Chris Bergeron provided us with book recommendations!
As a trans writer navigating the intersections of identity, dystopia, and speculative futures, I gravitate toward books that challenge reality, dismantle power structures, and carve out new ways of being. The stories that resonate most deeply with me are those that mutate genre conventions, embrace radical imagination, and refuse to conform—whether through world-shattering prose, rebellious narratives, or sheer poetic defiance. These books aren’t just inspirations; they are kindred spirits, each offering a different lens on survival, transformation, and resistance.
1. The Fifth Season – N.K. Jemisin
No novel has ever so brilliantly deconstructed systemic oppression by fusing science fiction with seismic rage.
2. Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir – Kai Cheng Thom
A flamboyant trans epic where truth and myth intertwine to shatter reality itself.
3. Dandelion Daughter (La Fille d’elle-même) – Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay
A poetic and visceral autofiction that captures the blooming of a trans woman with rare precision.
4. Hexa – Gabrielle Filteau-Chiba
A mesmerizing tale of eco-resistance where nature itself becomes a fierce ally against the brutality of modernity.
5. Annihilation – Jeff VanderMeer
A hypnotic, unsettling plunge into the unknown, where identity and biology mutate into pure, uncanny vertigo.
6. What I Know About You (Ce que je sais de toi) – Éric Chacour
A novel of exquisite subtlety about love, secrecy, and inner exile, written with breathtaking elegance.
7. Children of Time – Adrian Tchaikovsky
Because seeing humanity through the eyes of hyper-intelligent spiders redefines our understanding of evolution and power.
8. Neuromancer – William Gibson
A foundational cyberpunk legend dripping with the chaos of megacities and the adrenaline of technological revolution.
9. The Long Tomorrow – Moebius
A stunning post-apocalyptic vision where the ligne claire style becomes dizzying, foreshadowing all dystopian comics to come.
These books, in their defiance of norms and their insistence on reinvention, remind me that storytelling is an act of survival—and sometimes, of revolution.