Nonbinary – Marked for Plot

Novella Readathon #15: The Salt Grows Heavy

As I slowly grow into reading horror, I’ve had a complicated relationship with the more grotesque side of the genre. I thought I disliked it, and certainly I need to avert my eyes in any medical show I watch. Body horror authors like Andrew Joseph White capture that visceral repulsion that forces me to skip pages. I thought that The Salt Grows Heavy might be similarly challenging for me. This book features the plucking of eyeballs and the cradling of intestines in one’s hands, yet it was palatable even for me. Khaw married this body horror to a dark fairy tale atmosphere; the result so enchanting that I couldn’t look away.

The Premise:
The mermaid has given birth to her children, and they have feasted upon the land. The country which stole her from the water lays in ruins, a corpse to rot in the sun. Now she travels with the plague doctor, seeking a new country and a new home. They come upon a commune of children and their saints, the strange trio who pursue surgical immortality. The mermaid and the plague doctor’s shifting relationship is confronted by the plague doctor’s past, and the mermaid must decide what is important to her, versus what is simply meat to be consumed.

Read If Looking For: bespoke body horror, the tentative love of monsters, uncommon word choices, inhabiting the mind of a creature of the deeps

Avoid If Looking For: windowpane prose, genre romance, Disney mermaids, fast pacing

Novella Readathon #5: If Found Return to Hell

I didn’t know a ton about If Found Return to Hell coming into the first page, but I had assumed it would be a fairly standard horror story featuring a possession. Look at the cover! It’s actually a lot more like Penric’s Demon, though a bit goofier: this book is a big marshmallow with a gooey center. It finds a better balance in tone than a lot of cozy fantasy does, however, which made me like it a lot more than one of the many Legends and Lattes clones. However, I was kind of hoping this would be a nice accompaniment to The Haunting of Hill House, which my partner forced me to watch (though I’m now largely a fan). The second book of this readathon to underdeliver horror yet provide great cozy vibes, which is odd considering this is only the fifth book I’ve read for the challenge.

The Premise:
Wen works for One Wizard, a megacorporation to solve all of your wizarding needs! Unfortunately, they mostly answer phones, listen to complaints, and transfer customers to other departments. When a young man calls in with a massive sigil on his wall and no memories of what happens, Wen gets clearance to investigate. Soon, they end up playing host to a man possessed by a Prince of Hell, and Wen doesn’t know what to do about that.

Read If You Like: found family, late stage capitalism + magic, cozy fantasy that doesn’t overplay itself, developed platonic relationships

Avoid If You Dislike: second person narration, asshole parents, stories with relatively low stake

Comparable Media: House on the Cerulean Sea, Penric’s Demon

5 Comic Mini-Reviews

I’ve been reading lot’s more comics recently, both for work as I continue to develop two seperate comics courses for middle and high schoolers, but also for personal pleasure. I’ll still do bigger reviews for comics that I want to dig a bit more deeply into, but for now enjoy a pre-Thanksgiving meal of some (mostly) light and fun comics.

American Hippo

Inconsequential history facts can be a ton of fun. Apparently in the 1910s, the US government considered importing hippos as a new source of meat during food shortages. If the cocaine hippos of Columbia (and really any other invasive species) have taught us anything, it likely would have been a horrible idea with lots of downstream consequences. Thankfully, that world didn’t come to be, but it did result in a set of novellas and short stories by Sarah Gailey reimagining this possible history, blended with some Western set dressing, which was a premise too intriguing to pass up. I ended up liking River of Teeth (novella #1) quite a bit, but was mostly disappointed by Taste of Marrow (novella #2).

The Premise:
Houndstooth is a Hop, who raises and wrangles hippos. After his breeding ranch burned to the ground, he turned to a life of crime. Now he’s offered a job by the federal government to clear out feral hippos from the land his former ranch sat on, and which his most hated foe now runs a gambling empire on. Houndstooth’s crew consists of Archie, a fat French conwoman and longtime friend of Houndstooth; Hero, a nonbinary poisoner and demolitionist that Houndstooth quickly falls in love with; Adelia, a bisexual contract killer who is very pregnant; and Carter, Houndstooth’s former ranch hand who now works for his enemy.

Read if Looking for: bloodthirsty hippos, tropey characters, criminal crews totally not breaking the law, a queernormative American history, relaxed reads

Avoid if Looking for: thought-out alternate histories, meaningful Western elements, consistent characterization

Heartwood: Non-Binary Tales of Sylvan Fantasy

I have made the ill-advised decision to attempt to complete a second r/fantasy bingo challenge this year, this one comprised of nothing but comics and graphic novels. I’m really feeling the urge to read more kick in. Anyways, I immediately started hunting for some promising anthologies and I came across this. As with all anthologies, you’ll find some you resonate with more than others, but overall I found this collection to have a disappointing perspective and not as much editorial vision as I would have hoped.

Overall Impressions
To the surprise of nobody who read the title of this collection, this anthology focuses on nonbinary characters interacting with sylvan creatures – and nature more generally. Positive connections with nature were the most predominant recurring theme in these stories, and seemed a pretty clear throughline. I think there was also a predominance of child protagonists, which I didn’t quite expect. The few stories with adult protagonists (especially the single one with a protagonist older than 25) were refreshing, but I’d have liked a wider range of nonbinary experiences.

Read if Looking for: uplifting queer vignettes, cute forest critters, a diverse range of art styles

Avoid if Looking For: introspection into what it means to be nonbinary, the dark side of nature, plenty of adult nonbinary representation

City of Strife

The City of Spires has been on my radar for a while as a great example of what ambitious queer representation can look like. It’s also gotten nods as the modern inheritor to Swordspoint, the seminal Fantasy of Manners book with pioneering queer rep in the 80s. I ended up not loving the book, but I see the appeal and am intrigued to continue at some point in the future. But if you’re looking for a queer ensemble cast, I can’t think of something better than this.

The Premise
Isandor is a city with class problems. The rich live (quite literally) above everyone, in towers connected by bridges, holding them above the world. The poor are at the whims of the games of the noble houses. And the city plays host to an embassy of an Empire intent on conquering the world. Many different characters lives intersect in this book, connecting apprentice mages with shelter owners with idealistic nobility. Each character’s agendas and concerns are different, but this book lights the match that will set the city ablaze (quite literally). There’s enough going on that focusing on any single plotline will do a disservice to describing what the book is about.

Read if Looking For: many queer identities in one book, ethically upright protagonists, sadistic villains, impassioned monologues

Avoid if Looking For: deep characterization, flashy magic, political maneuvering

Monk and Robot

Utopias are oftentimes criticized for being boring, and impossible to tell interesting stories in. Monk and Robot, a pair of books (Psalm for the Wild Built and Prayer for the Crown Shy) by Becky Chambers defied the saying entirely. I found myself quickly drawn into the world of Panga, enjoying my time with a cup of chai – fitting for a pair of books featuring a tea monk as a lead character.

Elevator Pitch:
Humanity has sworn to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. After machines came alive, humans committed to more sustainable living, building communities focused on supporting people’s needs, and generally living up to what we all have been trying to achieve for our lives. Nobody wants for food, or shelter, or access to any sort of necessities. And yet Dex finds themselves unsatisfied with life, drained from the work they choose to take on (and which they enjoy). And so they take their wagon into the wilds, where they meet Mosscap, a robot on a quest to ensure humans are doing okay. Together they will explore the wilds (in Psalm for the Wild Built) and society (in Prayer for the Crown Shy) and reflect on themselves and their place in this world.

Read if Looking For: low stakes stories, philosophic pondering, quirky robots

Avoid if Looking For: high octane stories, books with violence or external conflict

The Brides of High Hill

I’ve got a great love for The Singing Hills Cycle, and picking up the newest release was a relatively easy decision for me. The series of novellas focuses on a historian cleric on various adventures, collecting the stories of the people and creatures of their world, which has clear Chinese and Mongolian influences. Storytelling, perspectives, and the meaning of truth are running motifs throughout the series, and they can be read in any order.

Elevator Pitch:
A historian cleric accompanies a young girl to her wedding, only to find that there is something dark going on in this house. The girl’s future husband has a mysterious past, the servants are tight lipped, and the cleric’s companion bird isn’t at their side to offer advice. And the cleric has a crush on the girl about to be married, and is desperate to save her from what they see as a potentially disastrous situation.

Read If Looking For: gothic horror, haunted houses, light mystery elements, quality prose

Avoid if Looking For: deeply thematic works, traditional fantasy storytelling

Empress of Salt and Fortune

I credit my relatively newfound love of Novellas to Empress of Salt and Fortune. I used to be the type of reader who loved doorstopper books – and I still do! – but had a ‘more is always better’ approach to books. Now, I think that the length of a novella gives space for writers to do really interesting, focused stories. I tend to find them more cohesive on the whole, and Empress of Salt and Fortune is a great example of Novellas at their finest.

The Premise:
The Empress has died, and the spell sealing the home she spent exile in has lifted. At this lakeside villa where she lived after bearing the Emperor’s son and was cast aside, ventures a cleric of an abbey devoted to historical knowledge and truth. Joining them is their eidetic bird companion, and the Empress’s closest handmaiden. Rabbit shares her stories from her time with the late Empress with Chich (the cleric), reminiscing about the past and dwelling on what was was truly important.

Read If Looking For: framing narratives, the human impact of rebellions, emotional stories, character studies

Avoid if Looking For: traditional action and politics to happen on screen

Mana Mirror

I’ve been a big fan and advocate of Tobias Begley’s previous series (Journals of Evander Tailor) in the progression fantasy space. I appreciated how they balanced small scale magic-school stuff with overarching plots, included quality queer rep, and had a clear grasp on characterization within a breezy writing style. So after binging book 3 in that series and seeing he had a new one coming out, I was overjoyed to see he had a new book coming out! Mana Mirror is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but it was definitely mine.

The Premise:
When Malachi got tested for magic and had the opportunity to pick opposing mana types for his spellcasting, he went with life and death mana. This caught the attention of a morally-questionable magi looking for a successor/experiment subject, and Malachi quickly ended up becoming apprenticed to one of the most powerful spellcasters on the planet. He’ll visit the local quest board often, learn about down payments on buying brooms, and meet a variety of cute folks along the way as he pursues a path towards magic that (among other things) will let him fully transition.

Read if Looking For: side quests, magic systems, wholesome family dynamics

Avoid if Looking For: action heavy, plot driven, or deeply thematic books