“The Shape of My Name”

Cipri authors an interesting story about a transgender man, Heron, recalling his experiences with his time traveling family. We get to see various times they visit as well as their journey of finding themselves and becoming a man. I found this story fascinating because it seemed so personal for just being a work of fiction. Cipri obviously could have used their own experiences, but in general, I felt like I was reading a diary of someone’s journey. The story also touches on grief and loss in a beautiful way of learning to forgive or at least being ready to learn. This story brings a great depiction of what someone may go through when trying to come out as trans to their family. We can gather that Heron’s mother was not completely comfortable with this as she left for the future, to a time that no one could reach. The last part of the story is Heron dealing with his anger and sadness over losing his mother, of her not accepting him. This short story offers a wonderful perspective and realness of what trans people may go through and is a powerful addition to this collection of queer stories.

“The Duke of Riverside”

This short story is about a young man, Alec, who becomes romantically involved with a swordsman, Richard, and inherits the title, Duke Tremontaine. The first part of the story goes over Alec winning over Richard and the last part is about the process of inheriting the title. For 30 days, anyone can challenge Alec for the title. However, Alec is scrawny young man so Richard fights in his honor. At the end, they, and the town of Riverside, live happily ever after with Alec as their new duke. This story is similar to previous ones I have read in that there is not much substance in terms of offering an unfamiliar perspective of queer people. It is a cutesy story about the “Jock and the nerd” falling in love and the jock having to protect his nerd. Perhaps that offers an uncommon perspective in that this is a type of story that would typically have a heterosexual couple. However, I do not think that was the intention and although it is a fun story with queer representation, I do not believe it does a great service to the queer community.

“Secondhand Bodies”

This story is about a woman, Agatha, that wants a new body not genetically like her own, and her downfall of pursuing that. This story was very sci-fi, but also had a hint of thriller thrown in which made it a fun read. I have watched a TV show similar to this concept of being able to switch bodies to essentially live forever and in a desired state/age. This made the story that much more intriguing to me as I wanted to see what Yang’s rendition of this concept was like. As the story progresses, Agatha meets someone who’s body she wants and becomes infatuated with this woman. So much so that it becomes an obsession to get this woman to like her and date her until she finds out that the woman is already with another woman. I find that this story is similar to “Paranormal Romance” in that I do not find a great meaning from it for the queer community, but it is a fantastic story that has queer representation in it.

“I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno”

This short story is about a woman recalling her relationship with her best friend and the difficulties they have had over the years. The story is also set in the future where light speed travel and cryogenesis are possible. I am not sure what to really say about this story. It was entertaining, a bit sad, and not a bad read overall. However, this was a clear heterosexual relationship, which I did not think was a part of this collection of stories. Perhaps there was something I missed, but I do not think I did. As I mentioned previously, I enjoyed this story. This was a story of pining after someone for a lifetime and eventually getting to see them and be with them in the end. I honestly think if they made the relationship a queer one, that it would have been an interesting perspective. In current media, I think the current “pining after someone” story is usually because they are unsure if they are queer or because they are not out. This story would have taken a much more heteronormative storyline and given it to the queer community. Overall, intriguing story, but extremely misses the mark in queer representation

“Paranormal Romance”

Paranormal romance is a short story about a witch who goes on a blind date arranged by her mother but ends up leaving with another witch. I found this story particularly fascinating because of the paranormal element to it. I have always enjoyed fantasy type things and the idea of werewolves, vampires, etc. existing is fun to think about. However, most times it is portrayed that those paranormal beasts are malevolent and want nothing but chaos and carnage. This story simply has them coexisting and it is well-known that paranormal creatures exist. I am not sure I find a great significance for the queer community in this story, but it does have a couple queer elements. The witch’s friends are a gay couple, and she originally goes on a date with a male but leaves with a female witch. Perhaps because the story is already queer due to the paranormal creatures and how they are treated, it makes these queer elements seem less impactful, but it is still a fun story with queer representation.

“In the Eyes of Jack Saul”

“In the Eyes of Jack Saul” is an interesting short story as it places a new character/perspective in the original Dorian Gray story. Bowes, the author, even mentions the same characters from the original story. Jack Saul recounts his time as young-man working as a “Mary-Ann” (a gay man) and his experience with Dorian Gray. I do not know the original story, so I am unsure how similar it is, but this was a remarkably interesting take. What I really enjoyed was some of the history and backstory we were given at the beginning. It is intriguing to read what a gay male might have experienced during the 19th/20th century in Dublin. I think for those who have more knowledge about the original story of Dorian Gray, this would be a new perspective. However, I am not familiar with that story and so I can only focus on what queer aspects this story has. I find it lacking in some sort of relevance for the queer community. Much like previous stories, this one seems interesting, but does no service in offering a unique perspective of the queer community.  

“Destroyed by the Waters”

This short story was about a gay couple mourning the loss of their child in the aftermath of severe, worldwide flooding. I enjoyed this story because it put a queer couple in situation that would most commonly go to a straight couple in most media. A lot of the time, queer relationships in media are hypersexualized or taboo and are not always given the emotional depth that straight couples are given. Losing a child is a real thing that all parents can go through regardless of their gender and it has lasting emotional consequences as this story shows. Swirsky does a phenomenal job adding depth to characters by showing how much they care for each other and how much they equally miss their child. I wish we could experience more stories like this in mainstream media because I believe that moving away from the current stereotypes shown would help show that queer couples are not just sexual deviants but are real people who want the same things in a relationship. A caring, loving partner who is there for them during the good and tough times.

“Das Steingeschöpf”

Anderson writes and interesting story of a man mourning the loss of his friend through working on a living sculpture. The story centers around Hertzel who has been requested to restore a living statue. To do so, the material the statues are made of feed off the sculptor's emotions and memories. Hertzel relives some of his memories of his best friend Franz and their time training together to become sculptors. We learn that Franz died at a protest and Hertzel has been mourning for over a year at the point the story is written. It was unclear to me if this was an unrequited love on Hertzel’s end, or if they were mutually in love. Either way, this was a creative story to show grief and loss and how someone would handle it. It does have queer representation, and this is not typically the type of story we would see a queer person in. However, this would still fall under the category of “delightful story, but not all that powerful.”  

“Cat Pictures Please”

Kritzer authors a unique story about an AI that has become very self-aware and is trying to help humans through the limited means it has. The story flows as a stream of consciousness from this A.I. as they bounce around talking about the different people they have tried to help. I found this story to be endearing as the A.I. is written childlike in some places and hilariously exasperated in others. The A.I. is not given a gender or name so one could assume the A.I. is non-binary or is beyond picking a gender. There is also a limited queer relationship between a pastor and his journey coming out. I would say that it is not absurd to conclude that the A.I. is above picking a gender because the way they speak many times about they know better for us. However, since the A.I. does not state how they identify, I can only go off the one queer relationship included. This, in general, means that queer representation is lacking in this story. The pastor also must deal with coming out which I think is an overused trope in many queer character storylines. This was a very funny story to read, but it does not have great queer representation

“Calved”

Calved is a story about a father trying to bond with his son in a post-apocalyptic era. We learn that in this world, there are cities with domes of some kind to keep them safe from the outside. Everything seems to be expensive, and the father just works as an ice breaker who cannot stay for extended periods of time because of how expensive everything is. The story ends with the father trying to get something back for his son that he thought was stolen when in reality, his son had given it to a boy he was dating. The story revolves around his son not being invested in their relationship, and the father acknowledges that this was what his son was worried about, his father not accepting him. When his son finds out that he was the one who beat his boyfriend up, he knows he will no longer have a son. So far, I found this story to be the least effective in offering a new perspective of the queer community. The ending somewhat has representation, but in general the story is about the father who appears to be heterosexual. Interesting story, but it hits the mark in queer representation.