This month's book club pick will be Dreadnought by April Daniels.

Half way discussion will be

Saturday, June 20th

Final Discussion will be

Tuesday, June 30.

We have five options for this month.

I took all recommendations except the one that was too recently done in another associated book club.

I also added a couple books I have been informed by trusted sources have an explicit Coming Out scene.

Please excuse the lack of Sapphic options. The Venn Diagram between 'sapphic fantasy coming out story' and 'pirates', appears to be a circle. Stay tuned for a Swashbuckling July.

As usual the poll closes 48 hours after the time of this post.

Vote By upvoting your pick in the comments below.

Note the Page counts.

Dreadnought

By April Daniels

Comes out as: Trans

280 Pages, YA

Danny Tozer has a problem: she just inherited the powers of Dreadnought, the world's greatest superhero. Until Dreadnought fell out of the sky and died right in front of her, Danny was trying to keep people from finding out she's transgender. But before he expired, Dreadnought passed his mantle to her, and those secondhand superpowers transformed Danny's body into what she's always thought it should be. Now there's no hiding that she's a girl.

It should be the happiest time of her life, but Danny's first weeks finally living in a body that fits her are more difficult and complicated than she could have imagined. Between her father's dangerous obsession with "curing" her girlhood, her best friend suddenly acting like he's entitled to date her, and her fellow superheroes arguing over her place in their ranks, Danny feels like she's in over her head.

She doesn't have time to adjust. Dreadnought's murderer--a cyborg named Utopia--still haunts the streets of New Port City, threatening destruction. If Danny can't sort through the confusion of coming out, master her powers, and stop Utopia in time, humanity faces extinction.

When The Tides Held The Moon

By Vanessa Vida Kelley

Comes out as: Gay

456 Pages

Figured I should add one Mermaid story because I missed out the "Mer-may" opportunity last month. At least this post goes up in May.

Benigno “Benny” Caldera knows an orphaned Boricua blacksmith in 1910s New York City can’t call himself an artist. But the ironwork tank he creates for famed Coney Island playground, Luna Park, astounds everyone, especially the eccentric side-show proprietor who commissioned it. Benny’s work earns him an invitation to join the show’s eclectic crew of performers—his first welcome in the city—and share in their astonishing secret: the tank Benny built is a cage for their newest exhibit, a living, breathing, in-the-flesh merman stolen from the banks of the East River under a gleaming full moon.

The merman is more than a mythic marvel, though. Benny comes to know Río as a clever philosopher, an observant traveler, and a kindred spirit more beautiful and compassionate than any human he’s ever met. Despite their different worlds, what begins as a friendship of necessity deepens to love, leading Benny’s heart into uncharted waters where he can no longer ignore the agonizing truth of Río’s captivity—and his own.

A cage is no place for a merman to survive. Though releasing Río means betraying his new family, bankrupting their home, and losing his soulmate forever, Benny must look within for the courage to do what’s right, and find a love strong enough to free them both.

The Meister of Decimen City

By Brenna Raney

Comes out as: Asexual

416 Pages

Supergenius and quasi-villain Rex normally can't go a week without accidentally endangering Decimen City with her science shenanigans. It's been two weeks since her genetically engineered dinosaurs rampaged through town--a good streak for her--but the peace is broken when actual villain Last Dance sets his sights on Decimen. And he wants Rex's help. Before Rex can say "I didn't do it," superheroes who've dragged her to jail on her worst days are crowding her lab to pressgang her into quasi-herodom.

Rex would rather stay out of it and deal with the dinosaurs that keep calling her Mom, but she can't ignore that she was somewhat responsible for Last Dance's villainy. She'd kept a very disorganized lab. And he was such a nosy brother. She failed to help him back then, but maybe if she stops him now--and keeps the heroes fooled--she can finally set things right.

No one cares that you cured cancer if you also cloned a horde of dinosaurs and let them rampage down the street.

The Magic Fish

By Trung Le Nguyen

Comes out as: Gay

229 Pages, YA

Tiến loves his family and his friends...but Tiến has a secret he's been keeping from them, and it might change everything. An amazing YA graphic novel that deals with the complexity of family and how stories can bring us together. Real life isn't a fairytale. But Tiến still enjoys reading his favorite stories with his parents from the books he borrows from the local library. It's hard enough trying to communicate with your parents as a kid, but for Tiến, he doesn't even have the right words because his parents are struggling with their English. Is there a Vietnamese word for what he's going through? Is there a way to tell them he's gay? A beautifully illustrated story by Trung Le Nguyen that follows a young boy as he tries to navigate life through fairytales, an instant classic that shows us how we are all connected. The Magic Fish tackles tough subjects in a way that accessible with readers of all ages, and teaches us that no matter what--we can all have our own happy endings.

Our Simulated Selves

By: Nikki Null

Comes out as: Trans

361 Pages

Disclaimer: This was a self promotion on the recommendations thread. Book may be tricky to get a ahold of outside digital.

*A mind-bending quantum thriller about simulated realities, brainscanners, a digital apocalypse, trans awakenings, and tabletop gaming at a cozy queer café.

Depressed supercomputer technician Ren "Zero" scanned his brain to test his coworker's claim that she wouldn't date him if he were "the last man on Earth." He has inserted a copy of his consciousness into a lifelike computer simulation of the days leading up to that rejection. As the Controller, he takes notes while his simulated self follows in his footsteps.

Inside the simulation, Ren Cartner is desperate for a brainscanner. Maybe it could diagnose a reason for his lifelong struggles with depersonalization, brain fog, and strange feelings about gender he doesn't know how to confront. He meets the punk transfemme technologist Jeanne Joy, who is willing to steal one for him, just as long as he can get her a job maintaining the supercomputer. But when Ren asks Jeanne out, she tells him the same thing she told the Controller, and everyone else is abruptly deleted from their world.

Wandering through the empty city, Ren and Jeanne must work together to survive and to unravel the truths behind their baffling reality, including the reason for their simulation and how the Controller grew so desperate and creepy. But in order to defy the Controller's plans for them, Ren must outsmart his real world counterpart by finally confronting those fundamental truths that even the all-powerful Controller could not compute...*

This is a short story collection so if you can't do EVERY story pick one or two to focus on.

Discussion Dates and Stories Covered Below

May 24th: The Marks of Aegis through Wake World

May 31st: Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel through The Thing In Us We Fear Just Wants Our Love

This months queer book club theme is inspired by the "Short Story Collection" square on the bingo card.

This will be a short poll, 48 hours from the time of this post.

Both discussions will be posted on a Sunday this time (for my sanity).

May 24th - Halfway Discussion (Based on whichever story ends closest to the halfway mark).

May 31st - Final Discussion

Because this is once again a short turn around time (we will be posting polls for June later this month so it doesn't happen again) each discussion post will be divided into sections for each story. So if you can't read ALL the stories chose one story you'd like to focus on and discuss.

Mind the page count and the short turn around time to read.

I once again tried focus on a variety of themes, settings, and tones and variety of queer-rep.

I can't post polls so please upvote your favorite option in the comments below.

Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel - Julian K Jarboe

Pages: 204

In this debut collection of body-horror fairy tales and mid-apocalyptic Catholic cyberpunk, memory and myth, loss and age, these are the tools of storyteller Jarboe, a talent in the field of queer fabulism. Bodily autonomy and transformation, the importance of negative emotions, unhealthy relationships, and bad situations amidst the staggering and urgent question of how build and nurture meaning, love, and safety in a larger world/society that might not be "fixable." 

Add Magic to Taste - Assorted Authors

Pages: 306

For Add Magic to Taste, 20 authors have come together to produce all-new, original short stories uniting four of our absolute favorite themes: queer relationships, fluff, magic, and coffee shops! Our diverse writers have created an even more diverse collection of stories guaranteed to sweeten your coffee and warm your tart.

Gods of Want - K-Ming Chang

Pages: 224

In "Auntland," a steady stream of aunts adjust to American life by sneaking surreptitious kisses from women at temple, buying tubs of vanilla ice cream to prepare for citizenship tests, and hatching plans to name their daughter "Dog." In "The Chorus of Dead Cousins," ghost-cousins cross space, seas, and skies to haunt their live-cousin, wife to a storm-chaser. In “Xífù,” a mother-in-law tortures a wife in increasingly unsuccessful attempts to rid the house of her. In "Mariela," two girls explore one another's bodies for the first time in the belly of a plastic shark while in "Virginia Slims," a woman from a cigarette ad comes to life. And in "Resident Aliens," a former slaughterhouse serves as a residence to a series of widows, each harboring her own calamitous secrets. With each tale, K-Ming Chang gives us her own take on a surrealism that mixes myth and migration, corporeality and ghostliness, queerness and the quotidian. Stunningly told in her feminist fabulist style, these are uncanny stories peeling back greater questions of power and memory. 

Trans-Galactic Bike Ride - Edited by Lydia Rogue

Pages: 192

"What would the future look like if we weren't so hung up on putting people into boxes and instead empowered each other to reach for the stars? Take a ride with us as we explore a future where trans and nonbinary people are the heroes.

In worlds where bicycle rides bring luck, a minotaur needs a bicycle, and werewolves stalk the post-apocalyptic landscape, nobody has time to question gender. Whatever your identity you'll enjoy these stories that are both thought-provoking and fun adventures.

Featuring brand-new stories from Hugo, Nebula, and Lambda Literary Award-winning author Charlie Jane Anders, Ava Kelly, Juliet Kemp, Rafi Kleiman, Tucker Lieberman, Nathan Alling Long, Ether Nepenthes, and Nebula-nominated M. Darusha Wehm. Also featuring debut stories from Diana Lane and Marcus Woodman."

Mothman is my Boyfriend - McKayla Coyle

Pages: 192

Welcome to Cryptid Creek, a secret town full of undiscovered creatures, from yetis to lake monsters. Only very special humans can find their way here, but when they do stumble in, they can’t resist the allure of this cozy locale—or its fascinating citizens.

Join the humans of this inclusive fantasy community as they browse the bookshop with Mothman, hit the skate park with nightcrawlers, wander the botanical garden with the Jersey Devil, and go on other dream dates that offer new spins on classic romance tropes. Stories include:

• A friends-to-lovers slow burn with the Loveland Frog
• A fake dating scheme with a swamp monster
• A butch/femme hookup with Sasquatch
• A second-chance drama with the Michigan Dogman
• And more fun trysts with your favorite creatures!

If you loved Legends and Lattes and That Time I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf, get ready to dust off your cryptozoology equipment and put on your cutest outfit—because monster lovers, misfits, and anyone who relates to cryptids will never want to leave this mountain town.

Hello!

I'm an one day late. The final discussion for this book WILL be next Thursday 4/30 but I originally scheduled the halfway for yesterday. That was me getting my dates and days jumble.

This discussion is for all of the book up to the start of

Casper and Jules Get Eaten By Snakes and Die.

Please do not spoil anything past the start of this chapter.