Geek Out: A Collection of Trans and Genderqueer Romance

by Cecil Wilde

Gamers. Cospayers. B-Movie Lovers. Otaku. Comic Book Enthusiasts. History buffs. Animals. Coffee. we all geek about something, and nothing quite rivals the passion displayed by geeks for the things they love. There's no limit to what can be geeked over, and no rules about who is allowed to geek about what-and No telling when and where those geeks will fall in love. Defying Convention Double Take Horse Crazy Long Macchiatos and Monsters Love Rampage Manifest Of Anime and the Baeci Sext Based Adventures

Including: Defying convention / Cecil Wilde
Double take / J.K. Pendragon
Horse crazy / Caitlin Ricci
Long macchiatos and monsters / Alison Evans
Love rampage / Alex Powell
Manifest / Alden Lila Reedy
Of anime and the Baeci / Alessandra Ebulu
Sext based adventures / Francis Gideon.

Genres: Romance, Queer, Short Stories, LGBT, Anthologies, Fiction, Genderfluid

448 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2015

About the author

C. V. Wilde may or may not exist.

Reviews

[Weezie · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNFed. Sorry, incest is disgusting.

[Danni Green · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were a couple really good stories in here, I'll say that. I especially enjoyed the first one, and that gave me the impression I would really enjoy the whole book. Unfortunately the quality of the rest of the stories in this anthology varied enormously, with one or maybe two others that were worth reading, a few that were medium-quality, and a few I kinda wish I could un-read. The editing was also very uneven; some stories seemed like they'd been given the support they needed to be the best they could be, and others really just...hadn't. Overall I was disappointed with this, which was unfortunate as I had been really excited to read it.

[Lou · Rating 2 out of 5]

Folks, this is gonna be a long one, mostly because it's a collection of stories by different authors and there was a lot of variety in quality, so it only seems fair to respond to them separately. Also, some of them really ticked me off and now that I've finally finished this book, I want to vent. Some spoilers ahead?

I do feel like I have to preface by saying I think, conceptually, this book is super important. What was great is we saw a variety of trans and genderqueer characters, experiencing their gender in different ways and in different worlds, many of whom had stories that did not solely focus on their gender experience, without disregarding how integral that experience is to their life. It's another one where I think this book could be really good for some people, in terms of discovery. I definitely want more trans and genderqueer romance and, if you're drawn to that idea, I really recommend checking out Austin Chant's "Coffee Boy" and "Peter Darling", as well as Sacha Lamb's "Avi Cantor Has Six Months To Live." From this collection, I mainly rec "Long Macchiatos and Monsters" and "Defying Convention."

Well, onto the actual reviews.



○ Defying Convention by Cecil Wilde
I found this one cute. The shorter format allowed Wilde to avoid some of the pitfalls that irritated in their book A Boy Called Cin (such as weird transitions, insular romance, underdeveloped characters), so just a delightful little romance.

○ Double Take by J.K. Pendragon
Ugh. Before getting into the problematic bit, this story was confusing and the romance felt unconvincing. Really, though, it comes down to the fact that I was never really gonna be cool with everybody being chill with incest, even if it was in a world where incest is sort of okay. "Our father doesn't approve of our love!" say twin brothers and the main character doesn't see a problem, making the father's rejection seem more like homophobia than an issue with, ya know, incest. It's gonna hit my squick every single time.

○ Horse Crazy by Caitlin Ricci
Wasn't crazy about this one. The characters and romance felt underdeveloped. The big thing I remember is that it hit a pet peeve of mine, which is when a story focuses on the very early stages of a romance - in this case, the first two dates - and then has an epilogue sort of tacked on that's like "and then we had a relationship and got married and were super in love forever." The story has not put the work in to make that ending feel earned. I think there are ways to suggest it - instead of simply stating the future, imagine it? "We kissed and I could see a future stretching forward..." But I don't know enough about these people's relationship to be genuinely happy about their happily ever after.

○ Long Macchiatos and Monsters by Alison Evans
The story I enjoyed the most out of the collection, just a really solid, slow romance that I enjoyed immensely.

○ Love Rampage by Alex Powell
This story was really silly and fun. I don't know if it was super well written, but I think that's okay - it had the type of imaginative randomness that reminds me of when I first started writing. Yeah, everything was a little all over the place, but that was the playfulness that was core to the story.

○ Manifest by Alden Lila Reedy
This one is kind of difficult, because the biggest issue is that it was the incorrect format for the story. This was a novel's worth of plot and personal character arc crammed into a short story, which meant that the pacing was weird and inconsistent and the characters changed a lot over too little time. There was a lot of summarizing that was broken by little snippets of conversation and personal reflection. I believe this story could have been successful if it had been much, much longer, so that we could see the gradual change instead of being told it.

○ Of Anime and the Baeci
Oh boy. This story is the reason that this collection took me twenty days to read instead of three, which means my frustration with it may be exaggerated? This story was much longer than the rest and I didn't really enjoy. For one, I think I wasn't clear of what type of world, genre-wise, we were existing in, so when it turned out it was super fantasy, it felt like there weren't quite enough breadcrumbs for us to follow. Maybe this was also why the lore dump partway through felt kind of annoying? I also didn't really feel like the characters were fleshed out and that their dialogue was unrealistic, in that repeatedly I rolled my eyes because is that really how people talk? Really? And, in terms of romance, I was more interested in the one line of Bran talking about getting together with easily frustrated royal guard Stefan than I was with the main characters. There were other things that irritated me - Cata being annoyed because a random author he liked was actually the antagonist (????) and the weirdly educational tone when discussing anime and manga.

○ Sext Based Adventures
Honestly? I don't remember this one much. I wasn't crazy about it, felt like the writing was a bit amateurish, but seeing as I don't have a paragraph of rage, it's clear it wasn't my least favorite.



Final takeaway? Conceptually good, but I wasn't satisfied with the writing in several of the stories.

[Cail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not an equal collection of stories - they appear to be individually edited, so one or two even had some typos - but the stories that are good are very good. I particularly loved the fluffiness of the first story, Defying Convention by Cecil Wilde. Other standouts included Long Machiatos and Monsters by Alison Evans, Manifest by Alden Lila Reedy, and Sext Based Adventures by Francis Gideon. It was very refreshing to see the variety of genderqueer representation in particular throughout the stories - I can never get enough of that.

[Mills College Library]

Fiction G2977 2015

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a hard time enjoying some of these stories. While it was an eclectic collection and I appreciate that this book brings some diversity to literature, it mostly read like fan fiction to me for some reason. I'm glad I read it for the fact that it gave me some insight into the experiences of those that are non-binary, but there were some editing errors and fumbled plot that prevented me from giving this one a resounding accolade.

[Elisa Rolle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Geek Out by Samantha M. Derr: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwid... 2015 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention (5* from at least 1 judge)

[Anne Barwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed these. Wide range of stories within the anthology although they shared a common theme.

[Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really dug this book of short stories, I liked how diverse and totally unexpected they were!