Joss Lake

Wow, fascinating. I've highlighted so many passages, lmao. "Trans masc camp" is right.

This is a feelings novel, but at least in the first two thirds it's all about how feelings are fucking baffling and surreal and uncontrollable and illogical and nothing will work out as you expect so trying to puzzle out the "right" thing to do can only hurt and hobble you. The little arbitrary moral/community rules that everyone tries to impose on the chaos (no plastic bags; no b***hes) are pathetic in both senses. What a mood!!!!

The last third, on the west coast, was an odd disconnect from the first sections. It did turn out to have been leading towards something, as aimless (though engaging) as it felt at the time.

There's so much going on. This is such a messy, surreal book. And I totally loved it. I liked the book as a whole more than I liked any of the characters, which isn't typical for me.… (meer)

Obsessed with (but also rather annoyed by) Aiden, a fellow trans man who is an internet sensation on the most popular photo-sharing social media app, Pen arranges through an acquaintance for a hex to be placed on Aiden. Regrettably, the hex misses its target, affecting instead Blithe, who immediately enters the Shadowlands (a severe, nearly catatonic, depression). For atonement, both Pen and Aiden are assigned to escort Blithe on his journey.

Despite this screwy-sounding plot, this was a fun book — don't let the sci-fi or witchy elements deter you, as they ultimately play a minimal role. The story takes place in our world, or in a slightly futuristic version of it, and it was rather delightfully bizarre though it petered out a bit at the very end. In addition to being entertained I feel like I absorbed lots of great information, so it was educational to a degree, as well. I selected this title to fulfill the "novel about a trans character written by a trans author" category for Read Harder 2023.… (meer)

2021. Here is a book with three transmasculine main characters, Penfield, Aidan, and Blithe. All are somewhat traumatized. Penfield is the narrator. His parents were geologists who died in an avalanche when he was a kid. He’s a dog-walker, living in Ridgewood, Queens, with two roommates, the witch and the stoner-hacker. He’s obsessed with a hot trans Instagram influencer named Aidan Chase. He is so jealous of Aidan’s seeming perfection, that he tries to put a curse on him with the help of the witch and the stoner-hacker. Unfortunately the curse backfires onto a third transguy, Blithe, sending him to the Shadowlands. A quasi-supernatural board of sort of international trans affairs overseers then send Penfield and Aidan on a mission to save Blithe. They take a lot of mushrooms, and talk a lot about whiteness, privilege and lack thereof, and how to try not to misappropriate other cultures. Eventually they progress a little ways on their various character journeys towards greater self-knowledge, and Penfield goes to work for the trans oversight body, known as the Rhiz. It was a little too rambling for me, but definitely had some great bits. It’s funny and poignant. And how many books about trans guys are out there? Definitely worth a gander. Or a goose named Agatha.… (meer)