#transmogrify!

[haveyoureadthisqueerbook]

Have you read Transmogrify! 14 Fantastical Tales of Trans Magic edited by G Haron Davis (2023)?

YES

NO

Voting ended onMay 12, 2025

[richincolor]

New Releases

This week's an exciting one for new YA books! Quite a few of these books coming out tomorrow are at the very top of my must-read pile, like Transmogrify! and Venom & Vow. What's on your TBR?

Transmogrify!: 14 Fantastical Tales of Trans Magic edited by g. haron davis Transness is as varied and colorful as magic can be. In Transmogrify!, you’ll embark on fourteen different adventures alongside unforgettable characters who embody many different genders and expressions and experiences—because magic is for everyone, and that is cause for celebration.

Featuring stories from: AR Capetta and Cory McCarthy g. haron davis Mason Deaver Jonathan Lenore Kastin Emery Lee Saundra Mitchell Cam Montgomery Ash Nouveau Sonora Reyes Renee Reynolds Dove Salvatierra Ayida Shonibar Francesca Tacchi Nik Traxler

Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee Dylan Tang wants to win a Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake-making competition for teen chefs—in memory of his mom, and to bring much-needed publicity to his aunt’s struggling Chinese takeout in Brooklyn.

Enter Theo Somers: charming, wealthy, with a smile that makes Dylan’s stomach do backflips. AKA a distraction. Their worlds are sun-and-moon apart, but Theo keeps showing up. He even convinces Dylan to be his fake date at a family wedding in the Hamptons.

In Theo’s glittering world of pomp, privilege, and crazy rich drama, their romance is supposed to be just pretend . . . but Dylan finds himself falling for Theo. For real. Then Theo’s relatives reveal their true colors—but with the mooncake contest looming, Dylan can’t risk being sidetracked by rich-people problems. Can Dylan save his family’s business and follow his heart—or will he fail to do both?

Hurt You by Marie Myung-Ok Lee

Moving beyond the quasi-fraternal bond of the unforgettable George and Lenny from Of Mice and Men, Hurt You explores the actual sibling bond of Georgia and Leonardo da Vinci Daewoo Kim, who has an unnamed neurological disability that resembles autism. The themes of race, disability, and class spin themselves out in a suburban high school where the Kim family has moved in order to access better services for Leonardo. Suddenly unmoored from the familiar, including the support of her Aunt Clara, Georgia struggles to find her place in an Asian-majority school where whites still dominate culturally, and she finds herself feeling not Korean “enough.” Her one pole star is her commitment to her brother, a loyalty that finds itself at odds with her immigrant parents’ dreams for her, and an ableist, racist society that may bring violence to Leonardo despite her efforts to keep him safe.

Hurt You is a deep exploration of family, society, and the bond between siblings and reflects the reality that people with intellectual disabilities are far more likely to be the victim of a violent crime, not the perpetrator.

Last Canto for the Dead (Outlaw Saints #2) by Daniel José Older

Two gods-turned-teenagers wage simultaneous battles in the Caribbean and Brooklyn in this sequel to Ballad & Dagger.

Healer. Destroyer. Creator. Mateo Matisse and Chela Hidalgo are not just two teenagers in love–they’re powerful gods in human form. Powerful enough to have saved their Brooklyn diaspora community from the wrath of an ancient enemy and to have raised their once-sunken native island of San Madrigal from the sea. But soon they discover that their problems are far from over. On the shores of San Madrigal, two creature armies are battling for survival. And on the streets of Brooklyn, a once tight-knit community is divided, with two sides at each other’s throats. But worst of all, a heartbreaking prophecy rips these two young lovers apart, sending Mateo back to the city, where cops are now patrolling the streets, and keeping Chela tethered to the island, where chaos and death lurk around every corner.

Healer. Destroyer. Creator. As gods, their powers know no limits. But as teenagers–separated, desperate, grieving–what will become of them? And what will become of their people? Join their battle and witness their love in this thrilling conclusion to the epic saga that began with BALLAD & DAGGER.

Venom & Vow by Anna-Marie McLemore and Elliott McLemore Keep your enemy closer. Cade McKenna is a transgender prince who’s doubling for his brother. Valencia Palafox is a young dama attending the future queen of Eliana. Gael Palma is the infamous boy assassin Cade has vowed to protect. Patrick McKenna is the reluctant heir to a kingdom, and the prince Gael has vowed to destroy.

Cade doesn’t know that Gael and Valencia are the same person. Valencia doesn’t know that every time she thinks she’s fighting Patrick, she’s fighting Cade. And when Cade and Valencia blame each other for a devastating enchantment that takes both their families, neither of them realizes that they have far more dangerous enemies.

Rubi Ramos’s Recipe for Success by Jessica Parra Graduation is only a few months away, and so far Rubi Ramos’s recipe for success is on track.

*Step 1: Get into the prestigious Alma University. *Step 2: Become incredibly successful lawyer. But when Alma waitlists Rubi’s application, her plan is in jeopardy. Her parents–especially her mom, AKA the boss–have wanted this for her for years. In order to get off the waitlist without her parents knowing, she needs math tutoring from surfer-hottie math genius Ryan, lead the debate team to a championship–and remember the final step of the recipe.

*Step 3: Never break the ban on baking. Rubi has always been obsessed with baking, daydreaming up new concoctions and taking shifts at her parents’ celebrated bakery. But her mother dismisses baking as a distraction–her parents didn’t leave Cuba so she could bake just like them.

But some recipes are begging to be tampered with… When the First Annual Bake Off comes to town, Rubi’s passion for baking goes from subtle simmer to full boil. She’s not sure if she has what it takes to become OC’s best amateur baker, and there’s only one way to find out–even though it means rejecting the ban on baking, and by extension, her parents. But life is what you bake it, and now Rubi must differentiate between the responsibility of unfulfilled dreams she holds, and finding the path she’s meant for.

As Long As We’re Together by Brianna Peppins A heartstring-tugging, uplifting, modern spin on Party of Five — a love letter to family, hope, and finding strength in unexpected places.

Even though she has six siblings, sixteen-year-old Novah still knows what it’s like to feel lonely. Her friends never remember to invite her anywhere because they assume Novah will be too busy overseeing dinner, baths, and homework — tasks that fall to her when her parents are at work. She wouldn’t mind it so much if her “perfect” older sister, Ariana, wasn’t always excused from helping out. She’s the star of the volleyball team, and their parents don’t want anything to jeopardize the scholarships she’ll need to become the first member of their family to attend college.

Needless to say, Novah feels like she’s been given a raw deal, especially when she’s forced to cancel a maybe-date with her crush, Hailee. Then one terrible night, their parents don’t make it back home. A car accident takes their lives and leaves seven heartbroken kids on their own. The Wilkinson siblings have no grandparents, no aunts or uncles. Since Ariana has just turned eighteen, she manages to convince the judge to give her temporary custody. If she can keep her family running smoothly, they’ll get to stay in their home. If not, they’ll be placed into foster care.

Novah will do whatever it takes to keep her family together but finds herself in a constant power struggle when Ariana refuses to take her advice, even once it becomes clear that they are all in way over their heads. Will Novah find her voice and summon the strength to do the impossible? Or will she be forced to say the hardest goodbyes of all?

[godzilla-reads]

Happy First Day of Pride 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

To kickstart this month, I went to the local bookstore and bought this beauty, which I’m very excited to read.

🏳️‍⚧️ Transmogrify! : 14 Fantastic Tales of Trans Magic edited by G. Haron Davis

[astralbooks]

Transmogrify! edited by g. haron davis

Read: 22/04/2023 - 27/04/2023

Rating: 3/5

Rep: trans protagonists (mainly non-binary)

CW: transphobia, misgendering, fantasy violence, body horror, discussion of suicide, deaths of family members

Review:

This is an anthology of fourteen short stories by transgender authors about transgender characters that involve magic in some way!

As is the case with pretty much any anthology you come across, some of the stories in here were better than others. My personal favourites were Mason Deaver’s Genderella, a mostly contemporary retelling of Cinderella featuring a trans girl teenager as the protagonist, Cam Montgomery’s Bend The Truth, Break It Too, featuring a cursed non-binary shopkeeper who cannot leave their shop and is constantly having to fight off possession, and Dove Salvatierra’s Espejismos, about a Latinx person in what seems to be a post-apocalyptic world who’s struggling to both survive in his family home and to reckon with his late father’s expectations of him.

A lot of these stories felt samey, though. You’d think with the freedom to write anything so long as the main characters are trans and there’s magic involved there’d be a little more variety, but no. A lot of these stories are set in a world where women do magic type A and men do magic type B and our brave non-binary protagonist has to argue their case to be allowed to do magic A/B/A+B/C (delete as applicable) and it got a bit tiring after a while. One story with this plot would’ve been enough. The point of an anthology is to have lots of different stories along a similar theme (in this case, transness and magic as a whole) but this started to feel like the same story again and again with different set dressings, and as a non-binary reader frankly it got depressing very quickly. I was hoping for a little more trans magic and not as much transphobia.

If a story wasn’t about a non-binary kid having to fight to be allowed to participate in things, then it was probably about a magic school in some capacity. I do understand why contributors wanted to write about magic schools. A story involving a magic school that centres transgender characters is something of a targeted screw you at a certain once beloved children’s author. But, again, there were a lot of stories involving a magic school, and the only one that seemed to have anything interesting to say was the one told from the perspective of the school itself, which, I’ve now double checked, is the one written by A.R. Capetta and Cory McCarthy, and their ability to do something actually interesting is likely unsurprising.

There were very few transfem characters throughout this anthology. Out of fourteen stories, a grand total of only one features a trans girl main character. There’s another with a trans girl love interest, but she’s not the protagonist. Unless I’ve missed something major, that’s it. The overwhelming majority of protagonists in this anthology are non-binary, there are a couple of trans boys, and there is a single trans girl. This is an issue! I’m non-binary. I recognise that non-binary characters are underrepresented. But trans women are also underrepresented, if not more so, and them being so noticeably absent from this anthology is not a great look. This anthology is claiming to depict a wide range of trans experiences. If that’s really the case, you’d expect there to be more trans girls than there are.

This anthology has come under fire recently for not having any trans women or transfem contributors. It’s true that demanding people be entirely open about any queer identities they may align with isn’t a good thing to be doing. Nobody should be forced out of the closet and in many cases it can be genuinely unsafe for people to come out. However, every single contributing author is already openly transgender in some way, making this something of a flimsy defence in this case. To put it charitably, not making sure to include at least one openly transfem contributor to this trans anthology was a mistake, and it’s one that I hope won’t be made again.

In all, this anthology was fine. I liked some stories more than I liked others, which is typical for anthologies! But its claim to include a diverse range of trans experiences when it very plainly does not sours my feelings on it by a lot. In isolation, I wouldn’t even mind the majority of the stories being about non-binary characters provided there were also multiple stories about other varieties of transness, but there aren’t. The lack of stories about trans girls, and the last of transfem contributors, are glaring omissions that are probably indicative of wider issues in the publishing industry as a whole.

Thank you to HarperTeen for sending me an arc in return for an honest review.

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Most Anticipated Reads of May 2023

I know I say this every time I write about my TBR, but holy crap -- there is so much good stuff coming out in the next month or so. I am not kidding! Have you seen it? Take a peek at our Release Calendar if you don't believe me. It was super hard to pick what is at the very top of my to-read pile, but I did indeed manage to pull it off. So here is what I'm really looking forward to reading in May:

Ander & Santi Were Here by Jonny Garza Villa -- Out May 2

Aristotle and Dante meets The Hate U Give meets The Sun Is Also A Star: A stunning YA contemporary love story about a Mexican-American teen who falls in love with an undocumented Mexican boy. Finding home. Falling in love. Fighting to belong.

The Santos Vista neighborhood of San Antonio, Texas, is all Ander Martínez has ever known. The smell of pan dulce. The mixture of Spanish and English filling the streets. And, especially their job at their family's taquería. It's the place that has inspired Ander as a muralist, and, as they get ready to leave for art school, it's all of these things that give them hesitancy. That give them the thought, are they ready to leave it all behind?

To keep Ander from becoming complacent during their gap year, their family "fires" them so they can transition from restaurant life to focusing on their murals and prepare for college. That is, until they meet Santiago López Alvarado, the hot new waiter. Falling for each other becomes as natural as breathing. Through Santi's eyes, Ander starts to understand who they are and want to be as an artist, and Ander becomes Santi's first steps toward making Santos Vista and the United States feel like home. Until ICE agents come for Santi, and Ander realizes how fragile that sense of home is. How love can only hold on so long when the whole world is against them. And when, eventually, the world starts to win.

Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee -- Out May 16

Heartstopper meets Crazy Rich Asians in this heartfelt, joyful paperback original rom-com that follows an aspiring chef who discovers the recipe for love is more complicated than it seems when he starts fake-dating a handsome new customer.

Dylan Tang wants to win a Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake-making competition for teen chefs—in memory of his mom, and to bring much-needed publicity to his aunt’s struggling Chinese takeout in Brooklyn. Enter Theo Somers: charming, wealthy, with a smile that makes Dylan’s stomach do backflips. AKA a distraction. Their worlds are sun-and-moon apart, but Theo keeps showing up. He even convinces Dylan to be his fake date at a family wedding in the Hamptons.

In Theo’s glittering world of pomp, privilege, and crazy rich drama, their romance is supposed to be just pretend . . . but Dylan finds himself falling for Theo. For real. Then Theo’s relatives reveal their true colors—but with the mooncake contest looming, Dylan can’t risk being sidetracked by rich-people problems. Can Dylan save his family’s business and follow his heart—or will he fail to do both?

Transmogrify!: 14 Fantastical Tales of Trans Magic by g. haron davis -- Out May 16

Perfect for fans of All Out and Cemetery Boys, this anthology claims a seat at the table of fantasy literature for trans and gender nonconforming stories.

Transness is as varied and colorful as magic can be. In Transmogrify!, you’ll embark on fourteen different adventures alongside unforgettable characters who embody many different genders and expressions and experiences—because magic is for everyone, and that is cause for celebration.

Featuring stories from: AR Capetta and Cory McCarthy g. haron davis Mason Deaver Jonathan Lenore Kastin Emery Lee Saundra Mitchell Cam Montgomery Ash Nouveau Sonora Reyes Renee Reynolds Dove Salvatierra Ayida Shonibar Francesca Tacchi Nik Traxler

[haveyoureadthistransbook]

Transmogrify! edited by g. haron davis

goodreads

Have you read this trans book?

Yes and I liked it

Yes and I didn't like it

No

No but I'd like to

I've never heard of it

Voting ended onNov 8, 2024

Transness is as varied and colorful as magic can be. In Transmogrify!, you’ll embark on fourteen different adventures alongside unforgettable characters who embody many different genders and expressions and experiences—because magic is for everyone, and that is cause for celebration.

Warning for rant ahead!

Mod opinon: One of the biggest disappointments to me in recent trans anthologies that I haven't personally read (but my girlfriend did, which is the reason I took it off my tbr), especially since it includes authors whose work I enjoy and would have been interested in checking out. I dislike it mostly due to its exclusion of trans women's voices (while claiming that Magic is for everyone...) and particularly the editors horribly transmisogynistic twitter meltdown when someone criticised this oversight (at least they apologized afaik, but jeez, still leaves a bad taste in my mouth). I do have an ongoing beef with quite a few trans fiction anthologies for claiming to be a trans anthology for the general trans population and yet, somehow, only including transmasculine voices and characters (or at most one trans woman in a sea of trans man and transmasc authors), so this is in that regard unfortunately just another disappointment, but this was exceptionally badly handled for sure (and since running this blog I've definitely noticed that many trans non-fiction anthologies feature the issue in the other direction, which is equally as annoying). At least have the guts to admit it when you accidentally create an own voices anthology that excludes one type of trans authors, like the creators of the Changelings anthology did or make an anthology with a specific focus on a group of trans people like Resilience or Queeird did.