The Shutouts

Gabrielle Korn has crafted an incredible duology of queer speculative fiction. Because every great work of SpecFic builds on reality and asks "what if?", the effect in Your For the Taking and The Shutouts is often chilling. The reader is reminded that the very near future could be well reflected in this work of fiction. I feel that is what makes a strong piece of SpecFic - not the fabulous outlandishness of the future, but the plausible reality of a fictional outcome. 
Each character these two books follows is a masterpiece. At once a hero and villain, showing that humanity lives within the shades of gray. On one page, you love Ava and another you hate her. You understand Jacqueline's motivations in one chapter and in another find her methods abhorrent. In the first book, we empathize with Ava in her struggle with her relationship with Orchid and in the second book, we are given the gift of Orchid's history even if she never knows it for herself. 
The first book sometimes felt rushed, as though some elements of the story were skipped over but in reflection on the two books as one story, I see that sometimes a lived experience is felt the same way. As though the details of the day to day are unimportant and what matters are the punctuations of significant events. The second book is a dual timeline, the "past" told in letters written to Orchid by her mother and the "present" in third person limited omniscient POV from multiple perspectives. This allows the story to feel like it's unfolding at a sufficiently progressive pace. 
By the second book's conclusion, the reader is left with a fairly clear image of most of the factors that led the story to its end and we're left with a beautifully reflective final passage that gives the reader the opportunity to consider what can be done to change the paths our planet is on while also giving us the hope of a believing that a better world is possible. 
I genuinely loved these two books and if queer speculative fiction is your jam, I think you will too.