This is my first time finally checking some of Alex DiFrancesco's work out, even though I have been eyeing their work for a while now and I am incredibly glad I finally got around to it! This short story collection features a few really interesting stories exploring transness and transformation in a variety of ways. Sometimes the change is about gender, sometimes about state of being, sometimes about loss of ability, sometimes about transforming into a monster. What I found fascinating is that the stories also explore a variety of genres, while always incorporating these theme of transforming. Furthermore, I really adored the way the book was structured, swaying back and forth between stories firmly rooted in the real world horrors whereas others dove deep into the otherworldly.

My short review for each seperate short stories include spoilers, so proceed with caution.

Inside my Saffron Cave follows a young trans girl who is unable to get blockers or transition due to oppressive state laws. At home she is struggling with her abusive stepfather and finds some solance in the local myths of the Storm Hag and online friendships. It is rather short for how much it explored and definitely one of the stories I would have liked more of. I think if we had dived a little deeper, it would have been more interesting. (TW for transphobia, emotional child abuse and past physical relationship abuse)

A Little Procedure is dedicated to Rosemary Kennedy and the connection between this story and her botched lobotomy are very clear and heartbreaking. In this short story a young woman is considered too sexually promiscious by her family and "fixed" through a lobotomy, the ending was one I enjoyed. I also really adored the horror of this one. (TW for misogyny, lobotomy and murder)

The Disappearance follows a professor who deals with his fall from fame as a poet by lashing out towards poets from marginalized communities until his disappearance becomes not just metaphorical but literal. Very fun and enjoyable and one of my fav stories in here.

The Ledger of the Deep follows a trans man coming out to his father, who does not take the name change well, due to old sailor supersititons that changing your name "deceives" the Sea Gods and will lead to bad luck. This is a very heartbreaking story, especially since the main character doesn't have a very supportive relationship, as his girlfriend is a lesbian, who cannot accept his new identity. The ending was sweet. (TW for deadnaming and misgendering)

The Chuck Berry Tape Massacre is really fun, following the story of a mother, who isolates her children due to rampant fear of the outside and contamination, mixed with music reviews of the Chuck Berry Tape, a tape that has become infamous for its dark history. This story is incredibly tense and connecting the two stories was really well done. One of my favorites. (TW for child abuse, unsanitarity and child neglect)

The Pure follows a vampire, who falls in love with a trans man and an enranged father, who wants to know what the vampire did with "his daughter", sweet and really fun. (TW for transphobia and attempted murder)

Perseus Denies follows a man, who cannot cope with the fact that his wife left him. Very haunting.

I Was There Too follows a white man working in a prison as a cleaner where he is tasked with cleaning the cell of a neo-nazi, who was arrested for slaughtering his friends, and the meme that haunts them both. Very unsettling and very good, one of my favorites. (TW for white supremancy, neo nazi culture, facism, 4chan, intrusive thoughts)

Hinkypunk follows a young child during visits to the grandmother's estate in the south and encountering the human monsters of our society. The haunting is hidden and very gothic and I adored the writing in this one. One of my favorites. (TW for racism, homophobia and murder)

The Wind, the Wind follows a group of soldiers traveling through the lands to fight a war, but they are all haunted by their own ghosts. Really interesting set up and I would have loved a longer version of this one. Also one of my favorites. (TW for anti-roma racism and facism)

Ballister Blackheart, the kingdom's villain, gets a new sidekick, Nimona, who happens to be a shapeshifter able to take the form of any animate creature or person. Together they decide to uncover the government's dark secret.

Ballister is an unconventional villain, he doesn't like to kill or really injure anybody, whereas Nimona doesn't care who she hurts, after all how are kingdoms destroyed otherwise? These two are very different in many ways and so their relationship is fascinating (and super funny, I mean seriously, they work so well together, but also argue a lot because of their different methods, it's just so great!!). I also loved that Nimona is a shapeshifter that could take on any form she wants, but decided to take on the body of a plus-sized girl (and sometimes a shark. A shark with boobs. I still love her a lot).

Ballister is heavily implied to have been in a relationship with Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin, his former colleague, now nemesis. Their relationship is super interesting as well, due to their conflicted past. (The ending is super adorable, though. I mean it also killed me because it's so sad, but it's also cute.)

The art is very special and kind of weirded me out at first, but just as the character it grows on you and in the end you can't help but love it. I also liked that there were first design attempts for the characters in the end of the book so you could see how they had changed.

There's also a lot of funny scenes, full of witty humor and banter that left me smiling, sometimes even laughing aloud.

All in all: if you are looking for a book with a plus-sized MC, great characters and even better relationships, amazing writing, awesome art and something to make you happy: this is it!

I received an ARC copy of this book in exchange for a review by the author on twitter.

So when I picked this book up I knew nothing about it, except that there would be transgender polyamory and mecha lesbians. Since I like transgenderism, polyamory, lesbians and mecha, this was incredibly appealing and in these aspects this book delivered wonderfully, so if you enjoy these things as well, I can just say check out the book immediately and enjoy!
But of course that's not all this book is. It is a space opera, a book following an intergalactic revolution, fighting back against oppressive regimes, being true to yourself and it also includes cat and wolf girl body mods (and lots of hot transgender lesbian sex!). The POV is mostly split between four characters, the first two POVs following the MC's mothers on their quest to become mothers and also fight cool mecha space battles (and have really hot transgender sex, including a mecha penis attachment that can feel everything, which was! Fun!) and the last two POVs making up the majority of the book as it follows Dia, a young mecha pilot who's planning on bringing down an empire and Gráinne, a princess, fighting for her freedom while her father wants to arrange a marriage for her that she definitely does not want. I remember being a bit confused when the time skip happened between the first two POVs and the latter two POVs and in general, while I enjoyed the first POV a lot (there was very hot transgender sex and cool mecha fights! in space! so good!) I struggled with finding my bearing again after the POV switch happened. Once I got into the main story however, I was intruiged by that one and found myself really enjoying it, from the interpersonal drama of Gráinne and her family issues, to the bigger picture drama of an oppressive regime that needs to be destroyed and how to achieve that. And of course, I do need to stress that, because it was a really good part of the story, the hot transgender lesbian sex in here. I also liked the aspects of body euphoria expressed through body modification and mechas and that we had multiple trans female characters both with and without bottom surgery, enjoying penetrative sex in multiple directions and with a variety of toys, which was something I liked quite a lot.
In the second part of the book we also get to see the formation of a throuple and while there are some aspects of insta love with the third character that I think could have been explored in more detail, I still enjoyed it quite a lot. I absolutely could understand the story moving fast and I was even able to suspend my disbelief enough to understand the quick progression of Dia's and Gráinne's relationship and feelings for each other due to their circumstances, the believability of the poly romance as not just insta-love suffered from being included later and not explored in detail and I found there to be so many aspect that I just wish had been explored a bit more. I also wish there had been at least a small scene where Dia and Gráinne at least discuss wether or not their circumstances influenced their feelings for each other and reaffirm their feelings for each other as real despite this, because I think it could have added to the romance aspect a lot and made the relationship feel more real despite the very hurried development.
I also wish the main incenting action which took place in the first POV would have played a bigger part in the second POV instead of being shuffled towards the next book, because that just made the first POV feel more disconnected to the main part of this book and so I think this book could have benefitted from having the first few chapters on the space station as its own seperate novella/in another sequel/prequel book only hinted at in this one and instead allow more time for the development of the relationships in the second POV.
I also have to say that the animal body mods came as a complete surprise to me. Not a bad one, but I wish it would have been hinted at a bit earlier, because like this they just confused me (at some point I remember Dia mentions having fangs and bithing Gráinne with them, drawing blood, and I was honestly expecting space vampire mecha lesbians at that point. Wolf girls are fun too though!). And literally every single character is a lesbian. I don't mind that (as a lesbian myself who only has queer friends it'd be a weird thing to judge), but I do think having side characters (at least the ones that aren't villains) that aren't also all women and all lesbians and all in couples would have made the world seem a bit more diverse and well rounded, because like this I was just sitting here, noticing a female character got introduced and counting down to the point where they reveal they too have a girlfriend. It just made everything a little bit too predictable. If you like your mecha romance with slightly unrealistic amounts of lesbians though, this will probably be a perk to you and I hope you enjoy it!
Despite my issues I quite enjoyed this story and found myself intruiged by mostly everything that was going on and I'm excited to check out the sequel as well!