These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart

In a queer, noir technothriller of fractured identity and corporate intrigue, a trans woman faces her fear of losing her community as her past chases after her.

Fantastic! Great world-building, great characters, great plot twists. Highly recommended!

This is a near-future novel featuring trans-positive and LGBTQ characters, framed around a murder mystery involving cloning. Wasserstein shows a lot of promise as a novelist; I enjoyed this one.

I was blown away by how much I loved this book. While I thought I would like the novella based on the synopsis, I wasn't expecting this to be a favorite book of mine.

These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart features a trans protagonist in a cyber-noir setting and centers on a murder mystery that grows into a larger corporation-based thriller. However, These Fragile Graces is much more than just a mystery. Its razor-sharp prose prompts readers to consider its queer characters and the queer experience, sometimes asking uncomfortable questions. Why do only certain characters get to be complex? Why can't queer and trans characters also be complicated? Why don't we afford them the same grace we afford cis, heterosexual men? These are tough questions, but Wasserstein handles them beautifully. She uses the framing of a noir-murder mystery, to let her characters be wondrously flawed.

This novella reminded me how much I love messy, complicated characters in science fiction. I firmly believe the best science fiction occurs in grimy, gritty worlds, and those worlds rarely hold pristine people. Wasserstein's characters are amazingly crafted and the perfect blend of complicated and capable. Dora, the protagonist of the book, is a trans woman living in a worn-down corner of an almost post-cyberpunk city. At the novella's opening, Dora receives a visit from an old friend and learns of a murder in her former commune. The remainder of the story centers on this mystery, while also tackling traditional cyberpunk themes of cloning, drugs, and big corporations.

I loved Dora as a main character, but the secondary characters also shined. Blue, with all their complicated and confusing feelings, was one of the most compelling characters I've read in a long time. Although the commune dwellers were mostly minor characters, I also enjoyed getting to know them.

Final Thoughts: I loved everything about this novella. The characters are complex, and the mystery is sharp. The world is bleak, yet the commune shines as a bright spot. I loved Blue (and who they become). I loved Dora. Read this novella.

Rating: An enormous 5/5 stars.

Review will be posted on Back Shelf Books on March 1, 2024, on the link below.

I rarely read dystopian fiction—it generally feels enough like non-fiction to make the reading experience rather uncomfortable and often downright heart-breaking. I am, however, quite glad that I found These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart. It is dystopian, but it's also a mystery (a genre I love to read) with a cast that covers pretty much the entire gender spectrum.

The novel is set in Kansas City several decades into the future. Class rifts have widened. The haves have even more. The have-nots scrabble along in the best ways they can using methods ranging from larceny to anarchist collective living. Dora (Theodora, once Theodore) used to be a part of a particular collective, but left it burning bridges behind her. So when Dora finds out that her ex, one of the founders of the collective, has been killed and then finds herself being attacked by a series of assassins who just happen to be clones of her pre-transition self.

This is mind-bending stuff. The technologies of the time are far enough from, yet close enough to, our own to feel both familiar and completely foreign. The hunt for the truth requires moving across a number of dangerous cultural landscapes and making risky decisions about who to trust.

If you enjoy mysteries or sci-fi that move beyond the usual cis-dominated cast, you'll love These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart. If you enjoy both, you're in for a real treat—with whipped cream and a cherry on top.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher; the opinions are my own.

Review publishes on 2/25/24.

THESE FRAGILE GRACES, THIS FUGITIVE HEART is a queer thriller about a trans woman who returns to her former anarchist compound and ends up investigating her ex's murder. It intimacy, autonomy, and connection, as well as the timeless question of "if you fuck your own clone, is it incest or masturbation?"

THESE FRAGILE GRACES strange and vibrant, set in a dystopia with governmental and corporate neglect inversely proportional to the wealth of the residents, when any remain at all. The worldbuilding is drawn in broad strokes, only explaining as much as is relevant to Dora's thoughts at any one moment. What is explained is about the result, not the path to get there, as much of the collapse happened before her lifetime.

Even as the mystery part of the story takes a bit of a backseat to Dora's identity crisis when confronted with her clones, it never loses the tense thread which began with her ex-girlfriend's murder and sudden return to a place she left under stressful circumstances.

If you like queer dystopian thrillers, don't miss THESE FRAGILE GRACES, THIS FUGITIVE HEART.

This novella is both a recognisable addition to a classic traditional, and a beautiful voice of its own. FUGITIVE HEART reads like the best cyberpunk and neo-noir, with the added punch of corporate ambition twisted in a deeply personal case for the protagonist, Dora. Highly recommended.

Playing Citizen Sleeper got me in the mood to finally get around to my ARC copy of This Fugitive Heart which was short enough to never lose my attention but long enough to have a fully-fledged story. Set in a cyberpunk future, Dora, a trans woman, is called back to the commune she once left after the accidental death of her ex by overdose. In true thriller fashion, her wasn't accidental and this kickstart a series of events that leads to the author questioning the intersection of cloning and transness. I won't say too much because I'm already spoiling some things but given that the afterword is dedidated to the author's thoughts on the topic, I think it's worth mentioning in the review.

With a novella, it's hard to review it without spoiling the plot, or saying it's good/bad/boring. I believe that This Fugitive Heart is really worth reading for anyone interested in cyberpunk and its intersection with transness.

Sometimes a combination of genres is just enough to make me squee, ‘oh yes!’ and here we have them: a futuristic, dystopian mystery, techno-thriller noir. Then layer that with the theme of being trans, not fitting in for other reasons, throw in some corporate shenanigans, abusive parents – and oh yes, cloning o.O

This is sliver of quite dark near-future dystopia. The technology is advanced, but otherwise it feels close enough to be chilling. Society seems to have crumbled, with various ‘otherness’ corralled into little enclaves, for community and safety.

Dora’s opinions on certain matters forced her out of her commune, but now she’s back, called on to investigate the suspicious death of her former lover, Kay. Few in the community are willing to accept it wasn’t a tragic accident, but Dora’s skillset is such that she’s not going to let the matter drop. Her investigation soon uncovers some far bigger and more sinister goings on than she was prepared for – not least, meeting herself. Sort of.

The whole story – short as it is – places us firmly in Dora’s head, and thankfully she is a strong and interesting character to carry that. There’s a lot of past trauma to be uncovered, and how that affects choices in the present.

I have to be honest, there is some sexual content that I – not remotely a prude – wasn’t entirely sure about. I don’t mean that it’s graphic at all, but… well, no spoilers. However, the issues of consent and appropriate behaviour are sort of the point. I still wasn’t 100% comfortable with it all, but given the ‘own voice’-ness of the writing, I shall bow to better knowledge on the subject than my own.

Mostly, though, this is a taut little mystery, with huge dollops of sci-fi that totally enthralled me. It’s got layers packed into that short length, and the blend is absolutely excellent at bringing something that bit fresh to the table.

This was a well-done sci-fi, thriller novella! There's so many different things here intersecting — late-stage capitalism, the effect of that on the integrity of human relationships, a nice queer romance with trans women rep, corporate espionage and ethical conundrums, a vaguely dystopian universe where every interaction seems to have an underlying caginess and care to it that makes you fear for the human race in general, which is where the nice queer romance comes in to sweeten the bitter taste. It reads very efficient, and I felt deeply compelled to keep turning the page until I got to the end. Definitely recommend this fast-paced, connective, curious novella!

My review is in the November December issue of Analog Magazine, available on line now and in the print edition this month. Here is the link:
https://www.analogsf.com/current-issue/the-reference-library/