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language: English
country: USA
year: 2020
form: novel
genre(s): fantasy
dates read: 29.5.24-30.5.24
there’s an easy allegorical reading of Anya Johanna DeNiro’s incredible short novel City of a Thousand Feelings: two trans women fight to enter a walled and transmisogynistic city where emotions take visible form — validating them as real — only to discover that the city isn’t what they need or want. there are cruel necromancers and an undead god and the Beast, and all of this in less than 80 pages.
when I saw Charlie Jane Anders’s blurb of the novel as “a huge fantasy epic” I thought, lmao, sure. but it is. it fits an impressive amount of action into so few pages, without the action feeling rushed, while letting the characters breathe and be. it’s an exhilarating and beautiful ride (though there are a few misplaced words / phrases, malapropisms, and other failures of editing).
it is a story about self-(re)creation, a story about revolution, a story about the death-trap of transmisogyny, a story about defeating an all-consuming death cult, a story about tearing down walls and refusing to rebuild them, a story about surviving as a trans woman, and a story about falling in love as a trans woman — among other things.
there are a few moments of somewhat liberal politics, inevitably, but it is nonetheless extremely good. highly recommend it.
moods: adventurous, emotional, hopeful, inspiring, reflective