You may remember from last year, the team collated some of their favourite books by trans and nb authors or centring trans and nb characters for the Trans Rights Readathon, an event primarily organised by creators on Tiktok to raise awareness of trans authors and stories, and encourage people to donate to some great causes in the face of the horrific issues being faced by trans folks across the world right now, all through the medium of reading some amazing books.
This year, the readathon is back, with creators on various media committing to promote trans works, and to be reading them between the 22nd and the 29th of March, leading up to the International Trans Day of Visibility on the 31st.
If you're interested in donating, there are so many impactful charities and similar (many of which are local and small scale and desperately need the funds), but the following orgs are a great option if you're not sure where to look:
Tony's Place
The Transgender Law Centre
The Trevor Project
As we did last year, we've curated a list of some of our favourite trans and nb reads that we'd absolutely recommend, and if you want more inspiration, do look back at the 2023 list, which is chock full of gems too.
So, without any further ado, here are the books:
The Two Doctors Górski by Isaac Fellman [Tordotcom, 2022]
An American woman goes to study magic in England, knowing this to be her last shot at academia after a relationship has tainted all her possible options. But the difficult, prickly and idiosyncratic professor has a strange legacy, a magic he performed that no one else has managed, and the long tail of his past choices will come back to bite his students. A deeply emotive story that understands trauma and the irrational decisions people make and have to struggle with for the rest of their lives.
Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman [Penguin, 2022]
A short novel that plays with format to tell the story of a trans vampire archivist, and the donation of her wife's papers that brings a woman into his life, changing things forever. It covers themes of identity, personal growth, and how sometimes a harsh break is needed to plant something new amid the mess tha has developed around a life of hiding from things. It's deeply strange but beautifully told.
Finding Echoes by Foz Meadows [Neon Hemlock, 2024]
Fuller review can be found
here. This is the story of two characters, long out of each others' lives, coming unexpectedly back into contact, and working in parallel through the now and the then to figure out who they are to each other, and whether they can get past the legacy of each other's choices. It is also a story that really gets how to write a group of people speaking their own little dialect, creating a visceral sense of community, even in a short space. It's also got a strange city full of magic, people who speak to the dead, political shenanigans and quiet revolution. A great read that's easy to devour in a single sitting.
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White [Peachtree Teen, 2023]
A ghost story where Victorian cisnormativity is allegorized as institutional control over the magic that allows people to contact a world beyond ours. The protagonist is like a flaming river of lava raging against the brutal mechanisms of domination in his society.
Mistress of Lies by K. M. Enright [Orbit, 2024]
Imagine Interview with the Vampire meets The Godfather. All the angst and tension and drama of simmering vampire romance, plus all the machinations and double-crossings of a powerful crime family, plus incredibly complex characters you'll hate to love.
POSTED BY: Roseanna Pendlebury, the humble servant of a very loud cat. @chloroformtea.bsky.social
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