I'm the author of over 15 novels written for kids, teens, and adults across several genres. The thing all my books have in common is that they are sad and they are dark. My most recent novel is my most distilled, compressed delivery of deliciously dark sadness yet! Oddly, I'm rarely sad in real life. My daughter suggested that I write books to get the darkness out of my head and onto the page, which I think is very insightful (she is my kid, after all). I enjoy the beauty in the breakdown, I savor the sublime catharsis of tragedy, and I want to share that perspective with everyone.
I found this story collection by Machado to be not only dark and sad, but wickedly funny. How often does our laughter turn to tears, or vice versa? These things are not mutually exclusive, and Machado lives within that uncomfortably liminal space with obvious relish.
I also appreciate it's unabashed feminism. So much of the horror genre is seen through a male lens that leaves me feeling cold and left out. In Machado's writing, I feel not only seen but celebrated, and I will happily live within her ferociously accepting stories of darkness as many times as she offers them.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FICTION PRIZE 2017 SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2018
'Brilliantly inventive and blazingly smart' Garth Greenwell
'Impossible, imperfect, unforgettable' Roxane Gay
'A wild thing ... covered in sequins and scales, blazing with the influence of fabulists from Angela Carter to Kelly Link and Helen Oyeyemi' New York Times
In her provocative debut, Carmen Maria Machado demolishes the borders between magical realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. Startling narratives map the realities of women's lives and the violence visited on their bodies, both in myth and in practice.
This
was such a surprising collection of darkly hopeful stories.
As with any
anthology, some land more than others, but the ones that did land did so much
like a crater impacting Earth. Stufflebeam has the ability to draw not just on
shared experience but deeply buried collective guilt.
It is impossible not to
connect with the characters, even when they’re possessed houses or engineers
tearing out the insides of still-living sex dolls. How do you drive empathy for
these characters? How can the serial killing of androids be compelling? Stufflebeam
slithers into our subconscious, drags up our long-buried guilt, and weaves it
into almost bizarre caricatures of the human experience that resonate.
I didn’t sleep well for several days after reading this book, which speaks well
to the gentle horror genre as a whole.
Bones of extinct species wander a campground, stalking a group of friends in love with the same woman. The object of their affection seeks solace with a couple in a world with rain that kills. In a world where men are almost extinct, a daughter struggles to connect with her father during a camping trip amid skeletal mammoths. Returning to her repressed hometown, a woman transforms into a man-eating monster when she returns. An engineer who constructs hearts for artificial people finds herself drawn to the most damaged models lurking in the subways. Her successor, a robot assassin, avenges women…
I started in publishing at the Advocate magazine, twenty years ago in its heyday, then moved to Alyson Books, who first published Emma Donoghue among many others, offering a place for queer writers showcasing queer stories to find their audience. Afterwards, I became involved with Gertrude literary journal, a beloved, 25-year-old non-profit, LGBTQA journal that has now evolved to The Gertrude Conference. All the while, I read, wrote, and supported queer stories, like these gems!
Here is another period piece, set in the 1850s and inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Our Hideous Progeny is a Gothic, magical novel that begs to be brought (no pun intended) to life. It’s a rich, delicious adventure through time and across several countries while Mary, the name of the main character, tracks down the secrets of her great uncle, Victor Frankenstein, in an effort to build back some of the money lost by her husband, Henry, a gambler.
Like the series, Lessons in Chemistry (also an adaptation) and others, there is a feminist current running through the book, which modern audiences might appreciate, in the trials a woman had to overcome in a time when there were no “scientists”, only “men of science.” And, of course, a queer love story.
Author C.E. McGill has already ruminated on possible actors to play the key roles in an adaptation, including Sophie…
A gothic adventure story, a classic tale with a feminist twist, a story of ambition and obsession, forbidden love and sabotage...
'It is not the monster you must fear, but the monster it makes of men...'
Mary is the great-niece of Victor Frankenstein. She knows her great uncle disappeared in mysterious circumstances in the Arctic but she doesn't know why or how...
The 1850s is a time of discovery and London is ablaze with the latest scientific theories and debates, especially when a spectacular new exhibition of dinosaur sculptures opens at the Crystal Palace. Mary, with a sharp mind and…
Creative expression has been one of my most cherished values since childhood. I've always had a creative hobby of some kind since I was a kid. Not sure how that happened – my parents were tolerant of my interests at best. I made my day job career in the arts, fostering the creativity of community members and supporting the work of artists. Art (in the general sense of all forms of creative expression) is, to me, a defining characteristic of humanity, it makes life worth living, and the way it’s devalued under Capitalism both saddens and inspires me as a creator myself. I’m a writer of speculative fiction and I write about creative people.
Hunted by those who want to study his gravity powers, Jes makes his way to the best place for a mixed-species fugitive to blend in: the pleasure moon where everyone just wants to be lost in the party. It doesn’t take long for him to catch the attention of the crime boss who owns the resort-casino where he lands a circus job, and when the boss gets wind of the bounty on Jes’ head, he makes an offer: do anything and everything asked of him or face vivisection.
With no other options, Jes fulfills the requests: espionage, torture, demolition. But when the boss sets the circus up to take the fall for his about-to-get-busted narcotics operation, Jes and his friends decide to bring the mobster down. And if Jes can also avoid going back to being the prize subject of a scientist who can’t wait to dissect him? Even better.
Hunted by those who want to study his gravity powers, Jes makes his way to the best place for a mixed-species fugitive to blend in: the pleasure moon where everyone just wants to be lost in the party. It doesn't take long for him to catch the attention of the crime boss who owns the resort-casino where he lands a circus job, and when the boss gets wind of the bounty on Jes' head, he makes an offer: do anything and everything asked of him or face vivisection.
With no other options, Jes fulfills the requests: espionage, torture, demolition. But…
My
Goodreads review of this book just says, “Yes yes yes yes yes this is the good
stuff,” if you want a sign of my emotional reaction to Our Wives Under the
Sea.
This
is a gorgeous, compact, spooky, haunting novel about a marriage falling apart,
and it came into my life at exactly the right time. Miri’s wife, Leah, is an
undersea explorer who vanishes for months under the water without a trace.
Finally, she returns—but has all of Leah come back?
I
would call this half dark fantasy horror, half contemporary queer literary
fiction. Or Mitski meets The Haunting of Hill House. It checked all my
boxes, and I whipped through it in two sittings. In other words, “the good
stuff.”
Named as book to look out for in 2022 by Guardian, i-D, Autostraddle, Bustle, Good Housekeeping, Stylist and DAZED.
Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep sea mission that ended in catastrophe. It soon becomes clear, though, that Leah may have come back wrong. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home.
To have the woman she loves back should mean a return…
As a genderqueer non-binary person who always felt alone and invisible, it has been incredible to see the change taking place, particularly in YA, as more and more trans and non-binary authors get to tell their stories. Had I been able to read even one of these books as a teen, I might’ve avoided many years of unhappiness. Also, I’ve always been drawn to fantasy and science fiction, perhaps due to my need and desire to escape mundane reality, but I truly love how these genres let the imagination run riot, particularly when authors imagine kinder and more accepting worlds for LGBT+ people.
I hate Ikea stores. To me, they are hellish landscapes and this book—set in a fictional store modelled after Ikea—just gets me! This novella is a hilarious romp through the multiverse, balancing swashbuckling adventure with quiet yet razor-sharp insight into the ebb and flow of romantic relationships. This story shows that navigating love can be even more complicated than navigating interdimensional wormholes!
Nino Cipri's Finna is a rambunctious, touching story that blends all the horrors the multiverse has to offer with the everyday awfulness of low-wage work. It explores queer relationships and queer feelings, capitalism and accountability, labor and love, all with a bouncing sense of humor and a commitment to the strange.
When an elderly customer at a Swedish big box furniture store ― but not that one ― slips through a portal to another dimension, it’s up to two minimum-wage employees to track her across the multiverse and protect their company’s bottom line. Multi-dimensional…
I am a compulsive reader and writer of speculative fiction, in love with the genre’s capacity to extrapolate our present social, economic and technological into horrifying/astonishing futures. That being said, I need strong writing and compelling characters to pull me into a world and make it feel lived in and real. It’s this kind of emotional realism that I seek out as a reader and try to create as an author.
Curveball is less compelled by plot than by setting and character. Sorese’s future is gorgeously imagined in melting black, white, and gray with electric orange highlights. Every element–from the clothing to the tech to the furniture–is thoughtfully designed and elegantly rendered. Moreover, Curveball has some of the best acting I have ever seen in *any* graphic novel. A triumph!
Curveball is a science fiction graphic novel telling the story of a waiter named Avery coping with the ending of a difficult relationship. Having spent years attempting to build something substantial with an indecisive sailor named Christophe, Avery stubbornly holds on despite the mounting evidence against him. The idea of the relationship has eclipsed its reality and in Avery's already troubled life, the allure of something dependable is a powerful force.
Curveball focuses on the duality of hope and delusion. How ignorance is integral to surviving our day to day lives but can be incredibly destructive if allowed to blossom…
I’m a trans woman who writes sapphic science fiction, fantasy, superhero novels, and contemporary romance. I’m been a huge fan of superheroes my whole life, and Supergirl has been my favorite superhero since I saw the original Helen Slater movie back in the 80s. In addition to being a fan, I’m currently writing a series of sapphic superhero novels called Hearts of Heroes.
Kit is a scavenger in a city ruined by an alien spaceship that crashed decades ago, giving rise to superheroes. When a chance meeting leads to her starting a relationship with Valene Blackwood, one of the most powerful superheroes on the planet. A little too powerful.
Valene’s powers are slowly driving her mad. Kit sets out to find a way to help Valene, but ends up getting superpowers of her own, and in a duel to the death with Valene’s father, who wants to take over the city.
I love this book because it’s a unique take on the question of what makes someone a hero, while also looking at how people with privilege respond to marginalized people gaining power, and why some relationships are doomed to fail.
Superheroes are big business. Imagine not being able to afford them.
Kit Baldwin can't afford trouble, not in a city where superhuman Empowered only offer their help for a fee. But rent doesn't wait so she scavenges the ruins for valuable artifacts from a crashed alien ship. When Kit discovers a powerful alien object, it pays off more than she ever hoped.
The artifact draws the attention of Valene Blackwood, the one Empowered with a conscience. Valene's gifts come at a price; she hears everything, everywhere, always. Kit's ambition morphs into harnessing the object's cosmic potential to mitigate the trauma…
I grew up loving sci-fi and fantasy, but especially today, I recognize how a lot of older sci-fi is patriarchal or even misogynistic. When I started to write my own books, like A Dragonbird in the Fern, I vowed to create my fantastical settings as I’d like our world to be someday—with all genders considered equal. Whether it’s a queen wielding all of the power or a witch who can save the world, women and girls in my stories get things done, and no one bats an eye.
The two girls in City of
Shattered Light could not be fiercer! Asa’s a runaway rich girl who flees
home to save her sister, a victim of scientific tests. Riven’s a tough smuggler
gunning for a big bounty to guarantee her a place in one of the city’s
matriarchal (!) crime syndicates. There’s kidnapping, a wild neon sci-fi world,
and a healthy portion of romantic longing. I loved this misfit team!
As darkness closes in on the city of shattered light, an heiress and an outlaw must decide whether to fend for themselves or fight for each other. As heiress to a powerful tech empire, seventeen-year-old Asa Almeida strives to prove she's more than her manipulative father's shadow. But when he uploads her rebellious sister’s mind to an experimental brain, Asa will do anything to save her sister from reprogramming—including fleeing her predetermined future with her sister’s digitized mind in tow. With a bounty on her head and a rogue AI hunting her, Asa’s getaway ship crash-lands in the worst possible…
After spending nearly two decades working in technology and Intelligence—working with law enforcement from all different agencies—I developed an appreciation and understanding of the worst that humans can do to each other. My specialty was domestic counterterrorism and foreign policy—and I did everything from developing software for chem/bio work to White House briefings. I have studied profiling and analysis in academic and real world settings – I have two Masters degrees – Strategic Intelligence & Criminal Justice – from American Military University, both with a minor in Terrorism Studies. While the academic background is great, the real-life experiences are what taught me the most – and find their way into my stories.
Jinx Ballou is a serious bada$$. Transgender, ex-cop, skilled bounty hunter – she learns to deal with unexpected notoriety and some people that really need their a$$es kicked.
The story deals with some difficult topics with sensitivity, humor, and grace.
Once I started reading, I couldn’t put the book down – it kept me captivated from beginning to end.
I’m already on the third book in the series and have enjoyed every minute of getting to know Jinx and her world.
A shocking murder. A suspect on the run. Can a maligned young bounty hunter finally bring the killer in?
Jinx Ballou’s career hangs by a thread. Outed as transgender and blackballed, the tough-as-nails bounty hunter is determined to prove herself. She convinces a desperate bail agent to hire her, but the fugitive she’s assigned has already eluded some of the best in the business.
Jinx takes the job and uncovers a horrifying truth that calls everything into question. As the danger rises, Jinx pushes her skills, her body, and her luck to the limit to apprehend the fugitive murder suspect…
I loved this book because it was something I read a
long time ago but returned to at a different time in my life with a fresh
perspective.
A science fiction classic first published in 1969, so many of the
themes in this book feel especially relevant today. It involves political
intrigue, gender politics, and learning a new culture, but through the lens of
a relationship between two people from entirely different planets.
LeGuin
manages to create an alien world that is very, very human. N. K. Jemisin, in her
introduction to the 2018 volume of The Best American Science Fiction and
Fantasy, says, “The purpose of science fiction, as Ursula K. Leguin intimated
in her introduction to The Left Hand of Darkness, is not to predict
the future but to describe the world as it presently is,” and I think that is a
very powerful notion.
50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION-WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY DAVID MITCHELL AND A NEW AFTERWORD BY CHARLIE JANE ANDERS
Ursula K. Le Guin's groundbreaking work of science fiction-winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards.
A lone human ambassador is sent to the icebound planet of Winter, a world without sexual prejudice, where the inhabitants' gender is fluid. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the strange, intriguing culture he encounters...
Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an…
