nerdinthelibrary's Reviews (926)

“If Halwen’s prophecy were true, Wren could do this because xie was neither man nor woman. Xie was human and whole, but different from others. Wren was xerself.”


I first heard of this book through unconventional means, to say the least. I was in a weird mood so I was scrolling through the blog of someone who, to my knowledge, seemed to hate women, POC, LGBTQ+ people, disabled people, non-Christian people, and the list goes on. Again, I was in a weird mood where I wanted to get angry. Anyway, this person made an angry blog post about this book and mentioned snowflakes and SJWs a couple times, so I knew it would be the perfect book for me. (I'm not leaving out the person's name to be coy or not start drama, btw, I legitimately don't remember who it was)

My discovery of this book isn't the point though. Onto the review! This is an anthology featuring twists on the classic gendered prophecies by placing transgender and non-binary people at the forefront of the stories, written by a genderqueer author. I'm going to be reviewing each story individually, as I usually do for short story collections. I won't be including content warnings like I usually do because each story in this collection comes with incredibly comprehensive content warnings beforehand.


Tangled Nets [4/5]
representation: non-binary protagonist (uses xie/xer pronouns)
This one follows a teenager who is still grieving xer sister after she was given to the dragon that the village made a deal with long ago as a sacrifice. This one had some really great Hunger Games vibes to it, with there being a “lottery” of sorts to decide who the sacrifice is, and the strong sibling relationship shown even if one sibling is already dead when the story starts. This story also perfectly sets up the idea of how non-binary people can subvert gendered prophecies in a way that reminded me of the “I am no man” moment in LOTR. There are also witches!!

King’s Favor [3/5]
representation: non-binary protagonist (uses nee/ner pronouns)
Okay, apparently the badass declaration of how the MC subverts the prophecy is going to be in every story, and I am so here for it! King’s Favor is about a hedge-witch and spy who gets captured by the queen of a land nee must pass through. While in custody, nee forms a bond with a woman and they become friends (with some hints at a future romance maybe). This one was a bit slower to start as there’s a LOT of worldbuilding just kind of crammed in there, but once the story got going it was really enjoyable. I love when witchy beings have specific areas of magic as a specialty, and plant-based magic is also one of my faves, so this was especially a win for me.

His Father’s Son [5/5]
representation: transgender protagonist (uses he/him pronouns)
I have so many conflicted feelings. This one started really heartwarming, then got super angsty, then ended triumphantly, AND I AM A MESS OF EMOTIONS. In this story, the protagonist is Nocien, a trans boy who hasn’t come out to his mentor yet. He is determined to kill the man who slaughtered his entire family and, as you would imagine, the end fight scene is fucking badass and the prophecy-defying moment is just as badass as the last ones. This one just made me feel a lot of things, especially with the stuff at the start between Nocien and their mentor as they were sparring. Easily my favourite thus far.

Daughter of Kings [4/5]
representation: transgender protagonist (uses she/her pronouns)
So, this entire collection is fantasy and has lots of different magical beings woven into it, but I am loving the fact that witches of some kind are showing up in almost every story, even if it isn’t the main focus of this one. Instead, this focuses on the granddaughter of an influential queen who was prophesised to one day have a granddaughter who would be able to wield her sword and would rule over the kingdom. The protagonist, her companion and younger brother go into the woods and come across a witch who leads them to the sword and… you know where it’s gonna go from there. In conclusion, I love women being powerful, and I’m a little bit head over heels for Finndís.

Early to Rise [5/5]
representation: aro/ace genderfluid protagonist (uses she/her, he/him, they/them pronouns. I will be referring to the protagonist using he/him pronouns throughout the review as those are the final pronouns used in the story)
I’m always a slut for a reimagining of a problematic fairytale that takes away the problematic elements. Though, to be fair, the original Grimm’s fairytale of Sleeping Beauty had her raped and she only woke when she gave birth, so I guess Disney was the one that made it problematic?? Anyway, this story does none of that! The set-up is exactly as you would expect from a reimagining of Sleeping Beauty, but the gender-related twist made it one of my favourite fairytale retellings, which is impressive considering how short it is. Claude is never explicitly stated to be aro/ace, for obvious time-period reasons, but I would say that the way he talks about not having a True Love makes it fairly obvious that he at least falls somewhere on the spectrum. Forget His Father’s Son, this one takes the medal of my favourite (so far, there’s still more to come)

No Man of Woman Born [4/5]
representation: questioning protagonist (uses he/him pronouns), side m/m relationship, side transgender character (uses he/him pronouns), side non-binary characters (one uses they/them pronouns, one uses kie/ker)
This one didn’t go at all like I was expecting, but I really liked it for that. Unlike the rest, which definitely had a more epic fairytale feel to them, this was one very quiet and personal, to the point where it feels like it could be set it any time period. There was a prophecy saying that “no man of woman born” could kill an important figure. Innes, the protagonist, has always felt a connection with the prophecy and this leads to him questioning his gender. There are some really great discussions between him and non-binary side characters, as well as a touching moment at the end between him and another character as they talk about relationships, gender and the prophecy. As someone who is always here for character driven stories, this one fulfilled my every need.

The Wish Giver [3/5]
representation: transgender protagonist (uses she/her pronouns)
This was just just short and sweet. It’s set in a village where there’s a dragon who can grant wishes, and a toddler goes to the dragon and wishes to have everyone acknowledge her as a girl. It’s only a few pages long, but was so fluffy and made my heart grow three sizes larger.


Overall, my ratings average out to around a 4 (don't trust my math though, dividing has always been a weakness of mine). I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for good trans/non-binary rep (especially if you want said rep that isn't written by a cis person), for good twists on classic stories, or just a really solid fantasy anthology series.


I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

RTC.

content warnings: violence, murder
representation: bisexual main character


Apparently I liked this a whole lot more than everyone else. I think part of that might be that I'm more familiar with a lot of these characters than others, in large part because most of these characters have shown up in DC movies in recent years.

Justice League Dark, Volume 1 features Madame Xanadu bringing together a group of DC's most famous magic users to fight the Enchantress who has recently left June Moone's body and is now wreaking havoc on the world. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this plot, especially as I usually really don't like the plot of first volumes in comic series. The way it ended also makes me very excited for the future of this team.

Now, onto the team. As I said, I'm fairly familiar with most of these characters; John Constantine from the Arrowverse, Enchantress from Suicide Squad, Zatanna from Batman: The Animated Series, and Deadman from the Justice League Dark movie. The only characters I weren't familiar with were Madame Xanadu, Shade and Jay Young, and I understood their powers pretty quickly. The team as a whole is super dysfunctional because most of them don't really like each other, and I actually really like that. The more chaotic the team, the better, in my opinion.

I also really enjoyed the art style, which surprised me a little. The details of characters faces, in particular, I was extremely impressed with. There were also a lot of really cool visuals in this comic that I don't normally see in my superhero things on account of the team being made up not only of magic users, but magic users with different abilities. Major props to Mikel Janín because his art was great!

Not only was this a really solid first volume in a series, but it also makes me extremely excited for the future of it, something that I don't think any others comic series has done before.

content warnings: discussions of torture, murder and body mutilation


Welp, that was really fucking disappointing. I haven't read any other Rocket & Groot stuff (though I've been meaning to for ages) and this wasn't a very good start.

This volume has two seperate stories: Issues 1-3 are about Groot trying to find and rescue Rocket from a situation, and issues 4-6 are about them being kidnapped by space vikings(?). There are also almost-doppelgangers of them both, fantasy football, dnd, and so much more weird shit. I had some pretty big issues with both stories.

I quite enjoyed the storyline of issues 1-3 and Pocket & Shrub were weird, interesting characters. My problem here was the art style; it wasn't bad, it just didn't gel with me very well. However, in issues 4-6 I really enjoyed the art style and I liked how bonkers and colourful it looked. The story was what really let me down in these issues, especially because the storyline in issues 1-3 never feels resolved so it's very jarring.

I'm already not a big fan of when a six-issue volume doesn't have a single, complete story in it, and this comic did nothing to change that opinion.

This is a modern poetry collection and, like many modern poetry collections, it's a mixed bag, to say the least. I really liked the format, with the book being split into four sections to correspond with different phases of the moon, and thought that idea as a whole was quite clever.

There were some poems that I really loved, in particular some about family and being an Israeli woman. But, particularly towards the end, there were many poems that just felt like nothing. They were just words strung together in a way that sounded pretty as they covered a topic already covered ad nauseam in previous poems.

Lee Broda is certainly a talented poet, but I don't think many of these poems warranted being part of an entire book.

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

content warnings: violence, medical experimentation, loss of a loved one
representation: main interracial relationship, main deaf character, main lesbian latina character, main black character, side sapphic black character, side f/f interracial relationship

Yeah, I'm an idiot and didn't realise that this volume has five issues and not six, so I didn't even realise that it had ended. Moving on: this is great. Or, if you love the characters it's great.

The plot is very whatever, to the point where I legitimately can't remember enough of it to explain it to you other than the fact that some people get made giant and angry, and there's something at the end with a masked villain.

But that doesn't even matter because I love the characters so damn much. This follows Kate Bishop/Hawkeye, aka my wife, as she tries to lead the newly-formed West Coast Avengers; her boyfriend Johnny Watts/Fuse who is pretty new to the whole superhero thing and is really only in it for Kate; Clint Barton/Hawkeye who doesn't want to be there and is an exasperated dad the whole time; America Chavez who's just punching stuff and meeting a cute girl (Johnny's sister, to be exact); Gwendolyn Poole/Gwenpool who's a chaotic mess, as would be expected; and Quentin Quire/Kid Omega who is also super chaotic and that causes Sexual Tension with Gwen.

These characters are all complete messes who are being followed around by a documentary camera crew, eating pizza, and arguing about leaving wet towels on the bathroom floor. They're the only reasons why I care about continuing this.

So if you don't like the characters, then I wouldn't bother because you probably won't like it, but as someone who would lay down her life for both the Hawkeyes I had a great time.

trigger warnings: sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking, victim blaming, incest, pedophilia, violence, domestic violence

This is an incredible book that isn't necessarily going to resonate with everyone. I've seen people complain in their reviews that the author seemed to be ranting at certain points, but that's exactly what I liked about it. I can understand how that could turn others off, but I loved reading about the passion that Sohaila Abdulali had for a topic she's studied for most of her life, as well as one that has personally affected her.

This book is imperfect, and that's part of the reason why it was so impactful. Straight-up, Abdulali admits that she doesn't have all the answers and makes sure that the reader knows the book is only her point of view. She says that she's going to contradict herself and sometimes say the wrong this, because that is the reality of the topic she is discussing.

Strangely, this book also contains a dark humour. There are moments where you can't help but laugh, and then you're somewhat horrified considering what it is that you're reading. That allowed the book to have some levity, particularly at points where it had become a bit too much, something which happens often.

I particularly liked the look at how authority figures, whether that be an important member of the family or the leader of the whole country, and how they can influence the culture that they have control over. Don't come to this book if you don't want to read anything about politics, because the topic of rape itself is quite political when it comes to dissecting it.

Honestly, I'm not sure how coherent this is, but this is a soul-destroying, immensely important book that isn't going to gel with everyone, but that I would recommend everyone try.

“Any of my friends who didn’t fit a certain mold had the same issue. Finding ourselves in the stories we loved was hard, frustrating work. But when we discovered that rare story that reflected us, that hidden gem, we latched on and fell in LOVE love with reading all over again. For some of us in that renewed state of romantic bliss, we made vows to write the stories we had such a hard time finding.”


This is an anthology edited by one of the cofounders of We Need Diverse Books and contains stories about race, sexuality and gender from a variety of fantastic authors. All my specific thoughts on each story are as follow:

Eraser Tattoo by Jason Reynolds [4/5]
This was a short and sweet one. It’s about black teens, Shay and Dante, who have been best friends their entire lives and have been in a relationship for a while. When the story takes place, though, Shay and her family are moving away, so she and Dante are reminiscing while she gives him an eraser tattoo of an ‘S’. It was only ten pages but still managed to be cute and funny, and I even felt a little sad at the end which is pretty impressive for such a short piece.

Meet Cute by Malinda Lo [4/5]
I can confirm, this not only has a meet cute in it, but also has one of the cutest meet cutes I’ve ever read. This is set at a screening for an Asian fantasy film and focuses on the meeting of Nic, cosplaying as a gender-bent Sulu, and Tamia, cosplaying as a racebent Scully. The power goes out and the two girls escape the crowd of cosplayers, leading to some cute nerdy banter and discussions on representation in media. I just, AH, this was adorable, and it made me Feel a lot.

Don’t Pass Me By by Eric Gansworth [3/5]
I dunno, there was just something about this one that didn’t gel with me as much as I would have liked. This one is about an Indian boy in school and some Indian classmates of his and has a lot of discussion of racism and white passing. I really liked the discussion towards the end when they students are given pencils to colour in a self-portrait and the main character refuses to use the “flesh” pencil because it doesn’t represent how he looks. But there was something about the way it was written that I didn’t love and (I’m aware this is nit-picking) the CPR descriptions annoyed me :/

Be Cool For Once by Aminah Mae Safi [2/5]
There’s a big problem with romance-centric short stories: if you don’t like the romance, you don’t like the story. This is about Shirin at a concert of her favourite band with her best friend when she sees the boy she’s had a crush on forever, and romance ensues. I just really wasn’t feeling the romance which meant that this entire thing fell really flat for me. I did really like the fictional band in this, though – they’re a rock band called the Thousand Day Queens and all their stage names correspond with queens who have been shunned by history (Marie Antoinette, Anne Boleyn and Rani of Jhansi).

Tags by Walter Dean Myers [5/5]
Holy crap, this one left an impact. Instead of just a short story, this one is written in screenplay format and it’s about four black guys who meet up when they’re tagging the walls of a building. I’m not going to say anything else because this is definitely one where you should go in blind and just experience it for yourself.

Why I Learned to Cook by Sara Farizan [5/5]
Fluff overload!! This one is about Yasaman, a Persian girl who is dating a girl called Hannah and wants to introduce her to her grandmother. But first she decides to let her grandma teach her how to make vegetarian Persian food, so she can make it for Hannah. This was the cutest, sweetest, fluffiest story I’ve maybe ever read. I’m pretty sure my teeth are rotted.

A Stranger at the Bochinche by Daniel José Older
I didn’t totally understand this one and I’m not sure why, so I’m not going to give it a rating.

A Boy’s Duty by Sharon G. Flake [3.5/5]
This was an… interesting one. It’s set in WWII and follows a black farmboy who runs away and has plans on joining the Navy but loves art and astrology. Overall, I enjoyed it, but it was a little long in places and the writing style didn’t completely work for me.

One Voice: A Something In-Between Story by Melissa de la Cruz [4/5]
I realised halfway through this that it’s a semi-sequel to Melissa de la Cruz’s novel Something in Between (which I probably should have picked up on from the title but I’m an idiot). This is about Jasmine, a Filipino girl at university who has to deal with racist graffiti first showing up on a school building, and then a targeted attack towards an African-American girl. This one deals a lot with what it’s like to be a person of colour, what it’s like to be a woman, what it’s like to be a woman of colour. It was incredibly impactful, but to me there was this weird disconnect which I think came from not having read Something In Between.

Paladin/Samurai by Gene Luen Yang, illustrated by Thien Pham [3/5]
I love that there’s a comic in an anthology collection, that’s really cool. This is about a group of boys playing knock-off D&D and one of them befriending a popular girl. It was just really cute, idk what else to say.

Catch, Pull, Drive by Schuyler Bailar [5/5]
First of all, major trigger warnings for use of the F-slur, T-slur and dead naming. This one is about a trans boy who’s a swimmer, and it’s about his transition, him telling people, the abuse he suffers for it at school, and his dreams of being an Olympic swimmer. This was so gut wrenching and impactful, but so good and necessary.

Super Human by Nicola Yoon [5/5]
Wow, this ended with a bang. This is about Syrita, a girl enlisted by the US government to stop the world’s only superhero, X, from destroying humanity. This one had such beautiful discussions about humans, race and police brutality from the eyes of two very different black people living in America. This was just… it was beautiful and it made me feel a whole lot of things.

Overall, my ratings together added up to 78%, which seems about right. My favourites were easily Malinda Lo's, Walter Dean Myers', Sara Farizan's, Melissa de la Cruz's, Schuyler Bailar's and Nicola Yoon's. I would definitely recommend this anthology to everyone, it was incredible.

This was really gay. That's it, those are my thoughts.