Mythical porn

Excerpt..In November 2011, German biologist Stefan Lanka publicly issued a bold challenge. He offered the hefty sum of 100,000 Euros to anyone who could prove the existence of the measles virus.
Lanka was inspired to issue the challenge after witnessing an intense and sustained propaganda campaign that year by both the World Health Organization and the German government, urging people to get vaccinated against measles.
Article here…Measles vaccine lie.
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Billions of doses of measles vaccines have been administered since their introduction in the early 1960s. Authorities constantly admonish the importance of measles vaccination, and whenever a measles ‘outbreak’ occurs it is invariably blamed upon unvaccinated folk.

The existence of a measles virus, therefore, is presented as a given. Which means Lanka should have been flooded with offers to take up his challenge.
After all, who could resist the opportunity to legally score a quick and easy €100,000?
Turns out proving the existence of a measles virus isn’t so easy.
There was only one response to Stefan’s challenge. Not from one of the world’s countless virologists or microbiologists, or vocal health authorities, but from a bright-eyed medical student called David Bardens.
On January 16, 2012, Bardens emailed Lanka and asked if the challenge was still current. Lanka replied in the affirmative.
On January 31, 2012, a cocksure Bardens replied with the following message:
“With the detailed compilation of literature attached I have given you both the proof of the existence of the measles virus and the required images and information on the diameter of the measles virus.
Please transfer the amount of € 100,000 to the following account […]
I would like to thank you for the opportunity to acquire such a relatively big amount of money with such a relatively little effort.
With best regards,
David Bardens”
The literature tendered by Bardens as ‘proof’ of the existence of the measles virus consisted of the following titles, which will herein be referred to as “The Bardens Six”:
Enders JF, Peebles TC. Propagation in tissue cultures of cytopathogenic agents from patients with measles. Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, 1954 Jun; 86 (2): 277–286.
Bech V, Magnus PV. Studies on measles virus in monkey kidney tissue cultures. Acta Pathologica et Microbiologica Scandinavica, 1959; 42 (1): 75–85.
Nakai M, Imagawa DT. Electron microscopy of measles virus replication. Journal of Virology, 1969 Feb; 3 (2): 187–197.
Lund GA, et al. The molecular length of measles virus RNA and the structural organization of measles nucleocapsids. Journal of General Virology, 1984 Sep; 65 (Pt 9): 1535–1542.
Horikami SM, Moyer SA. Structure, Transcription, and Replication of Measles Virus. Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology, 1995; 191: 35–50.
Daikoku E, et al. Analysis of Morphology and Infectivity of Measles Virus Particles. Bulletin of the Osaka Medical College, 2007; 53 (2): 107–114.

Sorry, But I Asked for “Proof”

Lanka replied to Bardens – correctly – that the studies did not meet the requirements. They did not prove the existence of the measles virus.
Bardens, not understanding the difference between a dubious claim and valid scientific proof, promptly sued Lanka for non-payment.
When the case was heard, the court’s medico-legal ‘expert’ was Andreas Podbielsky, from the University of Rostock.
Podbielsky just happened to be … a virologist.
This was like calling an astrologist to give ‘expert’ testimony on the validity of horoscopes.
Little surprise that, on March 12, 2015, the court ruled in Bardens’ favour. Lanka was ordered to pay Bardens the €100,000.
Incredibly, the court made this decision despite Podbielsky admitting that none of The Bardens Six reported the results of any control procedures.

The 2015 ruling is the part of the story the mainstream media want you to hear, and fell all over themselves to report.

“A vaccine denier bet $100,000 the measles virus ‘doesn’t exist.’. He lost,“ trumpeted the Los Angeles Times. The LA Times article relied heavily on ad hominem attack to portray Lanka as a screwball. According to uber-snide LA Times writer Michael Hiltzik, Lanka had “a long history of pseudoscientific outbursts,” was prone to “denial” and “pure publicity stunts,” and was allegedly the latest of “cranks blowing up their own case in court.”
Having tripped over itself to ridicule Lanka, the glorified trash rag that is the LA Times was too embarrassed and no doubt too compromised to ever report on what subsequently transpired.
Ditto for the hordes of other outlets that gleefully reported the original decision, but suddenly suffered a monumental case of writer’s block when it came to reporting what happened next.
Lanka, you see, promptly appealed the decision. The case was then heard by the Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) Stuttgart on February 16, 2016. After reviewing The Bardens Six, the court agreed they failed to meet the contest requirements as set by Lanka. The criteria stipulated a single publication that both proved the existence of the measles virus and measured its diameter. This was hardly an unreasonable request. If I go into the Australian outback, allegedly discover a never-before-seen animal, and write up a detailed report on the Koalaroo, it would be expected I provide a bit more morphological detail than just “adult members of this new species are big. Real big. I’m talking h-u-g-e. I mean, you should see the pecs on these things!”
The original decision was reversed and Lanka got to keep his €100,000.
In December 2016, Bardens tried to get this ruling revised, but the court saw no reason to do so.

Outside of Germany, the mainstream media response to the appeal result was deafening silence. The response of ‘fact-checkers’ (aka globalist-funded liars) and virus believers was to dismiss the appeal ruling as a result of fortuitous technicality.

Interestingly, none of these fact-fudgers or virus stalwarts ever discuss The Bardens Six – the actual studies submitted by the then-student as ‘proof’ the measles virus really exists.
There’s a reason for that.

The Bardens Six Didn’t Prove Diddly Squat

After his initial 2015 victory, Bardens told an interviewer, “You could hand the virus to Lanka on a silver platter if it were a bit bigger – he would probably still deny its existence.”
He added, most ironically, “Unfortunately I had to learn in recent years in my discussions with anti-vaxxers that their opinions are often so stuck that you have no chance to reach them with any facts.”
This is the smug derision with which mainstream ideologues regard those who quite reasonably ask for proof of something’s existence.
So let’s take a look, in chronological order, at the slop a mainstream stalwart holds as ‘proof’ the measles virus exists. This will reveal just who the intractable dogmatists really are.

Enders & Peebles 1954.

If you’ve done any research into the history of measles, you’ve no doubt come across the name John Enders. In 1954, he and colleague Thomas Peebles claimed to have cultivated “cytopathic agents” from patients with ‘measles.’
Those of you wise to virology’s “cytopathic effect” charade will already know where this paper is going:
La-la land.
The duo begin their paper by writing:

“Numerous attempts have been made in the past to propagate the agent of measles in lower animals, in chick embryos and in tissue cultures. The results of different investigators were often at variance or directly contradictory. It has been made reasonably clear, however, that monkeys, especially M. mulatta, are moderately susceptible to experimental inoculation.” (Bold emphasis added).

Ah yes, yet another ‘virus’ we are incessantly told is hyper-virulent, potentially deadly, and necessitating urgent population-wide vaccination, but suddenly suffers stage fright when examined under experimental conditions.
So Enders and Peebles set out to cultivate this socially awkward virus, and to demonstrate its virulence via the “cytopathic effect” wank, which is nothing more than voodoo science done First World-style.
Here’s how this absurd charade works: You take some samples (in this case, throat swabs, blood and feces) from people who reportedly suffer the disease in question.

You begin your experiment with the assumption that these samples contain a ‘virus.’ You spin the samples around and around at high speed in a centrifuge to separate the fluid and sediment. You then take some of the mix and place it in a test tube or petri dish containing a ‘cell culture’ consisting of, among other things, antibiotics and bovine fetal serum.

Note that nothing has been isolated here. Quite the opposite has occurred: You’ve taken a gob of phlegm, which contains a whole bunch of other yeccch aside from a mythical virus, and you’ve added more items to it, including bovine fetal serum which contains RNA and possibly DNA.

Because you are work in a profession built upon lies, you call this mixture a “viral isolate.”
You then take this anti-isolate, and mix it with a bunch of cells. Not just any cells; to pull off this fraud, you need a special cell line that will give you the results you want.
The cell line of choice is African green monkey kidney cells.
After mixing the heavily adulterated sample you call an “isolate” with the cell line, you let the mixture sit. You periodically place the mixture under an electron microscope, and when you notice the added cells are starting to deform and die off, you yell “bingo!”
You triumphantly write up a paper claiming you have ‘isolated’ said ‘virus.’ In reality, you haven’t isolated diddly squat, but you assume the “cytopathic effect” (cells dying) is proof that there’s a nasty cell-wrecking virus in there.

One of the most fundamental rules of science is control your variables, which is why valid scientific experiments are always performed with control subjects or samples.

There is nothing valid about the virus isolation gig, however. It is a sham, so you scrupulously avoid performing the exact same procedures on samples from healthy humans not suffering from said ‘virus.’
That would undermine the whole charade, and put a quick end to all those lucrative grants and Nobel Prize nominations. It would also bring an end to the virus farce, an extremely lucrative source of fear porn for megalomaniacs and drug companies alike.
The above pretty much describes what Enders and Peebles did, but a few other observations are worth noting.
The authors reveal they tried to get this cell culture/cytopathic effect ruse going with the following cell lines: Human embryonic lung, human embryonic intestine, human embryonic skin and muscle, human foreskin, human uterus, human kidney, embryonic chick tissue, rhesus monkey kidney and rhesus monkey testis.
In other words, to create the cytopathic effect that supposedly demonstrates isolation of a ‘virus,’ they tried a vast array of cell lines – everything from penis trimmings to monkeys’ balls.

Yet they settled on just two: Human kidney and monkey kidney cells.

Why kidney cells and not, say, skin cells, the latter being a far more intuitive choice for examining a disease that involves outbreaks on the skin?

Because the antibiotics used in all these cytopathic effect experiments are kidney toxic. In their experiments, Enders and Peebles used both penicillin and streptomycin.

Little wonder that African green monkey kidney cells have become the cell line of choice for cytopathic effect experiments: They can be relied upon to deform and die in the presence of kidney toxic antibiotics, hence giving researchers the results they are after.
But that wasn’t all.
While the Enders and Peebles experiment hardly constitutes “isolation” of a ‘virus,’ let’s assume there really was a ‘measles virus’ lurking in their cell cultures. If this were the case, it would be reasonable to assume that when this anti-isolate was administered to living entities, instead of glass receptacles, it would trigger the disease of measles.
Well, it turns out Enders and Peebles did have a crack at this. They tried ‘infecting’ two litters of suckling white mice with their so-called isolate.
What happened?
Stugatz.
Despite being directly injected with the porqueria concocted by Enders and Peeble, “The animals remained well during an observation period of 21 days.”

I have to wonder if Bardens even read the six papers he submitted as proof, or whether he just read the misleading abstracts, like most interns and physicians who bother reading journals do. If Bardens had read this paper closely, he should’ve realized Enders and Peebles didn’t isolate anything. They even inadvertently admit it:

“Although we have thus already obtained considerable indirect evidence supporting the etiologic role of this group of agents in measles,” the duo wrote, “2 experiments essential in the establishment of the relationship remain to be carried out. These will consist in the production of measles in the monkey and in man with the tissue culture materials after a number of passages in vitro sufficient to eliminate any virus introduced in the original inoculum. The recovery of the virus from the experimental disease in these hosts should then be accomplished.” “The findings just summarized support the presumption that this group of agents is composed of representatives of the viral species responsible for the measles.” (Bold emphasis added)

The bottom line is that Enders and Peebles 1954, the first paper confidently put forward by Bardens in his attempt to prove Lanka wrong, was a hopelessly confounded endeavor that didn’t isolate Jack Schiesen. We are supposed to just “presume” the virus was lurking there somewhere in the hopelessly adulterated cell culture mixtures.
Although not mentioned in the paper, and despite not having isolated anything, this is the experiment that would later be cited by others as having discovered the “Edmonston strain” of measles virus.

Bech & von Magnus 1959

This paper reports “the isolation of five strains of measles virus in cultures of trypsinized monkey kidney cells.”
We could write this paper off based on that alone, but the authors also claim they identified the strains by serologic tests and even transmitted the disease to monkeys.
As with Enders and Peebles they used bovine amniotic fluid in their culture, and they added penicillin and streptomycin to the mix. Once again, they produced the ‘cytopathic effect’ in cytopathy-prone monkey and baboon kidney cells.
Which again means they didn’t isolate diddly squat.
Furthermore, what they generously called an ‘isolate’ could only be obtained from the samples of seven of the 13 patients, despite all specimens being collected within 40 hours of rash onset.
The researchers then claimed to have detected measles antigens in the blood of four patients. However, no control procedures were performed with measles-free patients, so we don’t know whether these antigens were truly unique to the condition we know as measles, or something you could find among any random sampling of people. Even if they were unique to measles patients, there is no proof they represented a ‘virus’ because no virus was ever isolated.
Two monkeys were then ‘inoculated’ intranasally and orally with the so-called ‘isolate’ of one of the patients, a 6-year-old girl whose mixture evinced measles ‘antigen.’
Eleven days later, one of the monkeys developed a “universal rash” allegedly spreading from head to toe. I say “allegedly,” because while the researchers were happy to pepper their paper with multiple microscopy images of the in vitro cytopathic effect, there was not a single picture of the measled monkey.
In humans, measles is accompanied by high fever, cough, runny nose, red watery eyes and a rash that lasts 5-6 days before fading. However, the affected monkey showed normal temperature throughout, and its skin rash lasted only 24 hours. No other symptoms were reported.
The other monkey showed no symptoms at all.
So the affected monkey reportedly suffered a brief skin breakout, but its sequelae were not consistent with what we call measles.
But let’s assume for a moment that this monkey’s brief skin flare-up was caused by the administration of throat fluid from an unwell six-year-old human.
The question then becomes: Was it the throat fluid – containing countless elements – from a sick human that made the monkey sick, or a measles ‘virus’ that the researchers never isolated but simply assumed to be present because they subscribed to the cytopathic effect ruse?
We’ll never know because no virus was ever isolated.
Another pertinent question is what would have happened to that same monkey if it was administered the throat fluid of a healthy six year old girl?
We’ll never know because, as is par for the course in this absurd isolation charade, no control procedures were performed at any juncture.
So we have a study that again never isolated anything, in which only 7 of 13 patients had samples which could be made to do the cytopathic wank, and only 4 that could show ‘antigens.’
It reported on two monkeys, one of whom suffered a brief skin breakout and no other symptoms commensurate with measles; the other experienced no ill effects at all.
As with Enders and Peebles 1954, this paper provides lots of assumptions and presumptions but no proof of a virus.

Nakai & Imagawa 1969

This paper describes “electron microscopic observations of the various stages of measles virus replication and the morphological changes induced in HeLa cells.”
While not as ubiquitous as monkey kidney cells, HeLa is another cell line popular among those perpetuating the cytopathic effect charade. This cell line is named after African-American woman Henrietta Lacks, who unfortunately passed away from cervical cancer in 1951 at only 31 years of age. During the brief period between her diagnosis and passing, Henrietta underwent radium treatments for her cancer at John Hopkins Hospital. A sample of her cancer cells retrieved during a biopsy were sent to the lab of one Dr George Gey. According to the John Hopkins website, Gey had been collecting cells from all patients who came to Johns Hopkins with cervical cancer, but each sample quickly died in his lab. Henrietta’s cells however, were unlike any of the others he had ever seen: Where other cells would die, her cells doubled every 20 to 24 hours.
While clearly unrepresentative of typical human cells, the durability of the HeLa line made it a favorite with researchers.* This was the cell line Nakai and Imagawa used to propagate the Edmonston strain of measles ‘virus’ for the experiments described in this 1969 paper.
Let’s stop, for a moment, to digest what we’ve just read. The Edmonston strain was not an isolate – it was the outcome of a cell cultured sample from one of the child cases in the Enders and Peebles 1954 paper.
This ‘strain,’ obtained not via isolation but by the anti-isolation cell culture/cytopathic effect ruse, was then subjected by Nakai and Imagawa to another bout of the cell culture ruse, this time using the highly atypical HeLa cell line.
The researchers note they bathed the final cell suspension in a mixture containing 1% osmium tetroxide, a highly poisonous substance.
The researchers further reveal that the preparations were stained with a solution of uranyl acetate in ethyl alcohol for 60 minutes and stained further with lead hydroxide for 15 minutes.
So they produced a preparation in which cells were exposed to an array of toxic substances: Osmium tetroxide, ethyl alcohol, lead and uranyl acetate (which contains the isotope 238U of uranium).
Importantly, the researchers also write: “Control preparations of uninoculated HeLa cells were examined in a similar manner.”
They give no further details about these ‘uninoculated’ preparations. Based on what I’ve seen from other studies involving the ‘isolation’ sham, I’m guessing ‘uninoculated’ means a preparation not only void of a sample from a sick patient, but also void of a sample from a healthy patient. In which case it’s not really a control.
The authors then took lots of electron microscopy images of the preparations. We are presented with photos of what could easily pass for cellular vesicles, which we are told are measles virions. There are also multiple photos of long thin strands which we are told are “the helical nucleocapsid released from measles virion.”
They claimed the ‘virions’ were pleomorphic (able to change shape and form) with sizes ranging from 180 to 600 nm.
That’s all well and good, but there’s a problem. A big problem.
Remember how the researchers claimed they created control preparations with “uninoculated” HeLa cells?
That’s a critical detail, yet they inexplicably make no further mention about these alleged control preparations.

You can’t expose an atypical cell line to a bunch of poisonous substances, then claim the vesicles that subsequently show up in electron microscopy images are ‘measles virions’ without confirming the same thing didn’t happen to a control preparation.

Yet that’s exactly what Nakai and Imagawa did.
Once again, if you consider ‘proof’ to be conclusive evidence of something, as opposed to shady leaps of faith, then Nakai and Imagawa did not prove the existence of a measles virus.

Lund et al 1984

In the experiment reported in this paper, Lund et al do the Cytopathic Boogaloo with Vero (African green monkey kidney) cells.
In other words, they don’t isolate anything, and don’t prove the existence of a measles virus.
They conduct no control procedures, so they cannot confirm that the vesicle-like structures and strands captured by electron microscopy would not have similarly been visible in control samples.
Not to be deterred, they measure the size of the vesicle-like structures and strands. “Purified virions,” they claim, “examined by negative staining in the electron microscope exhibited a pleomorphic range of particle sizes varying in diameter between 300 nm and 1000 nm.” Their paper thus added to the already long list of publications claiming disparate sizes for the alleged measles ‘virus’ (Waterson et al 1961; Waterson 1965; Norrby & Magnusson 1965; Nakai et al 1969; Waters et al 1972; Hall & Martin 1973; Waters & Bussell 1974).
Once again, this paper doesn’t even begin to prove the existence of a measles virus.

Horikami & Moyer 1995

I’m not sure why Bardens included this paper, because it’s not an experimental report like the aforementioned. It’s simply a review paper that takes the existence of the measles virus as a given, and discusses its alleged structure, transcription and replication.
It does mention “Negatively stained preparations of virus particles appear roughly spherical but pleomorphic by electron microscopy, with the diameters of the particles ranging from 300 um to 1000 um.” In support of this statement, it references the Lund et al 1984 paper we just discussed above.
Lund et al did not even begin to prove the measles virus exists, and neither does this review.

Daikoku et al 2007

Five down, one more to go. Will this 2007 paper by Daikoku and colleagues save the day for the anti-Lanka crowd?
Unfortunately for them, no.
Everything you need to know about this study is contained in the following passage:
“[Measles viurus], the Edmonston strain, was inoculated into African green monkey kidney cells, Vero cell line, and cultured in a minimum essential medium containing 1% fetal bovine serum.”
Zzzz … zzz … zzzz …
Huh? … what? …
Sorry folks. After a while, this cytopathic effect charade gets so predictable and boring it becomes downright narcoleptic.
After doing the cytopathic effect wank, “particles with a nucleocapsid-like structure inside or a projection-like structure on the surface were determined to be MeV-like particles.”
These ‘measles virus-like particles’ ranged between 50 nm and 1000 nm in diameter.
That’s great, but because these particles were obtained via the uncontrolled cell culture/cytopathic effect caper, there is no proof they were measles virions.

Another Massive Fail for the Voodoo Virus Crowd

That, ladies and gentlemen, is The Bardens Six:

• Four studies that insulted our intelligence with the cell culture/cytopathic effect farce;
• another that claimed its poison-replete cell culture escapade featured a control experiment, but never detailed or shared the results of that control experiment;
• a review article that described the characteristics of a virus whose alleged existence relies on the cell culture/cytopathic effect farce.

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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.

I did the standard card, within a decent mix of hard mode. Finishing was kind of hard because I ran out of steam and didn't realize some other books I had read qualified. I've posted reviews of a few of these on Fantasy already.
Row 1:
Title w/a title: Priest of Bones
One of the first books I read for this years bingo. I love the world and characters in the core cast. My only real disappointment was the incredibly strange attempt at romance towards the end. 4/5
Superheroes: Vicious by V.E Schwab
I fun turn on superhero stories. I like how it fiddles with the fact that so many superhero stories involve trauma. A good read, but I felt the sequel left a bit to be desired. 4/5
Bottom of the TBR: Black Wolves of Boston
A big thank you to my sibling who is also a member of fantasy. I hate buying books, but the library didn't have this one. And it was literally the oldest book on my Goodreads list. I enjoyed the book as expected, but the sexual tension with the vampire just felt icky. It kept going back and forth between mento guardian and vague horniness. I would have preferred if it was handled a little bit differently or if the teenage boy was a little bit older. 3.5/5
Magical Realism/ Literary fantasy- by Mona Awad
I don't what I was expecting, but it definitely was not that. I dislike unreliable narrators and this book had several screws loose. Maybe if I was an English major back in the day? 2/5
Young Adult- Legendborn by Tracey Deon
For [redacted reasons] the college the author chose was a particular haha for me. I usually don't like King Arthur imagery. The main thing that made it feel YA was the love sub-plot. A YA isn't complete without possible competing love interests. Thankfully other elements of the book, the MC's relationship with her family made up for it. 4/5
Row 2:
Mundane Jobs: No gods for drowning
I think I will let my rant review when I had read it more recently stand. You can find it here: https://www.reddit.com/Fantasy/comments/13zdrmd/review_round_up/ 2 stars. Reluctantly.
Published in the 00's- City of Saints and Madmen
I read this book because it was on my TBR for reasons I no longer recall, but I think those reasons involve reddit somehow. Going into this book blind was an *experience*. This book was made up of several smaller stories. I liked some of them more than others. One of the stories is meta and mentions the real world, rather than Ambergris. Which amused me. 3/5- Do not read if you looking for something fast and zippy.
Angels and Demons- Chip Zdarsky
I read a comic book and no one can stop me. Mwahahaha. I really liked the take on religion and I loved that the main character who was kidnapped into importance was basically an uber driver. 4/5
Short stories- Fifty beasts to break your heart by GennaRose Nethercott
I'm not going to review each story individually. I was a fun collection, but I thought the title story was not the best story. Sundown at the Eternal Staircase was my favorite. 4/5
Horror: Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano
I probably changed this square around the most. Apparently I read too much horror this year. This book was insane from start to finish. I loved all the 90's references and epistolary elements of the book. I thought the way the author handled beliefs in relation to the horrors that were happening was really cool. I genuinely felt dread when the characters went in the "bad building".
Row 3:
Self Published: Magic Claims by Ilona Andrews
Like many Andrews fans, I will read their cake recipe if they give it to me. I have a problem. This wasn't my favorite recent Andrews book, but it was definitely good. I'm enjoying the change in locale. 4/5- Not recommended unless you are already a Kate Daniels fan.
Middle East- The Adventures of Amina al- Sirafi
More. I need more. Immediately. The narrator. The friendships. The boat. The ominous baby daddy. The setup for sequels. 5/5
Published in 2023- Book of Night by Holly Black
The magic was well done and didn't feel info-dumpy. The author did a half decent job of making the character suffer without it becoming misery porn. 4/5
Multiverse: Library of the Unwritten- A.J Hackwith
I fell in love with the multi-dimensional library and it's residents. It's one of the few books I've read recently where I can actually remember the characters names. They cared about each other and showed it, in rather dramatic fashions. I literally rationed the sequels because I was not ready to say goodbye. 5/5
POC author- Ebony Gate- Vee & Bebelle
An awesome story with a cool sidekick. Unlike some stories, the MC felt established in her world, rather in page 1 being day 1. My main complaint at the of reading was that the very beginning felt a bit info dumpy. I'm still not sure if all the terms in the info dump were made up or if any of it has a basis in asian mythology. 4/5
Row 3:
Book Club- The very secret society of irregular witches- Sangu Mandanna
I didn't even realize this was a book club book until after I read it. I got a kindle copy as part of a giveaway. The story was cute and I would definitely call it "cozy." I enjoyed the reading experience but it felt sort of shallow. The twists didn't fully surprise me and I didn't feel the need to advertise to my loved ones. If you like children this book is good for a rainy day while you drink hot tea and think about attractive grumpy dudes. 3/5
Novella- Starter Villian- John Scalzi
I really enjoyed this book in a light hearted way. I reminded of british humor with the unionizing dolphins. I did feel like the ending was a bit too pat and convenient. I needed the MC to experience more stress/ grow as a person. 4/5 stars, but 0.5 of that is probably because I like cats and am obsessed with the cover.
Mythical Beasts- All the Murmuring Bones- A.G Slatter
I think fell a little bit in love with this book. The author did an amazing job creating and filling a world without feeling an info dump. The story itself felt like a brand new fairytale with the falling down house and the family that loses success. It felt a bit like the fall of the house of usher, but not so much that I made that connection while reading. I definitely plan to read more by this author. 5/5
Elemental magic- The reluctant queen by Sarah Beth Durst
Once again in this series, I love the setting. The completely murderous elemental spirits that essentially need a Disney princess to tame them. And the whole living in trees thing. Amazing. But the characters this series never feel like they reach full depth for me. There was literally a mind control subplot and I just did not care enough. 3/5
Myths/ retellings- Bryony and Roses- T. Kingfisher
I may or may not have a T. Kingfisher problem. I kept rotating which book by this author I was going to use for a square. I enjoy how clever her books make me feel and the characters actually have some depth. I could feel T. Kingfisher's personal passion for gardening in this book. And liked that Beast was actually allowed to have a hobby in this version, beyond just reading. 4/5
Row 5:
Queernorm: Cassiel's Servant- Carey
I was so excited for this book! And it mostly held up to my expectations. I was really happy that the author made a point to start the story at the same as phedre's (aka childhood) rather than starting it when they meet. Joscelin felt more 3-dimensional and I walked away feeling like I got his side of the story and a better understanding of his belief's and reasons for his actions. 4/5
Coastal/ Island- Ferryman by Justin Cronin
A fun science fiction by an author I've enjoyed in the past. I enjoyed the setting and I felt like the narrator had a distinctive narrative voice. I enjoyed the slow menace as the MC learns more about retirement. I will admit the whole coming back as teenagers thing was a unique twist. Unfortuntaly, most of the other twists felt like they had been done before/ weren't truly unique and surprising. 3.5/5
Druids- Dark Mirror by Juliet Marillier
My hardest square to fill just about. My library didn't have any of the right books, so I had to raid a family member's office while explaining why I was looking for druids. Then, for extra confusion I discovered Marillier and Carey enjoy researching the same history. Some of the same titles were used like "Drust" so it felt like I was reading an incredibly weird fanfic. I liked the characters, but plot was a bit chosen oney. I would have preferred if there was a better competition for who was going to be crowned. Maybe a closer runner up. Also moving your castle will not prevent the need for human sacrifice. 3.5/ 5
Robots- System collapse by Martha Wells
I was so relieved to realize there was another murderbot book coming out. I don't read robot books very much. Unfortunately, I just didn't enjoy this one as much. Murderbot kept redacting themselves for privacy reasons which was annoying, and it kind of felt like a bridge book. Cleaning up after one book and setting up for the next. I prefer my murderbot more self contained. 3/5
Sequel- Labyrinth's Heaty- M.A. Carrick
The first one of these I read in physical format. I didn't realize how big they were when reading on my Kindle! I loved this book so much. I desperately want to learn how to dance the canina and I think the Rook would be amazing as an animated character. I appreciated how much energy the authors put into making the characters feel real and not forcing annoying love triangles. 5/5
The End!
Next year, I want to set myself a challenge. I'm planning on trying to read several books I already own but I'm also considering giving myself the dopamine challenge. Basically, if it's less than 3 stars and I'm part way in, I would put it down instead of finishing it for bingo. We'll see.
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