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Good Nonbinary Representation in Books


Rainy Robin

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Rainy Robin

Does anyone have a book they recommend because the nonbinary character(s) are well-written? I've seen lists of recommended books online, but I'd like to hear what some people have read and enjoyed. I'd also love to hear if anyone can recommend books outside of the young adult fiction genre because the booklists I've found tend to only feature YA fiction.

 

I'll start: It's still YA but I really loved Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender. 

 

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I thought "I Wish You All The Best" was good; the author identifies as non-binary, too, if that is important to anyone.

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A lot going on in SFF. Anne Leckie is hitting out of the park with most of the Ancillary Novels. Le Guin's two Gethen stories (Left Hand of Darkeness and "Winter's King") although she has some pronoun issues. The Transcendent anthologies are worth picking up. JY Yang's Tensorate novellas. The Murderbot Diaries. 

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There's a comics anthology about queer sci-fi/fantasy stories: it's called Beyond.  It's got a variety of good representation of different identities.

 

5 hours ago, KiraS said:

A lot going on in SFF. Anne Leckie is hitting out of the park with most of the Ancillary Novels. Le Guin's two Gethen stories (Left Hand of Darkeness and "Winter's King") although she has some pronoun issues. The Transcendent anthologies are worth picking up. JY Yang's Tensorate novellas. The Murderbot Diaries. 

To be fair, the Le Guin stuff was written before trans/NB issues were as well-known as they are now.  The Left Hand of Darkness is from 1969.

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Rainy Robin
19 hours ago, LeChat said:

I thought "I Wish You All The Best" was good;

I liked that one as well! Actually just finished it yesterday 😆

38 minutes ago, Karst said:

There's a comics anthology about queer sci-fi/fantasy stories: it's called Beyond.  It's got a variety of good representation of different identities.

Cool, thanks for the recommendation!

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18 hours ago, Karst said:

There's a comics anthology about queer sci-fi/fantasy stories: it's called Beyond.  It's got a variety of good representation of different identities.

 

To be fair, the Le Guin stuff was written before trans/NB issues were as well-known as they are now.  The Left Hand of Darkness is from 1969.

The Beyond anthologies are good. 

 

The absolutely awesome thing about Le Guin is that she was incredibly self-reflective. So her non-fiction self-criticism about Left Hand of Darkness and Winter's King are a master class in examining writing and linguistic bias with respect to nonbinary gender. So this was done in 1994, and then she had a flurry of essays just before her death a few years ago. It's definitely helped me write my nonbinary characters to note that "they" isn't as neutral as appears. And I think her comments about universal "she" were really prescient WRT how Ancillary Justice was received. 

 

I also forgot Daniel Heath Justice who writes indigenous two-spirit fantasy fic. 

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The Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin

Actually about a gender fluid teenager named Riley. I liked it because the whole time you never know their AGAB

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On 8/4/2020 at 9:40 AM, KiraS said:

 

 

The absolutely awesome thing about Le Guin is that she was incredibly self-reflective. So her non-fiction self-criticism about Left Hand of Darkness and Winter's King are a master class in examining writing and linguistic bias with respect to nonbinary gender. So this was done in 1994, and then she had a flurry of essays just before her death a few years ago. It's definitely helped me write my nonbinary characters to note that "they" isn't as neutral as appears. And I think her comments about universal "she" were really prescient WRT how Ancillary Justice was received.

The whole "background in anthropology" thing really helps.  I wish more sci-fi had the level of diversity that her writing does.

Le Guin also wrote a set of short stories set on a planet where bisexuality and polyamory are the Socially Expected Norms, and they're both thought-provoking looks at other ways that norms around sexuality and marriage could be and just... pleasant romance stories.

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