It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book of poetry (too long), so what better way to kick off the Trans Rights Read-a-thon! This was a moving collection of poetry full of different emotions; there’s the hurt and the pain of being denied basic human kindness, but there is joy, and there is hope. It’s difficult right now to see those last two things, which makes it even more important to cling to them both and try to spread them to others.

We all deserve to have reasons to be joyful, no matter who we love, what we look like, or how we define ourselves. A big hearty ‘fuck off’ to ANYONE who would deny that to a person.

At the end of the book, Melt expresses that it’s been easy to write about the difficult experiences they’ve gone through, it’s easy to sink into the losses, of which there have been too many in the trans community. With that in mind, Melt aimed for this book of poetry to be the direct opposite of all that darkness. To shine a light on the love, the found family, and the trans joy that exists within that light.

There is no denying the way the U.S. and other countries treat trans people, or that there are some awful shitty TERFs out there, but there’s also no denying the beauty of the community that has grown and is continuing to do so. I’m proud to be an ally, to give you my hand if you need it to hold, and offer my heart to take on your fears, anxieties, or worries. I want to share one of the lines from a poem called ‘On My Way to Liberation’ because it was absolutely stunning to me:

𝐼'𝑣𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑑 𝑚𝑦 𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑒 & 𝑚𝑦 𝑐𝑙𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜𝑜 𝑜𝑛 𝑚𝑦 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑙𝑖𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛.

This is in a poem that describes the moment their grandfather dressed like a girl to evade the Nazis. I flagged this poem and I’ve reread it so many times. There’s so much more in this book that moved me deeply, I could share entire pages. The back features a reading guide and critical thinking questions, as well as further reading material. I was absolutely THRILLED to see Akwaeke Emezi’s 𝑃𝐸𝑇 in the curriculum. I’ll end with this, another beautiful excerpt:

𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑑𝑜𝑜𝑟𝑠 𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑢𝑠 𝑏𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑠.

Be warned i will be discusing genre history. While i had my star score on my old book tracking app i did not have a written review, so lets try 3 years after reading it. this might be tinged with the journey with the other 3 books in the series has given me but i will never forget finishing this and wishing i could talk to people about it and now my wishes have come true. this book is simultanously a love letter and a reinvention of the murder mystery genre. It strips it bare with no flair for the fancy and then provides a new and exciting renewal of the genre. We must remember "Shin Honkaku" or new orthodox mysteries, in which this mystery belongs was something rarely seen for a long time in Japan, as while traditional Honkaku mysteries dominated pre the 1960s, the social school mysteries ( dominated by Seicho Matsumoto) with their focus on societal wrongs and thriller elements (realism that honkaku mysteries cant and won't emulate), had quashed most new authors trying this style. Yukito Ayatsuji a young man freshly graduated and a member of his university mystery club took what he knew and wrote about it aka classic crime and university mystery clubs.

Elements that i particularly enjoyed in this book.

1. the dual settings of the island and the mainland- i have seen many reviews that this threw a lot of people off but i think this personally was a genius move as it simultaniously removes and creates tension. it increases tension for the reader as we know people are dying and that something is wrong while the detective and sidekick can peice together clues with little outside pressure.

2. the puzzle itself, by having multiple crimes and murders that are somehow connected, this stops this book from simply being a rehash of and then there were none. which would have been a massive trap because, its not trying to be. You can't beat and then there were none and you can't recreate the shock and structure completely, especially because you would assume that most of your readers will already know the plot of the story so dont need a direct copy. By just borrowing the simple set up it creates expectations and then defies them when, while all the students may be guilty instead of indivual crimes they are instead all guilty of one.

could the writing and dialogue be more fluid yes it could. i am used to dry japanese translations because that is a common problem with translated works. what was instead more important is the puzzle and i honestly didn't find the writing that bad, this book isnt trying to be a masterpiece of literature its a meta genre fiction. of a genre i love very very much. example of me and the mystery genre ""

i will accept and be the first person to say that his examples of women are not the greatest and flucatuate between plainly stupid and mildly infuriating.

i still think its a great twist and a great book.

example of me fighting the haters ""