<i>Pluralities</i> is truly a masterpiece, it is so well-written.
This is a story of self discovery, identity, connection, love, and what it means to be alive as a human being. And all the complexities that makes us who we are.
The narrative is complex and interesting; as a stream of consciousness. Half the book is from the first person perspective of a burnt-out retail worker, who resides in a world similar to our own. The other half follows a rogue prince and his best friend, a sentient spaceship. The latter has more of a traditional sci-fi setting.
The stories weave together to culminate in our main character discovering more about themselves and experiencing moments of gender euphoria, aided by their new friend/companion, Thedeus.

DNF at 10%. Pluralities' writing and characters did not stand out to me, and I found myself getting bored and distracted easily. It definitely had potential but I felt as if the author didn't use that full potential during the writing process. Overall a big disappointment but I won't be writing off the author completely

A reflection on gender a d personhood in a stream of consciousness style narrative.
Extremely imaginative and also so very real in the feelings and terror and elation of losing yourself as you try to find yourself.
This book connected with me in a way I was not expecting, as someone who is genderqueer and still learning what my pronouns and preferences and body choices are, this made me feel understood and seen in a strange way that I didn’t know I needed.
It’s about how the body and the mind aren’t always one but they’re always linked, connected somehow. Even when there is disconnect between the two, they find a way back to one another to meld together into something new and more and something more right and authentic.

(4.5 stars)

Have you ever put off reading a book because you were scared of how good it was going to be? That was my experience with this one. I read the first lines months ago but only got to it now.

If you are looking for your traditional sci-fi, filled with cool technology you'll probably be disappointed. That's not to say you can't enjoy it - that is just not what this book is. Instead, this is mostly a book about gender, putting the pain and confusion that those of us who don't fit into the box that was checked at our birth experience into beautiful words. Although the author may have a different gender identity to my own, I still felt so incredibly seen and understood. I feel like this is more a book of emotions and sensations than plot. While this may not be to everyone's taste, I ended up enjoying it and seeing someone else experience the very deeply and often forcefully gendered world we live in, an experience I'm sure most (if not all) other non-cis people relate strongly to.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

Absolutely captivating read! This book kept me glued to the pages from start to finish. The characters were richly developed, the plot was engaging, and the writing style was simply brilliant. A definite must-read for anyone looking for an immersive literary experience. 5 stars!

Do you ever fall a little bit in love with a book? I keep circling back to this scifi novella and its story, how much I fell in love with our two protagonists.

I don't even want to reveal much more than the synopsis does but this book has so many beautiful, quotable moments that my digital copy is highlighted like a Christmas tree.

I want to highlight three things.
1. There are strong themes about gender and personhood what stood out to me more was how aromatic-coded the book is. We have two POVs and both their main relationships are non-romantic. Sex plays a role, but so does friendship, parent-child dynamics and adversarial connections. It explores many different relationships and the impact the have on our protagonists.
2. The mirroring and merging of the storylines. Avi Silver got creative when crafting this story! In the beginning, the retail worker and the prince seem to have nothing in common and I was wondering if and how the stories would connect, why we are reading about both of them, I adored how it all comes together. By the end, I was sad that it was all over, I would have happily taken another 100 pages. (Not that this felt incomplete, I just didn't want to let it go).
3. Narration style.
I fucking love it when the narrative addresses the reader and the story is told more like a casual retelling than a limited 3rd person point of view. In here, we have a 1st person narration and a 3rd person narration which also helps distinguish the two leads. The story feels also self-aware in a how it frames conversations and memories and how it interacts with the characters.

It's such a well-structured story.

Unexpected. Surreal. Sort of hard to explain. And a feat of short-form speculative fiction exploring gender, and queerness in a refreshing - if not perplexing - way. Regardless, Avi Silver is an author to keep an eye on and expect new narratives unlike what we've ever seen.

(Content warnings: sexual content, dysphoria, minor transphobia, deadnaming, suicidal thoughts, injury detail)

God. I don't think I have the words to describe how this book made me feel other than "absolute gender catharsis." Not only did I spend most of it sobbing, but I actually cried so hard I got a migraine. I think I need to be sent out into the vacuum of space and rotate in silence thinking about it for a couple days. 10/10 would recommend

Like "Clerks" meets "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," Pluralities is an astonishing and empowering blend of SFF and literary storytelling with themes of anticapitalism and gender euphoria that will change how readers view themselves and their societies.

"The Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment about whether an object, after having had all of its original components replaced, remains the same object." - What a magnificent analogy to trans-experiences.

I have almost no words for what I had the honor to read except that it was perfection. The symbolism, the doubled narrative. Theseus. The prince and the ship. Their connection. The symbolism. The perfection of describing trans experiences. The pronoun -stamps.

This was wonderful and a must read - for everyone, no matter cis, trans, straight, queer. This one is important!

3.5

I definitely think this is a case of right book wrong time for me and I will be rereading it at some point when my life is a little less hectic to hopefully “get” all of the praise this novella has received. As it is, I thought the writing was incredible and I loved the exploration of gender and identity and belonging. That being said, I didn’t understand how the two stories connected or if they were even meant to so while I enjoyed reading this novella and highlighted a bunch of quotes, I finished the book with a slight unsatisfied feeling because of the second storyline.

Pluralities alternates between two character-driven stories exploring identity linked in ways that are not always clear. I liked all of the characters and the touching depictions of their relationships, and I was interested in both stories, but both felt incomplete, leaving me wanting more. However, I fell in love with Avi Silver’s beautiful writing, and I highlighted several passages that particularly resonated with me.

Reading Pluralities is a unique and memorable experience. I highly recommend it if you enjoy unconventional narratives, speculative fiction, and queer representation. Note that this book contains swearing, violence, and explicit sexual encounters.

I received a free advanced review copy of the ebook through NetGalley. I volunteered to provide an honest review.

"Surviving the world in small concessions, reassembling the self in pursuit of being taken seriously and loved nonetheless-Cornelius Flux has been playing this game for as long as he can remember."

It was a unique experience. I am really surprised by how this novel was written. I even feel like I missed some things, like I didn't understand it all. It was a whole lot of complicated concepts to absorb after all. But I really really liked it. It was flawed, but quite enjoyable in my opinion. The writing style was versatile, and changed tone between the two perspectives we are following. There is a girl on earth and a boy in space, both stories apparently very separate but linked in a subtle way, that was implied towards the end.

"But having the opportunity to explore myself, to seek the joy in discovery alongside the discomfort of relinquishing expectation it was nothing short of liberating."

"It took a lot of work not to get sucked into other people's traumas, not to suffocate under the weight of all possible futures."

So this book talks about transgender-ism or more accurately, the struggle to recognize oneself. The girl, we don't know her name, ends up in this dilemma of sexuality, of who she is supposed to be. Her mother is a great person, and a big support to her too. Her story was quite understandable but required more pages I think. And it's a very complicated novel, I don't think I understood every single thing. What I did understand was some sort of nontraditional approach to dealing with the dispute over sexism. The women in this story are supposedly very strong but not in a feminist-pov way. The women are considered to be strong and that's the problem. The world expects her to act on those principles of womanhood that are supposed to describe her as a woman. And she is a complex mind, she doesn't really understand this compulsion to act according to the norms of society. And so ends up befriending a trans guy, and becomes one herself. But this book is much more than just transgender and cisgender. What it talks about is understanding oneself, who one is, what one wants and trying to reach out to your wishes in a non-arrogant way. Or that's what I understood anyway. The real self hidden in our ostensible self is depicted as a sort of passenger in a vessel and as a metaphor there is the other story of the boy in the spaceship wandering in galaxies. He is the emotion. He is the sentiment hiding in that spaceship of a mind, that vessel of a body. Trying to find his way out to that mask of a facade the world is supposed to look at.

"Connecting with people had always felt a little like losing opacity, like offering up parts of me that even I couldn't see. The closest I ever got was being curious."

"In a world that wielded womanhood as a silencing tool, I had been born into the mysteries, graced with the knowledge of inherited power."

"Despite the fact that I barely understood myself. I wanted to be understood by others. I wanted to be comforted without having to explain myself over and over and over again."

The other perspective of the boy was more interesting to read. In the beginning I didn't know how the stories were connected so I was just treating it like another perspective that will gradually mingle in with the other. And oh man, it was gorgeous, I loved him. His name is Cornelius Flux and he has run away from his home planet in his frustration. He is tired and exasperated by the worldly talks and the demands of society. So now he is travelling in outer space in this spacecraft, except that it is not a spacecraft at all but a living bionic body. It's made of some bionic living material, and it is living. It can talk in his head and they have the best, the warmest, the most beautiful friendship ever. The ship's name is Bo. They have amazing adventures together. The way they meet and the way their friendship grows to form an unbreakable bond makes me nostalgic and emotional.

"You're not a weapon. Or an afterthought or a, a sidekick. You're my friend! You're my friend, Bo. I love you. I love you so much that it hurts. I don't know what to do with myself."

"If it could reply, Bo would tell him the truth: Because we're no good without the other. Because even at your worst, you do not deserve the pain you house. Because I do not do enough to show just how much faith I have in you. Because I've run a thousand simulations through my core, imagining what our lives would be apart, and it just doesn't work. Cornelius. It just doesn't work."

I just want to appreciate how much this relationship of the ship and the boy was built up and made important in the story. The ship was basically his harbour, they were one and could not be detached just like a mind cannot be taken from a body. There were real piercing scenes and I loved it. The prose is also beautiful and deep. It was really a hefty book, something that demanded a lot of focus and I feel happy to have read it.

"Things were so easy in their youth, when by each ached only for an anchor. Life was so simple, when all they had to fear was everything but each other. Home was such a comfort, back when being understood felt more a purpose than a plague."

I think this quote summarizes the concept really well:

"I was a shapeshifter, worshipped for my realities. Without, within. So many stories of self, huddled together to wander the void of my own uncertainty, fleeing and seeking in equal measure. Transcendent. The lights within me spoke an impossible language, and all at once the ship of my body caught a proper glimpse of its lonesome occupant."

"I hoped so. I hoped we would not lose each other as we dipped between the planes of reality, seeking the shape of each other as the singular plural. Bionic organic. Sentient story."

Pluralities is a speculative, and at times dreamlike, queer delight. I'm not sure genre is a helpful descriptor for this book, as it so satisfyingly occupies space between categories. We follow two tracks, a young person awakening to and stepping into their transness, and an alien prince bopping through space with his sentient ship best friend. The writing style is fun and fast-paced and doesn't hand hold the reader through the story. There's a lot left unsaid, a lot of space (no pun intended) left for us to ponder and put together. The themes tackled are expansive: friendship, love, self-love, self-knowledge, while the tone is fresh and colorful. Pluralities felt like a work that needed to be birthed, irrespective of commerce. This is one that will sit with you, but won't drag you down. I absolutely loved it.

The beautiful cover and subject matter drew me to this title and I’m not surprised to find out the story really resonated with me but it was still a pleasant surprise to like it as much as I did. This is a journey to gender identity and also an emotional space adventure.

“Once more I caught a glimpse of the mark on his cheek, where his she stamp would have been if he were a woman. But men didn’t wear stamps— they were just allowed to Be.”

The author is an exceptionally good one. The writing is rather beautiful, flows nicely and is easy to follow even when it’s the rambly thoughts of the narrator in a world almost identical to our own, or strange things happening in another universe with a sentient ship and its alien passenger.

The story gives good insight into nonbinary, it’s real and emotional, a bit surreal, and rather funny at times. The combination of humour and the space adventure really makes it an interesting tale that doesn’t feel anything like a lecture. I related strongly as a nonbinary person myself.

“When we got to Aunt Lisa’s, it took less than half an hour before I started fantasizing about pressing people’s faces into the grill. This wasn’t something I was particularly proud of.”

I was considering deducting half a star just for being able to put the book down. But when I thought about it more I came to the conclusion that perhaps this book is not meant to be devoured in one sitting.

Unlike most of my reads, this is not a romance book – actually this has some aro vibes, which I dig, though honestly I’m always a sucker for romance and only wish they’d skipped it when it’s implemented abhorrently. So I would have welcomed some romance too but it’s not needed here. There is a lot of love in other forms.

“The ship wishes, as always, that it could open up the prince’s motherboard and understand what is misfiring. It longs for the ability to program a Float for his racing thoughts, reset him to something that would hurt them both a little less.”

My thanks to the author and NetGalley for the ARC.

I’m not even sure how to write about this. “good” “well written” and “I liked this” don’t seem to even get close.
Sometimes you come across a writing style that just…. Feels familiar on first read.
This is beautiful, and messy, and clear and vague and familiar and foreign all at the same time. (this mess of expression is the reason I read books, and don’t write them)
Grappling with their own identity, in a society where SHE stamps are worn by women, the narrator talks through how the stamp doesn’t feel like it fits, but if not, what’s the alternative? There’s a parallel sci fi narrative talking through a metaphor of working with and against your own body.
Specifically significant to me was the conversation with the narrator’s mother. The mother is from a strong line of women, who are brave and strong and proud and who believe that a woman can be and do anything that she wants, so when the narrator indicates the SHE stamp doesn’t fit, the mother struggles to adjust. This just really hit that the people who would see themselves as open minded champions struggle to adjust when something sits outside of the defined limits of how “open” they are.
This is just a magnificent piece of writing that was so viscerally exposed and vulnerable.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

This book stands out amongst ACRs for me. It feels polished, and every word sounds carefully chosen and arranged. I found myself pausing my reading frequently to reread passages again, because they were just that good. So many enormous metaphors that leave your brain swirling at the end of chapters. I loved it. And of course, I can’t forget to mention the delightful sarcastic humor.

The dual storyline was also super entertaining. Personally I love when a book follows two intertwining narratives, especially if each character’s voice is distinctive, and this nailed it!

Many thanks to getting this book as an arc on netgalley.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5690906389 good reads review

I wanted to love this, but I didn’t. I hated this book so much, I just couldn’t get into it. I don’t know what it was about it. Not posting anywhere else.

The novella follows a person on earth unraveling the complexities and nuances of their gender while an alien prince traveling through some galaxy in space mulls over his own life with an incredibly tender sentient space ship as a companion. Though at time it was too fast paced to find myself genuinely invested in the characters, it somehow managed to stick with me ever since I read it. It's thought-provoking, clever and its overall sincerity I found quite relatable and endearing.