Beauty and the Beast: Femslash Style
“Am I really so very ugly?”
“I’ve seen worse.”
As part of my ongoing quest to get people to see that YA is not a label that means “this is too simplistic” or “this is poorly-written drivel for teenaged girls,” this week’s science fiction/fantasy short fiction rec list was written with a younger audience in mind. And “younger” does not mean “without taste.”
Here be warned: some stories have sex in them. Trigger warnings are noted where appropriate.
Fuck, these are some good stories (with YA in.)
Beauty by David Barr Kirtley. Beauty and the Beast with a twist. That beast really is a Nice Guy.
Demons, Your Body, and You by Genevieve Valentine. Spend one lousy night with a demon and get stuck carrying his possibly-evil spawn. Man, people are judgmental pricks. tw: abortion
Prudence and the Dragon by Zen Cho. Friendship, love, and magic from our Practical Lady of a narrator. And, by the way, that dragon is no metaphor. (Comes with a sequel! Sequel has ghosts, ladies crushing on ladies, and a smattering of self-examination.)Queen of Atlantis by Sarah Rees Brennan. The story of a graceful princess and Atlantean myth.
Queen of the Kitchen by Karen Healey. Cooking, less-than-true love, and a reluctant fairy princess. Plus a recipe!The Chaos Magician’s Mega Chemistry Set by Nnedi Okorafor. Chemistry and magic are sometimes a bit more closely related than people think. In both cases, one small misstep can result in a very big reaction.
The Ghost Party by Richard Larson. Ghosts and a sexual identity crisis. Heroes come in many guises.
Their Changing Bodies by Alaya Dawn Johnson. Vampires and menstrual blood. Also kickass lesbians and moronic teenaged boys. Bizarrely funny if you can get past the ick factor.
White Lines on a Green Field by Catherynne Valente. Magic on the football field, magic in the hometown. What your small-town high school experience wasn’t like.
Younger Women by Karen Joy Fowler. Vampires, youth, immortality, and social justice. Mothers and daughters and a bit of snooping (but it’s all for the best).PS: If you liked these, every Monday for the next several weeks I will post a new themed sf/f rec list. Upcoming themes include dystopias, hard SF, and fairy tale creatures. Last week focused on LGBTQ characters. Happy reading, all!
the frog prince has some creepy consent-related / tangentially nice guy–ish issues tho
untitled horror project - beauty and the beast
#lol because my hair doesn’t belong to you mr. big bad allegory of sexual predation
