320: Recommended Graphic Memoirs by Trans Authors
In this episode, we're sharing graphic memoir recommendations for the Unabridged Reading Challenge category Memoir by a Trans Author.
Jen recommends Lewis Hancox's Welcome to St. Hell: My Trans Teen Misadventure (Bookshop.org), and Ashley shares Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm).
We discuss the power of these personal stories, the importance of representation, and the ongoing impact of book censorship.
Before that, in our bookish check-in, Jen shares Lauren Blackwood's Knight of the God King (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm), and Ashley discusses Alison Goodman's The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm). We wrap up with a This or That question: Do you annotate your books or keep them pristine?
We'd love to hear what you're reading for this reading challenge category!
Bookish Check-in
Mentioned in Episode
Other Mentions
Article by author of Gender Queer https://xtramagazine.com/culture/maia-kobabe-gender-queer-censorship-284724 “Censorship is not a tool of safety, it is a tool of social control.”
Comics against censorship: https://xtramagazine.com/series/comics-against-censorship
Lauren Blackwood’s Within These Wicked Walls (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm) is the Jane Eyre retelling Jen mentioned.
This or That - Annotate your books or keep them pristine?
Listen in to hear our responses.
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Full Transcript for Episode
[00:00:00] Ashley: Welcome to the Unabridged Podcast. I'm Ashley.
[00:00:05] Jen: And this is Jen.
[00:00:06] Ashley: Join us for bookish episodes and check out our website, unabridgedpod.com, where you can find lots of new bookish content to grow your TBR.
[00:00:13] Jen: Sign up for our newsletter to find out more about online book discussions and upcoming events. Find us on Patreon for extra Unabridged content.
[00:00:21] Join us on Instagram and Facebook at unabridgedpod and message us there or see our website to get plugged into the Unabridged community. You want opinions about books? We've got 'em.
[00:00:35] Ashley: Hey, and welcome to Unabridged. This is episode 320. Today, we're discussing graphic memoir recommendations by trans authors. Our recommendations for this one are gonna work well for the category for the Unabridged Reading Challenge that's memoir by a trans author. Just noting that Jen and I decided we were gonna talk about graphic memoirs.
[00:00:55] The category does not require them to be a graphic memoir. We just both decided to go in that direction for the episode. Before we get into our discussion today, I just wanted to remind you that you can support us, independent bookstores, and authors by using bookshop.org. To support us as an affiliate for Bookshop, it's bookshop.org/shop/unabridgedpod.
[00:01:17] So anything that you search for and buy through that, we get a small percentage for supporting them, and we're always happy also to support the way that bookshop.org works. To get into our discussion today, we are gonna start with our bookish check-in. Jen, what are you reading?
[00:01:33] Jen: I just started Lauren Blackwood's Knight of the God King. I am reading it as an e-galley; by the time this episode comes out, it will be published. I'm only in the first few chapters, but I really like Blackwood's work, and this one has definitely pulled me in. So the two main characters are Calliope and Beric.
[00:01:54] Calliope is 18 years old, and the book opens with her at an audition to be the Knight of the God King. She lives in a world where there is this mysterious curse, like fog, that encroaches, curses everything, and kills everything in its path, and for 200 years the only being who has been holding it back is the God King, who is this immortal God King that the whole country worships, of course, because he's basically keeping them alive.
[00:02:25] And his knight is someone who can manipulate magic through their voice and can perform healing magic and can also, like, help support him in his fight basically. So in the audition, Beric is the squire who is in charge of the audition. There are hundreds of people lined up to audition, including Calliope's cousin, Anise.
[00:02:49] And something happened to Calliope's parents, so she lives with her aunt and uncle and cousin, all of whom resent her presence and do not like her and are really cruel to her. So she's sort of hiding from her cousin. She doesn't want her cousin to know that she's auditioning because, technically, Anice, Calliope's cousin, is the one who received the training to be a knight, and Calliope only received training informally because Anise is not very talented, and so she, Calliope, pe was made to help her get better, and as a side benefit Calliope also got better.
[00:03:25] So Anise is definitely not going to want Calliope's competition. And as you might expect, Calliope interestingly gets into the audition. She jumps in line a bit and is really powerful and great, and so Beric the squire gives her the job. She doesn't get to go home. She is immediately swept away to the castle where the Godking lives, and information is dispersed to her kind of belatedly.
[00:03:51] So she has no idea that she's not gonna go home. She has no idea she's going to have to marry the Godking as part of this job because he only trusts people who are part of his family. There are all of these little sneaky things that she's just not aware of. Beric, it alternates perspectives.
[00:04:08] It's not every other chapter, but every few chapters it'll switch from Calliope to Beric. Beric has been the God King's squire since he was 10. He was made a lord along the way, and he has experienced horrible abuse at the hands of the former knight, and the God King's no prize himself. And so he is really hoping that Calliope, the new knight, will be much kinder, but they sort of have this contentious relationship that begins once he sees her in the castle.
[00:04:36] So I'm still, you know, trying to figure out all of the complexities of this world and of the relationships. There definitely... I think it's setting up some sort of romance between Calliope and Beric, and we'll see where that goes. And yeah, I mean, I really like the world-building a lot. I think it's very intriguing.
[00:04:54] It seems to be a standalone, which, you know, sometimes it's nice to have a fantasy standalone and not be in a really long series. Yeah, so, so far it's great. Oh, and I should also say that Calliope is Black, and that in this future world is something that people have some prejudice against. So it doesn't seem to be the focus of everyone's attention, but it is a reason that both Calliope and her cousin Anice may have fewer prospects than others might have.
[00:05:24] And so this opportunity to be a knight is something that is bringing her to a part of society she wouldn't have otherwise had access to. So That's another thing that'll be interesting to see how the fact of her race develops in the plot. But yeah, so that is Lauren Blackwood's Knight, and that's K-N-I-G-H-T, of the God King.
[00:05:44] Ashley: Wow, Jen, I hadn't heard about that one. I like that, though. That sounds like a really interesting premise.
[00:05:49] Jen: Yeah, I feel like I got the promo because I read one of Blackwood's other books. It was a retelling of Jane Eyre set in Africa that was really good. So I'm guessing that's why I got the promo, but yeah, I signed up right away 'cause I really liked that one, whose name is escaping me right now. I'll try to find it and put it in the show notes, but
[00:06:05] Ashley: That's awesome.
[00:06:06] Jen: Yeah. What are you reading?
[00:06:09] Ashley: So one of the ones I'm reading is Alison Goodman's The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies.
[00:06:14] And I had this on hold, but I don't remember ... I think, I feel like I've talked about this a lot this year, that like I just put things on hold from the library and then they magically appear, and I'm like, "Why and when did I put this on hold?
[00:06:25] I don't know." But anyway, I did, and it's great. So this one focuses on Lady Augusta Colebrook and her twin sister Julia. And Lady Augusta is in high society and has decided to remain unmarried, and now she is 42. And she and Julia are both unmarried. Julia had a tragedy that resulted in her not getting married, but Augusta has very much chosen not to be married, and feels that she has the amazing privilege of being able to make that choice at a time when many women, of course, cannot choose that.
[00:07:07] And so there are the two of them, and they do have a brother as well. And as things get started, you realize that- Augusta, who her sister calls Gussie a lot, People are asking her to help out in dire circumstances for women. And so this elaborate plot unfurls where she and Julia have been recruited to try to rescue a woman from a terrible situation.
[00:07:39] I didn't want to reveal too much, but, like, it's a bad situation that, at the time,e is very much, like, there's not a whole lot that people can legally do about it. The woman's family has realized something's going on, and so they have recruited Augusta and Julia to try to help and see if they can intercede in this situation.
[00:07:56] And so hijinks ensue, and both dire circumstances, but also playful and kind of fun. And on their way, there's a highwayman that stops their carriage and tries to rob them, and again, hijinks ensue from there. And so they're ... I mean, it's just fun. Like, it is both playful, but also looking in a very somber way at the role of women and the way that women are treated in society, what is valued, who gets noticed in society, and who is invisible.
[00:08:30] Like, all of those kinds of things. I'm really enjoying it. I haven't read anything by Goodman before, and as I said, I think that a friend recommended this one, but I don't really remember. And so I am happy to have started it, and I'm curious to see where it goes. But again, that is Alison Goodman's The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies.
[00:08:48] Jen: Yeah, that sounds fabulous. Yeah, we were talking a little bit before recording, and I was like, "That Alison Goodman sounds familiar." So I did read a duology by Goodman, Eon and Eona, that I would highly recommend. That was really good. And the Jane Eyre retelling I mentioned is Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood.
[00:09:05] But yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun, and a book with a title like that has to be good, right?
[00:09:10] Ashley: And this one's a series too. It's the Ill-Mannered Ladies series.
[00:09:14] Jen: That's great
[00:09:15] Ashley: So that's fun. Today, as I mentioned in the beginning, we're gonna be discussing graphic memoirs by trans authors, and we wanted to each share a recommendation in that category. Jen, do you wanna talk about your recommendation?
[00:09:29] Jen: Sure. Mine is Lewis Hancox's Welcome to St. Hell: My Trans Teen Misadventure, and it is so, so good. I really enjoyed this one. So Hancox grew up in a town called St. Helens that the students call St. Hell, went to St. Hell High School, went to the college there, and kind of had a rough time. So Hancox knew from the time he was born that he was in the wrong body, and really struggled to try to fit a mold that ultimately was not the right mold for him.
[00:10:10] So he tried to wear dresses, tried to look more feminine, but then would lean into these periods where he was looking more like what he felt inside; he was bullied pretty relentlessly because of that. He-- One of the things I really appreciated about this memoir is the fact that he'll tell a story of someone who had a hard time understanding his feelings or ultimately his transition, and then he'll have a part where he's talking to them about how they reacted.
[00:10:45] And so at one point, his parents are actually pretty supportive, but they don't understand what he is trying to tell them, and they don't know how to support him. And so he has these parts where he's talking to... He'll have a conversation with his mom, and then he's talking to his mom in the present and saying, you know, "How do you feel about how the way, about the way you reacted?"
[00:11:05] And his mom will say, "Well, I just, there wasn't enough information out there. I didn't know what I should say. I was just trying to help you fit in," or, " I thought maybe one day you'd have surgery, but that was the only thing I knew about being trans, was that you might have to have surgery to be a trans person."
[00:11:23] Yeah, so I just felt like it was a really gracious way to deal with some of the people who were his friends and were his family and maybe didn't give him what he needed at the time. But he gives himself and them grace that they learned more and did better later, even though in the moment, maybe they weren't where he needed them to be.
[00:11:46] And he did the illustrations himself. I think it's really powerful to see the way he sets that up. He talks to his younger self sometimes and is trying to assure that person that one day he will be who he thinks he is, like he'll be able to exist in the body that he thinks he wants to be in. It's just gonna take a while.
[00:12:08] And you know, the younger self was like, "Why can't it be now? This is really hard. Why do I have to go through this?" So I just really found those sections to be beautiful, and I thought, yeah, it was just a really kind, I thought, ultimately kind to himself and kind to the people around him memoir about growing up in a time when that wasn't something people talked about.
[00:12:28] And so the knowledge that he needed wasn't out there until later. He had a really rough experience with the first doctor, but then was able to see someone who really helped him. And so you see the way he's circling the information and the opportunities that he needs. It just, it takes a while. The internet is certainly a big part of that, and being able to find people like him on the internet.
[00:12:50] And so yeah, it's always nice... Sometimes I bemoan the internet so much, and social media, but it's nice to remember that it can be a real point of connection for people who aren't able to find that in the people around them. And so that was a good reminder to have right now.
[00:13:07] So yeah, I really love this. I would highly recommend it. It read very quickly. I read it in a few hours, as graphic memoirs often do, but it has been one that has stayed with me. I'll just think about it because I think it really powerfully evokes Lewis's experience. So yeah, so that is Lewis Hancox's Welcome to St.
[00:13:24] Hell: My Trans Teen Misadventure.
[00:13:28] Ashley: Oh, Jen, I have seen good things about that one, but I have not read it. So yeah, I'll definitely pick that.
[00:13:32] Jen: Yeah, I think. You would love it. Very sweet, very tender ultimately. And I'm not saying that to say bad things don't happen in the course of the story. They do, and some moments are very painful, but the thing that I came away with was just, yeah, his love for the people around him and his ability to forgive them for not knowing what they didn't know at the time.
[00:13:51] So anyway, all right, what book are you recommending, Ashley?
[00:13:54] Ashley: I wanted to share Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer, and Kobabe uses ey/ em/ eir pronouns and is non-binary. So I was thinking, as we're talking about trans memoirs, Kobabe is non-binary, and I just wanna be clear that is different than someone, of course, who is transitioning from being assigned female at birth to transitioning to male, or a male assigned at birth who is transitioning to be female.
[00:14:19] However, I really wanted to share this one both because I think it is such a powerful story, and also because it is heavily censored, and so it's just one that I feel there are so many book bans against it that I think it is worth recognizing in the umbrella of self-identification memoirs out there for young people who are trying to find eir way in the world.
[00:14:38] I think Kobabe's memoir is one that, you know, we wanna call attention to and highlight as being a great story. So in this memoir, Kobabe really accounts for a coming of age. I mean, I think what I love about looking at memoirs like this is just that so much of it is about a journey to be a person who feels in eir body, that feels the way that we wanna feel, you know?
[00:15:05] And so there's so much of that. And like you were saying, Jen, Kobabe really shows in the very beginning, from a very young age, how affirming eir parents are, and yet at the same time, even with this, like, very supportive, you know, small family, larger cultural impact continues to make it very difficult for someone like Kobabe to find eir way in the world.
[00:15:27] And so I just thought it's beautiful. I love the illustrations. I love how it is very much Kobabe is such an artist and is working to just show that art in the world, and yet at the same time, the journey is hard for many reasons. And Kobabe also explores sexuality in the book and ultimately identifies as being asexual, and so there's a lot about that also, about trying to find a way in relationships and having some close relationships, but things never feeling what seems to be like how other people feel, and then trying to navigate that and what that means.
[00:16:07] And so I just felt like it was really richly portrayed and shows both the power of understanding ourselves and also how hard it can be to be able to understand ourselves. And Kobabe is very much in the comic community as an adult, and even in that space- assumptions are made, you know, that perhaps people wouldn't expect in a space that maybe is more accepting of lots of different types of people and understanding that there's a spectrum for gender and many other things.
[00:16:40] And yet even so, all these assumptions get made even now. And so I think, like, just seeing that, like you were saying, Jen, you know, the timing, of course, of each author as they're growing up is going to affect the experience. And yet even today we know even in very, you know, quote-unquote accepting spaces, we still have a lot to learn.
[00:17:01] And so I think, like, we really just see that in the memoir. And, as you said, this one read really fast. I read it all in a day, which was like, it's been a long time since I read a book in a day, and I was totally engrossed in the story, and then also just really enjoyed being swept up in it. And, I think what is so powerful about graphic memoirs especially is just that, you know, it's the art as well, that, like, it's just vivid.
[00:17:23] And so then even though I was able to read it really quickly, I also felt that it was really impactful, and I think that's a hard combination for an author to achieve. But you know, I saw that very much in the graphic memoir. So again, that is Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer.
[00:17:37] Jen: I read that one; I can't remember exactly when, and I found it to be such a powerful read. And think it was at the height of book banning conversations- not that they've ended, but around my geographical area- and I wanted to know what it was about. And so yeah, it's always good to know what people are scared of. For the right reader, it could really make such a difference because of the way the book shares that experience. And yeah, sadly, not every reader will be able to find it now,
[00:18:05] Ashley: Yes, and Jen actually shared with me, after knowing that I was reading this one, there's an article that Kobabe just wrote, that I will link in the show notes that talks about the censorship piece. And, in the article, eir is saying, like, I never got into comics thinking that I was going to be standing up for censorship.
[00:18:25] Like, this is not what I expected from my life." And yet, Kobabe is very much at the front of that because the book has been so heavily banned. And I'm also gonna link where there is a series of comics that are comics against censorship, and it's just different people speaking to what is happening. And something that stood out for me in the article was Kobabe said, "Censorship is not a tool for safety.
[00:18:46] It is a tool of social control." And I think, I know a lot is happening in the world, but I just keep coming back to the fact that these things, like bans, do matter, and they matter because they shape the way we understand who we are. And so, you know, yes, there's a lot of important things going on, and there's a lot of things that need attention.
[00:19:09] But I just come back to when we are taking books away from kids, thinking about, like,ke what does that mean? And so, as Jen said, like sometimes it's just good to educate ourselves and, like, know, like these books that are getting a lot of attention, what's in them? Like, what are they about?
[00:19:24] and then asking, you know, what does it mean to, to take them away? So I just feel like that's, you know, the articles will be linked there, but I thought it was so powerful to hear Kobabe say that, you know, that it was not in any way her intention as an artist to, like,e make a stand or whatever.
[00:19:39] But sometimes you become the center of something without meaning to or knowing that's what's going to happen, and we certainly are seeing that with some of the book banning.
[00:19:47] So those are our recommendations. Again, we both chose graphic. You do not have to choose a graphic memoir to meet the category requirements. But we would be interested to know what you are choosing for that category and if you have any recommendations. And finally, today we're gonna end with our this or that, and today it's: do you annotate your books or keep them pristine? Jen?
[00:20:08] Jen: I annotate, and so I'm not highlighting,
[00:20:12] So I will put check marks or asterisks or lines beside particular quotations that I wanna remember, particularly for things that I might be leading discussion for school or for a buddy read or book club, and sometimes I'll underline lines if I really love them. Of course, all of that's easier on an e-reader, but I do that with the books that I own.
[00:20:33] So yeah, I do not keep them all pristine. What about you, Ashley?
[00:20:37] Ashley: So interestingly, I was a huge annotator earlier on, and in fact, when I first started teaching, I guess I really got into it in college probably,
[00:20:47] and when I first started teaching, I was like a little bit shocked by students being so reticent to mark in things. And of course, then you get into school where they can't write on it, and then you have to,o like, find other ways and decide how to teach them to mark up a text because they do need to know that skill, even if they can't write in their textbooks, et cetera.
[00:21:04] But I've noticed that these days I am reluctant, and I really noticed it. We recently read Peter Heller's The Dog Stars, and I had put all of these... It was a reread for me, but I did not own a book, own the book before, and I this time was like, "I am gonna order this from bookshop.org. I really want this book.
[00:21:21] I love this book." And I put in all these book darts. Well, then when I went to remove them, I was sad not to have the passages marked anymore. And then I was like, "Ashley, you can mark in the book." And so it was really funny to be like, oh yeah, like I, of course, can just mark these passages, but it's like I have had an evolution there for sure of like, you know, I really did it, and then I started reading a lot more library books that I didn't own, so of course I'm not gonna mark in those. And I've gotten to where I read a lot of e-reader stuff, so I think it's been an evolution, and for sure I highlight in my e-reader.
[00:21:52] When you said that, I was like, "Oh yeah, I always mark in my e-reader." Like,e of course, you know, but like, I can't; you're not holding that in your hands in the same way, and so yeah, it's funny. I feel like it's been an evolution for me, for sure, and it is as we transition more and more to, like, the digital world, that I don't mark the physical books as much as I used to.
[00:22:10] Jen: Yeah, that is interesting. And I do still love book darts, but yeah, I try to preserve those for books that I don't own, like you said, like library books,s and because I do wanna know what I marked, and if I reread a book, I wanna be able to see what resonated with me the first time through, and did it again, or how did I miss this line?
[00:22:30] Ashley: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Like, I think there's a real joy, especially in rereading and having marked the different things, and for sure when I was in the classroom, I was like marking them up and then also like writing things out so that it was easier to find and reference during discussions. And so I think it's just that, you know, now that I'm not teaching in the classroom in the same way, like that's some of it also.
[00:22:49] But anyway, it's funny. Well, we hope that you enjoyed this discussion. We would love to hear what you're reading for your reading challenge category if you are reading along with us for that, and we'll see you next time. Thanks.
[00:23:01] Jen: Thank you.
[00:23:02] Ashley: Do you have comments or opinions about what you heard today? We'd love to hear them. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at unabridgedpod, or on the web at unabridgedpod.com for ways to support us. To get more involved, you can sign up for our newsletter, join a buddy read, or become an ambassador.
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