Queer Reads You Need: Upcoming Queer Releases, Winter 2017

The Book:

In Karthia, spirits can be found and raised in the Deadlands. However raising them comes at a terrible price -- the dead must wear shrouds from then on out, forever hidden from the living. If any piece of them is seen, they transform into Shades, terrifying zombie-like monsters. When Odessa and her friends, trained necromancers, enter the Deadlands to avenge the killing of a master necromancer, it is her boyfriend, Evander, who is killed instead. Gutted and demoralized, Odessa can barely cope until feelings for Evander’s sister and more deadly encounters propel her to act, forcing her to work toward discovering who is behind a conspiracy to create and train Shades to kill.

Why You Need It:

In this richly imagined fantasy world, magic-filled action and adventure are coupled with hard hitting ideas about grief and the true meaning of the afterlife. For Karthians, death means very little. It doesn’t have to when necromancers exist to resurrect nobles and allow them to continue to rule. But when one of their own dies, necromancer Odessa very nearly allows her grief to overwhelm her. The sadness and vulnerability of death felt by someone whose very existence allows others to live is extremely real as told in Glenn Marsh’s poignant and nuanced prose. As she begins to overcome that grief, Odessa finds solace in discovering who is conspiring to create Shades trained to kill as well as in her feelings for her former lover’s sister. The Reign of the Fallen features top notch world building and a lush story where the author promises that “death is not forever, sexuality is a non-issue, and there’s a party every other day of the week.”