Jagged and dreamlike, Peter Darling by Austin Chant (aka S. A. Chant) confronts the discomfort of realizing one must grow up, while embracing the freedom to choose what that means. Queer and beautiful; re-imagining what Neverland is, what Peter and Hook can be. 

I devoured this book in a single sitting: Planning to read a few chapters so I could get an initial sense of the tone; instead I curled up with it and read it through to the end, not getting up for anything. All I knew going in were three words, "trans Peter Pan". I thought I'd like it, I didn't know it would hook me and leave me stunned.

It made me dysphoric in a cathartic way; good overall but deeply uncomfortable for a while. I finished the book feeling very peaceful, like the emptiness after a good cry. I already have dysphoria and this book captured those feelings so well. The pronoun handling is artful, the dynamic between Peter and Hook builds in complexity throughout the book, and I love this version of the fairies. There are even more things I loved, but I'm definitely not going to spoil them. If you love adaptations of the Peter Pan story, read this. If "trans Peter Pan" intrigues you, read this. If you, like me, just keep staring at the cover, read this; the book does not disappoint.

*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book. 

Life Minus Me is a short and ultimately hopeful story of a wingless half-angel trying to help other people when she's not quite all right herself. Featuring casually excellent nonbinary rep and many cute dogs. I want more so I'm glad there's another. 

This is a short book which implies a much more complicated world than could fit in novelette form. It eschews deep backstory except to sketch fairly complicated family lives for the POV characters. I mean that in the sense that we don't know how they got to be here, doing whatever they're doing, but we learn relevant tensions with family and friends and a particular family secret. It's a book about feeling useless and adrift, not quite good enough for whatever needs doing. It definitely gets dark in places, but it's also grappling with that darkness. It features some persistent suicidal ideation, but the reader is shielded a bit by rotating narrators.

I'm glad this leads into a larger series because my main thought is that I want more story. I like these characters, I care about what's happening to them. This book is a snapshot of a particularly terrible week but I would happily spend more time here. To me it's always a good sign for a series when I feel like I didn't get enough time in a book, especially when I'm discovering a world with sequels already published. 

This book is full of good dogs; clearly written by someone who loves dogs very much. I'm not a dog person myself but the care is obvious and provides some brightness in what could have easily been a very grim book. 

War Girls depicts the complex and evolving relationship between two sisters in the middle of a futuristic war as we learn about their pasts and they struggle to dream of a future. Book CWs for body horror, murder, war, child soldiers.

This book is a strange kind of visceral, paying attention to dirt and grime as much as it depicts sensory extension through technology. It's mainly from the perspective of two child soldiers in a futuristic Biafran/Nigerian war, each cyberized in different ways. Onyii's augmentations are mostly physical, replacing body parts which have been taken or lost while fighting. Ify's augmentations expand her world, letting her extend her senses and gain a sense of control over her surroundings. It did a good job of communicating the experience of using technology in a visceral way rather than getting bogged down in exactly how the future-tech worked.

There's a theme of child soldiers growing up to direct new children to be soldiers, themselves contributing to the same violence that wrecked their childhoods. Sometimes they are still children while directing even younger children on how to kill. This was absolutely on purpose and it's woven through the whole book. They are also trying to, successfully or not, grapple with what that means. It's filled with grief and anger, and what happened and what could have been. 

Early on the book has a lighter narrative tone, it shifts to become grimmer later on as they are older, more aware of the toll of the violence they're taking part in. The early book isn't any less gruesome than the later sections, but the framing subtly shifts to more fully realize the horror around them as Onyii and Ify grow up. For me the turning point was when the abd are introduced, from that point on the self-awareness ramps up.

It's very good and I highly recommend it. The characters are fantastic and strong; the relationship between Onyii and Ify is complex and becomes more nuanced throughout the book; and it has a good balance between showing some of the horrors of war and having many moments of joy to keep from being too depressing to read. It's probably not a good book for cheering up, but you should definitely read it when you're in the right headspace for something emotionally complicated.