When the Moon was Ours

But there was everything else. The idea of being called Miss or Ms. or, worse, Mrs. The thought of being grouped in when someone called out girls or ladies. The endless, echoing use of she and her, miss and ma'am. Yes, they were words. They were all just words. But each of them was wrong, and they stuck to him. Each one was a golden fire ant, and they were biting his arms and his neck and his bound-flat chest, leaving him bleeding and burning.

— A magical story with beautiful prose and a powerful message about claiming your gender, name and identity. 5 out of 5 moons and roses!

// the speculative fiction authors challenge
// part 2: Anna-Marie McLemore

Anna-Marie McLemore is, in their own words, an author of queer fairy tales. It sums up When The Moon Was Ours perfectly. It's gentle and melancholy and haunting and painted in a veil of gorgeous atmosphere.

I really liked this. I like that McLemore writes about trans characters. It's don't very respectfully and the world deserves more books like this.

A matter of personal taste: I am not a big fan of the fairy tale kind of magic (I never know whether to read all sorts of big messages from it, or just let it colour the atmosphere...). I think, in this book, the massive usage of nature imagery and colours etc. takes too much attention from the very likable characters of Sam and Miel.

But... personal matter... If you like the fairy tale style, and if you want to read books with queer MCs, I'd say McLemore is good place to start.

Will I read McLemore in the future? If the right time and the right mood came together, probably, yes.

3.5*