This collection nudged at some tender, bruise-y places for me. My granddad, who I never called Opa, who was born into a big Mennonite farming family, who had memories I never heard first-hand, who spoke English for all his adult life but learnt German later as a way of remembering, who I wonder about often, now that I'm grown up and ready to understand, now that he's no longer here to tell me who he was before he was the granddad I knew. Also a lot of university memories, blurry nights and panicked phone calls and so, so many conversations with people I loved about why what had happened to them wasn't okay, the complicated networks of love and trust and betrayals of trust and dependence and un-safety. So like, I don't want to measure a book's value by how personally relatable I found it, but I think there's a degree of softness I feel that comes from very specific points of contact and similarity, that tangles up my memories and relationships with my experience of reading?

(Maybe the softness also comes with listening to this as an audiobook, narrated by the author, because there is something companionable and warm about hearing her words in her voice.)

All of the above makes it sound as though I loved this book, and I didn't, which feels unfair somehow but is the truth. I appreciate a lot of the emotional meat of the stories, their conflicts & resolutions, their deeply real-feeling Feelings, but stylistically, they sort of blurred together for me? And maybe this comes down to personal preference, because I think it's much harder to have the sort of crisp, story by story clarity I like outside of fabulism and genre fiction - it makes sense that a collection of stories about relationships, friendships, trauma, addiction, transness and family have overlapping themes, use a relatively unchanging language and tone and register. I just struggled to find enough contrast to keep everything distinct, to feel that sharp, immediate, ambiguous hook of Something that lodges itself in my brain and stays there.

I have already listed this book for our store. Trans voices are not often featured and centered in such a moving and authentic way. It's quickly become my go-to recommendation for any adult looking to read more books written from this perspective.
The stories are relatable and feel real, vulnerable, and moving. It's a wonderful and sometimes difficult read.

A beautiful set of intimate stories from the viewpoint of trans characters.

I took quite a few breaks as the subject matter is quite heavy and emotional. I feel like the soft voice of the author/narrator really lent itself well to creating the personal atmosphere of the book, well worth a read/listen. 3.5 rounded up.

The topic-selection of the stories is definitely one of a kind, and the characters felt real to their bones. The author depicts lives of trans women, the trauma and disruption to existence that they face, and all so naturally!

The book can get quite heavy, with solemn topics and ill fates of the characters but I believe some books are not meant for mellow endings. Some stories need to be vicious. And that's how this anthology becomes special.

Very less books depict trans characters, so I am happy this book exists.

This was a really interesting read. Plett makes sure to capture full, well fleshed out trans characters. This book is a heavy read, with heavy subject matter but it is very important to read as well. I would have loved to see a bit more joy, but the scenarios displayed are the reality for many trans people.

Most of the characters were extremely captivating and the stories covered a lot of topics such as transitioning, love, dating, sexual assault, and healing. among many other topics. Plett has some beautiful passages in here. I found Vera's story particularly captivating and would read a standalone of her character.

Least favorite was the last story because the length of the tangents Gemma went into. They came across as needing more editing and I was not the most moved by her story. Even then, the relationship between the two trans women was sweet and steamy while also being human, flawed and complicated.

story: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
audio: ★ ★ ★ ★

Content Warnings: ADBL & age play, alcohol abuse/addiction, drug abuse, explicit sex, homophobia/lesbophobia, rape, transphobia

Books read by their authors, especially an #OwnVoices take are such a treat.

What I love most about Casey Plett is that she writes her books, her trans characters, their trans experiences for trans readers. Her work has never read as watered down to be palatable to cis readers but has remained accessible enough to them.

When I first read A Safe Girl to Love, I hadn’t quite figured out my gender situation. I won’t say it helped me do that, but I can say it helped me feel comfortable being messy. Trans women (note: I’m not a trans woman, just a trans person) rarely get the chance to be seen as messy and flawed but respected, so stories like hers that highlight realistic trans experiences are so wonderful to see.

These short stories are emotional and I loved every single last one of them. At the end of the first story I thought to myself, wow this is going to be great. At the end of the second, this one is going to be my favorite. But as it went on, each new story became a favorite. The gem of the collection is Obsolution, which is told in pieces through the entire collection.

The audiobook is read by the author herself. I freaking love that. She did a fantastic job reading and voicing the characters. The conversations flowed so smoothly that I felt some of these women were my friends.

This was just such a fantastic experience. I highly recommend reading this book, but if you like audiobooks please listen to this one! The stories are engaging and digestible in pieces or in a binge like me.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Bespeak Audio and Casey Plett! I received a free copy of the audiobook to review.

So I got 5 chapters into this book and I Hate the narrator! Sounds like they have something in their mouth or a tongue ring a lisp something dont like it and couldn't get past it

This collection of short stories was lovely and so captivating. A Dream of Woman follows different trans women through various situations and moments in life. We see these women transitioning, building friendships and romantic entanglements, and/or experiencing transphobia and transmisogyny. These stories are so real, so authentic, and felt so special to listen to.

I loved how the author was the narrator because you can be really sure that everything being written is coming across exactly how the author intended it to. The author had fantastic diction and performance quality. This is one of the most enjoyable literary fiction pieces I've ever read, and I would highly recommend this to everybody.

This is such a beautiful book celebrating transness, trans identity, and queerness. Casey Plett has such an incredible authorial voice (and narration voice, for that matter, since she narrates the audiobook and does a brilliant job bringing her characters to life) and was so deft at creating a web of intersectional, beautiful stories that I really recommend for people who also enjoyed Bernardine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other. This book is basically several stories of trans characters searching for meaning, navigating relationships (both platonic and sexual), and living their lives. I couldn't help but feel like I was reading something really, truly special. The intertwining narratives take a second to get acclimated to as they jump timelines and geographic space, but it's a joy to hear from the aforementioned characters in later parts of the book and see how their stories develop. Eagerly awaiting anything else Casey writes!

Thank you to Bespeak Audio Editions for sending me this audiobook! I don't actually listen to many audiobooks, so this was an interesting experience. I think for me it was helpful that they were short stories so that I could sit and listen to them in their entirety because my audio-processing/memory is awful. This is a short story collection that centres trans women in a beautiful, complex, and very engaging way. The characters in all of them feel very vivid, and different from one another with their own lives and experiences. That being said, it's not the easiest read and the characters do go through quite a lot, but it was thoroughly enjoyable and beautifully written.

Thanks to Netgalley and the Bespeak Audio Editions for providing the audio eARC for me to review.
Rating: 4.5/5

Plett’s beautiful and intelligent writing shines in this short story collection, which seeks to explore the contradictions of womanhood through a transfeminine lens. This book portrays its focus characters as beings with complex internal worlds and psychologies. They’re women conflicted by the reality of their existence, struggling and flawed, but ultimately painted with sympathy. Their stories are not thematically light, but Plett manages to write them in a way that is ultimately hopeful.

I loved the collection’s unconventional structure. The individual pieces vary in size from quite short, to quite long, and one of them – Obsolution – was broken up in sections, which alternated with stand-alone stories. All of this helped the collection be quite unique in presentation, and I think it highlighted the thematic links between the different short stories.

This is a beautiful and contemplative short story collection about the complexity of the trans experience, relationships, and identities. It deals with belonging and the beautiful diverseness of trans bodies and voices. It is sensual, euphoric, and deeply moving and every story has morally grey characters who I couldn't help but root for. What an excellent addition to the Canadian queer literary scene!

The audiobook narration was as good as it gets.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me this review copy.

Wow. I'm not huge on literary fiction. It's something that my brain struggles with and I don't read a lot of it anymore. That being said I found that when I do read it I have to do it via audio. When I got approved for this from NetGalley, I was thrilled that it is narrated by the author and the audiobook was fantastic. She does a wonderful job of bringing all of her characters to life.

This is an anthology with a few stories in it all with trans women MCs. The first is about Hazel and Christopher who were childhood friends and reconnect and adulthood after Hazel's transition. This was my favorite of the stories and I think it comes down to how flawed everyone is. There is not a character in the story that is unblemished and every single one has some sort of negative trait that allows the reader to connect with them in their humanness. People are flawed and the story in particular kind of tricks you and then hits you with it at the end.

All the stories in this book feature flawed humans. There's no romanticizing of anything here. These are realistic and messy and dramatic and angsty stories. In the story with Vera and Iris there is content warnings for sexual assault and relationship abuse including gaslighting and manipulation. This is the longest story and was a bit difficult to follow at times. It spans multiple decades for Vera and while it was difficult to follow it was also realistically messy. She goes through a lot of life changes in relationships and experiences and moves towns and experiences life.

In what I'm pretty sure is the last one Gemma and Ava are two trans women who kind of navigate a relationship together. I'm not actually positive that the character's name is Gemma it could be Jenna. Because I listen to this as an audiobook I'm going based on what I heard and I have no spelling context for this. This was my least favorite and I'm not sure why necessarily it just didn't hit as hard for me. Hazel and Christopher story is pretty short and then Vera and Iris the story is really long and so Gemma and Ava's story falls somewhere in the middle and terms of length. It's still a good story and it tackles a lot of big issues specifically including alcoholism and addiction, but it wasn't my favorite of the anthology.

I definitely recommend this to people who enjoy literary fiction and to readers who enjoy the messier side of life and characters. This book is full of queer people. So many queer people. Each story has multiple trans women in it, Vera and iris's story has additional trans men and gay men and lesbians and I'm pretty sure that Ava and Gemma story has a bi or lesbian character.

If you are an audiobook listener or even if you're not, this would be a wonderful intro audiobook. The narration is fantastic and the stories are mostly followable without having text in front of you.

As a whole, I don't know that I will relisten to this necessarily but I did really enjoy it. The way that I'm doing ratings this year is a bit odd and so I'm not even sure where to put this. It's one that I recommend but probably won't reread.

CWs: drug addiction, alcohol addiction, alcohol use, explicit sex, sexual assault, rape, transphobia, homophobia, use of the f-slur, internalized transphobia, internalized homophobia, internalized lesbophobia, transphobic comments from a parent, loss of friendships, brief mention of ABDL and age play.

Takes place in a couple US states and in multiple areas of Canada.

Lovely, authentic collection of short stories. I really enjoy when an audiobook is read by the author.
Being a collection of short stories I found it easy and enjoyable to dip in and out of this, listening to a couple of stories at a time.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my feedback.

3.5 rounded up.

I love the cover of this short story collection and think that it is evocative of the swirling emotions that the stories dredge up.

The author narrates the collection so you know they're being delivered with all the nuances as intended in the writing.

I learned a lot, and felt called out by one of the stories that talked about the grasping of trans pain or joy that cis people can be guilty of without trying or realising.

I enjoyed the stories with the character initially named David the most. I also really liked the first story in the collection.

The stories were quite no-holds barred and this means there was lots of sadness for the characters as well as depiction of addiction, abuse and quite explicit explorations of sex.

My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the audiobook version of this short story collection. Casey Plett does her work justice and she is an engaging narrator. I had read Plett’s other work and this collection lives up to her previous stellar novels. Plett has a gift for weaving narratives. My only recommendation would be to add a content warning at the beginning of the audio considering the graphic triggering content within the book.