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We've Always Been Queer

The podcast is Books That Burn because the original idea was "books that burn you", discussing fictional depictions of trauma. It's also an intentional reminder of the pile of burning books, you know the photo I mean, the one from WWII. It's a pile of books about queerness, gender, and sexuality. Just in case you don't know, the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexual Science) was headed by Magnus Hirschfeld.  It was a resource for gay, intersex, and transgender people, both of knowledge and medical help. It also helped the community with addiction treatment and contraception. It wasn't perfect and some of the ideas they had seem out of date now, the ones we know about anyway. But they were trying to make queer people's lives better, and they were a community resource at a time when people really needed it. Which is all the time, we always need these accesses. And the Nazis burned the whole library. It took days, they had to drag the books ou
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A Song For Quiet by Cassandra Khaw (Persons non Grata, #2)

Deacon James is a rambling bluesman straight from Georgia, a black man with troubles that he can't escape, and music that won't let him go. On a train to Arkham, he meets trouble — visions of nightmares, gaping mouths and grasping tendrils, and a madman who calls himself John Persons. According to the stranger, Deacon is carrying a seed in his head, a thing that will destroy the world if he lets it hatch.

The mad ravings chase Deacon to his next gig. His saxophone doesn't call up his audience from their seats, it calls up monstrosities from across dimensions. As Deacon flees, chased by horrors and cultists, he stumbles upon a runaway girl, who is trying to escape her father, and the destiny he has waiting for her. Like Deacon, she carries something deep inside her, something twisted and dangerous. Together, they seek to leave Arkham, only to find the Thousand Young lurking in the woods.

The song in Deacon’s head is growing stronger, and soon he won’t be able to ignore it any more.

TITLE: A Song For Quiet
AUTHOR: Cassandra Khaw
PUBLISHER: Tor.com
YEAR: 2017
LENGTH: 112 pages
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Urban Fantasy, Horror
RECOMMENDED: Highly

Queer Rep Summary: No canon queer rep.

A SONG FOR QUIET feels good to read, the prose and syllabic cadence drips through my brain like a song I know I like but couldn't quite catch. It has a numb and distant feeling, as the MC begins filled with grief over death that happened before the scene starts, and then never quite gets a chance to catch his breath until the end. It describes how music feels to the characters, intertwined with death and darkness, implying the way it sounds to those who have beautiful ways to describe harsh melodies.

CW for racism, gore, violence, child abuse (not depicted), starvation (not depicted), parental death (backstory), major character death, death.

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A silhouette of a man walking on top of a city skyline, tentacles reach out to him and wind around his saxophone.


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