.
Trans author. The main character, Noah, is an autistic trans boy whose best friend Lewis (also a trans boy) recently died in a car crash. Noah and Lewis were out only to each other, so he has to navigate the loss of affirmation of his identity in addition to his grief. I didn't relate to everything about Noah's experience, but some of the details hit hard, like the way he feels like nobody but Lewis really knows who he is. I liked the connections/themes drawn around trans people as "monsters" ("It seems to me that 'monsters' are almost always misunderstood-- that 'monster' is what people become when other people are afraid of them for being different. People like me are called monsters sometimes."). I also liked how Noah and Lewis were friends before either of them realized they were trans-- I know it seems unlikely on the face of it, but it's a real phenomenon where unrealized queetrans people are drawn to each other without even knowing what they have in common.
The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas (Elemental Magic HM, trans male and nonbinary characters) - 4*
This is a solid YA book with some fun characters and fun superpowers. The plot is a bit predictable at times, but I'm interested to see how things progress with the next book.
Trans author. This book has a trans boy main character, several trans side characters including a nonbinary god, and a queernormative setting with mentions of readily available hormone therapy and top surgery. I liked how Teo was a role model for Xio— finding trans mentors/role models is really important to a lot of young and/or early-transition trans people, and I don't think we see that represented often enough. I liked how Teo's wing color was relevant to his transition, but I think the way it was resolved was a bit too convenient. I liked how Ocelo is allowed to be nonbinary and a jerk without those things being related. I know those of us who grew up with the queer-coded villain trope may be nervous or skeptical at the prospect, but variety is important for representation, and to me, that includes representing the fact that trans people can be assholes-- not because they're trans, but because they're human. It's also interesting that this is the third book I've read this year that includes a nonbinary deity (Bruising of Qilwa, Final Strife, Sunbearer Trials)-- perhaps it's the other side of the coin to the theme of nonbinary priests/monks from my last trans bingo.
The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa (Myths and Retellings HM, transmasc and nonbinary characters) - 4*
This is another solid YA book, and honestly very comparable to The Sunbearer Trials-- I read them back to back, and they would have benefited from more separation. I found Mar's hesitancy to use his powers frustrating (I'm glad Teo's hangups were resolved much earlier in his book). It made sense given his backstory, but it's just not a plotline I personally care for. I did like the Caribbean setting a lot though.
Trans author. The main character Mar prefers gender-neutral forms of address, but while feminine terms feel completely wrong for them, "man" is "not quite right, but [...] not entirely wrong" and boy "feels better-- good, even-- though it's not completely right, either." They're fine with he/him pronouns, and prefer to pass as a boy-- if the book were solely from another character's perspective, they would probably seem like a binary trans boy. Nonbinary transmasc guys like Mar are very common and very underrepresented. I've met a ton of trans people who use terms like "nonbinary man" or "demiboy," or who identify with terms like "guy"/"boy"/”boi” but not "man," yet nonbinary representation is still very much dominated by androgynous agendegenderqueer types or genderfluid/bigender types. In fact, the major secondary character Dami is a genderfluid demonio of the latter group (in this world, demons are humans who have sold their souls, so they're still human) with shapeshifting powers. They're characterized as being very attractive, but well, it's YA, so everybody of a certain age is attractive.
River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey (Queernorm HM, nonbinary character) - 4*
The story itself is solid, but it's the basic premise of hippo wranglers in the 1890s Louisiana bayou that really sells this.
Trans author. One of the main characters, Hero, is nonbinary. They're pretty cool, they get a nice romance. I forgot to write this review for several months so my goldfish brain is blanking on the details, but I remember liking the rep overall.
The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar (Coastal or Island Setting HM, trans male and nonbinary characters) - 5*
It was a little hard to get into at first (I often struggle with books with multiple narratives), but the prose was lovely and I ultimately liked it a lot. I saw a review describing it as "intimate" and I thought that was a very fitting description.
Trans author. The main character is a transmasc person just beginning to socially transition, and he chooses his name (Nadir) partway through the book. His transition is a major plotline in this story, but it's far from the only thing going on in his life. There's also a secondary nonbinary character, Qamar, and a trans boy mentioned in the past (Laila's notebook) storyline, Ilyas. As mentioned, I always love seeing trans people connecting with each other. It was especially cool to see the connection between Nadir and Ilyas, because trans people in history are so often erased. I loved the descriptions of dissociation; it's often overlooked in favor of the more dramatic and overly painful forms for dysphoria. I like the way Nadir's birth name is always scribbled out, making it clear that it's purposefully hidden from the reader. I loved seeing him navigate his nonbinary identity ("I want to tell Reem that maybe I am something there is no word for [instead of a boy], but I am afraid that I am already invisible enough to her as it is")-- he's similar to Mar from The Wicked Bargain in that he publicly comes out as a boy but privately feels nonbinary. I love the themes of names and naming, both in a trans context and in a cultural/immigrant context.
Flowerheart by Catherine Bakewell (Druid HM, trans female and nonbinary characters) - 3*
Well, it's another YA novel with a magical protagonist afraid of their own powers. I'm really not a fan of this "super powerful but hindered by anxiety/trauma" trope, and in general I find it frustrating to read anxious/illogical thought patterns. It also just didn't hit the cozy vibe as much as I wanted.
Clara's favorite former teacher, Madam Ben Ammar, and her apprentice Robin are both trans. Neither of them gets a ton of screen time, but Robin mentions to Clara that they're glad that they have a trans mentor to relate with. On one hand, I like that even with the trans representation being so peripheral, we still get two characters with a hint at how their shared experiences affect their mentoapprentice dynamic. On the other hand, the whole interaction just feel weird and stilted and poorly executed overall. It also feels iffy to be learning that Madam Ben Ammar is trans secondhand from Robin when it's not entirely clear if Clara knew about her trans status beforehand, but that's partly projection on my part. I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt and assume that this isn't an issue for the characters in question within the queernormative setting of the book, but in the real world, outing people like that is a big faux pas unless you have explicit permission from the trans person in question.
System Collapse by Martha Wells (Robots HM, genderless non-human characters) - 4*
I struggled with getting back into this because it picks up right from the end of Network Effect, and it had been a while since I read that. Other than that, this was a great addition to the Murderbot series, and I loved getting to see some of that slow burn character development coming through.
Murderbot is a genderless robot-human construct. I think it's in a similar boat to the angel in When the Angels Left the Old Country in that it's not really great representation for human gender diversity, because it's not clear how much of its gender (or lack thereof) comes from its non-human side.
Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire (Sequel HM, trans male character) - 3*
I've enjoyed most of the other Wayward Children books but had been putting this one off because I wasn't a big fan of Jack and Jill or The Moors in general. It was about what I expected. It was fun enough and quick enough that it was worth reading just for the completionist in me, but it felt gratuitous.
One of the side characters, Kade, is a trans boy who has been featured in several Wayward Children books so far. He doesn't do a ton in this book, but I like him as a character. McGuire has stated (link in comments) that she plans to write his origin story, but Kade is a boy/man "who will honestly and unflinchingly say that once, he was a little girl," so the beginning of his story will have a lot of misgendering and deadnaming, and given "as little good trans rep as we have," she doesn't want to fuck it up. Some trans people (like Kade) do refer to their past selves as their assigned gender, most trans people prefer either gender-affirming or gender-neutral language even when talking about the past. So I understand McGuire's reservations, especially as a cis author who may not get the automatic benefit of the doubt that a trans author might. That said, I've read enough of her work and enough different trans stories in general that I personally would trust her to tell Kade's story well.