This is a short, sweet, lovely and magical story that tells its tale by going full circle. It starts in the present, goes back in time to show how that present came to be, and then returns to the present to explore the ultimate result of those past events.

And it’s absolutely beautiful in its telling.

It’s also a story about San Francisco as a liminal place, a city that is the threshold of many times and places and states and statuses without being a part of any of them. Or being a part of all of them, as the case may be. (New Orleans feels like another such place, which may be why so many urban and/or dark fantasy stories are set there)

There are multiple interstices in the San Francisco of 1940, where the bulk of the story, its past, are set. 1940 was, of course, the eve of World War II in the United States, while the war was already fully engaged elsewhere. History stood on a threshold. San Francisco’s own history also seems to be on a threshold of another kind, as the Great Fire of 1906 is still within living memory but is fading in the city’s consciousness as the coming war takes its place.

San Francisco itself is always on a threshold, as a port city and gateway between the East and the West. It’s population occupies multiple thresholds, as the upper-crust denizens of Nob Hill and the densely packed citizens of Chinatown both do and don’t live in the same city – with the tourists in the middle looking to view the exotic sites on all sides.

The characters of this story are also liminal. They are living on thresholds between respectability and what that time and place referred to as “deviance”. They all make their living on the margins of their world, presenting multiple pretenses to society while only able to be themselves among their own kind.

They are all women who love other women. Some dress as men, some dress as women, some are completely androgynous, and all skirt the edge of the law, sometimes by subterfuge, sometimes by bravado. Always balanced on a knife’s edge between living their authentic lives and a prison sentence.

And this is the story of the last survivor of that strangely beautiful time and place, honoring her promises to those she left behind. Or perhaps they left her. And that’s the beauty, and the magic, of the whole thing.

Escape Rating A: This was lovely, and I wouldn’t have minded a whole lot more of it. But the story that is here is very choice indeed.

I came into Passing Strange both for its historical elements and for its dip into magical realism, as well as for its sidelong glance at the pulps of the Golden Age of SF. And I’m a sucker for the kind of story that comes full circle as this one does.

But I stayed for the characters. The indomitable Helen, the artist Haskel, the writer Emily and the cartomagical Franny. Because it’s their magic, all of them together, that powers the story.

These four women, and two friends who I must admit were not as memorable, form a “Circle” that gives them a place to be themselves and provides support when the world, as it did and does, railed against them for who and what they were. (Not that this has changed nearly enough in the intervening decades.)

On the one hand, this is very definitely a love story. It’s the romance between Haskel and Emily, and displays just how much society was against them as well as just how much they were for each other – and for their circle of friends. Their romance becomes the heart of the magic that creates the mystery.

A mystery that Helen exploits in the present, both to get her revenge on a dealer who swindled a friend, and to make sure that her friends are taken care of, as she promised them so long ago.

With Franny’s magic giving just a hint of just how much that is strange and wonderful still exists in the world. (A bit more of Franny’s story, with a tiny bit more explanation of her map-magic, is, well, not explained exactly but illuminated a bit, in the very short story Caligo Lane, available for a free and quick read at Tor.com.)

In the end, Passing Strange is a haunting thing, a look back on a world that was, a view of a group of women who not merely survived but thrived with a little bit of magic and help from their friends, ending with a surprising bit of epically chilled revenge served with a promise and kiss goodbye.

I read this on a stormy night in a little house by the sea, and it was sweet and queer and fun, and sometimes that's all you need in a book.

Puede que fuera coincidencia, pero durante una temporada, cada libro que leía de la colección de novelas cortas de Tor.com estaba centrado en relaciones queer y LGTB, y aunque en general muchas de las historias me parecían excelentes, la fijación por la orientación sexual de los personajes ocasionaba que las tramas se desdibujaran en algunos casos. Con Passing Strange, de Ellen Klages por fin llegué a una de esas obras que reinvinca una especulación sobre la sexualidad al mismo tiempo que ofrece una historia interesante (y en este sentido tuve ciertas reminiscencias sobre alguna obra de Delany), aunque peca de no ser sólida. Passing Strange es, ante todo, una novela corta muy extraña en la que se mezclan historia, romance, fantasía y arte en un San Francisco de la década de los 40. Aunque el escenario no es demasiado específico y la autora no se detiene demasiado en la reconstrucción del lugar, la trama y los personajes aguantan bien el peso de toda la novela.


La historia, como ya he dicho, sucede en la década de 1940, donde un grupo de mujeres que se autodenominan el Círculo suelen tener reuniones regulares. Todas son lesbianas o bisexuales. Haskel conoce a Emily, una nueva miembro del club y se enamoran, peeeero se van encontrando una serie de obstáculos que les impide vivir una vida tranquila y en pareja. Al mismo tiempo, en el presente, conocemos a Helen, una mujer norteamericana de acento japonés que vende obras de arte originales de una artista llamada Haskel (en general reinterpretaciones de cubiertas pulp de novelas de ciencia ficción y revistas de género).

Voy a intentar explicar por qué me ha gustado el libro, ya que tengo la impresión que en general, no va a gustar demasiado. La novela tiene un ritmo y una estructuración extrañas. Por ejemplo, Helen comienza siendo la principal protagonista del libro, y a las pocas páginas deja de aparecer y no sabemo por qué. Bueno, podemos intuir que es cosa de otro personaje, Franny, pero no se dice claramente. La atmósfera del libro es genial, y ofrece un San Francisco vivo y multicultural interesantísimo. Las reuniones del Círculo son muy divertidas y es agradable leer un libro donde hay positivismo y esperanza. Pero es cierto que peca de naív en algunos momentos, de parecer una excusa para explicar una historia de amor sin mucha enjudia, o incluso de un ritmo irregular. Pero quizá ahí resida la clave, es una historia sin pretensiones, sencilla, bonita y ya. No hay más. Una historia de amor de dos mujeres y de magia en un San Francisco del pasado.

Helen Young is on a mission, a final mission before she dies. It's a secret she's held close for many years, one born of love and magic. A secret rooted in a promise made one night, long ago, in San Francisco.

The year was 1940 and the time was not kind to Helen and her friends. But San Francisco allowed them some freedom, especially a bar called Mona's. There, Helen and her friends could enjoy drinks and entertainment alongside the tourists who came to see the novelty of women dressed as men. The Circle - Helen, a lawyer; Franny, a mapmaker with more than a little magic on her side; her lover, Babs; Haskel, an artist known for pulp magazine covers; and Emily, aka Spike, a singer - knew all too well the difficulties and politics of their era. But none of them expected a very real threat to one of their own. And so, they banded together to form a plan. A plan that wouldn't come fully to fruition until generations had passed.

Passing Strange is a tale about love and the lengths you'll go to to protect the ones closest to you. But it's also an homage to the history of San Francisco.

Set against the backdrop of the World's Fair, Klages deftly brings this bygone era of The City by the Bay to vivid life. Through the eyes of Helen, Haskel, and Emily, Klages gives readers a taste of the magic of the fair, Chinatown, and even the food (oh, the food!) as well as the social atmosphere of the day.

And while magic plays a role in the tale, it takes a bit of a backseat to the rest of those elements. In particular the rules and restrictions the group live by day to day. Today, we're lucky enough to realize these laws are unfair, to say the least, and actually pretty ridiculous by any standard. But to break these rules and get caught was a risk for anyone in their position. The women, all lesbians or at least bi, were considered deviants by society's mores, which we know wouldn't begin to change during most of their lifetimes.

And yet, it doesn't stop them from living their lives.

And it's just one of the facets of these characters, one piece of the whole that Klages has built for each of them. Helen, as mentioned, is a lawyer at a time when women definitely weren't respected in that profession (or most any). Polly, who we meet later on in the story, is Franny's cousin, an obviously brilliant girl who wants to study science but is limited to universities that will actually admit women. Haskel practices her profession anonymously, as time makes it clear, with most assuming the artist responsible for her work was a man.

I loved these characters and their story. To be honest, though, they had to win me over a bit. We meet Helen at the start, in present day, and it's clear she's up to something. Something in no small part that includes a bit of revenge. And I adored her! Just absolutely adored her! I was prepared to spend the whole novella alongside her, and was a bit disappointed when that wasn't the case. Bravo to Klages for introducing a character that elicited that strong of a response pretty immediately! Fortunately it didn't take long for me to realize that each of Klages characters would win me over the same way Helen had.

There are dark undertones to Passing Strange. And not subtle ones either. But like the magic, they take something of a backseat to the endearing love story that's at the heart of the tale.

Absolutely fabulous and immersive historical details focused on under-the-radar sexualities and people in San Francisco of the early 1940s. I especially love the sweet, developing romance. The hints of magic ("folding" space and time) are fascinating -- but are unfortunately somewhat unexplored in the narrative. I also found the multiple POVs to be overwhelming in a novella of this length. Recommended, though I wish it was a more cohesive whole.

I was delighted to find that this book is a return to the magic-infused San Francisco of Klages' story "Caligo Lane," which I loved.

In the present day, an elderly woman, setting her affairs in order as she knows her life is reaching its end, goes to sell a valuable painting to a collector. It's a 'lost work' by a pulp fiction illustrator, legendary among a certain niche market - although the subject matter is a bit unusual for the genre. But there are hints that there is something not quite on the up-and-up about this sale.

The action flashes back to the 1940's, where we meet the artist - who turns out to have been a lesbian in 1940s San Francisco: not the easiest time, although there's a lively demimonde of women who are "in the life." We meet Haskell and her group of friends, one of whom, we realize, is the elderly woman who owned the painting. The tale of how that painting came to be hidden in her possession for so many years is revealed, and it's a story of violence, desperation... and love.

I liked the story very much. My only complaint is that it falls prey to that pitfall of many well-researched pieces of fiction: it's got a ton of details that don't really flow with the narrative, but are more like, "I'm sticking this in because I found out this tidbit of information about what it was like to be a lesbian in 1940's San Francisco and isn't it fascinating!?" Well, yes, it is... but sometimes it didn't feel as seamlessly woven in as it could have.

Many thanks to Tor and NetGalley for the opportunity to read. As always, my opinions are unrelated tot he source of the book.

Review (short version):

Guaranteed to be one of my top books of the year, if not number one. I actually made myself put it down after a chapter or two each night so I wouldn't finish too quickly. Part of the joy is going in blind and I suggest you do the same, so if the blurb interests you go read it. Now-ish. :)

Review (long version):

I'm going to say as much as I can while giving away as little as possible. Characters live and breathe in a city that does the same. The plot is wonderfully paced within an intriguing structure and the writing is as beautiful as it is unobtrusive.

Our heroines live the best life they can despite the homophobia and racism and other miasmas that hang over San Francisco in 1940. They struggle, but they are not defined by that struggle. They aren't damaged or any less themselves. These women do what they can, do what they must, and above all, persist.

I know I haven't done the book justice so... go. Read it. An enthusiastic, wholehearted recommend.

This book was interesting but more of a niche read-it woulod be a good addition for libraries with a strong demand for LBQT historical fiction.

Thank for providing me with this beautiful book! It has all the cool things: a great atmosphere, lovely romance, some hard lessons and so much art content! Really enjoyed Passing Strange and will recommend it with pleasure.

Now to my german followers a bit more "Butter bei die Fische". :D

Vom Film Noir, übers Kabarett, hin zu den Groschenheften (genauer: Pulp Fiction) mit ihren grotesken Illustrationen auf dem Deckblatt: Passing Strange ist ein Buch für NostalgikerInnen und entführt uns in die 1940er Jahre von San Francisco, wo sechs Freundinnen versuchen in einem patriarchalisch bestimmten Alltag ihr Leben zu meistern. Diese Frauen sind intelligent, stehen für Wissenschaft, Kunst und einen Hauch von Mysterium. Viel Spielraum haben sie dabei aber nicht. So schön das Buch ist, so froh bin ich nach dieser Lektüre auch, dass sich die Frauenrechte seither deutlich verbessert haben. Angesichts der aktuellen politischen Lage kann ich nur inständig hoffen, dass wir nicht in diese Zustände der 40er zurückfallen…

Aber genug schwarzmalerische Zukunftssorgen. Passing Strange ist ein kurzweiliges Lesevergnügen mit einem lebendigen Blick auf die damalige Zeit. Die Handlung springt dabei in der Erzählung von der Gegenwart in die Vergangenheit und später wieder zurück. Ich kann nicht behaupten, dass ich sehr viel über die 40er weiß oder über San Francisco, aber die geschilderte Szenerie, die Bars mit ihrem bunten Publikum, die feinen Zwirne und Satinkleider, die feiernden Matrosen auf Landgang, das starke rechtliche Ungleichgewicht zwischen den Geschlechter und denen, die aus der Norm fallen, das alles wirkt überzeugend und sehr lebendig. Genauso lebendig ist auch die Kunst in dieser Geschichte. Sie springt einen in Form der Art Deco Architektur an, in Form der Wände füllenden Malerei eines Pablo Picasso, einer exzentrischen Frida oder der Kreidemalereien einer Loretta Haskel. In Passing Strange stolpert man öfter mal über namhafte Persönlichkeiten, die ganz normal und beinahe ruhmlos erscheinen. Nachvollziehbar wenn man bedenkt, dass sie erst nach ihrem Tod zu solchen Ikonen der Kunst wurden.

Die Hauptcharaktere dieser Erzählung sind Frauen, die im Verborgenen soziale Normen brechen und ein Leben führen das sie die Freiheit kosten würde, wenn irgendjemand davon erführe. Manche von ihnen müssen sich Rassenvorurteilen unterwerfen, andere dem Verbot von Homosexualität und Cross-Dressing, eine der Freundinnen ist womöglich eine Hexe und wieder andere müssen gegen gewalttätige Ehemänner bestehen. Mit wenigen, aber dafür sehr wohl platzierten Strichen, zeichnet die Autorin eine ebenso kunstvoll schöne, wie deprimierend detaillierte Ära, deren optische Eleganz wir heutzutage bewundern, während wir die Schattenseiten nur zu gerne übersehen. In Passing Strange aber treffen sich beide Seiten der Medaille.

Es gibt in diesem Buch einen leichten Hauch von Magie, den ich leider etwas unglücklich eingepflegt empfand. Der magische Trick, der hier zum Schluss hin ausgeführt wird ist zwar unheimlich interessant und herzerwärmend, wirkt aber nach einem zu 95% magiefreien Plot etwas fehlplatziert. Es wäre schöner gewesen, wenn die Autorin diesen magischen Teil durchgehend eingebracht hätte und nicht nur als praktische Lösung zum Schluss. Es ist aber nur ein kleiner Mangel in einem ansonsten stimmungsvollen und kurzweiligen Lesevergnügen, das seine witzigen Momente hat.

Passing Strange ist ein bitterschöner Ausflug in eine romantisierte Ära, die trotz ihrer harten Züge auch sehr viel Herzlichkeit enthält und eine Art von Zauber, der nichts mit Magie zu tun hat. Ich kann diese Erzählung schon wegen der imposanten Kulisse und der allgegenwärtigen Kunst nur empfehlen.

I'm pretty much just staring at the screen, trying to form actual useful words about this novella (and ending up just kind of flailing at the screen instead). This is just such a gorgeous book, with magic, and wonderful queer characters and a historical setting that's so vivid that you can practically smell the air. Go and read it. Now.

Passing Strange is a lovely novella which takes its own sweet time. As it opens, you expect one story, one protagonist... as it continues to unfold, you see that you were wrong. In my case, I didn't mind that bait-and-switch at all, but I imagine some people will find that shift in POV a little jarring. Though I didn't mind, I did find myself briefly wrong-footed by it.

The novella is set in San Fransisco, 1940, among a community of queer women whose lives intersect. I've seen a review where someone felt that the takeaway from this book was "yeah, yeah, we know gays back then had a hard time". There's that, of course, but there's also that community, and that's what I really enjoyed. I don't really want to say too much about it; I think it's best if the story unfolds itself for the reader in its own time.

I've also read a complaint that the speculative aspect isn't integral. It is, but it's subtle; the fact that it's there, quietly but throughout, allows the ending that otherwise couldn't be mysterious or touching or bittersweet. It's an ordinary sort of magic, in the way that the women use it -- it's a tool that happens to be to hand.

I enjoyed the story a lot. And it's another of the Tor.com novellas that feels like it was meant to be exactly this length, no longer, no shorter.

Link will be active from 20th Feb 2017.

"San Francisco is a city well-suited to magic..."

I'm grateful to the publisher for an advance copy of this book via NetGalley.

"Helen Young went into her bedroom. She changed into a pair of blue silk pyjamas, brushed her hair, and put on a touch of lipstick. Then she got into bed, turned out the light, and went to sleep for the last time humming a Cole Porter tune until she and the melody simply drifted away."

So ends one of the characters is this hauntingly beautiful tale of life in the queer melting pot of 40s San Francisco.

Helen is one of a group of young women who work or socialise in Mona's, a club where girls can be boys. Whether working as entertainers not only for their own circle but for the plump mid-west tourists who come to gawp, or simply drifting among like minded exiles from straight society, they stand by each other, providing rooms when needed, meals, cover from the police and moral support.

Haskell is at the centre of this circle. She is a talented artist who makes her living drawing pictures for pulp comic books: the kind of thing where a scantily dressed woman is chained down and menaced by a purple monster. Why does she draw such pictures? Well, it's where the money is, but she has other reasons, as we - and Emily, newly acquainted with the little group of friends - gradually learn. Haskell's life hasn't been easy and she is in a sense perhaps still on the run from her past.

There are others in the group too, including some with startling abilities (like being able to shrink space - but only in that misty city of magic, San Francisco) and we see their joys and sorrows, but it's Haskell and Emily that this lovely, romantic book focusses on. Everything seems against them: the law, society, the looming war (deftly illustrated by the presence of a refugee girl from England), an abusive husband. But they have good friends.

How this setup leads to that ending, to Helen's ending decades later, I won't say because the tension of the story hangs upon it. It's a taut, well-contsructed plot, one of those books where no word is superfluous. And there are some beautiful passages (see especially the parts describing the 1940 World's Fair, taking place on an island in the Bay, just as the rest of the world went to pieces).

I hadn't read any Klages before but I will be looking for more of her writing after this. (You can find a bonus story by here.) An excellent book that features well drawn characters, abounds in atmosphere and celebrates a period and setting I was completely unaware of. (Oh, and look at that beautiful cover!)

If you want to know more about the book, listen to episode 295 of the Coode Street Podcast where Jonathan Strahan and Gary Wolfe discuss it with the author. It's a good listen.

Passing Strange is an absolutely magical story and by far my favorite thing I've read so far in 2017. In this gorgeously imagined romance, Ellen Klages brings the queer side of 1940s San Francisco to glittering life and peoples it with characters who are fresh and interesting and yet still feel like the kind of old friends one wants to visit with over and over again. It's a book that works precisely because of the specificity of its characters and its setting in time and space, and Klages does a great job of balancing the reality of history with the light fantasy elements she introduces over the course of her story. It's still early in the year, but I fully expect Passing Strange to make a lot of year's best lists, my own included.

Structurally, Passing Strange is slightly odd, with a lopsided framing story that leads off with an almost too-long sequence in the modern day (or possibly the near future) that introduces an extended flashback and then a final very short coda that wraps up both stories with a clever punchline. While the payoff is totally worth it in the end, it did make for a bit of a slow start to the book, and I was a little disappointed that Helen Young didn't get more page time in the middle parts, especially when there were other characters introduced who felt much less consequential overall as a consequence of the bookends of Helen's present day story. The problem, however, is mostly a matter of managing expectations. It's not that Helen is unimportant after all or that other characters are given too much importance in the narrative. It's simply that the early focus on Helen kind of leads the reader to think we're getting more of Helen's story, and the realization that we're not takes a while and then doesn't fully make sense until very late in the book. That said, once I figured out what Klages was doing, I found it easy to appreciate the deliberate way in which she reveals her story.

Passing Strange is less a straightforward love story (though romance figures largely in it) and more a detailed portrait of a specific time and place and an examination of a particular set of experiences, here, the lives of queer women in San Francisco in the 1940s. I love the way Klages introduces her characters once the flashback starts, and the picture she paints of all these interconnected women, their struggles and friendships and the joy they have in spite of often difficult circumstances is vivid and real-feeling. Klages seamlessly weaves together scenes of sweetness with scenes of visceral pain without shying away from depicting the ugliness of the era (which is sadly not always very different from our current one) but without dwelling on darkness. It's a balancing act that can be hard to manage, and Klages does so superbly, crafting a story that is true to reality but still ultimately optimistic.

If there's any real complaint to be made about Passing Strange, it's that the fantasy elements of the story are only slight until the very end, when magic is almost (but not quite) a deus ex machina. It's hinted at throughout the book that magic is both real and not very uncommon, but there's only one actual magical event of any significance, and it's not tied to the other magics that are described elsewhere in the book. Just in general, I would have loved to see all of the various magic and witchery suggested in the story be expanded upon more fully, to be honest. The richness of 1940s San Francisco is a lush backdrop for the story already, but Klages hints at an equally rich world of magic just out of the reader's sight.

All this said, Passing Strange is still a near-perfect novella. The few complaints I have about it all amount to just wanting more of it. I want more stories about women loving women, and I want them to have grand romances, magical adventures, and happy endings. As delightful as Haskell and Emily and their friends are, they aren't enough. Passing Strange deserves to be more than a singular work of its type, and if Ellen Klages ever decides to revisit this setting or any of these characters, I'm here for it. If anyone else is writing anything like this I'm looking for it.

This review is based on an advance copy of the book received from the publisher through NetGalley.

I really liked this novella and I’m glad I requested it on netgalley after missing the deadline to read the eARC I was kindly provided by the publisher first! I wrote this review super fast so that I could post it before the release day (yeah I know it’s tomorrow and I’m a bit late), so sorry if this feels a little rushed or with weirdly constructed sentences (more than usually at least!).
It was 131 pages long on my ereader and just the perfect lenght for such a story.

At first it really felt more atmospheric than focused on the characters. It made me want to visit San francisco for real and not just through stories and movies. But then, after the first part that is quite mysterious, everything slowly comes together and starts to makes sense, up until a very satisfying ending.

Mostly this story is about women, a love story, friendship and solidarity. My favourite parts were when they were all talking about science, art and magic; but also asian women discussing what it’s like to live in San Francisco and Chinatown during these years.
It was really refreshing; even if the whole book would have been this it would have been A+ for me!

I loved the individuality of each of these girls, each of these women. All of them of different age, from different backgrounds and with different sexual orientations. I was worried that I wouldn’t get attached to all of them when the point of view shifted at the beginning but I grew to root for them all in the end.

If you take your time to read this novella, it might even feel more like an historical fiction rather than a fantasy one. The magic was just a pinch on the story, but very well dosed. It was not the center of the plot, just something that was there when they needed it, a mystery. Told like that, it might feel like the magic was only used to help the plot move on, but not at all.

The romance was an insta-love, and I feel some people might not like that, but it really didn’t bother me. The relationship grew beautifully and rather quickly, but that’s how it happens sometimes, being pushed into another person’s arms by the circonstances.
This story felt like a beautiful modern tale, with both very magical and nice parts, and some other quite dark and horrifying.