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A review by margaretadelle
Changelings: An Autistic Trans Anthology by Ocean Riley, Ryan Vale
3.0
I'm always looking to add more trans books to my lists. So when the editor offered me a review copy of this one, I was happy to accept!
A couple notes about the curation before I mention the stories that stood out to me. The curation was a bit all over the place in terms of genre and setting. There were cute school stories, body horror, and space operas. While this means most readers are likely to find a story in a genre they like, they're also likely to find one they don't. I would have liked curation for setting/genre similar to what other identity based anthologies have done.
[Side note: it looks like the synopsis on this page was copied directly from the Kickstarter and the change in context isn't doing it much favors. Putting "we expect support" on a book's review page is like saying "we expect you to read this." Might want to look into editing that.]
As for my favorite stories, I found I liked the cutesy contemporary romances the best. That's a bit out of character for me, I usually prefer the stranger, more speculative aspects in stories. But "Don't Play With My Heart" and "Hyacinths and Other Purple Plants" were particular stand outs. I also enjoyed the ones that had light speculative elements, like "Vanishing Names" and "The Doll in the Ripped Universe." "Vanishing Names" in particular did a great job at making the setting feel like it's own character.
I really wanted to like Fate Turns the Light On, as I'm a sucker for space battles. But the foreward's explanation of how it was an analogy gave it a giant expectation that the story didn't live up to for me. I'm a queer person working in a school, with training on school shootings and unfortunate experience with political attacks on queer kids. And the story didn't really feel like it was representative of either. It felt like another space opera dogfight. A well-written one, yes. But if the foreward hadn't explicitly stated what it was supposed to be, I wouldn't have guessed.
In general, there's a lot of great stories in here. Like I mentioned before, I don't usually go for the cutesy contemporary stories, but something about them drew me in this time. As long as you're prepared for a wide range of vibes, you'll probably find something you like.
A couple notes about the curation before I mention the stories that stood out to me. The curation was a bit all over the place in terms of genre and setting. There were cute school stories, body horror, and space operas. While this means most readers are likely to find a story in a genre they like, they're also likely to find one they don't. I would have liked curation for setting/genre similar to what other identity based anthologies have done.
[Side note: it looks like the synopsis on this page was copied directly from the Kickstarter and the change in context isn't doing it much favors. Putting "we expect support" on a book's review page is like saying "we expect you to read this." Might want to look into editing that.]
As for my favorite stories, I found I liked the cutesy contemporary romances the best. That's a bit out of character for me, I usually prefer the stranger, more speculative aspects in stories. But "Don't Play With My Heart" and "Hyacinths and Other Purple Plants" were particular stand outs. I also enjoyed the ones that had light speculative elements, like "Vanishing Names" and "The Doll in the Ripped Universe." "Vanishing Names" in particular did a great job at making the setting feel like it's own character.
I really wanted to like Fate Turns the Light On, as I'm a sucker for space battles. But the foreward's explanation of how it was an analogy gave it a giant expectation that the story didn't live up to for me. I'm a queer person working in a school, with training on school shootings and unfortunate experience with political attacks on queer kids. And the story didn't really feel like it was representative of either. It felt like another space opera dogfight. A well-written one, yes. But if the foreward hadn't explicitly stated what it was supposed to be, I wouldn't have guessed.
In general, there's a lot of great stories in here. Like I mentioned before, I don't usually go for the cutesy contemporary stories, but something about them drew me in this time. As long as you're prepared for a wide range of vibes, you'll probably find something you like.