Margins and Murmurations

Paperback, 366 pages

Published July 3, 2018 by Active Distribution.

ISBN:: 978-1-909798-98-4

(5 reviews)

Imagine you had the ability to move through your own life, to revisit your past and foresee your future. Which events would you long to remember and which would you forget? Would you want to know what the future holds?

This is the story of Ash, a trans woman and healer living in a corner of Europe controlled by a militarized state. Amidst the economic crash of the 2020s, this land, once a hub of diversity, saw the rise of a state-imposed monoculture of gender, sexuality, ability and race. Those that didn’t fit, known as the divergents, were imprisoned, expelled or worse.

Ash and her best friend Pinar long ago escaped the City, left behind their days of fighting State oppression, and are eking out a calmer life in the forest, ravaged by the effects of climate change. One day, Jason, a resistance fighter, arrives abruptly into their life, reigniting …

Imagine you had the ability to move through your own life, to revisit your past and foresee your future. Which events would you long to remember and which would you forget? Would you want to know what the future holds?

This is the story of Ash, a trans woman and healer living in a corner of Europe controlled by a militarized state. Amidst the economic crash of the 2020s, this land, once a hub of diversity, saw the rise of a state-imposed monoculture of gender, sexuality, ability and race. Those that didn’t fit, known as the divergents, were imprisoned, expelled or worse.

Ash and her best friend Pinar long ago escaped the City, left behind their days of fighting State oppression, and are eking out a calmer life in the forest, ravaged by the effects of climate change. One day, Jason, a resistance fighter, arrives abruptly into their life, reigniting personal and political drives and they find themselves drawn back into the fight.

Joining trans and queer organisers, sex workers and other members of a hidden underclass, they risk everything to return to the City and face their oppressors. In this fight for dignity, self-determination and survival, Ash’s ability to transcend time, a trait that until now she has considered her curse, turns out to be a more powerful weapon than anyone could have imagined.

3 editions

booktalk with kikir reviewed Margins and Murmurations by Otter Lieffe (Margins, #1)

Margins and Murmurations

No rating

Content warning trans hate mentioned, no spoilers

Margins and Murmurations by Kes Otter Lieffe centers trans, queer, disabled, elder people and sex workers. Thanks for the recommendation!

I'm ever thirsting for stories with older/elder female or genderqueer role models and feeling so grateful for two main characters that rock: Because of how they live their relationship, their way of living with nonhuman beings, their being active in community, struggles against the state, dealing with trauma - because of the way Ash and Pinar simply are.

I liked the story and the educational parts about what it means to constantly have to deal with trans-hate, but also the entertaining ones about queer animals or the ones about plant remedies, or what murmurations are.

Time travel and neurodiverse time concepts are brought together, thus opening my understandings of time.

It's one of those books that make it difficult to leave the story and that make me miss the the characters.