Disclaimer: Ich habe eine E-Kopie dieses Buchs von dem Publisher auf Netgalley im Tausch für eine ehrliche Rezession erhalten.

In diesem Buch gibt es drei wichtige Charaktere. Zuerst ist da Juli, eine junge Frau mit Autismus, die sich nach einem Selbstmordversuch in die Klinik einweisen lässt. Dort trifft sie Philipp, der schizophren ist, und Sophie, welche bipolar ist. Als sie an einem Freitag bemerken, dass ein Mann seit dem Frühstück nicht in der Klinik zu sehen war, teilt sie das ihren Freunden mit. Da sie am Wochenende Ausgang haben und bei sich zu Hause sein dürfen, entscheiden sie sich zu dem Haus ihres Freundes zu fahren, doch als sie dort ankommen stellt sich heraus, dass er sich umgebracht hat. Erschüttert von dem was sie gesehen haben, entscheiden sie sich das Wochenende nicht jeder allein zurück nach Hause zu fahren, sondern einfach immer noch Norden zu ziehen.

Der Schreibstil dieses Buches ist einfach nur fantastisch gut. Wir sehen alles aus Julis Perspektive, eine Perspektive, die durch die ihr eigenen Art zu denken, bestimmt wird. Dadurch war es am Anfang für mich ein bisschen ungewohnt mich dabei zurecht zu finden, aber bald wollte ich immer mehr von Juli und den anderen wissen. Ich kann nichts über die Repräsentation von Autismus persönlich sagen, aber da die Autorin auch selbst auf dem Spektrum ist, denke ich, dass es sehr gut gemacht ist. Ich würde es deswegen auf jeden Fall weiterempfehlen.

In diesem Buch passieren einige schlimme Dinge, wie Suizid und obwohl diese Dinge nicht weggewischt werden, ist der hauptsächliche Ton des Buches voller Charme und Witz. Ich gebe zu, dass mich dieses Buch tief berührt hat. Ich habe ein paar Mal geweint, einige Male gelacht und war im Allgemeinen einfach nur berührt von dem Buch.

Auch das Tempo des Buches passt perfekt. Es zieht sich nie, geht aber auch nie so schnell, dass man nicht mitkommt. Ich fand es sehr gut zu lesen.

In dem Buch scheint zwar handlungsmäßig nicht allzu viel zu passieren (die Haupthandlung erstreckt sich über nur drei Tage), aber eben durch den fantastischen Schreibstil und das geniale Tempo der Erzählung, sowie das Erlebnis wie etwas, dass für einen vielleicht eine ganz alltägliche Situation ist, für jemand anderen eben ganz anders sein kann.

An manchen Stellen hätte ich mir zwar etwas mehr erwartet und manche der Szenen wirken ein bisschen überzogen für mich, aber dieses Buch ist trotzdem ein sehr, sehr gutes.

Alles in allem, möchte ich nur noch einmal betonen, dass dieses Buch mich sehr berührt hat und auch sehr gut geschrieben ist. Ich kann es definitiv empfehlen.

Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When I requested this book I hadn't seen that it was the second one in a series, but thankfully this was no problem. Story elements from the first book where continuously hinted at and just enough for me to understand what had been going on in the story before, which was nice.

I was really excited for the mythology of this story, but I also have the feeling that not very much about it has been discovered yet. It was definitely nice to read about it and I think it was quite well thought out.

However, I can't like the main character. At first, I did like her and understood her. After all which sixteen-year-old would like to suddenly find out that she can see ghosts and also be separated from her mother and also her powers are way different from other Luiseachs' powers. So, I understood the angst that was going on in this novel. But I really, really hated how she was constantly harping on about how different she was. She never had kissed a guy, unlike all the other 16-year-olds in this world who all wanted to kiss guys and also all have kissed guys. That makes her so special. Oh, and unlike these fashion-obsessed freaks, she buys her stuff second-hand. That also makes her special. That also makes her weird. (I'm not kidding, this is literally said in the text.) Of all the things that would set her apart from her peers, this are the parts she wants to talk about? Not being kissed and buying second-hand clothes? Jeez, well then I can't wait for my special quest to finally begin, after all, I'm also one of these good pure unkissed girls, who just doesn't have enough money to buy new clothes and instead, often buys ~vintage~ second-hand clothes. And she just kept going on about how she had always known she was different (and of course better!). Because of taste in clothes. I mean seriously?

And even the writing wasn't what I had expected. This story felt very dragged out at times and I had just expected something a bit... more? More action, more background stories, more information? The writing itself wasn't bad (I did read the translated german version of the story ), but it also didn't pull me in as I had hoped.

One thing I did love about this story was how the love triangle was avoided. They are way too common and seeing them be shut down it always good.

Also, some of the parts didn't really make sense to me? We were told that Sunshines mother really loved and cared for her, but then she sends her away with a stranger without being worried? And then her daughter doesn't call her for ages and we're supposed to believe she wasn't worried? I get that she didn't want her daughter to die from Ghosts, but I would have liked to see her a bit more caring at this part of the story, Sunshine is just sixteen after all and no mother would be happy to know they are far away from them and probably in danger.

All in all, I probably would have liked this story way better without the weird "I'm better than other girls" complex that is sadly way too common in books. Being different is not a problem, but seeing a white cishet neurotypical girl harp on about how ~different~ she was from her classmates for not buying brand clothing, is just... not for me. There are many reasons why characters might feel different from their peers, but in this case, it just annoyed me, since it was very ~holier than thou~. It was a nice story line and if I ever have the time I might check out the first book just to see if that one has more horror, but this book definitely didn't blow me away.

Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really quite liked this story. At times there was a bit too much sex for me and the writing was a bit too poetic which made it hard to follow the story at times, but all in all, I really liked it.

It is a story about the trans man Silksmith, an aerial scarf acrobat, and Rudolph, a bearded intersex girl. I have no idea what one of the former reviewers meant with "(both of them) have male and female parts" because in my opinion it is actually made quite clear that the Silksmith is a trans man born in a time where surgery did not exist and that Rudolph is an intersex woman, despite neither of them using these words to describe themselves. However it is also never really spelled out and like I said the writing is quite poetic and weird at times, which might add to that confusion. I had to reread some parts when I got confused, but after paying close attention I actually understood what was going on quite well.

The story in itself is actually quite easy. Rudolph wants to find a rich husband to settle down with so she can live in peace and comfort. The Silksmith lives for the circus and his art. But then Rudolph realizes that she is in love with the Silksmith live gets more and more complicated.

I really liked the ending and I have to say this was a lovely diverse short story, but there was also quite a lot of sex. I mean seriously, a lot of sex. I was often tempted to just skim over them but that was when you learned most about the characters identities and how they stood to their bodies, so there were still interesting parts going on.

This story is very short, but you get a good view inside Rudolph's mind and you also learn to love the Silksmith. Especially the ending was lovely and I enjoyed it a lot.

I also enjoyed getting to read about how Rudolph knew she was getting treated differently when she was dressed up in a suit versus when she was dressed up in a dress. I really liked that there was no fetishisation of trans bodies shown because that could have been very easily added in the story, but thankfully that wasn't there. In general, I enjoyed the description of the circus life even though there wasn't that much there. I've always been fascinated by aerial acrobats and since I have seen some aerial scarf acrobats in action I could imagine the scenes describing what happened quite well and I really liked it.

This story is definitely something unique and I really enjoyed reading it.

Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to enjoy this book more than I did. The artwork is kind of cute but it did not blow me away and the story is rather boring, which made it a bit hard for me to finish the whole book.

The whole premise of this comics is that Artie, a robot, wants to figure out his purpose. He spent his life traveling through the desert, but he doesn't know why. Accompanied by his friend Owen, a vulture, he travels through a lot of places in search of an answer.

Sadly, however, there is not real overarching plot except that one question and despite the many but not very interesting locations Artie and Owen traveled too this story couldn't hold my attention.

The most interesting part of this comics is probably the friendship between Owen and Artie, but despite them being cute together it wasn't enough to carry this story and make me enjoy it.

All in all, this story is probably for a much younger audience than I am, and I think it might be a nice comic to read to children, but like this, it couldn't convince me at all.

Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book started out as a thesis on feminism in Islam and is now being published. Written by an Australian woman, this book mostly focuses on other women in Australia and North America. Fed up with the western belief that Muslim women need secular western feminism to save them, and with Muslim men's belief that feminism means their faith is invalid or not needed since sexism doesn't exist in Muslim spaces, despite the fact that it very much does.

This book very well described the various boundaries Muslim women have to walk if they want to work on women's rights. Are they giving non-Muslims another scapegoat to use as justification of their islamophobia (which often shows itself in misogynist islamophobic attacks, especially of women who chose to wear the hijab)? Are they not loud enough to be heard in western spaces? Are they too loud for Muslim spaces? What will their own faith-based communities think of them, when feminism is often seen as a western colonization? Can they root their feminism in faith and see their faith as inherently feminist or do they also need to look beyond that?

All of these questions and more are dealt with in this book. In the introduction, the author talks about the reactions she faced by non-Muslims and her amazement at how few published work was there of Muslim women talking about their faith and women's issues, so she decided to help change that.

This book features a diverse collection of Muslim women, young and old, from Australia and North-America, those that converted and those that were born in the religion, white, of Middle-Eastern descent and black, married and unmarried, even one woman in a same-gender relationship, some that wear the Hijab and some that don't, some happy to be identified, other wanting pseudonyms, some that call themselves feminists, others dislike the term for various reasons, some that work within the context of their faith and some beyond that.

This is a very fascinating and powerful book about Islam and women's rights and how women navigate their lives in these frameworks. I really liked that the author kept pointing out that despite all the different women she interviewed for this book, that there are still many varying responses to the question how Muslim women deal with misogyny and islamophobia.

This thesis is definitely very well written and it lifts women's voices up about them dealing with racism, islamophobia, and misogyny every day and makes them heard. All in all, I really enjoyed this book and I'm glad it gives the voice to the women in Muslim communities who deal with the misogyny inside it and outside it. It is definitely a book that needs to be read.

Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This nonfiction book, inspired by Thomas McBee's own life, deals with his struggle exploring maleness. His ideas of what makes a man are filled by his childhood where he was abused by his father, and by the man, a serial killer who targeted couples to kill the man, who held him at gunpoint, ready to kill him, only to tell him to run when he heard his high voice.

This book is a very moving and heartbreaking story about what it means to be trans, what it means to be a man and so many other things like self-discovery and such. It's hard to describe everything this book deals with as it deals with a lot of things that went on in McBee's life. Trigger warnings for csa and incest, which is discussed quite heavily, but also for the mention of transphobic hate crimes in passing. This is definitely not an easy book to read at times, but it is very, very good.

The story is constantly switching in place and time, but it is done so well that it didn't bother me and I never lost track of what was going on and the writing is also great to read. The descriptions of the trauma he underwent are very moving, but also not voyeuristic in their descriptions of pain. After all this is a story about healing and reading it was very powerful.

McBee's relationship with his girlfriend Parker was also great to read about and I absolutely adored reading about these two.

All in all, this is definitely an amazing story and McBee is an author I will look out for. If you're looking for a book about self-discovery, empathy, dealing with trauma, transitioning or just generally becoming yourself, you need to read this book. It is truly amazing.

Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book starts out really interesting, introducing Mali, a teenage girl, whose life has been turned upside down after her stepfather was discovered to be a serial killer. And recently her hallucinations seem to grow stronger and stronger by the day. When she finds out that she is actually a reincarnated assassin, she needs to learn and remember a lot and that fast, as her past life is quickly catching up with her.

I adored the concept of reincarnated soul-enemies. Sadly there are still a lot of questions open, mainly why this slaughter is going on and who profits from it and in general, the whole thing is a bit hard to understand. I still liked the idea though and especially the ending of this first volume was very nice. I also liked how the reincarnations were incredibly varied, coming from different races, genders, and cultures.

However, one thing that really annoyed me was the sudden art style switch right in the middle of the novel? I did like the first art style a bit more, and while the second definitely was not ugly or anything, I still liked it, I had a really hard time figuring out who the characters were after that abrupt change.

This volume mostly focuses on the waking up part and realizing how messed up that whole killing each other for the rest of eternity thing actually is, so I have to say I still have hope for the second part of the novel to show us some more build up between the characters (which definitely was there in past times, we just weren't really shown it).

The strongest part of this comic are probably the characters, especially Mali. She is a fascinating MC and her character is just really fascinating. She starts out as an (understandably) angry teen with some problems and is then thrown into the cold water of having to understand her past lives. She is a great character.

All in all, I hope there will be more world building and explanations in the next volume. But for now this was an okay comic and while I liked it, there was just too much confusion all around for it to really grip me.

Children sometimes find their own worlds. They crawl through small cracks, they tumble down a rabbit hole, they walk through the back of a wardrobe and they end up somewhere else. In a place that's so vastly different from our world, that the children that end up coming back, are changed. Eleanor West has a place where the despairing parents can send their children. A place where the children will be helped, but not like the parents think, not by telling them they must be imagining what happened, but by being believed and by being surrounded by other children who also went home.

This story is strange and sometimes reads like a fairytale with its eerie style, but it's also full of wit and humor and friendship. And murder. And it's simply incredibly good.

It's a story about children who stumbled, crawled, walked, jumped and fell into fairytale-like worlds, who came back and weren't believed, who now have to deal with the things they had to learn to survive in their world when those things are now annoying at best and dangerous at worst.

The cast of characters is fascinating. There's Nancy, the main character, who returned from an Underworld in which she served the Lord of Death and her parents can't handle how she changed. She for her own part feels like she doesn't belong here, in this world of the living, this world where everything moves so fast. And she just wants to go back.

This book has amazing representation too. There's Nancy, who's asexual and Kade, a transboy. Both of them are important characters in the story, and especially the asexual part is explained really well. Also, this is probably the first book ever in which I read the word aromantic. While there are no aro characters in the book, it is explained that asexuality and aromanticism are not the same thing and one person can be one without being the other. This was really, really great to read. But none of these identities are the main focus of the stories. This is not a coming out story. This is a murder mystery and a fairytale and a story about friendship and growing up, except it also features a diverse cast.

Oh, and have I mentioned that the writing is amazing? It fits the setting of the book so well! It's eerie and it worked really, really well for this story. I absolutely adored it.

The only problem I have with this book is that I would have loved some more explanation about the doors. Why are they there? I would have loved more descriptions of more different worlds. It sounds like there are all these amazing worlds with just a bit of everything in them and it would have been great to see a bit more of that. The Characters could also have been fleshed out a tad more, but there was so much plot going on that I didn't really mind in the end.

Oh and just to give out a quick warning, there are some scenes that are quite gory (I mean there is a bit of murder going on after all) as well as two scenes where a character is a transphobic, misgendering douche, but she is called out for that and nobody lets her get away with it.

So if you don't mind very plot-driven stories with a fascinating mythology, this is definitely the perfect book for you. It fit really well for me and I have to say I'm incredibly excited for the sequel in which one of the worlds will be explored in detail! (I am so excited! This is exactly the thing that I missed in this novel and I will get it? Yes!)

This is a nice collection of short stories, most of them featuring trans men as main characters. If you like Sci-Fi and stories with trans MCs this is a great analogy to check out. Quite a few of the stories are ownvoices, but not all. All of the stories are set before a Sci-Fi background with a lot of variety. There are some really good short stories and others that weren't as good, as is the case with every anthology. If you want to read my full review: Read on. This could be a bit spoiler-y though. I've also added all specific trigger warnings to the stories.

According to His Substance by K.C. Ball 4./5. Stars

Spoiler

A Sci-Fi story about second chances and staying alive. I actually kind of liked this short story and it has a really nice hopeful ending, but there is some hard stuff going on as well. I would have liked some more explanation of the Sci-Fi part of the story, but all in all I still really enjoyed this.

TW: transphobia (expressed in violence), transphobic assault, suicide attempt

Spoiling Veena by Keyan Bowes: 2./5. Stars

Spoiler

This story is set in a futuristic India where parents can design their perfect children. It is a shock for Vikrum's family when they find out they probably selected the wrong gender for their son. And while it would be quite easy to get his gender changed, the mother refuses, worried that it might just be a phase. I have to admit, that I didn't really like this story. While it features a trans man, this story mostly focuses on the worry his mother has to undergo. For the most part of the story, Vikrum is also misgendered by his family and only in the end, they accept him. There is also not a lot going on, except the explanation what the mother is feeling now that she has a son. All in all I just didn't enjoy this story all that much.

TW: transphobia (expressed in non-accepting speech)

Fluidity by Eric Del Carlo: 3/5. Stars

Spoiler

Set in a world in which one's gender changes every three months or so, Xen wants nothing more than to finally stay in the phase where he is a man. After hurling himself off a cliff, he is put in a hospital for people who tried to interrupt their Cyclings. There he meets a man, who might be able to help him. This story is actually quite fascinating, but I think some parts of the story could have been explained more clearly.

TW: suicide attempt, transphobia

My Brother, The Horsehead by Rafael S.W.: 1/5. Stars

Spoiler

In this story, the main character misses his brother, who has left home for college a while ago. Trying to find a way to deal with this feelings, he learns to code and makes his own vrideo game (virtual reality games). While I liked the futuristic technology in this, it is simply not fleshed out enough. All in all this story is quite confusingly written, with jumps back and forth, and I couldn't find the thread holding it together. It was too short to make me really care about the brother's relationship (which was the best part of the story) and the other parts of the story (f..e the horsehead) were simply too confusing for me to follow.

Liner Notes For the Crash by Brit Mandelo: 4./5. Stars

Spoiler

A story about a bunch of queer punk kids set in a futurist world, where it is possible to establish a link between people. Originally only intended to be used with caution and a few people, they hacked it and are using it now for their concerts. This story is a love story to the punk scene and the people in it. You really feel as if you're at a concert and it was awesome.

TW: f slur, q slur

Boy Rescue by Ace Lo: 4/5. Stars

Spoiler

In a world in which androids have taken over dangerous jobs, such as rescuing people from dangerous places, some things are different. But some are not. Most androids are young women in the hope that it would put children, who needed rescuing, at ease. But there is one notable exception. This story is quite short but super sweet and I really liked it.

Sindali by Deven Balsam: 4/5. Stars

Spoiler

Shay is a good Ingenieur. One of the best. His job is to build a creature that could fix their transportation problem. Since they live in the middle of the desert, it's hard to get around. But one day his radio picks up a signal from out in the desert. There are people out there, nomads. And Shay really wants to join them. This story is really amazing. I liked it a lot. The writing is nice and even though it's short, I think the world building was actually done quite well. The ending is very open so there's still many questions left open.

TW: abusive relationship

Deadhead Chemistry by J. Daniel Stone: 2/5. Stars

Spoiler

This story is about a boy who looks into a mirror and sees something different from his own reflection. He sees a genderless being caught in purgatory. For him, the mirror looks deeper than just the eye. This is a bit of a hard story for me to review? It wasn't bad per se, but I was a bit bothered by the fact that Corey misgendered himself a lot. While trans people's experiences regarding self-identification and coming out differ a lot, it felt really weird and uncomfortable to read about Corey referring to himself by his old name and with she/her pronouns, while asking strangers to call him his true name. That aside I have to say that the story also didn't really interest me.

TW: q slur cw

Choice Cuts by Edd Vick: 1/5. Stars

Spoiler

In this story, humanity has found a way to live indefinitely. They leave their old bodies and switch their mind into a new one. Because of this giving birth is highly prohibited and only allowed when somebody dies. I didn't like this story at all. It was too short to interest me with its premise, which could have been super fascinating. I would have liked more background, to know where they get the bodies from (you find out what happens to the bodies after the human leaves it), but there's very little details and so this story couldn't hold my interest.

TW: cannibalism

Robinson Faces the Music by Ryan Kelly: 1/5. Stars

Spoiler

Ryan is the butler of the rich alien Robinson. When his master is called to visit his aunt regarding an arranged marriage Ryan must come with him and try to keep his master alive. But the fact that he is read as multiple genders in this world, makes this task a bit difficult. I have to say I didn't like this story at all? The trans part (if it can even be judged as that) was very short and only used so that Ryan couldn't go anywhere. I also didn't much care about the story at all. The writing wasn't bad, a bit victorian, but it couldn't save the story for me.

TW: animal cruelty

The Three Ways of the Sword Man by Jaap Boekestein: 4/5. Stars

Spoiler

Lord Jessam's brother died a day ago. After striking a deal with aliens, he gets the male body he always wanted. Pretending his sister died that day - which she kind of did - he takes on the place as Lord. But being a Lord is not easy in this war-ridden place. This story was quite nice and interesting. I would have liked some more background story, but the characters were fascinating.

TW: misogyny, war, character death

LGB(T) by Maverick Smith: 4/5. Stars

Spoiler

In a league of superheroes solely made up of LGB people wanting to transition could destroy one's career. This story was interesting, even though it kind of felt more like a satire than anything else at times. The ending was sweet.

Flipside by Nicole Jinks-Fredrick: 4/5. Stars

Spoiler

Dorian is a Seeker, but she is not well liked recently. When she has to stop at a station to get her ship repaired, she ends up kicked off, but with a new mysterious passenger aboard. This story is really nice, but I would have liked some more background info. There is a past relationship that is constantly hinted at but not really explained. All in all, still quite good.

The Next Great Race by Jes Rausch: 4/5. Stars

Spoiler

Colin lives on Pluto and works for a dog kennel. In his free time, he takes care of huskies and races with them. This year his partner Hector and he seem to have a good shot at winning. But his papers still having the wrong name, due to him being unable to legally transition, could very well destroy everything. This story is fascinating and I really liked the setting (sled races on Pluto? yes please!). The writing is also amazing and I adored the ending. This is a nice story.

Coyote Dog Bitten by Dave Riser: 5/5. Stars

Spoiler

Walker, the Coyote, survives in his desert world by scavenging and stealing. After getting hurt on one of his trips and developing an infection, he is sure he will die. After all his only friend is the ghost girl Vanessa from a ship crash side near him. But then he meets Jack, the Jackal, who doesn't really speak. Together they are reaching for the stars. This story is action packed and interesting. While there isn't a lot of dialogue and parts of the story are confusing (mainly the naming part? I didn't really get that, but I still love the characters), this is a super interesting story and I enjoyed it a lot.

The Three Planters by Everett Maroon: 4/5. Stars

Spoiler

Hax and Marnie work on making Valus habitable. They have to plant trees so that people will be able to breathe there. In a world, where humans have to take hormones to achieve gender. Hax wonders if he made the right choice by going with Testosterone. This kind of confuses me because this story seems to feature a trans woman as MC and not a trans man? It was a nice enough story, but this confused me a bit.

If You Can by Bo Balder: 3/5. Stars

Spoiler

Peony is a Wan, a tree-like creature. Wans don't have gender, but all Peony wants to do is to become a human man. With his body wanting to plant itself and his wife pregnant by another, he decides to search out the mother who abandoned him when she found out he was not human enough. I really liked the idea that knowledge was stored in body parts and could quite literally be devoured. This story is kind of mystical, but I found it really interesting.

Trans Mare Cognitum by Michael Takeda: 3/5. Stars

Spoiler

After the moon had become habitable and the government had claimed their share, the rest of the moon was opened up to common settlers as long as they based it on commonalities. Simon joins one in which only trans people live. Simon thinks he could make a good life here with his boyfriend, but soon young men start disappearing. I didn't like that one character was implied to have OCD for being tidy. The rest of the story was well written, with a terrifying setting.

TW: transphobia, t slur, f slur, suicide attempt, abusive relationship

Fire Fills the Belly by Noa Josef Sperber: 5/5. Stars

Spoiler

A young fire-breather earns his living on the streets. He remembers his family, who are lost, but he also makes new friends. This is a really lovely story and I could very well imagine it as a book if it was longer. In this story, there is also a non-binary character. The writing is really great too.

Edge of Everything by M. Raoulee: 4/5. Stars

Spoiler

Idris lives near the desert and ferries people where they need to go. Ansil wants him to take him to the Edge, a place on the other side of the planet. This was a nice story and the ending is really sweet, I liked it.