#wyffh

[miapcain]

fanart of When You Fell From Heaven by Alyson Greaves

[azdoine]

still thinking about Taylor WYFFH. what a god damn real one

[football-in-tuxedos]

One of the things that strikes me about When You Fell From Heaven is like...Maxine is not exempt from all the horrible shit that happens to trans women. She gets forcibly outed, multiple times. She gets bullied. She gets threatened with conversion therapy. She gets assaulted. But people still talk about the books like their kinda wish fulfillment. Fuck, I talk about them like they're wish fulfillment.

I think that's kinda down to Taylor. Cause yeah, Maxine has to go through all the same shit most of us do, but she's got someone in her corner, someone who loves her, who sees her for who she is and who will fight bloody to protect her. And that's enough to turn WYFFH into wish fulfillment.

Anyway, protect your local trans girl today, she probably needs it.

[megadan94]

I love the contrast between why people thought Maxwell was a gay boy, compared to why people know Maxine is a lesbian.

The reasons for thinking that Max likes boys are rooted entirely in stereotypes, "he's effeminate", "he has platonic girl friends", because they don't know how to contextualise those things outside of gay stereotypes. Even Clay and Avery believed this, not just the bullies.

On the other hand, the reasons for thinking that Max likes girls are completely logical, "she kissed a girl at a party", "we all see the way she looks at Taylor", "she seems repulsed by men", "she's bewildered by the mere idea that someone could find a man physically attractive". None of that is stereotypes, they're just straightforward observations of how Maxine feels about men and women respectively, she doesn't even fit into any of the lesbian stereotypes, aside from playing guitar and being slightly goth.

And these observations were made by Kennedy and Dominique, two straight girls, who should in theory be worse at guessing who's gay than Clay and Avery, but they knew that Maxine liked girls within weeks of knowing her.

All of the reasons why Maxwell supposedly liked boys seemingly don't work for Maxine. Like, Maxwell likes boys because he's effeminate? Because he had platonic girl friends? Okay, well, Maxine is much more feminine, and has many more platonic girl friends, so doesn't that prove that she likes boys? Nope! Because those things are expected in women, so they can't be used to dispute accusations of being a lesbian.

It's like, when Maxine became a girl, all of the things that supposedly made her a "gay boy" suddenly had a context to them, and then everyone could see her for who she truly is.

And Kennedy and Dominique haven't guessed that Maxine is trans (at least, not at the point I'm up to), because there's no difference between trans girls and cis girls. They can see her for who she truly is, and all they see is a girl, because why wouldn't they?

[trans-ralsei]

average wyffh reading experience:

1) this is a really ominous title

2) I can’t take the anxiety

3) I gotta tab forward is Max okay

4) OH. OHHHHH. THAT’S WHY IT’S CALLED THAT

5) okay I got to tab back

6) this is good

[professorspork]

TALK MORE ABOUT WHAT YOU LOVE ABOUT WYFFH

the thing about "when you fell from heaven" is that it is perfect

what i mean when i say that is that it, by virtue of being ALL the genres it is, ends up being entirely self-justified and self-reinforced by simply committing to the bit. i am hardly the most learned aficionado, but my understanding of The Literature in re forcefem is that it takes shape the way any other niche genre does, with common tropes that are so openly ridiculous that there is usually a certain level of "must be this willing to suspend x amount of disbelief to ride."

but when wyffh also commits just as hard to being coming of age YA lit-- PERIOD coming of age YA lit, at that-- that problem actually takes care of itself. because teenagers are desperate creatures, wonderful and monstrous and woefully misinformed, and before you know it wyffh has pulled off this impossible task like it's easy: making its plot feel inevitable and like the most reasonable course of action its characters could have taken under the circumstances.

it's a hell of a magic trick, and it's only strengthened by just how deeply lovable the cast is, down to its smallest bit characters.

it is simply A Delight

[cloudberry-candy]

Maaaybe I shouldn't be reading cheerleader stories where everything is falling apart right before family event but fuck it I got this I'm invincible

[azdoine]

the fucking transition timelines kill me every time i read When You Fell From Heaven. no not the part where Max has been on HRT for 2 months and gets frame perfect optimal results. the part where no-one has ever met a trans woman in person before and has to look up 'trans women' online real quick just to check that Max is for real turning into a girl