This Fantasy Novel is for Everyone Who Feels Betrayed by JK Rowling
Lately, I’ve felt haunted by Harry Potter. Once an obsession of mine, JK Rowling’s hatred of trans people—including using her resources to strip trans people of rights—has poisoned the series for me. That’s been true for years, but in recent months, the franchise keeps popping up unpleasantly in my life.
Months after writing it, I found out John Lithgow has not only seen my open letter (An Open Letter to John Lithgow: Please Walk Away From Harry Potter), but had talked about it in an interview. It was sent to him by a close friend who is the mother of a trans child, but Lithgow responded by completely missing the point and saying it didn’t affect his opinion about the role at all. (I have to wonder if that person still considers him a close friend.)
It was a surreal experience to know that my words had actually make their way to him and to see that letter mentioned in places like Rolling Stone. It may not have had the ideal effect, but it felt like I had done something, at least.
The next day, I was trying to decide what to read next and sampled the first pages of a few books. One was How to Read Like an Anti-Fascist by Annette Wannamaker, where I was greeted with the preface “Fascism, Resistance, and the Confounding Case of Harry Potter.”
Putting that down, I picked up an ARC of one of my most-anticipated fantasy releases of the year, only to see this dedication:
Now that I’ve finished it, I can say this was a five star read that absolutely holds its own regardless of being a response to the Harry Potter series and JK Rowling’s transphobia—but it succeeds on that level, too. Where that series is about children, this book is about adults discovering their magic. Instead of Hogwarts, the setting is New York City. And, of course, this stars trans main characters.
If you want to read a fantasy novel about a coven of trans witches taking on an evil AI, this one is for you.
Pay attention. Something amazing is about to happen.
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Awakened by A.E. Osworth
I was immediately taken with Awakened from the writing style. Our narrator is omnipotent and has a personality, making even character descriptions a joy to read: “He’s a gentleman of alto experience, now a busy bass, slow and deliberate in his words. […] He has a nose like someone played Pin the Tail On the Donkey with a scalene triangle, stuck it wherever, and called it a day.”
(Though, if I’m being honest, I was already sold on this book by the cover and premise.)
When we meet Wilder, they have just woken up with Magic. They can understand every language on Earth. But they don’t immediately notice—they’re too busy trying to piece together gigs to make rent. When Quibble appears—literally, stepping out of a tear he made in spacetime—in Wilder’s room and announces he’s here to invite Wilder to join their coven, it doesn’t go well.
There’s a lot to love about Awakened, but it was the achingly real characters and their interactions that got to me the most. Our narrator provides context, showing how they talk past each other in ways informed by their own trauma. When Quibble and Wilder’s conversation goes south, Wilder lashes out by sneering, “What even is the point of you?” But Quibble, who grew up “really fucking rich” has no concept of his worth being tied to service, and instead of being wounded, he’s bemused. “Quibble and Wilder misunderstand each other so badly that Quibble hurts Wilder when he doesn’t mean to, and Wilder can’t hurt hurt Quibble when they do mean to.”
Eventually, though, Wilder is so overwhelmed with their new Magic—hearing so many conversations that it becomes a cacophony they can’t block out—they reluctantly agree to join the coven, and that’s where we meet its other members: Artemis and Mary Margaret, who are both Black trans women. Mary Margaret is in high school, and Artemis is a parental figure for her, but it’s taken a long time for Mary Margaret to develop trust in anyone.
While it’s not always easy for the four of them to communicate with each other, they’ll need to figure out how to work together and pool their Magic when an AI begins to communicate with them and quickly grows in power and cruelty.
I feel like I could talk about this book for ages, especially the unforgettable characters. I haven’t even mentioned how the story is structured around Tarot cards, or the scene where they cast a love spell of protection over a drag show, or Artemis’s heartbreaking romance with a drag king she’s not quite willing to let into her life, or the surreal final battle and its bittersweet conclusion. Oh, or that this has a sex scene unlike any I’ve read before: it’s a threesome, but one of the characters isn’t corporeal.
This is a complete story, but I can’t help but want to return to this world. Osworth is skillful at developing characters that feel just as complicated as real people. Their little found family is so hard-earned, and I want to keep visiting it.
So yes, if you feel betrayed by JK Rowling, pick up this up. But it’s so much more than that. Whenever the character cast a spell, they being with “Pay attention. Something amazing is about to happen.” And Osworth really has done something amazing with Awakened.
The amazing thing has happened. Fuck yeah.
