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.
“Trans Wizard Harriet Porber” sounds like a very low budget porn parody 😂
(Not poking fun at the actual book)
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.
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, but I couldn’t do it. I feel like I need to hand in my trans fem card or something…
That’s fair, I feel. It’s admittedly written in a way that can be very hard to parse or follow and it could be a bit hard to connect with if you’re not within a few years of the protag’s age.
I do, however, still feel that one should give it another try eventually if it doesn’t connect right away. It’s a book after all and will not be going anywhere.
I’m not going to hold it up as some kind of trans bible, but Nevada holds a good amount of insight and thoughtful discussion of the way trans women navigate life and social situations both post- and pre-transition. The protagonist is dirty and complicated and arguably ‘bad’ representation and yet she’s a beautiful look into being a trans woman that’s not shown, and will never be shown, in popular media.
It’s also available as an audiobook and it’s read by the author which is a really awesome thing.
Hey, it’s fine. You know, I couldn’t get past the very first level of Celeste, so…
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!
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 have a really hard time seriously recommending it, but The Spirit Bares it’s Teeth is a very good book, though I must give a massive content and trigger warning with it. It holds nothing back and even comes with a lengthy content warning at the beginning I suggest you read and take some time to consider continuing. As a trans and autistic person, I find the main character to be written so well, and the book does not at all feel like an author cashing in on trauma porn. Instead the book feels very honest to the experience people like the main character would have had during the time period and to some extent even today.
