Sally Bend's Blog, page 16

Book Review: The Bloodless Princes by Charlotte Bond (fantasy)

Title: The Bloodless Princes
Author: Charlotte Bond
Publication Date: October 29, 2024 by Tordotcom
Genres: Fantasy
Protagonist Gender: Female

Two books in, and I am absolutely in love with Charlotte Bond’s fantasy. She takes the familiar tropes of myth, legend, and fairy tale and spins new life from them, evoking the same sense of awe, admiration, and affection in her readers. On the surface, they seem to be simple stories of straightforward quests, but beneath that surface she deconstructs and reinterprets those familiar tropes, creating something subtly meaningful.

In The Fireborne Blade, she used flashbacks to tell her story, weaving together past and present, sprinkling it with archive reports of other knights and their dragon encounters. Here, in The Bloodless Princes, she forgoes flashbacks in favor of folklore, sharing stories that often contradict one another, leaving us entirely uncertain as to what really happened to shape the underworld and its princes.

While the first book was largely Maddileh’s, with Saralene only coming into it through the backdoor of flashbacks, here the women are friends, allies, and an almost couple, carrying the narrative and its quest together. In place of Maddileh’s squire we get a very different kind of sidekick, one with wings and horns and fur and murder paws, but you’ll have to meet her for yourself. The entire concept of the underworld here, especially with its conflicting origin stories, is wonderful, so well thought out and carefully detailed that it felt as much a country as an afterlife.

Like any good fairy tale or myth, there are sacrifices to be made, riddles to be puzzled, promises to be examined, and bargains to be made. The Bloodless Princes is a fantastic story on its own, and even better as a sequel, and I truly hope we’ll get to encounter these ladies again.

Rating:

My sincere thanks to the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

T-Girl Tales #8: A Kinky Treat from Crystal Veeyant

Title: T-Girl Tales #8
Author: Crystal Veeyant
Publication Date: September, 2024
Genres: Erotica
Protagonist Gender: Various

If you’re a regular reader of the Bookshelf or a fan of Crystal Veeyant, then you may be a bit confused seeing this review. Surely, you must be thinking, you remember T-Girl Tales #8 from a year ago, so why is Sally talking about it now? Well, the stories that were originally released as T-Girl Tales #8 were repurposed into the T-Girl Tales Family Values collection, so this new edition of T-Girl Tales #8 (be sure to update your download, if you’ve already purchased it) is actually all-new content.

These stories are super sweet stories of erotic discovery and kinky romance. There’s so much joy to them that, no matter how trashy or tawdry the sex may get, no matter how twists and turns may make you (temporarily) question that joy, the emotion is always there, inviting you to soar along with the characters. I found myself smiling so much in reading them, that I really do think they may be some of Crystal’s best relationships yet.

The story of Andi: Sissy Wife, Slave and Whore is, well, just that – and in that order. We start with a young man who takes a job cleaning houses to pay for his crossdressing habit, but who is also guilty of lifting silken treasures from dresser drawers and bedroom hampers. When he’s caught, the heady, romantic story of the Sissy Wife begins . . . and a pair of poker games later, with one very determined Mistress willing to be it all, we shift into the story of the Slave and the Whore, which has its edgy moments of darkness, but is no less a story of self-discovery because of it.

Mom’s Lesbian Sissy Toy is more about the hot MILFs next door than Lenny’s stepmom, but here the story starts with edgy kink, with themes of being caught and transformed, but as secret motives are revealed, we find our happily-ever-after.

Barracks Gangbang Sissy, meanwhile, is likely precisely what you expect in the middle, but getting there and moving on are delicious surprises. It’s don’t-ask-don’t-tell for the fetish generation, and just when you think Alex has been betrayed and pushed beyond his limits, we find out just how much he can take – and precisely what he wants to take.

Probably my favorite story in the collection, Sissy Therapy is that rare Crystal tale told not from the sissy’s POV, but from that of their Domme/Therapsit. What makes it so powerful for me is that it explores the very same guilt and shame so many people like Bethany are familiar with, working through those darker emotions to find a wonderful level of self-awareness and self-confidence, leading to a surprise HEA.

Now, if you’re starting to fear that Crystal has gone soft, she saves the darkest, sometimes cruelest, and sometimes most succulent surprises for last in Country Girls. I don’t want to say much about this, but what begins with an accident, an act of violence, and an abduction turns into a forced-feminization fantasy of erotic misuse at the hands of others. There’s still happiness to be found beneath the darkness, and some wonderful thrills that will have your heart racing to the conclusion, but how you feel about what’s in between . . . well, may just depend on whether you need that Sissy Therapist or have already found your self-awareness.

Rating:

My sincere thanks to the author for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Freebie Friday – Putting the TG in TGIF!

Well, if it’s Friday, then it must be time to bend our way into the weekend with Freebie Friday!

Every Friday I search through the free titles on Amazon, looking for those that might be of interest to similarly bent readers, fans, and lovers. Even if you don’t have a Kindle, you can still download the titles through one of Amazon’s free reading applications.

Please do be sure to check the price before downloading anything, as most freebies are limited time offers, and some are specific to certain regions.

Enjoy!

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted here to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released. Find out more here.

My choice for this week is 14 years and 6000 pages in the making, bringing the first story arc of the massive Stormlight Archive to a close!

Wind and Truth

by Brandon Sanderson
Adult, Epic Fantasy
Hardcover and eBook, 1248 pages
December 6, 2024 by Tor Books

The long-awaited explosive climax to the first arc of the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive–the iconic epic fantasy masterpiece that has sold more than 10 million copies, from acclaimed bestselling author Brandon Sanderson.

Dalinar Kholin challenged the evil god Odium to a contest of champions with the future of Roshar on the line. The Knights Radiant have only ten days to prepare–and the sudden ascension of the crafty and ruthless Taravangian to take Odium’s place has thrown everything into disarray.

Desperate fighting continues simultaneously worldwide–Adolin in Azir, Sigzil and Venli at the Shattered Plains, and Jasnah in Thaylenah. The former assassin, Szeth, must cleanse his homeland of Shinovar from the dark influence of the Unmade. He is accompanied by Kaladin, who faces a new battle helping Szeth fight his own demons . . . and who must do the same for the insane Herald of the Almighty, Ishar.

At the same time, Shallan, Renarin, and Rlain work to unravel the mystery behind the Unmade Ba-Ado-Mishram and her involvement in the enslavement of the singer race and in the ancient Knights Radiant killing their spren. And Dalinar and Navani seek an edge against Odium’s champion that can be found only in the Spiritual Realm, where memory and possibility combine in chaos. The fate of the entire Cosmere hangs in the balance.

Goodreads

Curious about what you’ve been missing? Read my previous reviews of Brandon’s work HERE.

The Role of Human Editors in an AI World

I was chatting with an author friend today about automated tools for checking spelling and grammar, whether they’re good enough to polish a work of fiction, and if we really need human editors and proofreaders in an AI-powered world.

I edit/proofread a million words a year for clients, and I read every single one of them. Yes, I have some automated tools that I use for a first pass, but I use them cautiously and selectively. Why, you might ask? Well, there are a few reasons.

Word Choice Matters

Number one, these tools are far from perfect. They’re evaluating your writing based on established patterns, common uses of language, and the context of neighboring words. Even the best AI-powered tools, fine-tuned for casual writing or works of fiction, can only make educated guesses. If you blindly accept every single recommendation, your writing is going to become an indecipherable mess. Think I’m exaggerating? Let me share a few real-life examples from stories I’ve run through spelling and grammar check software.

These first two are examples of tools suggesting word choices so wrong, they’re bizarre. We all know how erotic it is to have your criteria sucked, and I guess having someone breathed you instead of breed you is a novel form of birth control.

Perhaps you think those are anomalies, examples that I must have struggled to come up with. Nope. All the examples I’m sharing today came from quick checks of the first few pages of stories from 10 different authors. It’s nice to have someone who needs your breasts, but I’m sure we can all agree that kneading this is better, and given a choice of having someone cut down or cum down my throat, I’ll take the latter, please.

Surely you’re smart enough and careful enough not to let suggestions like that slip through, right? Perhaps, but by the time you’ve read your own work a dozen times or more, you tend to read what should be there rather than what is, and it’s easy to make the mistake of accepting the wrong changes – especially when it’s something that seems grammatically correct, but which changes the sense of your sentence entirely.

Yes, you can play alone or play along, but they mean very different things, and you can study with someone as well as you can study them, but participating and observing are not the same.

Tools can help, but they’ll never replace a human who reads every word, sentence, paragraph, and page, knowing how they connect and what they mean, not as isolated fragments of language, but as part of a story.

Dialogue and Slang: Grammar is Never Perfect

Formal language and grammar have their place, but so do informal grammar, casual language, and slang. We write one way for business, another for friends or family, and yet another for readers of stories. Similarly, we don’t speak the same way we write, and even if you’re neurodivergent like me, rehearsing and editing your words inside your head before you speak, you still don’t have the benefit of grammar-checking your conversations.

We say cause instead of because. We speak in fragments and run-on sentences. A pause for breath in narrative demands punctuation, but in dialogue we don’t have that luxury. We stumble over our words. We make tense mistakes, grammar errors, and more. A character in a horror story can speak in gibberish when being possessed, the protagonist in a thriller may be indecipherable after getting punched in the mouth, or a submissive in an erotic story may struggle to make themselves understood around a ball gag. “Ys ank ooo msrs” is entirely suitable for a gagged submissive saying, “Yes, thank you, Mistress,” but no tool is going to know that.

Some AI-powered tools can differentiate (to some extent) between casual and formal writing, and some try to acknowledge the freedom of dialogue, but only a human ear can ‘hear’ how your words sound.

Genre Has Its Own Complexities

Even if you could fine-tune a language tool to understand the complexities of casual writing and narrative writing, no two genres are entirely alike. Words that might be perfectly acceptable in one might read as out-of-place in another, and expressions that fit one genre do not always fit another.

Let’s take the example of come and cum in erotica. Generally, come is the act and cum is the fluid left over, but the words can be used interchangeably without readers batting an eye. In any other genre, cum is just plain wrong – unless you’re using it in the Latin sense. Or consider capitalization, where a BDSM story might refer to a master key or being the master of a skill, but also refer to being a Master. Any automated tool is going to flag the inconsistency, and no matter how you try to teach it what to ignore, it’ll never learn the difference.

For another example, consider interjections like ah, oh, hmm, or hmph. Those right there, the roots of the words, the shortest versions, are grammatically correct for just about any genre. Within fiction, however, especially romance, erotica, and horror, we regularly use onomatopoeia to capture sounds, turning ‘ah’ into ‘ahhhhh’ or ‘oh’ into ‘ohohohohohhhh,’ and readers are fine with that. Any tool out there is going to tell you that the extra letters are wrong – and sometimes they are just a typo – but it takes a human to read it in context and understand.

The Final Word

Tools are great for a first pass, for a sanity check, or just to clean up your manuscript for reading. They have value, and they have their place, but only when used correctly – and they’re no replacement for a human reader.

And that, of course, doesn’t even begin to get into the minefield that is AI and the training of large language models. Terms, conditions, and policies are often vague, with some tools allowing your content to be reused unless you opt out, some not giving you a choice, and others refusing to acknowledge whether they’re using your stories or not. There’s a reason companies like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI are facing lawsuits. It’s one thing to risk exposing your own content, and another entirely to risk exposing your clients’ content.

On that note, I only use tools where I can confirm that content is not being reused under any conditions, and I pay close attention to any changes in terms and conditions – something not every writer using such tools casually has the time to do.

Book Review: Ritual of Proof by Dara Joy (SFF Romance)

Title: Ritual of Proof
Author: Dara Joy
Publication Date: April 2, 2002 by HarperTorch
Genres: SFF Romance

Ritual of Proof is a book I’ve had on my used bookstore wishlist for years, thanks in part to its place on several role-reversal and FLR book lists, and to the opening lines of its cover blurb:

In a world where women hold all the power, a titled man can do little but accept his fate — that his sole purpose is to secure a good match — and hope his “bed price” is high enough. 

I knew, given that Jorlan was described as impossibly willful and brash, that this was somehow going to subvert the relationship expectations, but I’d hoped for enough background and supporting characters for me to be able to enjoy the world around him. Sadly, that was not to be the case.

I made it a little more than a third into this, far enough to read about the titular Ritual of Proof (which involves a male hymen that is painfully dissolved by a woman’s sexual fluids), and randomly skimmed through the rest to see if it got better, but the whole book feels like an awkward satire at best, or a deliberate cheat at worst. We’re told that the whole world was deliberately set up like that of a gender-swapped Regency romance (yes, there’s a sci-fi colonization element to this), and we see a lot of the women in charge, but aside from references to the Marquelle’s pleasure boy, there’s not another male to be seen. We’re expected to just accept the gender dynamic because we’re told it exists, but the only one we get to experience is desperately straining to be that of a traditional romance.

Now, I get the satirical element of it, I really do. Making Jorlan a bluestocking who believes in equal rights for men seems silly because it’s so far from our own experience, but it also forces the reader to confront the fact that women having to fight for equality is just as silly. Similarly, genetically engineering a male hymen to prove virginity is just as silly, but it forces us to think about women being so casually violated to prove their virginity from a different perspective. Where the satire falls short is that, to my mind, the book does a good job of explaining why the society was established that way, and why gender roles were reversed, and nothing about the story seems to challenge that.

The problem – for me, at least – is that I wanted to immerse myself in that gender-flipped world and experience what it’s like to be a pampered, submissive male whose only job is to look good for his wife and take care of her estates. I knew we’d never get a sincere exploration of that in a twenty-year-old mass market paperback, but I hoped we at least see something of that world. I kept holding out hope for a character who would contrast Jorlan, maybe friends or even forced friends whose behavior would highlight what a rebellious bluestocking he is, but sadly none of that is to be found.

As a satire, Ritual of Proof is a bit too deliberate, with a singular focus that doesn’t allow for any nuances, lacking the context we need to appreciate it. As an FLR romance, it’s a complete failure, unless you like bratty subs, dubcon intimacy, and topping from the bottom. Maybe I just had my hopes up, but this was not for me.

Rating:

Freebie Friday – Putting the TG in TGIF!

Well, if it’s Friday, then it must be time to bend our way into the weekend with Freebie Friday!

Every Friday I search through the free titles on Amazon, looking for those that might be of interest to similarly bent readers, fans, and lovers. Even if you don’t have a Kindle, you can still download the titles through one of Amazon’s free reading applications.

Please do be sure to check the price before downloading anything, as most freebies are limited time offers, and some are specific to certain regions.

Enjoy!

Book Review: The Dominion and the Sugilite: Episode 8-10 by B.J. Frazier (erotica)

Title: The Dominion and the Sugilite
Episode 8 | Episode 9 | Episode 10
Author: B.J. Frazier
Publication Date: July 12 to Aug 26, 2024
Genres: Erotica
Protagonist Gender: Various

The Dominion and the Sugilite is a serialized erotic science-fantasy soap opera by B.J. Frazier, one set on a female-ruled planet where the power exchange is the foundation of a fantasy-themed society fueled by the magic of gems known as sugilite. If you missed my review of the first 7 installments, you can catch up here and here.

I will do my best to avoid spoilers, but if you’re new to the series, I strongly suggest you go back and start at the beginning, episode by episode, so you can appreciate the characters and how their lives are becoming so deliciously intertwined. A lot has happened at this point.

One of the aspects I wanted to address in these latest episodes is something I teased in my last review. There’s a rather – let’s say, petulant and assertive – woman whose daughter has seemed to be in a rebellious submissive phase (scandalous for such a society), but who increasingly seems less rebellious and more genuinely submissive. When you pair that with the fact that her boyfriend experiences something of a submissive awakening in these episodes, the two-sided portrayal of the ‘natural’ power exchange becomes even more fascinating.

I talked about satyrs and nymphs in my last review, but this time I have to address the long-teased, long-awaited, long-endowed futanari whose futa shakes have caused so much trouble. Of all the magical touches to the planet of Cybele, these may be my favorite. Big, buxom, and beautiful, the very well-endowed women work in colored pairs, with the erotic mixing of their colors determining the taste and color of their creamy shakes. There’s so much delicious (pun intended) detail to their scenes, it’s just a shame that poor Geo is in no condition to enjoy them.

And that brings me to the big soap opera twists of the final episodes in this first season, which I can’t say much about, but which involve Aurora, Geo, Acacia, and Petronel. There are major OMG moments here as we get answers to certain behaviors, a challenge to the natural order, and a surprise reveal that has my genderfluid soul supremely curious! There have been a lot of characters and plot threads throughout the season, but Miss Frazier really brings them together here, even as she teases so much more to come.

Rating:  

My sincere thanks to the author for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Book Tour: Whiskey and Warfare by E.M. Hamill

E.M. Hamill has a new queer women-led space western out (pan, lesbian, aro/ace), Team Huntress book one: Whiskey and Warfare. And there’s a giveaway!

Running on caffeine and spite with nothing left to prove. GOLDEN GIRLS meets FIREFLY in this rollicking space opera adventure.

Maryn Alessi retired from mercenary service after her last assignment went horribly sideways and settled down on a quiet planet with the love of her life. Unexpectedly widowed, Maryn must fulfill a promise to return her mate’s ashes to zer home planet for funeral rites, but a brutal civil war has destabilized space travel.

Former Artemis Corps sisters-in-arms and their sassy ship, the Golden Girl, are up to the task, counting on luck and their rather sketchy cargo business to get Maryn passage through the contested star lanes. But when the crew of the Girl rescues survivors of a ruthless war crime, Maryn and her ride-or-die friends must take up their old profession to save the lives of innocents from a genocidal dictator.

Warnings: violence, genocide, aging, chronic illness, grief (death of spouse), PTSD

Praise for the Book:

“This is the story we all need now — filled with so much love and respect and genuinely fun adventure.” –KD Edwards, author of The Last Sun

“Every element of it just SANG. The story was *chef’s kiss*. This book is truly special.” –Sarah Chorn, author of The Necessity of Rain

“A fantastic read, a thoroughly delightful romp through space with an all-female main cast that blends crazy action scenes with deep reflection on what it means to grow older. This isn’t your parents’ Golden Girls.” –J. Scott Coatsworth, QueerSciFi.com

Universal Buy Link | Goodreads

Giveaway

E.M. is giving away a $10 Amazon gift card with this tour:

a Rafflecopter giveaway https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js

Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d47318/

Excerpt

Jac regarded Col with an arched eyebrow. “What happens to your species as you age? I don’t see you looking any different than the last time we got together.”

“You can’t tell?” Col stroked her furry cheeks. “I have more hair on my face.”

“Don’t we all?” Maryn gave a shaky laugh. “I look like I just hit puberty. I think my moustache is glorious.”

“I have also developed lower breasts,” the Boshi said, revealing her catlike teeth in a silent snarl of disgust.

“Mine are heading south too.” Jac cupped her tits, staring at them in contemplation.

“No. Lower breasts.” Col motioned to mid-abdomen beneath her tunic when it became clear they did not follow. “My second set.”

All three humans stared at her with varying degrees of curiosity. “What are they for?” Scylla asked.

“In my society I would be expected to help nurse the litters of my children. If I had any.” Col’s furry ears flapped as she shuddered. “Mewling, damp little things. Why anyone would want them is a mystery.”

“Ours turned out okay, and I didn’t have to get cozy with anything but a syringe,” Jac said with a laugh. “But I’m pretty sure Maya doesn’t expect me to breastfeed our grandkids.”

“Don’t look at me. I got rid of the plumbing a long time ago.” Scylla slapped her flat chest with both hands.

“How old is Maya now?” Maryn was chagrined to realize she hadn’t asked after her honorary niece.

“Twenty-one. She finished her first degree and she’s in medical residency on Telluride Station.” Jac beamed with pride. “Her gene dads still practice in New Denver, so she’s living with them. They’ve been trying to convince us to settle down there, where it’s safe and boring, but we’re not ready for that.” Something Maryn couldn’t name flitted through her expression before Jac’s face softened. “She sends her love, by the way.”

“Sweet kid. I owe her a graduation gift. What a lousy aunt I am.” She sniffed and wiped her nose with a tissue.

“You’re not.”

“I haven’t even seen her since she was six, when you came to visit.”

“She gets it, Mar.” Jac’s voice was gentle but firm, trying to head off Maryn’s slide into self-recrimination, but it was too much.

“I hate this. All of it.” She balled up the soggy paper in her fist. “I have six days left to take Andelek to Xyri before the scheduled rites and I have got to pull my shit together. I could check interplanetary express freight pricing, I guess. They’ve probably raised the rates because of the war, but I can afford it.”

Her eyes grew hot again. “But it just seems so wrong. Ze isn’t a box of supplies to be shuffled off world by a robotic pilot like so much cargo. But I don’t know what else to do.” Maryn made a frustrated noise as her voice snagged on the words. Tears came again whether she wanted them or not, and she swept the back of her hand over her eyes. “I’m running out of time.”

“About that.” Jac exchanged a long glance with Scylla before she continued, “We were talking. We want to take you to Xyri.”

The warm burst of astonished gratitude faded against an electric-jolt corkscrew of anxiety drilling into her chest. Shame came next, as always, and self-disgust filled her mouth with a sour, acetic burn.

“Are you sure?” she stammered. “It’s such a dangerous flight plan right now. It won’t complicate your business?”

“Nah. We’re still freelance.” Scylla shrugged. “Mostly private transactions. We’re our own bosses.” Her husky voice softened. “And you know the Girl would love to see you.”

“I miss her too.” Golden Girl was the well-loved privateer cruiser they’d pooled their end of tour bonuses to purchase when they left the Corps. The ship had been their home, their means of independence, and she had a definite personality. Its AI learning interface had picked up more human nuance with every mission until they treated it like a fifth crew member.

“The Girl’s small enough she doesn’t attract much attention on sensor sweeps. We need to go through Konecthedot system anyway on … business.” Jac traded another secretive nod with Scylla, and Maryn wondered what they weren’t saying.

“That is next to the front.” Col wasn’t fooled by the innocence act, her peridot eyes narrowed.

“Doesn’t mean it won’t be risky, but we can get you there in plenty of time for the remembrance rites.” Scylla cocked her head and her deep brown eyes, so dark they were almost black, glinted with hope and mischief. “Whatcha think, Mar? We can make it a girls’ trip if Col wants to tag along.”

“Yes!” the Boshi exclaimed in her sweet, breathy voice. “I have been bored out of my skull. I can work anywhere since CosBank gave me remote branch equipment.”

What her friends offered was too generous to turn down. She took a deep, steadying breath. “I don’t know what to say, except—” she gestured helplessly. “Thank you.”

Scylla gulped the rest of her wine, her enthusiasm building. “Konecthedot sector might be close to the front, but we haven’t had any issues yet. It’s less dangerous than anything we did when we were mercs. We’ve got two stops to make on the way, but after that, we head straight for the wormhole and Xyri. We can transport you faster without picking up passengers at every station like the star liners do.”

“Globney said the Qetish fleet is blocking the Pashni.” Maryn twisted her fingers together to keep them from shaking.

“They don’t bother flights that originate anywhere other than Khepra, from what we heard,” the pilot assured her, and amended with a skyward glance, “Leastways, not much.”

“I haven’t been off world since …” she faltered.

Terror. Black, endless space. Isolation. The memory threatened to overwhelm her already fragile composure.

“We know.” Jac stroked her forearm.

Of course they did. They’d saved her life.

Author Bio

E.M. (Elisabeth) Hamill writes adult science fiction and fantasy somewhere in the wilds of eastern suburban Kansas. A nurse by day, wordsmith by night, she has sworn never to grow up and get boring.

Frequently under the influence of caffeinated beverages, she also writes as Elisabeth Hamill for young adult readers in fantasy with the award-winning Songmaker series.

She lives with her family, where they fend off flying monkey attacks and prep for the zombie apocalypse.

Author Website: https://emhamill.wordpress.com

Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/EMHamill

Exploring Trans Horror in ‘All the Hearts You Eat’

Title: All the Hearts You Eat
Author: Hailey Piper
Publication Date: October 15, 2024 by Titan Books
Genres: Horror
Protagonist Gender: Various

All the Hearts You Eat is stunningly good. It’s macabre, poetic, disturbing, and beautiful – a trans horror tour de force. My first experience with Hailey Piper reminds me in many ways of my first encounter with Clive Barker. She has a way with language, a mastery of imagery and theme, that draws you in and demands you read every single word. This is a stunningly good story, but it’s an even better telling, the likes of which I have not encountered in years.

I mentioned trans horror because that’s exactly what lies at the heart (pun intended) of All the Hearts You Eat, but part of what makes it so powerful is how carefully crafted the trans identities and experiences are, and how their place in the world imbues the story with so much meaning. Piper introduces us to four characters who came out in their own ways and at their own time, transitioned differently, and encountered very different reactions from those around them. While there is love and a sense of shared identity here, there’s also fear, longing, hurt, and (oh yes!) anger.

What’s most interesting about the anger is that it’s so often felt on behalf of others, an intense emotional reaction mirroring that of the reader.

The story transitions as well, starting out as a sad tale of death before shifting into a very gothic sort of ghost story, a viscerally unsettling vampire tale, and a surreally beautiful story of monsters and mythology, only to circle right back around to a story of death – the death of lives, friendships, loves, and families. It’s jarring (and I suspect deliberately so), but it’s all connected, part of the theme of the underlying transformation. Everything about this story is, in some way, transformed along the way, including two of my favorite aspects – the transformation of doorways between worlds (I’ll never forget that living room) and the transformation of bodies (you’ll never think of oral sex or green sea glass the same way again) – not to mention our perspective on who or what a monster really is.

One of the most subtle things that Piper does with the narrative comes in the final part of the book, and it’s nothing more than the haunting presence of a pronoun. You’re reading it, wondering if it’s a mistake, a reference to someone off the page, a hint of someone waiting ahead, or (most frightening) a deliberate slipping of gender. It’s one tiny word, repeated over and over, but the power it has over the narrative and your experience is precisely that which it has over lives. Paired with it is the breaking of a character, the removal of their awareness, transforming our anger at someone to anger at the world.

For all that All the Hearts You Eat is a story of trans characters and themes of transformation, and while you can’t remove the trans experience from the story any more than you can remove it from the characters, it’s not just about that. There’s a line near the end that I love for its simplicity:

“You boiled her down to one thing, like that’s all she’s ever been, but Cab has a whole universe inside.”

I think the best way I can sum up the book is this: I questioned some of the transitions along the way, lamenting the loss of some aspects and chafing against the introduction of others, but once I understood why things changed and appreciated that what I thought lost was still very much there, I was blown away by how deftly Piper enlightened my experience, transforming my anger into something more akin to sorrow, while simultaneously strengthening my love and compassion for Cab, Xi, Rex, Ivory, and even Honey.

Rating:

My sincere thanks to the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.