Reviews and Comments

New Bhatt just dropped, going in. Definitely reading too many books at once right now, but at least its mostly collections of essays/short stories, and I definitely won't be waiting around to finish other books for my first peek into this one. Or rather, the second or third peek I guess, as I read some of the substack essays that probably ended up in this one early.

I don't know how I missed the scanned zines online for all those years but I'm very glad to have been successfully advertised into buying this book. Still haven't read everything in there but am already blown away by this little time capsule. Many things in those zines are tragically still as relevant as when they came out, but it's been amazing to me to realize once more that we've been around for a while and that amazing folks have been fighting our battles since before I was even around. Definitely recommend this one, especially to other politically motivated trannies who want an amazing artifact of our shared history.

Guess I'm easily influenced by podcasts sometimes, also the cover design is great as well, going in.

Really enjoyed this book, Ash is just the grumpy hermit trans woman I might become one day if all goes... "well". Really enjoyed the trans folks and sex workers fighting the good fight in this dystopian book, and the wisdom sprinkled in. Also really personally hated some of the characters, which doesn't happen that often and makes for some good writing if it does, I think. Real tense read that absolutely didn't pull punches regarding some pretty graphic depictions of bad stuff, but I personally was able to deal with that pretty good in the context of the whole book.

Got a little confused from time to time by the side-by-side storytelling being so omnipresent, it made for some interesting contrasts and "oh fuck" moments during the reading but it got a but much for my personal taste. The nameless, faceless dystopia had it's charms but felt a little too flat and on the nose to me from time to time, compared to some other works in a similar space. My complaining is on a really high level though, and I'll absolutely be buying this book (or the whole trilogy, knowing myself) as a paperback to efficiently bug my friends to read them, and maybe you, whoever's reading this, should too!

This book absolutely amazed me, right from the first chapter talking about how we trannies need some more dangerous stories. It's really quite brutal in its depictions of the gang violence, and didn't feel like it pulled punches elsewhere, but I really enjoyed the emotions and the personal growth in shitty conditions and all the different femmes depicted in this book (most of whom remind me of at least one woman I have the honor of knowing in my own chaotic life). Gonna read more of Kai Cheng Thoms books and keep recommending this one to my friends, or just go on reading the first chapter to people (3/3 success on recommendations so far).