2.5. Conklin’s writing is tight and impressive, but man. Most of these stories felt uncomfortable and spiteful for the sake of it.
There are some major standouts. “Pioneer” and “Sunny Talks” were my favorites, with an emphasis on the latter for being a sympathetic look at the gap of understanding between younger/older queer culture and expectations.
The elephant in the room is that so many of these stories involve heavy themes of child sexual assault that are touched upon, but don’t really seem to say anything other than be there as depressing shock value. Maybe I’m just not the right audience, but those stories (the majority of them, really) just didn’t click with me at all.
Not a big fan of two separate transmasc characters forgoing HRT because of worries about increased aggression, baldness, cancer, etc. Characters are characters, and they can have their own motivations, but it feels a …