Wednesday, 10 December 2025
I've really fallen off the wagon this year with doing book reviews, all my energy has just been going elsewhere.
However: The Transfeminine Review is doing their reader's choice awards again this year, so I'm going to at least do something rapid-fire style real quick line while I have a few minutes of downtime at work here – let's go:
Contempary / Realistic Fiction –
Beautiful book, the crossing threads of our three protagonists lives is masterfully woven. As someone who also did a lot of their early gender exploration on the early internet without really understanding what it was I was doing, this hit me on a personal level.
Woodworking by Emily St. James
Is something explicitly set in 2016 still condersided contempary lit or are we entering the realm of a historical piece? This is a book where I found myself both rooting for it's characters while also at times wanting to gently throttle them. A meditation on the pressures both to dissapear into the background and also the costs that has on oneself and otheres.
A book all about the disconnect between what we see of the people in our lives and who they are, how we only ever get these narrow slivers and rarely a sense of the whole picture. There's still moments of levity in here, but this one is more of a 'contemplative' read rather then a 'fun' one. Still good!
Speculative Fiction –
Magic Riot: Full Bloom by Kara Buchanan
Magica Riot last year was my favorite cotton candy read. Just a very sweet, fun, and fast-paced book with no shame about fully embracing the magical girl conciet. Full Bloom as a follow-up fills out that cotton candy feeling with something still extremely sugary but with far more substance. Bloom's character arc over the course of the novel is the real star of the show.
The Six Stomach Murder by CT Kelly
Right on the line between like, a really long short story and a novella. Like Kelly's earlier work with Amber Skies and Emerald Seas, this is just a really fun and imaginative read. I am envious of the world-building skills on display here.
The Egg Knight and the Dragon by Zoe Storm
This was another cotton candy style read for me, but fantasy flavored this time. Just a really fun light book.
Star Sword Nemesis by Christine Love
I've been a Christine Love fan for years. Super excited to have more of her work and having it in book-form is way more my speed these days then video games.
Nonfiction –
Bhatt's work has been a lot of food for thought this year and as someone who struggles with most academix texts I appreciate how approachable her writing is.
Poetry –
I love poetry but I always struggle talking about it. I feel like, for me, good poetry is able to slip past the shortcomings of language and spark something deeper internally. It makes talking about it difficult, but what can you do?
One of my goals / dreams / hopes for next year is to read more trans poetry, and have this chapbook to thank.
Young Adult –
Teenage Girls Can Be Demons by Hailey Piper
This wasn't even on my rader this year until I stumbled across it at work. A short story collection, mostly horror (I think? I always have a tough time gauging what counts as horror). It's been a hot second since I read it so a lot of the details are fading but the first story about the trans girl college student and all the exploding girls was probably my favorite.
One of the Boys, Victoria Zeller
I honestly wasn't expecting to like this one as much as I did. I'm completely out to see when it comes to football for example. There's a real passion and sincerity to this one though and it manages to pull off being a sports book where both the sport in question and the characters feel like they haveequally staring roles.
Children's –
I literally had no idea this book even existed two weeks ago but I am so here for this. Witches, ink blood spells, trolls in ice machines? Very fun.
I love poetry but usually I struggle with Novels-in-Verse style works. But like, this was really nice. An AuADHD trans girl protagonist doesn't hurt either.
Serial Fiction –
Ranked Competitive Breast Growth by Beth Leigh-Ann and Talia Bhatt
This has had some viral levels of popularity online in the trans circles I frequent and it's not hard to understand why. It's incredibly funny and clever. I've heard it referred to more then once as a 'trans girl brain de-wormer.' The writers hook you in with a frankly absurd premise and then keep you coming back with an ever-escalating trainwreck of bad decisions.
Team Butterfly Forever by Erika Chappell
I really want to take time sooner or later to write more in-depth about both this one and the next entry on the list but to keep things short for the moment, I simply adore Team Butterfly Forever. A love letter to Sailor Moon and with such deeply realized characters who 10 years after having lived through their own magical girl series (complete with absurd era-appropriate swerves like time-traveling balls, a future-daughter, and aliens) are now having to deal with the human fallout of living and struggling through normal life and challenges they can't just magic solutions for.
Carve it On My Bones by Erin Elkin
'Forcefem Mecha Melodrama' or 'what happens when you hard boil an egg.'
Mechsplotation has kind of exploded onto the scene this year thanks to WARHOUND by Kallidora Rho. Carve is not that, though it does go to some dark places. This has been a slow burn of a story, but if you want something deeply psychological with every victory hardfought, this is the story for you. We're entering into the back half of what's planned for book one if I recall correctly so it's a great time to hop on board the train.
