Science fiction shows us worlds of great technological advances and sweeping social changes. It shows us worlds similar to ours where a few fundamentals have changed, or lands beyond the stars vastly different to our own. But it does not always show us what it is like to be trans or queer in those worlds.Read More
Sash S reviews Second Wind by Ceillie Simkiss
No matter how old you are, there’s always a chance for romance. Second Wind follows Martha Appleby and Pamela Thornton, women in their seventies who reconnect on a flight to Glasgow following the death of Martha’s husband. During their trip, the two women begin to rekindle their childhood bond, support each other through difficult transitions andRead More
Sash S reviews Don’t Go Without Me by Rosemary Valero-O’Connell
“Two lovers get separated on a night out in a parallel dimension. A ship that runs on memories malfunctions in the dead of space. A giant prophesised to wake from its centuries-long slumber beneath the sea.” This graphic novel is a delightful triptych of stories, all queer, all exploring themes of love and loss inRead More
Sash S reviews Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
It’s a new year and a new decade, but that doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate an old classic. For that reason, I’m starting the year by revisiting Tipping the Velvet, which was published in 1998 and is set in Victorian England. ‘Have you ever tasted a Whitstable oyster?’ isn’t an especially striking opening line onRead More
Sash S. reviews Wilder Girls by Rory Powers
“The Tox took teacher after teacher. Rules crumbling to dust and fading away, until only the barest bones were left.” Body horror. Boarding school. Queer girls. Wilder Girls promises a lot of cool things. Marketed as ‘a feminist Lord of the Flies’, one expects a grimdark pastiche of Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers, mixed with comfortingly familiarRead More
Sash S reviews The Gloaming by Kirsty Logan
“Let the sea take it.” The Gloaming begins with jellyfish washing up near a cliff by the sea, on an island where the residents die slow deaths by turning to stone. It’s a sad, strange and beautiful scene, just one of many sprinkled throughout this novel. Our protagonist is Mara, who falls in love with Pearl,Read More