Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from netgalley in exchange for a review.

I was super excited to check this manga out when I saw it (magical girls fighting a war? That's always an interesting genre embracing cuteness and really, truly messy storylines of child soldiers), but after having read this first volume I now wish I had read the reviews first. This manga includes (as is unfortunately much too common, but I've managed to avoid it through reading reviews in most cases so far) depictions of nude ten year old girls, heavily sexualised content surrounding the magic system (where magic can be shared through kisses to heal people) and worst of all, the fact that the school nurse (who maybe is trans and misgendered a lot, or a crossdresser, either way a "pervert teacher") also kisses her students to heal them. I don't think I have to explain why such a depiction, especially in manga, which is already so often bad in its sexualisation of underage character and negative stereoptical portrayals of trans characters, is bad and harmful. Not only does it sexualise children, it also portrays a gendernonconforming, possibly transgender, adult as a perpetrator of said child abuse. Besides that there are quite a lot of nonconsensual kisses between the children themselves, which are never examined and instead portrayed as normal.
While I do think an exploration of institutionalized child abuse as would probably be much too common in a school set in such a militaristic war-like setting could be interesting, this is not what seems to be happening in this manga at all and I will not be reading other Volumes.
The art style is nice, but not enough to save any of the bad magic system, that's dependent on the massive sexualisation and exploitation of children.
TW: csa, an adult kissing a child, magic as excuse to forget consent exists, gore, children sent to war, child death, grief, injury, misgendering

Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from netgalley in exchange for a review.

As a trans (not quite disabled, but also not quite not disabled - still figuring it out) person with many trans and disabled friends I knew I had to pick this book up and I knew it would make me cry. I also did tear up a bit already reading the introduction, which especially mentions the way oppression grew during the Covid-19 pandemic as certain lives where once again declared “expendable”. As someone who finally dove into Disability Studies during exactly this time, this is a sentiment I have already seen reflected all around us and so it just started off very strong and emotional for me.
I truly love the cover and I was super excited to dive into this anthology. As a very personal collection of works by and for trans and disabled creators this certainly delivers an interesting collection of short memoirs, essays, poems and artwork of creators who are both transgender and disabled. While the quality of the pieces differs, as does the length and genre (we have some poems that are barely a page long and some rather academic essays in here as well as some very personal musings on the intersection of systems of oppressions) there weren’t any pieces I actively disliked. There were some where I couldn’t take as much with me as I had hoped I would, but most of them described quite interesting experiences and either left me thinking about it or felt relateable to me. I also enjoyed how many different disabilities where features in this anthology (from various neurotypes and plurality to invisible disabilities like ME/CFS to diabetes and various mobility aid users there’s a lot here). My favorite pieces where Loving with defiance: breaking a binary, not a b1n0ry by Kitty Lu Bear, I am transgender and my disability is not a cautionary tale by Finlay Games, Mimicry by Jonathan Eden, What are we worth? by Lee K Hulme and Who fights for us… by Lior Effinger-Weintraub.
Unfortunately, this book missed a crucial opportunity by not including the voices of disabled trans women and only featuring one person that identifies as transfeminine. Discussions of transmisogyny and how it related to medical mistreatment of disabled trans women was thus not featured at all, which I feel is a great oversight, as that is a field of medical misogyny that is rarely examined and should have rightfully belonged in this anthology. All texts that focus on medical maltreatment focus instead on afab transgender people and while this form of sexism in medicine needs to be examined, it does not feel right to me to read an anthology that claims to provide an insight into the experiences of transgender people, when a huge percentage of them doesn’t even get a place to speak. I also think a deeper examination on race and its compounding effect on marginalizations could have been intriguing, as that was only mentioned in very few pieces. This has cost it a star in my rating and so only manages to achieve a 3 star rating.
All in all, I enjoyed this anthology despite its shortcomings and I do hope for more examinations of the overlaps of being transgender and disabled and how these two aspects of identity can compound oppressions we face.

Plural, trans and disabled by Meg-John Barker: The first essay is both very academic and very personal, examining the way different and overlapping disabilities can make it hard to differentiate certain symptoms and aspects of disabilities. It also draws parallels between being plural, trans and disabled and functions as a really interesting introductory text to this anthology.
Embodying (in)valid identities: balancing betwixt and between being “enough” by Shanna Katz Kattari: A short text examining the author’s existence as an autistic nonbinary trans fat femme, with a focus on joy through fashion and self-expression and the overlap between autistic joy, trans joy and disability accessibility of certain types of clothes. It was really interesting and something that I sometimes witnessed for the disabled femmes in my life.
Intersectionalities by Jeong Eun Park: This essay explores various the discriminations faced as a disabled, agender, Asian person and how varying levels of (in)visibility influence their daily life. It is very personal and very interesting in giving a short view into Jeong Eun Park’s life, but it doesn’t manage to really tie the various parts it brings up together and so felt unfinished to me.
Ordinary by Atlas Oggún Phoenix: This piece features both an introduction to and the actual text to a piece of performance art about identity and skin. I really enjoyed reading this and I really enjoyed imagining the way it must look performed.
I can’t keep meeting me like this by Coltan J. Schoenike: This essay explores uncovering new parts of yourself, grieving for the time you lost by not realizing it sooner, but also embracing it and looking to the future with hope.
Beast of Burden by Silas Bourns: A short poem about a transmasculine person/trans man, about personhood and how it can change by leaving the societally instructed role of womanhood. Intriguing, but it is only a single page long and I wish there had been a bit more.
*FAV* Loving with defiance: breaking a binary, not a b1n0ry by Kitty Lu Bear: A really interesting and personal text about being trans and disabled in a multitude of ways. I found the part about using they/them pronouns especially to express plurality fascinating, but I also quite enjoyed this text otherwise, the way it plays with language and incorporates mathematics and just feels delightfully transMad in its use of language. Definitely one of the highlights of this anthology for me!
Self-portrait by Mya Saracho: A short text about identity and embracing yourself, including a stunning self-portrait for the author.
Liminal by Alex Iantaffi: This text explores the author’s identity, particularly their gender and disability and I especially found their inclusion of their experience with fatphobia interesting and important.
Do no harm by Eddy Samara: A heartbreaking poem about misgendering in a medical context and the balance act disabled trans people have to thread when you have to choose between being respected and receiving medical care.
*FAV* I am transgender and my disability is not a cautionary tale by Finlay Games: In this text the author examines the way people sometimes blame a trans persons’ disability on the choices they made to transition. I also enjoyed how he examined the various things cis people have said to him to discredit his gender, while examining the extra risk trans people face in medical settings and the way transphobia makes trans people more likely to develop chronic illnesses.
TW for discussions of suicide and self harm
Swimming westward away by Lawrence Lorraine Mullen: a very short poem
Bathroom buzz cut by Liz Moore: A text about changes in hairstyle as influenced by queerness, gender and disability, the joy and grief of it.
What I remember by Maxwell Colletti Vonraven: In this essay the author examines his experiences post brain surgery and how he and his partner were (mis)treated by the medical system. This is an absolutely enraging text and I just felt so happy to read that at least the author had his partner by his side a lot of times. As someone who knows the trans broken arm syndrome already, I am glad that this text also explained the syndrome to people who may not be familiar.
New disease by Nova Larkin Schrage: A really intriguing poem about gender and disability and falling outside of binaries
COVID-19, self-revelations and the resilience of intersectional online community by Jac of Gendermeowster: This essay explores the ways people formed online communities during the beginning of the pandemic, various coming outs during the initial lockdown and the way online spaces are often uniquely accessible to disabled and queer people.
Deeply plussed by T Boris-Schacter: In this essay the author explores growing up with Diabetes Type-1 and how their aversion to technology to handle it due to bad experiences when they were a kid have finally started to change as well as their steps towards gender affirming surgery.
Do I qualify for love by Atlas Oggún Phoenix: In this essay the author examines their experience of childhood abuse and their experiences with love. This was really heartbreaking.
TW: suicide attempt, childhood abuse
*Fav* Mimicry by Jonathan Eden: This essay examines the cost of trying to fit in, the reasons for doing so, but also the dangers of having to engage in mimicry as the author calls it. There’s also some really cool art in this piece and I enjoy the exploration of the overlapping experiences of having to pass as cis and non-disabled.
Give us our roses by Ollie Millerhoff: As a person who still masks in order not to get sick while having to work retail this is a deeply relatable essay. It examines being disabled now when most people have taken off their masks and the topic of early death with both disproportionally affects transgender and disabled people.
The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian by Root Holden: A short look at an art piece of Saint Sebastian and a reclamation of him as a figurehead for queer and disabled people. Interesting and I enjoyed the art.
*Fav* What are we worth? by Lee K Hulme: This is mostly a love letter to the caring and supportive partner of a trans and disabled person and I think it is an incredibly touching essay. A relationship like that should be common, but obviously, way too many trans and disabled (and especially if it overlaps) people are told they are too much or otherwise undesirable, so reading this was very lovely.
A love story by Milo Cooper: A love letter to a future self, very emotional and touching and sweet
Bender by H Howitt: A short essay examining the overlap of EDS, AuDHD and being transgender. I found it very interesting to consider EDS as a potential form of Neuroqueerness due to how often it overlaps with queerness and neurodivergence.
*FAV* Who fights for us… by Lior Effinger-Weintraub: This essay examines the (in)accessibility of many protests, especially now past covid and how draining it can feel to try and be active against oppression when various oppressions intersect and make certain forms of activism inaccessible for you.

Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from netgalley in exchange for a review.

I have to admit that the main reason I picked this book up was that I saw that the main character Jordan was a stone butch. That is an identity that is not featured enough in lesbian media imo and so even though I don’t read romances that often I just knew I had to read it.
Jordan is… a complicated main character. In true stereotypical butch fashion, she has a lot of trauma, that she bottles up and never talks about. I did like that that was something she managed to improve on over time. I also think that the way she treated her friends was unfair at times. But I like messy characters and seeing them do dumb stuff that messes up their lives, so I enjoyed that part of the story. And I really loved that Jordan’s stoneness was something she refused to change, even when people tried to shame her for it.
Be prepared for miscommunication (or well, no communication) playing a relatively big part in this story. Unfortunately, there is a lot of things that could have been prevented if people talked to each other and that was a bit annoying, particularly the [spoilers] constant assumption that Noémi’s ex must have been a man, when Noémi always tried very carefully not to use any pronouns. Stuff like that is fine for the first half, but when I still get assumptions like that 200 pages in it gets a bit boring. I do understand why the big reveal hit Jordan hard, when it did happen, but it felt a lot like drama for drama’s sake. [spoilers end]
What I really disliked was the constant biphobia and predatory lesbian stereotyping featured in the story. While I do certainly believe that those are conversations that happen in queer circles, it was tiring to keep hearing Jordan called a predatory lesbian who turns straight girls gay even by other gay people and those she considered her friends. It got a lot worse when she turned it onto herself, but thankfully that is resolved pretty quickly. The idea that any of the characters who show or are assumed to show attraction to more than one gender are never even thought of as bisexual, but only straight, also bothered me.
I also really, really disliked the reveal at the end, when we [spoilers] find out that actually Noémi and Wayne had a bet going on for Noémi to seduce Jordan. I always heavily dislike that trope and to have it be done to Jordan by people she considered her friends was just heartbreaking. Since it happened so late in the story, I also think that it shouldn’t have been made Jordan’s responsibility to forgive. There just wasn’t the time there for her to forgive her naturally and I think it would have worked better if Noémi had been the one to beg her forgiveness. [spoilers end].
Also, there’s a harry potter reference. In a book that’s published in the year 2025. No, thank you!
And finally while the ending was sweet, I do wish there had been a bit more focus on Jordan’s backstory instead of on the miscommunication drama or that the book had been longer and allowed for more time for the forgiveness-arc.
All in all, I didn’t hate this book and again, I loved seeing a stone butch character being loved without someone trying to change her, but I wish that either the messyness of the characters had been accepted as messy but intriguing or that they had been given more time to actually fix their communication issues.
If you enjoy your slow burns to be really slow and enjoy drama a lot, maybe you'll like this more than I did though :).

TW: past prejudice against a stone person, slight aphobia from side character (it’s not natural to want to be alone), homophobia, colorism, past rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, victim blaming, trauma, fatphobia, addiction, cheating

Disclaimer: I received an ARC by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

As a huge fan of Briar Ripley Page’s work (loooooved Body After Body!), I knew I had to check this anthology out. I am very thankful I received an ARC! I also really enjoyed that this anthology included trigger warnings for each short story in the back of the book with a note in the front, which is my favorite way to receive trigger warnings. Easy to access for a reader, but without the risk of spoiling those, who choose to forego the warnings.
The whole anthology embraces weird, queer, trans, haunting and sad horror, focusses on the dark and messy impulses inside of us and paints haunting pictures of different worlds. Briar’s writing style is rich and intriguing, and their characters are messy and wonderfully fleshed out, lead by impulses and needs and wants and so often desperately hungry. I found myself fully immersed in most stories after only a few pages and their world building and character work are certainly one of the major reasons for that.
My favorite short stories here were “Biological Reality” (messy trans man pregnancy!), “Therianthrope (we love transgender werewolves here!), “The Witch’s Wife” (a grieving witch and a messy magic system mixes incredibly well for horror!), “The Holy Incubus of West Virginia” (red eyes, caked up, soft wings… I didn’t say a name, but he popped into your head, didn’t he?) and “Lupus in Fabula” (more shape changers!).
All in all, this is an anthology I can recommend to any enjoyer of weird, messy, queer horror fiction. If the cover speaks to you, the stories will too!

*FAV* Biological Reality: A trans man deals with the parasite growing in his belly. Unsettling and heartbreaking. I really enjoy how Briar Ripley Page manages to paint a truly haunting picture in just a few pages here.
TW: traumatic pregnancy, cannibalism, infant death, gender dysphoria
Appetites: A man struggles with ever-growing hunger for other men’s bodies and their flesh, encouraged by a night-time visitor. Lovely and haunting, I adored it.
TW: cannibalism, animal harm, animal death, murder, asylum
Swallow me (W)hole: This is one of Briar’s short stories I’d already read through their itch.io account when it was still up, but it is still great. The story follows a young woman, who discovers a hole growing in her chest. I really enjoyed rereading it, because it’s still incredibly gnarly. Body horror, sapphic yearning, gore, a devouring hole. What’s not to love?
TW: sexual assault, self-harm, suicidal ideation, body horror, death, body horror, gore
*FAV* Therianthrope: A coming-of-age story of a young trans werewolf, where something dangerous is always itching under their skin. What will happen when they finally change forms? A really, really fun short story featuring a really unsettling narrator (they do freak out a serial killer by being too into it), that I really enjoyed! If you too enjoy weirdo narrators with issues and gender that’s never fully named, but just itching to burst forth throughout the entire narrative, you too will enjoy this short story.
TW: dog bites, murder, bullying, sexual assault, rape, intimate partner violence
Leavings: A hotel cleaner finds something strange left behind in the bathtub. Her coworker sends her to fetch the supervisor, but when they return only a beautiful woman is waiting, her coworker and the mess have disappeared. Haunting and unsettling, but really enjoyable.
TW: excrements, gore
*FAV* The Witch’s Wife: A witch who can use her pain to be granted wishes, wants to find a way to bring her dead wife back. God, this story was both incredibly gorey and incredibly heartbreaking. I loved it, but outch. Love the gender going on here as well.
TW: death of a spouse, self-harm, lobotomy
Close Encounter: Two siblings encounter an alien while hiking. Weird, with great character work, a bit short, but fun. Also. It kinda made me hungry.
*FAV* The Holy Incubus of West Virginia: Cryptid time! I love cryptids. I love transgender monster fucking. And I loved what this story did with the lore surrounding this Holy Incubus of West Virginia.
TW: bridge collapses
Desire in the Flooded World: Another short story that I’ve already read when it was still available on itch. It follows a family through a post-apocalyptic flooded world as they find new relationships and explore their sexualities. Their bodies, too, are changing, in strange and unusual ways. This is a really interesting immersive short story and I have to say I liked it even more on a reread. The parts with Selwyn reminded me of Middlesex, which was an interesting reference to include.
TW: sexual relationships between minors and adults, grooming, unhealthy relationships, terminal illness, homophobic s-slur, misgendering
December Story: A messy haunting story about a friend finally reaching out to a friend from the past, who has been writing concerning letters. With some really intriguing horror, this is a story I would love more of!
TW: institutionalization, mental illness, dissociation, hallucination
Gorgonland: A young man and his rich, older (much older) girlfriend visit Greece, exploring the countryside and the mythology. When the young man starts having nightmares, his girlfriend doesn’t really seem that bothered. This was an interesting look at the mythology, and I really enjoyed reading it. I wish there had been a bit more lore here though, and I would love to read more. The descriptions of the place are incredibly well done and intriguing.
The Mood After All: A young man keeps his high-school crush’s corpse in his house. Not as creepy as it sounds (the Dead came back for a while and then stopped moving again and when her dad wanted to get rid of her body at the dump, he intervened), but this story still manages to be plenty unsettling. It’s a really intriguing setup and I found Scout to be a very interesting weirdo.
TW: death of a child, addiction, suicide mention
*FAV* Lupus in Fabula: A night that beckons people to go outside, a night everybody is warned against and our main character, who goes outside and finds a group of people dancing around a fire in animal pelts and can’t help but join in. This one was really fun to me and narrated in an interesting way, in bits and pieces, switching between the before and after, slowly painting the full picture of that strange and joyful evening.
TW: gore, body horror, animal mutilation