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Out of Salem

Hal Schrieve (Goodreads Author)

3.76 · Rating details · 439 ratings · 115 reviews

When genderqueer fourteen-year-old Z Chilworth wakes from death after a car crash that killed their parents and sisters, they have to adjust quickly to their new status as a zombie. Always a talented witch, Z can now barely perform magic and is rapidly decaying. Faced with rejection from their remaining family members and old friends, Z moves in with Mrs. Dunnigan, an elde ...more

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Hardcover, 432 pages

Published March 5th 2019 by Triangle Square

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Average rating 3.76 ·

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· 439 ratings · 115 reviews

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Nov 05, 2018 Alex rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: lgbt-main, lgbt-nonbinary-main, c-witch, lgbt-lesbian-main, favorites, lgbt-transgender-side, g-modern-fantasy, no-romance, rated-5-stars, read-in-2019

4.5 stars

RTC

representation: nonbinary main, Muslim lesbian main, several LGBTQAI+ and POC side characters

content notes: misgendering and deadnaming (mostly due to character being closeted, not intentional), death of family members, body horror (because zombies), police brutality, racist rallies, bullying

--

nonbinary protagonist ✓
nonbinary author ✓
zombies ✓
witches ✓
werewolves ✓
in Salem?! ✓

yeah this is going on my TBR

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Jul 21, 2019 Wes rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, middle-eastern-mc, young-adult, wlw, trans, urban-fantasy, enby

This book is difficult for me to review. On the one hand, I am simply in awe of its presence. The mere fact that it exists practically has me falling on my knees in gratitude. A genderqueer main character? Written by a nonbinary author? In an urban fantasy novel? This is the queer genre fiction of my dreams.

And yet… This turned me off in so many ways. I’ll start with the worldbuilding. At the start, I thought that the existence of magical creatures was hidden from the public. Then it seemed tha ...more

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Jun 29, 2019 Ana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ownvoices-trans, fantasy, ya, witches, werewolves, zombies

God, this book. It started out SO STRONG and did not let up AT ALL until it was finished. It was just. A tour-de-force. I want to shake the author and go "YOU DID THIS!! HOW DID YOU DO THIS??"

Z's deadpan (heh heh) point of view and narration style worked perfectly for me. They're exactly the kind of narrator I need when horrible events are being described, because the plain and simple statements of 'what is' make the painful into factual and give a sense that it's another thing to take in stride God, this book. It started out SO STRONG and did not let up AT ALL until it was finished. It was just. A tour-de-force. I want to shake the author and go "YOU DID THIS!! HOW DID YOU DO THIS??"

Z's deadpan (heh heh) point of view and narration style worked perfectly for me. They're exactly the kind of narrator I need when horrible events are being described, because the plain and simple statements of 'what is' make the painful into factual and give a sense that it's another thing to take in stride. Sort of like the internal voice I need when I'm in a crisis and I've gotta make myself believe that I can take things one step at a time.

And trust me, there's a lot of horrible things to get through. You have to have a tough stomach for this book (I'll give content warnings at the end), there is a lot of body horror - unsurprisingly given that the main character is a slowly-decaying undead teen. But if you can get through that, you are rewarded with one of the most real, heartwarming, resolute stories of friendship and chosen family in the face of oppression that I have ever had the pleasure of reading.

I don't think I've ever seen political stuff regarding structural violence in a novel stick its landing quite so perfectly (though take that with a grain of salt given that I'm not someone directly at risk for a lot of state violence and murder). This narrative felt so real that while I was sympathizing with these fictional characters oppressed for both real-world and fantastical reasons, I felt as though I were reading about one of the myriad current-day stories of resistance to fascism around the U.S. Everything from the interpersonal struggles and disagreements of the anarchist werewolf group, to the wildly varied range of reasons the rally attendees had for being there... it all rang so true.

I think it made a big difference that alongside magical oppression for fey, werewolf, etc. ancestry, the book specifically had both trans and nonbinary characters, and characters of color, and that fascism, racism, Islamophobia were addressed specifically on the page. The monster-ness of the characters was not simply a metaphor or stand-in for these other oppressions.

ETA: I forgot to mention a beautiful thread running through the book: the question of personal responsibility, especially within structures of power. All the characters have to confront choices they've made, the circumstances that forced and influenced those choices, and decide how they want to act in the future. When Aysel says to Z "I would die for you" it might sound like teen melodrama, but it's also very real. I especially love the book's exploration of the roles of parents, caregivers, and other adults in positions of authority, variously failing or stepping up to the fullness of the role. The latter, when it happens, is so powerful it legit had me weeping.

Content warnings: graphic body horror, homophobic racist and fatphobic bullying, mentions of police violence and torture, mentions of murder, suicidal ideation, mentions of past medical abuse, arson ...more

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Jan 24, 2021 Maia rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, lgbtq, trans-nonbinary

Schrieve's debut novel uses literal monstrosity as a metaphor for queerness to great effect. Z, a nonbinary teen, dies in the same car crash that kills the rest of their family, then wakes up undead. They are now legally a non-person, needing an adult guardian to sign on to the responsibility to incinerate their body when they begin to decompose and lose their sense of self. That is a terrifying eventuality, but in Z's immediate future is another problem: their only living relative hates monster ...more

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Jan 22, 2021 Anniek rated it liked it

Shelves: 1-2019-releases, trans-mc, 2-ya, mc-of-colour, non-binary-mc, 3-sff, asian-mc, lgbtq, sapphic, fat-mc

I had really high hopes for this book, it sounded sooo cool! Genderqueer zombie, fat lesbian werewolf, set in the 90s, sign me the fuck up. The reality was a bit of a let down for me, though.

There were parts of this I really enjoyed, but also parts I... didn't. Mostly I thought this book really dragged at times - it was on the long side for a YA fantasy and that was just unnecessary.

I'm also hesitant to recommend the trans rep in this book, because it was really messy. With reason, because it r ...more

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Jan 06, 2019 Sarah rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019-release, fantasy, lgbtq-protagonists, protag-multiple, ya, urban-fantasy, paranormal

Do you want a YA novel about a lesbian werewolf and a genderqueer zombie becoming friends? You bet you do! And Out of Salem is just that book!

In a horrible accident, Z’s entire family died. And so did they. Only, they’re still walking. Z’s looking at a new, uncertain future as an orphaned zombie in a world that hates zombies. They’ve lost their family, their friends, and their life. They’re lucky enough to have Mrs. Dunnigan, an elderly lesbian witch and family friend, for support, but their bod ...more

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Mar 02, 2019 Becca marked it as dnf

Shelves: 2019-most-anticipated, lgbtqia-rep

DNF @ 60%

Thank you to Edelweiss+ for a copy of Out of Salem in exchange for an honest review.

I don't usually DNF books that I get to review; no matter how bad it is, I try to stick with it until the end. However, with Out of Salem, I felt myself dreading each time that I picked it up and it was starting to put me in a severe reading slump. Because I'm DNF'ing it, I will not be putting a star-rating on this book, nor will I be putting this review on my blog.

There are definite pros to Out of Salem DNF @ 60%

Thank you to Edelweiss+ for a copy of Out of Salem in exchange for an honest review.

I don't usually DNF books that I get to review; no matter how bad it is, I try to stick with it until the end. However, with Out of Salem, I felt myself dreading each time that I picked it up and it was starting to put me in a severe reading slump. Because I'm DNF'ing it, I will not be putting a star-rating on this book, nor will I be putting this review on my blog.

There are definite pros to Out of Salem, such as it's representation. Z is a genderqueer zombie & Aysel is a lesbian werewolf. It's those two aspects that originally sold me on this book. I absolutely loved reading Z go by they/them pronouns, because I feel that I haven't read many books with that rep. Plus, I'm always here for supernatural LGBT+ beings. Another pro to Out of Salem is the fact that Virgina Woolf and Ernest Hemingway were apparently werewolves. Silly things like that makes me extremely giddy.

As for the writing & dialogue, I just couldn't get into it (but! remember! this is an advanced readers copy -- things can change!) There's just too much cringe. & the character development is so unbelievable & tacky. One of the characters, Tommy, tells Z a secret -- a character he practically just met & goes, "I'm telling you this, because I trust you". I'm sorry -- what? Thankfully, Z responds with, "Don't trust me. I don't even know you." At least someone is making sense. There are other conversations sprinkled throughout the book that made me want to drop this book a long time ago.

There's nothing that grasped my attention plot-wise and character wise. I didn't find myself getting attached or even caring about the characters; their personalities were very meh to me. There are a lot of unnecessary scenes in this story that does absolutely nothing to push the story forward.

I'm sure that there are going to be a lot of people who won't agree with me and this review. & if that's you, I'm very happy that you enjoyed this book! It just wasn't for me. ...more

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Jan 14, 2019 ivy francis rated it really liked it

Shelves: came-soon-18-20

Overall, Out of Salem was an enjoyable and somewhat thought-provoking urban fantasy. The characters outshone everything else, as Aysel and Z were instantly likable and interesting with little introduction needed. Rating: four lesbian selkie grandmas/five

For fans of: These Witches Don't Burn by Isabel Sterling, The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried by Shaun David Hutchinson, Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Favorite quotes:
- “There must be a great mystical beauty in being out at sea and ...more

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Oct 05, 2019 Kaethe Douglas rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya, glbtq, creepy, kids, dark-woods, magic, disability, realistic, domesticity, dystopian

I read this as part of Halloween Bingo, so the fact that this book could reasonably be applied to about half the squares is woth mentioning. This is the first book I've read which used the singular nongendered they/their as pronouns, which slowed me down a bit at the beginning. But it worked, and never felt gimmicky. Z. was a plausible fourteen year old zombie who's entire family died in an auto accident: only Z reanimated.

There's werewolves and high school bullying and good teachers and bad tea ...more

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Jun 16, 2019 Sherri rated it it was ok

Shelves: dnf

This was actually a DNF for me which hurts me to say because I'm so into everything this book is trying to do. The world, the inclusiveness, the diversity...all of it was awesome. The writing style is what made me tap out. The prose is choppy and repetitive. The dialogue is incredibly awkward and unnatural sounding. Both things affected characterization, in my opinion (it was hard to see any of the characters as actual people). ...more

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Sep 26, 2018 Siavahda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: lgbtqai-protagonists, characters-of-colour, awesome-girls, best-of-the-decade-2010-2020, strong-women, genderqueer-author, no-romance, third-person-pov, pride-month, friendship-rules

Give me this immediately, oh my actual gods???

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Sep 14, 2019 Michael Lee rated it it was amazing

This book is so good and important for so many reasons that I can't put into words right now because I'm too overwhelmed with my feelings, but I will soon! Loved it!!!!
____________________
Update about 6 hours later.

OK, I have put my thoughts together and want to review this book because I feel so strongly about it. But before I do I want to include a disclaimer: I am an academic and some of my thoughts on this book are going to get academic-y and so, if that's not everyone's thing I completely This book is so good and important for so many reasons that I can't put into words right now because I'm too overwhelmed with my feelings, but I will soon! Loved it!!!!
____________________
Update about 6 hours later.

OK, I have put my thoughts together and want to review this book because I feel so strongly about it. But before I do I want to include a disclaimer: I am an academic and some of my thoughts on this book are going to get academic-y and so, if that's not everyone's thing I completely understand and in fact if that makes my review sounds overly obscure or pretentious to you, completely fair and understandable even, but that's where I want to go in some parts of this review and so I am going to (not all my review will be this type of talk though).

First, I mentioned this book is really important. I see a lot of pre-reviews or reviews here (and truly elsewhere in the larger bookish communities, especially YA ones) mentioning representation, meaning a book features characters who hold identities that are marginalized in our society and represent these characters in thoughtful, affirming, and basically not harmful ways. This is very important, and this book definitely does that, but that's not it! That is not all it does! The importance of this book doesn't stop at just featuring marginalized folks; it goes beyond that.

This book does one of the best jobs of any book I have read recently (maybe ever, even) of creating and leaving readers with a real, true sense of possibility. And possibility, I think, is what so many trans and queer readers need, especially young readers (and I don't mean this in the "It gets better" type way). Readers need to dwell in possibility, in things being different, better, or even just other or alternative than they are now, and this book does this in such a perfect way. It somehow avoids all the trappings of that "it gets better" sentiment, and I think one of the ways it does so is in the careful and deep attention to multiple intersections (for example the narrative deals with age, ethnicity, religion in addition to sexuality and gender).

So here's the thing, as an academic writer, researcher, dare I even call myself a theorist (I at least spend time theorizing, so maybe I should own it)... I digress, as an academic writer, I grasp and write about the concept of "queering" very often. In fact, this concept has helped me and I am sure so many others flourish, so it has helped me think in new and different ways and has helped me put into words things/phenomena that I notice, that I like, that I care about, that I want more of, etc. Previously, I have been introduced to (a sort of corollary) concept of trans-ing (such as from Vic Muñoz's essay “Gender/Sovereignty” in Transfeminist Perspectives: In and Beyond Transgender and Gender Studies, edited by Anne Enke and so many others that I am sadly not going to mention here for space/time). And if I am being honest, I struggled with this even though I was deeply immersed in Transgender Studies scholarship and writing. I got and tried to think through how transgender identity is a significant impetus in our culture for questioning and for transforming, transgressing, even transcending societally imposed boundaries (actually quite reminiscent of one of my favorite quotes to use in teaching, a quote that ventures to define transgender by Susan Stryker: Transgender is a way to signify “the movement across a socially imposed boundary away from an unchosen starting place" (Transgender History) ). But here's the thing, I always got the sense that this concept was more than that (and that my grasp was too surface level, even flat, and my thinking just wasn't able to go where I wanted it to/where some of the scholarship was going). And even though I was familiar with this trans-ing concept, I think I could only really go there theoretically in how sex, gender, and maybe nationalism could be trans-ed. That was, UNTIL THIS BOOK! This is the impact of this book. I think this book is trans-ing things and in so many ways. Here are some of them: It reframes and therefore transitions our contemporary world into a similar one, a kind of mirror one with magic, monsters, etc. in a very pleasurable and exciting way. It transforms our expectations; for example, it devotes real time, energy, and space to queer friendship and connections in general, rather than the expected queer romance/sexual interest. It transgresses the trope of having either just gay or lesbian characters or just one type of LGBTQ character. It transgresses the maybe unspoken assumption that a story 'only has space' for one type of trans character. Example: we have a genderqueer character and we have a transsexual woman character in a lot of the action of the plot together, and they do not clash, battle, or even disagree with one another. As readers, we do not have to spend our emotional investment indulging in the kind of questioning that happens in our real word about whether these identities are 'contradictory' nor do we spend time (potentially unrealistically) seeing these identities seamlessly compliment one another (which would be a kind of glossing over). Instead, we are given another possibility, we get to just sit with the diversity and complexity of identity, and I love it! The characters are allowed to simply exist in the same space and work toward a common goal. Then, in literally transfiguring characters, bodies, corporealities, and transcending the limited possibilities for society, oppression, and state violence, this book TRANS-ES EVERYTHING. And the result is we, readers, get to linger in this liberating state of alternative possibilities, and that is extremely important and enjoyable. It is more than just representation, though it is that, too, certainly.

I even think this book trans-es the actual freaking literary device of metaphor itself. Z's experience of being a zombie is not just a metaphor for aspects of queer- and trans- gendered experiences, but it is also not-not a metaphor. Does that make sense? Maybe not. It is sort of metaphor, but it is more than just that. The same can be said about how the marginalization and oppression of monsters reflect on and present our current world and race, gender, class, sexuality, immigration status, religion, etc. I guess I am saying that the metaphor-y and symbolism-ish stuff in this narrative just work for me as so much more than a stand-in for something else. But they ARE functioning to make us contemplate, feel things about, and even do thing about our current world.

If I haven't clearly said it or said it enough, I want to end by saying I love this book and I want it to be in front of a lot of readers' eyes!

Love this book! ...more

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Apr 03, 2019 Danielle rated it really liked it

Shelves: lgbtq

(I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.)

I am all about LGBTQ+ **GENRE FICTION**, so this book was right up my alley. I definitely want to see more genderqueer and GNC characters fighting monsters or being "monsters" or living in a world with monsters... any of that, and I'm there for it. In that regard, this book met all of my expectations.

It was hard to find my footing in this world, though. It is an alternate reality of Oregon in the 90s. It ...more

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Apr 16, 2019 Briar Page rated it really liked it

So I love monsters, right? I *especially* love sympathetic monsters, whether they're the tragic and conflicted kind who do unspeakable things but feel bad about it, or friendly monsters who are basically just weird-looking people with odd habits, or, as here, monsters whose monstrosity serves as a very obvious metaphor for belonging to any number of real life marginalized groups. OUT OF SALEM both enhances and complicates that metaphor by making its monster heroes queer and otherwise outsiders i So I love monsters, right? I *especially* love sympathetic monsters, whether they're the tragic and conflicted kind who do unspeakable things but feel bad about it, or friendly monsters who are basically just weird-looking people with odd habits, or, as here, monsters whose monstrosity serves as a very obvious metaphor for belonging to any number of real life marginalized groups. OUT OF SALEM both enhances and complicates that metaphor by making its monster heroes queer and otherwise outsiders in many real life ways *at the same time as* they're zombies, werewolves, and fae. That's exciting to me now, and it's especially exciting to my inner teenager, who was used to finding queerness in their YA and genre fiction mostly by squinting through layers of metaphor and subtext, or by focusing on peripheral characters and villains.
Although this novel is set in an alternate universe version of 1997's Salem, Oregon, where magic is a real and normal part of daily life and monsters of all kinds are known to exist and brutally discriminated against, it feels extremely timely and of the time in which it was written (the U.S. in the 2010's). That's not a bad thing! The antagonistic forces in OUT OF SALEM aren't malign mystical forces; there's no cartoonish Dark Lord character encroaching on the normal world. Instead, the normal world itself is the antagonist; society is shown over and over again to be profoundly unjust and unsafe for anyone who's too "different", who stands up for the downtrodden too vehemently, who makes a convenient scapegoat. I suspect that five years ago I might have criticized the depiction of this oppression and danger as making an overly heavy-handed, repetitive, simplistic point, but I was kind of a naive chode five years ago, and I lived in a different world. These days, I welcome any literature, maybe especially literature for kids and teens, that's willing to take a blunt, firm, angry stand against bigotry, right-wing hate/fear-mongering, and cops. The blunter and harder to miss or misinterpret the better, really! (That said, OUT OF SALEM does have several scenes of teenagers being hurt/threatened/beaten/shot at/etc. for "being monsters" that were pretty hard to read precisely *because* they depicted realistic child abuse and police brutality despite the fantasy veneer. It was always a relief to me when the book would segue from those scenes into more magic-based confrontations.)
OUT OF SALEM hit a few stylistic sour notes for me-- the prose is fine, but the author repeatedly uses some sentence constructions/turns of phrase I find awkward--, but they were things that could easily have been fixed with another quick editing pass. I really enjoyed all the characters and their relationships. Nonbinary teen zombie Z, who spends most of the novel literally falling to pieces (in the first chapter they accidentally remove their eyeball from its socket while trying to take out their contact lenses, and it gets MUCH worse) is probably my favorite, but they're all sharply drawn and intensely likable. Schrieve has a great handle on how teenagers, and people in general, really think and talk. Much to my joy, there is NO ROMANCE AT ALL in this fantasy YA, let alone a boy/girl star-crossed love affair or will-they-won't-they, but there is a GREAT DEAL of *extremely* swoon-worthy friendship content, especially towards the end.
Worth mentioning as a final note are the excellent ink illustrations of lead characters Z the zombie and Aysel the werewolf on the inside of the cover; I was actually disappointed there weren't other illustrations in the book itself! ...more

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Mar 16, 2019 Hannah rated it really liked it

Shelves: stand-alones, arc, witches, urban-fantasy, ya, lgbtqia, 2019-releases, 2018-oct-2019

My review in video format you can find here --> Witchy Reviews: OUT OF SALEM by HAL SCHRIEVE aka diversity gem ...more

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Oct 23, 2019 Megan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, grotesque, troubling-the-nuclear-family, ya, queer, weird-body-shit, gender, trans

Very smart, heartwarming tale of a nonbinary fourteen-year-old dealing with the deaths of their family members and their startling new status as undead -- and their friend, a fat Muslim lesbian werewolf -- AND so many other kinds of magical beings but to reveal would be to spoil. I loved how the oppression of magic in this world has allegorical parallels to the oppression of queerness while not being a 1:1 correspondence -- because queerness and transness also exist in this world, as do homo- an ...more

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Aug 29, 2019 :) rated it it was amazing

Have you (or a middle grade/YA reader you know) ever:

- felt lonely
- needed to learn more about societal structures of power and oppression
- met and followed around cool older kids who fascinated you
- had to confront the fact that adults who are supposed to protect you have failed you
- felt fear due to hate-fueled political movements you cannot control
- felt like a monster
- been proud to care for and be cared for by other monsters
- been sustained by the care of friends who are willing to fight ...more

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May 15, 2020 L.C. Laurent rated it liked it

When I first picked up this book and read what it was about, I was intrigued at the idea that someone was having a genderqueer character front and center as a protagonist. Mix in the magical world aspect, and a werewolf in hiding, and I was absolutely sold. I really wanted to adore this book, it seemed like all the pieces were there, but I never fully got connected to the characters, the story, or even the world it’s all set in.

While I don’t have anything particularly overwhelmingly positive to ...more

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Apr 11, 2019 Booky Nooky rated it liked it

There are hundreds of YA books about magic, monsters, and teen angst so an author would need to do a lot to stand out in the already crowded field. Hal Schrieve does just that! Out of Salem blends classic monsters (NO VAMPIRES!) with LGBTQI characters. The pairing may seem odd but it truly does come together into something very special.

Out of Salem centers around two high school outcasts: Z and Aysel. Z is a genderqueer witch who becomes a zombie after a car accident kills them and their entire ...more

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Aug 25, 2020 Izzy Levy rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2020

i loved this book! i have a lot of thoughts and feelings and a bunch of them have probably already been said so i'll keep this brief but! schrieve's protagonists and their friends are extremely lovable; "queer monster found family" is always an amazing premise and schrieve does it so well. xie also consciously avoids one of the most frequent pitfalls of socially-conscious fantasy (not that i read enough of it to make this claim with authority): the oppression of monsters as allegory for real lif i loved this book! i have a lot of thoughts and feelings and a bunch of them have probably already been said so i'll keep this brief but! schrieve's protagonists and their friends are extremely lovable; "queer monster found family" is always an amazing premise and schrieve does it so well. xie also consciously avoids one of the most frequent pitfalls of socially-conscious fantasy (not that i read enough of it to make this claim with authority): the oppression of monsters as allegory for real life forms of oppression, which are then elided from the story. schrieve's world is one where werewolves, fey, and zombies are violently oppressed by a fascist government, but it's also one where violent racism, homophobia and transphobia, ableism, and other forms of oppression also exist, and in many cases are faced by the same characters. z, aysel, and the other monsters face police brutality, but so does their teacher, mr. weber, not because he's a monster but because he's a black man who defends his oppressed students. werewolves and fey are subject to medical abuse couched in the language of psychiatric treatment, but, as z realizes, framing monstrosity as a mental illness must also have grave implications for mentally ill people who aren't monsters. an underground network of werewolf anarchists (many of whom are poor, trans, and/or people of color) plan to extend their resources to the general homeless population. at the risk of hammering the point too far home, i think one moment perfectly encapsulates this allegory-plus approach. when z asks their guardian, mrs. dunnigan, about other monsters' relationships to gender (seeking a reflection of their own), she explains to them that some monsters, like shapeshifters, blur the boundaries between gender. she likens this boundary confusion to others embodied by monsters (human vs. animal, alive vs. dead) and says that this is one of the things that threatens anti-monster reactionaries. mrs. dunnigan links the fantastical with the "real world," providing a shared explanation for hatred of monsters and trans people. in the book's climax, schrieve dramatically showcases z's boundary-crossing potential in a way that makes magic and monstrosity feel powerfully and beautifully connected to the Other. a few disappointments with the book's very final act (including some long awaited magical fight scenes that i found frustratingly hard to follow, although maybe that was the point?) kept this from 5 stars for me, but this was perfect coming off of a summer that i personally spent roleplaying queer monster teens (if you like this book, check out monsterhearts. if you like monsterhearts, check out this book.). would 10000% recommend to ya /and/ older adult audiences. ...more

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Mar 10, 2019 Ley rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya, own, lgbt, teen-creeps, 2019-arcs, ebook

Ho. Ly. Shit. This is one of the most original, important books I've read this year!First of all, there is rep coming out the wazoo. Hal is a nonbinary author, writing a nonbinary main character (Z) and a plus-sized nonwhite lesbian best friend. So. We got that covered!I will go ahead and say, there's a lot of misgendering/dead-naming/out of date terms in this book. HOWEVER, a) Z only tells a few people that they're not entirely a girl but not a boy either, b) Z also only tells a few people that Ho. Ly. Shit. This is one of the most original, important books I've read this year!First of all, there is rep coming out the wazoo. Hal is a nonbinary author, writing a nonbinary main character (Z) and a plus-sized nonwhite lesbian best friend. So. We got that covered!I will go ahead and say, there's a lot of misgendering/dead-naming/out of date terms in this book. HOWEVER, a) Z only tells a few people that they're not entirely a girl but not a boy either, b) Z also only tells a few people that they want to be called Z, and c) the book is set in the 90s, when being gay was still considered being mentally ill.Hokay, now for the story.Z doesn't remember much about the wreck except for it happening. They're left with their uncle, who works with the government to make sure magical beings don't get out of hand (like werewolves, zombies, etc.). But Z doesn't want to stay with their uncle, because, well, they're undead. Their best guess is that their mother worked some major necromancer magic to keep the family safe. But said spell only counts if, ya know, the entire family didn't die in one fell swoop.Aysel is a Turkish-American lesbian, fat, and a werewolf. She's raised by her single mom, Azra, and just wants to be the goth badass she knows deep in her heart she is. She latches on to Z as a best friend, and comes out to her (about three times).Werewolves are considered the MOST dangerous creatures, next to shapeshifters. They contain a ridiculous amount of magical energy, which makes them hard to control. Hence why Aysel is constantly freaking out about people ever finding out she's a wolf.I loved this story right up to the end. It touches on some SUPER important, timely themes (gender identity, race relations, etc), but the end lost me. I thought I had an idea of where the story was going, but it ended up going in a VERY different direction.At its core, Out of Salem is a love story. Not because of romantic love, but because of a love that's so deep and pure, where someone is on your side no matter what, where there's immense amounts of trust. It's absolutely beautiful.Entirely original while still fitting in with timely themes, Out of Salem is the queer YA novel of 2019. I give it 4.5 out of 5 temporary tattoos. ...more

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Sep 10, 2019 Elizabeth Mellen rated it liked it

This was basically two stars for my enjoyment and one because I want queer characters, especially in things that aren’t contemporaries. I saw this cover at the library on the new shelf and was instantly intrigued, and then when I heard queer + zombies + werewolves + enchanters, I was sold. I got home, checked goodreads and was extra excited when I saw how many people enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of them.

My first, and biggest, issue was that it was fantastical revisionist history with ...more

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Oct 01, 2019 Alaz rated it it was amazing

I had the chance to read this book a while before it was actually published and I really really loved it. I love how Schrieve builds the characters and the setting.
I felt like while it's a fantasy novel, it had a lot of everyday reality built into the setting, such as the school and the family matters Z goes through, and during all of this, the writing was balanced and realistic enough to keep readers engaged regardless of what they're looking for, and all the fantasy and the supernatural was e ...more

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May 08, 2019 Harper rated it really liked it

This was really good. A big book but a fast read, with good characters and worldbuilding that built upon itself well. Set in the 90s in a world where magic and monsters exist (as second class citizens), but reads and feels very real & modern. Schrieve is excellent at writing scenes of chaos and disorientation from the perspectives of the people right in the midst of them, and the reader will get caught up in the action, feeling like they are there. Good queer & trans & multicultural rep without ...more

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Jun 06, 2019 Sam rated it it was amazing

Wow wow WOW!!! I don't even know where to begin in my praises for this book!!! For starters, this is the only book I've ever come across with an character that specifically identifies as Genderqueer, and does it Right!!! Another thing is that none of the main characters get involved in a romance, and I can't tell you all how Wonderfully refreshing it is to read a YA novel that doesn't have romance secondary plot!!! This is honestly the best book I've read this year so far, and will probably rema ...more

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Mar 06, 2020 Aly rated it it was amazing

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 31, 2019 Joseph rated it really liked it

Shelves: queer

Such a fun and elaborate book! I might come back and add some thoughts but just know its super queer, has supernatural creatures, and friendship! What more could you need!? Also, it's sort of major but the main character uses They/Them pronouns and I think it might be the first (or second) YA book I read where that has been the case! Go check it out! ...more

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Oct 14, 2019 Janet rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019

I was surprised at how much I liked this book as I generally stay as far away as possible from zombie and werewolf (and faery and sorcerers and selkies and shapeshifters) except for when I feel obligated to read the book. I liked the characters and the surprise twist and turns (a few were maybe a bit coincidental but this isn't realistic fiction). Definitely one of the most original ides--a trans zombie and a werewolf lesbian--and it goes on from there. ...more

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Oct 07, 2020 Hannah Chapman added it

I loved it how there were two different sides, protecting were-wolves and then the side against them I just loved this book it was amazing and I deffinitly recommend it.

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Mar 15, 2019 Madeline rated it really liked it

Shelves: lgbt, poc-protagonist, ya, fantasy, witchy-shit, gothic

Note: This review is of the ARC

A zombie, werewolf, and "monster" story that explores topics like xenophobia, Islamophobia, transphobia, homophobia, immigration, classism, and racism in an Oregon town.

I enjoyed the mythology of this story, how it described the ways the US government and society would act if zombies, werewolves, shape-shifters, witches, etc. existed in our country, not just as abnormalities, but as visible fixtures in our communities.

The tone of this story may not be everyone's c ...more

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Quotes from Out of Salem

“I am your mother, and I'm not going to let you act as if you have nobody in the world and have to fend for yourself. And I'm not going to let your friends grow up thinking that there are no people in the world willing to help them when it comes to a matter of crisis.” — 1 likes

“It’s about loving someone and seeing them as a part of your family. I think some people have the capacity to see different people as part of their family and some don’t.” — 1 likes

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