eidolickat's review
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Loved this hard
alexture's review against another edition
The "Are you there Satan? It's me, Laura" was enjoyable. Unfortunately, it helped me realize how much I had drudged through the previous ones, and I'm not willing to do this again before finding another good story.
miekookeim's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.0
I so badly wanted to love this collection, but my overall impression is that the majority of the stories were simply not well written– unclear narratives, confusing perspectives, clunky and contrived dialogue. There were a handful of stories that stood out and that I will come back to, but unfortunately they were largely overshadowed by the duds.
halschrieve's review
5.0
Evocative, prescient, snarky, moving. The authors in this book range in focus and also in genre--from the dreamlike speculative to hard sci-fi to satirical projections of current trends--but are united in providing interesting and fresh stories about gender and life under capitalism. My favorite stories are:
-Trish Salah's story "It Can Grow" about a brain-eating amoeba that can only take over the world if she finds a way to have an orgasm, and the trans man who believes it is his mission to release said amoeba. Messianic--it's about the potential for revolution and change, or the potential for devastating destruction, and the way our desire for survival brushes against desire to be consumed because of the world we live in.
-Calvin Gimpelevich's story "Rent, Don't Sell"--about body autonomy, bodily ownership, and body fascism, which centers an amputee veteran who inhabits other people's bodies at the gym for a living so that they can become fit without experiencing the pain of exercise; she meets a trans lesbian who is living in a body she traded for with a trans man--but the trans girl wants her old body back, and might not be able to win it legally. Discussions of surrogacy/biological labor which touch on the way we see our bodies under capitalism as machines or accessories and divorce our psychological selves from our physical selves.
-Ayse Devrim's story "No Comment" about a Muslim trans neo-vaginal-virgin named Maryam whose new womb, transferred from a corpse, is already pregnant with the living and immaculately conceived child which had previously been in the body of a white midwestern bride. Coerced into keeping the baby which isn't hers and which she has no agency over, Mary is kept prisoner by teams of doctors and pharma companies and kidnapped by radical Islamophobes. Again, questions of Messiah, revolution, and bodily autonomy--the irresistable transforming change that the future brings and the question of whether women (and trans women specifically) have the power to change the world by asserting agency over their bodies/the way that state structures oppress and control marginalized populations.
-Jeanne Thornton's story about a trans lesbian whose viral-video-famous cat has been repossessed by a media company and who takes a homemade rocketship to space in order to steal the empathy-inducing offal of a peaceful alien race and sell it on the black market as a drug --but who discovers that someone has beat her to it.
Other highlights include an interrogation of power in intra-community trans discourse in the form of a tale about a survivalist str8ish trans man, a brief but moving tale about Ocarina of Time from seminal author Imogen Binnie, and a story of the zombie apocalypse and the neglect of suicidal and homeless trans women.
If you are looking for the future of spec fic, look no further than the genius trans authors in this anthology.
-Trish Salah's story "It Can Grow" about a brain-eating amoeba that can only take over the world if she finds a way to have an orgasm, and the trans man who believes it is his mission to release said amoeba. Messianic--it's about the potential for revolution and change, or the potential for devastating destruction, and the way our desire for survival brushes against desire to be consumed because of the world we live in.
-Calvin Gimpelevich's story "Rent, Don't Sell"--about body autonomy, bodily ownership, and body fascism, which centers an amputee veteran who inhabits other people's bodies at the gym for a living so that they can become fit without experiencing the pain of exercise; she meets a trans lesbian who is living in a body she traded for with a trans man--but the trans girl wants her old body back, and might not be able to win it legally. Discussions of surrogacy/biological labor which touch on the way we see our bodies under capitalism as machines or accessories and divorce our psychological selves from our physical selves.
-Ayse Devrim's story "No Comment" about a Muslim trans neo-vaginal-virgin named Maryam whose new womb, transferred from a corpse, is already pregnant with the living and immaculately conceived child which had previously been in the body of a white midwestern bride. Coerced into keeping the baby which isn't hers and which she has no agency over, Mary is kept prisoner by teams of doctors and pharma companies and kidnapped by radical Islamophobes. Again, questions of Messiah, revolution, and bodily autonomy--the irresistable transforming change that the future brings and the question of whether women (and trans women specifically) have the power to change the world by asserting agency over their bodies/the way that state structures oppress and control marginalized populations.
-Jeanne Thornton's story about a trans lesbian whose viral-video-famous cat has been repossessed by a media company and who takes a homemade rocketship to space in order to steal the empathy-inducing offal of a peaceful alien race and sell it on the black market as a drug --but who discovers that someone has beat her to it.
Other highlights include an interrogation of power in intra-community trans discourse in the form of a tale about a survivalist str8ish trans man, a brief but moving tale about Ocarina of Time from seminal author Imogen Binnie, and a story of the zombie apocalypse and the neglect of suicidal and homeless trans women.
If you are looking for the future of spec fic, look no further than the genius trans authors in this anthology.
cosmopsis's review
adventurous
dark
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Violence, and Transphobia
noctadea's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Body horror, and Sexual content
sparkdust's review against another edition
Left it at my dad’s house. I’ll come back to it
tornasunder's review
challenging
2.0
There was a lot of chaf to sort through to find a few lovely grains of wheat in this collection. On the whole not a very enticing or enjoyable experience, but there was a few standouts that I enjoyed.
If you have this in your TBR my advice is to listen to the reviews and pick out the key ones to read, or just skip it entirely.
My favourites were 'What Cheer' and 'No Comment'.
If you have this in your TBR my advice is to listen to the reviews and pick out the key ones to read, or just skip it entirely.
My favourites were 'What Cheer' and 'No Comment'.
tangleroot_eli's review
I haven’t tried to read a short story anthology in quite a while. I’d’ve thought, given my fragmented ADHD attention span, that it would be right up my alley. Instead, without the heft of a novel or the coherent voice of a single-author collection, I just couldn’t grab onto anything here.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content and Transphobia
Minor: Sexual harassment and Homophobia