Fantastic in a CW every way vulnerable marginalized peoples are taken advantage of, inflicted with trauma, and oppressed kind of way. I found it a hard book to read often, and I had to stop it a couple times and switch to something else. But it is very effective speculative fiction in Canada, which I think needs a lot more of this.

Too many Canadians think that this kind of thing wouldn’t happen here, but we are absolutely headed in this direction with the UCP leadership fostering the same white supremacy as the GOP in the states. We aren’t as far along as them, but we are well on our way. Hate crimes are up and it is disturbingly easy to see the steps in the book a government would take to get the level of Othering here.

It is not all doom and gloom in this book, though. There are fantastic scenes of defiance and reveling in queerness and queer culture in an accessible and intelligent way, communicating semi-complex notions surrounding marginalized culture(s). Certainly worth a read. And again, love that it’s centering Canada.