As the title says, what are your favorite books with trans protagonists?
I just finished Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki and thoroughly enjoyed it. The main character is a runaway trans girl who wants to be a violinist. Without spoiling too much it’s also a sci-fi/fantasy story and has a lesbian side-romance. TW for rape and general transphobia.
What Moves The Dead by T. Kingfisher is another favorite of mine. It has a nonbinary protagonist and is a SFF horror rewrite of The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe. If you like an alt-history Victorian setting with the undead this is straight up your alley.
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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30279514-dreadnought
Dreadnaught is about a MtF character that inherited a super power thingie that turned her into her ideal body.
I’m a gay male, but still found a ton of sympathy with the main character dealing with her parents trying to “fix” her.
I haven’t heard of this one before, thanks for the recommendation!
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“Trans Wizard Harriet Porber” sounds like a very low budget porn parody 😂
(Not poking fun at the actual book)
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Not trans, but non-binary, a favorite of my partner and mine: Murderbot series by Martha Wells
Partner suggestions: Non-binary: “Monk and Robot by Becky Chambers”
She suggested Light from uncommon stars, said it was fantastic that you already mentioned. But she is hard to stump for book recommendations, so now she has a mission.
Yoon Ha Lee is a trans author and has written tons. She has only read “Dragon Pearl”, which had a supporting non-bin character, and many of their books are likely similar.
Trans main character, not necessarily protagonist. 2nd book specifically of “The Wayward Children” series by Seanan McGuire… she thinks this character is in many of the books, but is focused on in the 2nd.
I totally forgot about the Murderbot series, I enjoyed what I read of it! I’ll have to check out the other ones too, thanks for the recommendations.
Most of my favourites are books vaguely about the trans (especially femme) experience. Not for everyone, but I can list a bunch anyway:
- Small Beauty - A quiet book following a trans-woman through processing grief and spirituality.
- Nevada - Classic trans-femme reading. The main character gets fired from her job and dumped and sets off to Nevada to find answers about herself.
- Hell Followed with Us - Very YA, but fairly enjoyable post-apocalyptic book following a trans-man main character.
- A Safe Girl to Love - Another classic trans-femme book, a collection of short stories covering a large range of trans experiences. Casey Plett’s other books are also excellent.
I tried reading Hell Followed With Us, but as a trans man from a deeply religious rural community in the south it was a little too real for me at the time. 😂 I’ve been thinking about giving it another shot though, from what I remember reading the author’s experiences overlap a lot with mine and I love a good post apocalypse book.
I’ll have to add the rest to my to-read list as well, thanks for the recommendations!
Hello fellow trans man from a deeply religious community in the south. I will definitely be reading that book.
Big recs on Nevada. Everyone should read this book at some point.
I tried, but I couldn’t do it. I feel like I need to hand in my trans fem card or something…
Hey, it’s fine. You know, I couldn’t get past the very first level of Celeste, so…
It’s hard to admit, but I’m bad at Fallout New Vegas
That’s fair, I feel. It’s admittedly written in a way that can be very hard to parse or follow and it could be a bit hard to connect with if you’re not within a few years of the protag’s age.
I do, however, still feel that one should give it another try eventually if it doesn’t connect right away. It’s a book after all and will not be going anywhere.
I’m not going to hold it up as some kind of trans bible, but Nevada holds a good amount of insight and thoughtful discussion of the way trans women navigate life and social situations both post- and pre-transition. The protagonist is dirty and complicated and arguably ‘bad’ representation and yet she’s a beautiful look into being a trans woman that’s not shown, and will never be shown, in popular media.
It’s also available as an audiobook and it’s read by the author which is a really awesome thing.
I think you’re on to something there. I’m not American and I’m a lot older than the protagonist. Her life felt very removed from mine, so I didn’t get the feeling of resonating with her experiences the way many people seem to. But you make a good point about coming back to it at some point! I should do that
Does “The Left Hand of Darkness” by Ursula K. LeGuin count? It’s a whole planet of people with 3 very fluid genders.
It’s been a while since I read it, and I don’t think I’ve read the third book in the series yet, but I remember enjoying Lila Bowen’s “Wake of Vultures” and “Conspiracy of Ravens”. It probably needs similar trigger warnings iirc.
Was the protag of that nonbinary? It’s been a few years since I read the first book and I’m struggling to remember the specifics of their gender identity, I did enjoy it though. I haven’t read the sequel book so I’ll have to check it out too!
I want to say started out more nonbinary and moved more towards masculinity, but it’s been years so I’m struggling to remember too.
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas. Gendered magic system with FtM trans main character. Ghosts and teen romance. Its definitely YA but I really enjoyed it.
Sir Terry Pratchett has some great characters in Monstrous Regiment. Pratchett was making social commentary in the Discworld books decades before it was “cool”. You’ve likely seen quotes and ideas you didn’t know originated there.
One long-running character is a trans dwarf who could hardly be less acceptable to her race, but she does her thing and fuck anyone’s opinion.
All of the Discworld books are a wild ride. I’ve read 1,000+ books, never anything as smart as Discworld.
I have a really hard time seriously recommending it, but The Spirit Bares it’s Teeth is a very good book, though I must give a massive content and trigger warning with it. It holds nothing back and even comes with a lengthy content warning at the beginning I suggest you read and take some time to consider continuing. As a trans and autistic person, I find the main character to be written so well, and the book does not at all feel like an author cashing in on trauma porn. Instead the book feels very honest to the experience people like the main character would have had during the time period and to some extent even today.
