this is for my dear friends who want
- a very cool rec for the #transrightsreadathon 
- a sff short story collection
- a book rich in intersectionality, with a focus on queerness (and especially intersex and trans rep!!), emigration, jewish rep, neurodiversity 
- a book on the locus recommended list
- a hidden gem 

this book delivers on every single thing it promises. there are aliens who communicate with humans in different individualized ways. there are artificial intelligence beings who refuse to deny their own individuality. there are people who get transformed into plants and are shaped by both their humanity and plant experience. there's discussion on cultural appropriation. there's different degrees of acceptance by others - the father who wants to be supportive but fails the mark completely, the community who harasses, bullies and rejects otherness, the queernormative worlds. 

I feel very emotional about several of the stories in Power to Yield. I find the writing incredibly powerful, both the more gentle tales and the harsher ones inspired deep empathy in me. most of all, I loved how unapologetic each story is.

my favourite stories would be A Holy Spark, for how it shows the beauty of each individual mind and ways to communicate and process information, and Folded Into Tendril and Leaf, a story full of queer longing, vivid descriptions and a unity with nature that I both love and envy (on my notes I wrote "this tale is alive"). 

I truly think this book was special and unique. Bogi Takács's voice is unmatched and this book really showcases eir incredibly creativity and talent to portray characters that are deeply real in gorgeous and expansive unreal worlds - that feel true, nonetheless. 

I'm very thankful to Bogi Takács for sending me a review copy for such an inspiring book. I come out of this reading experience wishing to live as authentically as I can and with so many new ideas and the urge to create. I'm so full of joy <3