As the title says, what are your favorite books with trans protagonists?
I just finished Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki and thoroughly enjoyed it. The main character is a runaway trans girl who wants to be a violinist. Without spoiling too much it’s also a sci-fi/fantasy story and has a lesbian side-romance. TW for rape and general transphobia.
What Moves The Dead by T. Kingfisher is another favorite of mine. It has a nonbinary protagonist and is a SFF horror rewrite of The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe. If you like an alt-history Victorian setting with the undead this is straight up your alley.
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Most of my favourites are books vaguely about the trans (especially femme) experience. Not for everyone, but I can list a bunch anyway:
- Small Beauty - A quiet book following a trans-woman through processing grief and spirituality.
- Nevada - Classic trans-femme reading. The main character gets fired from her job and dumped and sets off to Nevada to find answers about herself.
- Hell Followed with Us - Very YA, but fairly enjoyable post-apocalyptic book following a trans-man main character.
- A Safe Girl to Love - Another classic trans-femme book, a collection of short stories covering a large range of trans experiences. Casey Plett’s other books are also excellent.
I tried reading Hell Followed With Us, but as a trans man from a deeply religious rural community in the south it was a little too real for me at the time. 😂 I’ve been thinking about giving it another shot though, from what I remember reading the author’s experiences overlap a lot with mine and I love a good post apocalypse book.
I’ll have to add the rest to my to-read list as well, thanks for the recommendations!
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“Trans Wizard Harriet Porber” sounds like a very low budget porn parody 😂
(Not poking fun at the actual book)
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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30279514-dreadnought
Dreadnaught is about a MtF character that inherited a super power thingie that turned her into her ideal body.
I’m a gay male, but still found a ton of sympathy with the main character dealing with her parents trying to “fix” her.
Not trans, but non-binary, a favorite of my partner and mine: Murderbot series by Martha Wells
Partner suggestions: Non-binary: “Monk and Robot by Becky Chambers”
She suggested Light from uncommon stars, said it was fantastic that you already mentioned. But she is hard to stump for book recommendations, so now she has a mission.
Yoon Ha Lee is a trans author and has written tons. She has only read “Dragon Pearl”, which had a supporting non-bin character, and many of their books are likely similar.
Trans main character, not necessarily protagonist. 2nd book specifically of “The Wayward Children” series by Seanan McGuire… she thinks this character is in many of the books, but is focused on in the 2nd.
It’s been a while since I read it, and I don’t think I’ve read the third book in the series yet, but I remember enjoying Lila Bowen’s “Wake of Vultures” and “Conspiracy of Ravens”. It probably needs similar trigger warnings iirc.
Was the protag of that nonbinary? It’s been a few years since I read the first book and I’m struggling to remember the specifics of their gender identity, I did enjoy it though. I haven’t read the sequel book so I’ll have to check it out too!
I want to say started out more nonbinary and moved more towards masculinity, but it’s been years so I’m struggling to remember too.
Does “The Left Hand of Darkness” by Ursula K. LeGuin count? It’s a whole planet of people with 3 very fluid genders.
