I'm gonna start the Midnight Lie tomorrow and I'm so excited! Question: do we get the sexualities of Sid and Nirrim?
Enjoy! I’m excited for you!
In answer to your question, while the words for gay/lesbian/bisexual etc. don’t exist in Sid and Nirrim’s languages, Rutkoski makes it clear that Sid is only attracted to women.
Nirrim’s sexuality is a little harder to pin down, as she’s confused by her attraction to Sid when they first meet. However, I’d say she’s also solely attracted to women. She’s had past relationships with men, but she doesn’t seem to be attracted to men in the way she’s attracted to Sid. When her ex-boyfriend kisses her at the beginning of the novel - before she’s even met Sid - her reaction seems much more in line with someone experiencing compulsory heterosexuality than genuine attraction:
“He kissed me and I let him. Sometimes it can feel so good to give someone what they want that it is the next best thing to getting what you want[...] I pretended that his hunger was my hunger. I kissed him back and the quiet inside me didn’t feel so large anymore, so heavy.”
As an asexual woman, this passage really got to me. That feeling of pretending so hard that you almost convince yourself? That uncertainty as to why you’re not feeling what you’ve been told you should be feeling? That’s what compulsory heterosexuality feels like.
Compared to how she feels when she kisses Sid? I won’t spoil those scenes for you, but suffice to say, she’s definitely way more into it.
