#transbooks — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #transbooks, aggregated by home.social.
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Disappoint Me (Nicola Dinan) – Max is a once-published poet who spends most of her days signing off emails pretending to be an AI. After falling down the stairs at a new years party and waking up alone, Max reassesses her life and give heteronormativity a try. While Vincent's trad friends may not be the best fit and his Chinese parents never pictured him dating a trans woman, Max feels he cares for her deeply. Yet he carries his own secrets that could upset their idyllic future.
I had trouble getting into this at the start as there was only a few times I felt a hook during the relatively slow pacing. But I really started to enjoy it by the second half. Particularly as Vincent's backstory was unfolding, giving me the feeling I was holding onto a piece of gossip Max really needed to know. Beyond that, it certainly tapped into my own fears a great deal and made it deeply personal.
#Bookstodon #Books #QueerBooks #Queer #LGBTQ #TransBooks #Trans
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Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian) by Hazel Jane Plante – As a queer trans woman sits in the wake of her friend's death, she recounts her memories of and grief for Vivian amongst encyclopedic entries of the niche TV show they enjoyed together.
As someone who has all too often forged close relationships with people in the glow of a shared fandom, I was deeply touched by this narrative. The story weaves through the meaning of various elements of the show to Vivian and the narrator, along with the narrator's unrequited love and the particular intimacy shared among close trans women. To me, it felt like a deep love letter to grief itself.
#Bookstodon #Books #QueerBooks #Queer #LGBTQ #TransBooks #Trans
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Queen of Faces (Petra Lord) – While the rich swap bodies like designer clothes, Anabelle Gage is trapped in a a basic-model male body that will kill her within a year. With the wait list for another body too late for her to live, her one hope is to get into the magical school, Paragon Academy, where the asshole rich kids there are all given a free body on admission. When she fails her third attempt at the entrance exam, she attempts to use her basic magic to steal a new body instead but is caught and given a way out by the school's headmaster: work for him as a mercenary assassin to take down the women leading a rebellion.
I have to say, I was caught off guard by exactly how good this got. I enjoyed the characters a lot and I felt quite invested in the world - or at least wanting someone to burn down the dickheads in charge. Maybe that's for personal reasons given how clear a lot of the parallels are. Some of the world building did come in a bit thick at the start, and the some story beats were telegraphed a little too loudly, but if you're wanting a magical world with an empathetic queer focus and rage at a corrupt elite, then this series will likely be your cup of tea.
#Bookstodon #Books #QueerBooks #Queer #LGBTQ #Fantasy #TransBooks #Trans
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Very cool to be talking The Boy Maeve on Melbourne Naarm's 3rrr Queer View Mirror with Sam Elkin 🔥
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Look what my dad spotted in Brisbane Domestic Airport 🔥🔥🔥
Seall air seo! Chunnaic m' athair an leabhar agam aig Port-adhair Bhrisbane 🔥🔥🔥
#LoveOzYA #TransBooks #QueerBooks #YAbooks #KidLit #OzLit #AusLit #Brisbane #Meanjin #Gaidhlig
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Thank you Good Reading Magazine for giving me the chance to speak about Maeve, masculinity, Scottish Gaelic and the environment! The whole interview is available at https://goodreadingmagazine.com.au/article/read-a-qa-with-kai-ash-on-his-trans-fantasy-debut-the-boy-maeve/
#YAbooks #LoveOzYA #QueerBooks #TransBooks #YoungAdult #SpecFic
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Earlyfate (Nat Reeve) – Nettleblack's dandy genderless cravat designer extraordinaire very much takes centre stage in this sequel full of hilarious criminal delights in the rural town of Dallyangle, 1890s. A few necessary spoilers for Nettleblack ahead. Read no further for the uninitiated.
Okay, are the uninitiated gone? Good. So after our roguish cravat fiend had a comeuppance in their mildly criminal scheming and eloped to the country with a certain Welsh tongued darling, we join them in a moment of regret. Naturally, a redemption arc requires a degree of apology which Pip is prepared to proffer - though let's be honest, I'd had let them off regardless. Alas, before you can say figs new peril strikes (mild peril, this is Surrey after all) and Pip finds that after lying through their teeth, the old Divisioners are not exactly taking them at their word. How will Pip save their love and defeat toffish machinations with just their impeccable style and a sword stick?
As with Nettleblack, Earlyfate is utterly charming and beautifully queer af. The returning cast kept me grinning throughout and I loved setting Pip in a more rounded light. I'd love to see some smaller shorts set in this town focusing on more of the Divisioners and life in the surrounds.
#Bookstodon #Books #QueerBooks #Queer #LGBTQ #TransBooks #Trans
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THE BOY MAEVE is available for purchase in hard copy + ebook forms in Australia and New Zealand Aotearoa 🇦🇺 🇳🇿
It's also available for purchase in ebook form in the UK and USA 🇬🇧 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇺🇸
Tha mi cho sona ri bròg a ràdh gu bheil sin a' ciallachadh gum faodaidh tu a cheannach ann an Alba cuideachd mar leabhar-d!
🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
#YAbooks #YoungAdult #YA #LoveOzYA #AusLit #TransBooks #Pride #QueerBooks #LGBTbooks #bookstodon #Australia #NewZealand #Aotearoa #USA #UK #England #Wales #Scotland #Alba #Gàidhlig
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What an incredible launch of The Boy Maeve at Where The Wild Things Are!
A beautiful space, a wonderful crowd and a very appropriate rainbow above 🌈
Thank you to the people at Where The Wild Things Are, my mother Margi Brown Ash and everyone who braved the damp to come along.
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Persona (Aoife Josie Clements) – The start of the blurb certainly caught my attention; "A trans woman discovers pornography of herself she has no memory of making, only to find herself led to an unimaginably deeper evil."
From that, I had to jump into this. I found the protagonist engaging even in her darkest psychosis, as if I was spiralling with her. The journey it takes you on is deeply unsettling and disassociative with interesting insights on identity.
Reading through I had a dozen odd theories of where it was snaking. Which did lead me to be a bit dissapointed by the ending. I felt there was a lot of unexplored potential from the first two parts that seemed underserved by the resolution. Not entirely so, but it seemed to me as an amazing concept that struggled for a satisfying conclusion.
It's not for everyone, but I did enjoy it greatly and would love to see more from the author.
#Bookstodon #Books #QueerBooks #Queer #LGBTQ #Horror #TransBooks #Trans
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Tomorrow in Brisbane Meanjin! | A-màireach ann am Brisbane Meanjin!
#Brisbane #Meanjin #BookLaunch #TransBooks #QueerBooks #Pride #LoveOzYA #YAbooks #TransLit #QueerLit #AusLit
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Chuffed to have been a guest on Brisbane/Meanjin's 4zzz radio program Tranzmission 🔥
Available on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Si50Eb2t2ITttNcSNQi9S?si=NKb8dNS8TT6NOzA-3xnmjw
And on YouTube https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UbsXag3gtPc&pp=0gcJCUACo7VqN5tD
#4zzz #radio #trans #transgender #TransBooks #TransLit #QueerBooks #Pride #Meanjin #Brisbane
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Maeve's gender transition goals:
- Big beard
- Broad chest
- Thick arm muscles
- Taller than Frodo/Elijah Wood
- Sweet as weapons he actually knows how to use
- Able to wear a kilt and still look like a proper bloke -
The Boy Maeve is being launched in Maeve’s hometown of Brisbane Meanjin!
The launch will be held at Where The Wild Things Are on Boundary St in West End on Sat 13 June.
Tickets are available on the Where the Wild Things Are website.
#LoveOzYA #YAbooks #QueerBooks #TransBooks #Pride #Brisbane #Meanjin
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The Boy Maeve spotted at The Hobart Book Shop!
I've never visited Hobart without popping into The Hobart Bookshop at least once (and usually leaving with at least one book) and so while I'm not there to see it in person, it's quite the buzz to hear that The Boy Maeve is currently sitting in a rather prominent position in their YA section!
#Hobart #Nipaluna #YAbooks #LoveOzYA #QueerBooks #Pride #TransBooks
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As the sun decided to poke its head out, I decided to seize the chance for one last bookshop visit... Ramona Books, which is situated amid the lovely community vibe of Westgarth Village. Well worth a visit!
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Spotted in Dymocks Melbourne by my father 👀
As a kid, I spent countless hours exploring Dymocks bookstores, often honing in on these staff recommendations. What a hoot to see one referencing The Boy Maeve!! Thank you to Jennifer for your wonderful enthusiasm for the book.
#Pride #LoveOzYA #YAbooks #QueerBooks #TransBooks #Melbourne #Naarm
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After an awesome launch at The Little Bookroom and despite the rain, I wanted to visit some of Melbourne Naarm's other bookstores before heading home.
Stop 1: Readings Kids, where I had a warm welcome.
Stop 2: Dymocks Melbourne, where The Boy Maeve is on the pride shelf!
Stop 3: QBD Emporium
Final stop: Hares & Hyenas, where it was such a thrill to find my book in this iconic queer bookshop.
Thank you Naarm! It's been wet but awesome!
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It turns out bookshops are happy to have you pop in and sign books! So I got a train to Wynyard Station and began to walk to Newtown, popping into bookshops en route.
First it was Dymocks Sydney - Dymocks was one of my favourite bookstores back when I was a kid.
Second Kinokuniya - where I used to spend a silly amount of my earnings back when I was working in the Sydney CBD.
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The first Goodreads review is in and it couldn't be more positive!
Kai Ash writes: This is an absolutely objective and unbiased review of The Boy Maeve, which I wrote: 5 stars. No, 6 stars. Ceud mìle - a hundred thousand - stars. Top notch book. Possibly the best book ever written. Certainly the best book written by me so far.
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Hey, look what arrived today! The absolute filthiest, wrongest story I've ever written is in the Monsterfck anthology. If you'd like a copy of this salacious collection of abject naughtiness, here's where to get it.
https://incisionpress.com/product/monsterfck/
#anthology #smut #QueerBooks #TransBooks #SpeculativeFiction #bookstodon #LGBTQIA2S
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The Boy Maeve will be in bookstores this Tuesday 26 May 2026! | Bidh The Boy Maeve a' tighinn a-mach! (Ann an Astràilia co-dhiù.)
#LoveOzYA #DebutCrew2026 #PublicationWeek #Gàidhlig #TransBooks
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Herculine (Grace Byron) – A young trans woman recovering from religious trauma, conversion therapy and being stalked by literal demons ends up at an all-trans-girl rural commune run by her toxic ex. Alas, the little utopia hinges on some very dark supernatural secrets.
I was expecting to love this a lot more than I did. The pacing really let things down and didn't allow for any suspense to be built up. Major escalations happened in the space of a sentence or two with no real weight or pause appropriate to what happened. It felt very "then this happened, and then this happened" which I don't think works for the themes it attempts. It could do with being given more time to breathe, sit with its fear and let the characters develop more. Even the sex seemed rushed, which feels like a first for a trans authored story.
On the plus sides though, I enjoyed the demonology and commune aspects, and it felt like a very real and dirty T4T novel; the kind of internal trans cultural narrative you don't often see in print; and a critical one at that. Grace clearly has some gripes with how shitty we can all be with each other, yet the necessity of our community.
#Bookstodon #Books #QueerBooks #Queer #LGBTQ #Fantasy #TransBooks #Trans
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Lean Cat, Savage Cat (Lauren J. Joseph) feels like when you're at a house party past 2am and you're starting to wonder if your hosts' raucous and hilarious excess is less charismatic and more disturbing.
Carli has stumbling through her arts degree project Romy Haag in London when she bumps into the mysterious and charming Alexander Geist in a Soho bar. Entranced by his confidence and potential as the next David Bowie, she drops everything and follows him to Berlin overnight. What begins as a whirlwind affair develops into her managing his burgeoning signing career; and her love for his dominance over her in and out of the bedroom slowly unravels into ever more abusive behaviour.
I had only read-and-forgotten the blurb a few months back so I went into this quite blind; and I am glad for it. It's hard to discuss what I love about this book without giving any spoilers. For the first half I was reading this as another book about a spiral into excess and self destruction. But as I clocked where we were actually going with it I really began to enjoy Carli as character that embodies so much tragic humour.
While I am not a fan of the prose and the pacing, and most of the individual elements have been done plenty of times before, the way it comes together bounces you between the hilarious, the horny, the shocking and the depressing within the space of a sentence and a half.
#Bookstodon #Books #QueerBooks #Queer #LGBTQ #TransBooks #Trans -
🔥The Boy Maeve is being launched!🔥
🔥Sydney Gadigal Launch
When? 6.30pm, Thu 28 May
Where? Better Read Than Dead Bookstore, Newtown
Tickets available at https://www.betterreadevents.com/events/the-boy-maeve-launch-kai-ash-in-conversation-with-margi-brown-ash🔥Melbourne Naarm Launch
When? 6pm, Thu 4 Jun
Where? The Little Bookroom, Brunswick East
RSVP at https://events.humanitix.com/the-boy-maeve🔥Brisbane Meanjin Launch
When? 4pm, Sat 13 Jun
Where? Where the Wild Things Are Bookshop, West End
Tickets available at https://wherethewildthingsare.com.au/pages/14315-TheBoyMaeve-BookLaunchwithKaiAsh -
🔥 MELBOURNE NAARM BOOK LAUNCH 🔥
Come join me in conversation with Dr Margi Brown Ash (my mother!) for the Melbourne launch of The Boy Maeve
Where? The Little Bookroom, Brunswick East
When? 6-7.30pm Thursday 4 June