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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 It wasn't perfect and some of the ideas they had seem out of date now, the ones we know about anyway.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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Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark

IN AMERICA, DEMONS WEAR WHITE HOODS.

In 1915, The Birth of a Nation cast a spell across America, swelling the Klan's ranks and drinking deep from the darkest thoughts of white folk. All across the nation they ride, spreading fear and violence among the vulnerable. They plan to bring Hell to Earth. But even Ku Kluxes can die.

Standing in their way is Maryse Boudreaux and her fellow resistance fighters, a foul-mouthed sharpshooter and a Harlem Hellfighter. Armed with blade, bullet, and bomb, they hunt their hunters and send the Klan's demons straight to Hell. But something awful's brewing in Macon, and the war on Hell is about to heat up.

Can Maryse stop the Klan before it ends the world?

TITLE: Ring Shout
AUTHOR: P. Djèlí Clark
PUBLISHER: Tor.com
YEAR: 2020
LENGTH: 176 pages
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy, Historical, Horror
RECOMMENDED: Highly

Queer Rep Summary: Lesbian/Sapphic Secondary Character(s).

*I received a review copy as part of the 2021 Hugo voters packet. 

RING SHOUT is a tense and adventurous novella set in 1915 with the Klan as monstrous racists and Ku Kluxes as interdimensional monsters spreading like a disease among them, fought by a close-knit Black resistance.

This adds a supernatural angle to real events in a way that heightens the stakes but doesn't excuse the actual historical violence. The Ku Kluxes are there because of the racism and hatred which the Klan already has, and this works so well in the narrative. Maryse is a fantastic protagonist, the resistance are a great group, and I especially enjoyed Dr. Bisset. 

I wasn't expecting aftercare in a story this short but this wraps up things really well in terms of the emotional arc, with a satisfying resolution on other fronts. There's tiny moment that makes me think this could support a sequel in the same world, so if that materializes I'm very interested. 

CW for racial slurs, racism (graphic), antisemitism (brief), sexual content (brief), drug use, gun violence, fire/fire injury, medical content, medical trauma, rape (not depicted), blood (graphic), gore (graphic), violence, animal death, parental death, major character death (graphic), death (graphic).

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A white Klan hood with open mouths where its eyes should be, black hands raised in front of it.


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