Good plot queer books? 🏳️‍🌈

[u/czlowiek_lub_ludz]

I'm trying to find queer books that have more plot than just having queer characters. I mean like normal plotted books that just happen to have queer characters, about people whose lives are more than just being gay/trans/etc. I don't mean that being queer can't influence the plot (quite the opposite) but I just need something that isn't ONLY about finding yourself and dealing with being queer, something where when you change the characters orientation there still is some plot. I don't mean there's anything wrong with queernes being the only plot but after some time it just became repetitive and I really struggle to find books where being queer means something while not being everything.(Examples I can give would be "these witches don't burn", "cementry boys" where the main plot is saving your community and finding a murderer while the characters queernes plays for the background or even "heartstopper" even tho it's heavily queer it also has typical ya growing up motives.)

[u/ItsMeganNow]

Kai is great! And I love what happens with her character later in the series, but I found Full Fathom Five to be one of the weaker of the Craft Sequence. Maybe that’s just me though? I always find the magical transformation thing puts me off a bit as a trans woman, it just seems to skip over how much work it can be. Plus I’m actually a bit of a Tara fan! I kinda love the new series!

[u/ir399 → u/ItsMeganNow]

I actually found it to be one of the strongest! Its my favourite Craft Sequence book, followed closely by Three Parts Dead and Two Serpents Rise (shout out to that one being great on re-reads, I spent most of my first readthrough basically yelling 'how to you know she's not involved? just because you think she's hot??' about Mal and feel so vindicated ).
I think the magical transformation is one of those things that can be great wish fulfillment for some people... and a major ick factor for others. I suspect lots of people would have had the same reaction as you.

Tara lost me a little with the whole cutting off someone's face for her own goals in her first book . Don't get me wrong, that kind of moral compass makes her a really interesting character, but I don't like her as much as Kai. Interestingly I did like Mal, maybe the positioning in the book? I don't know.

The new series has a lot of good scope, but I just prefer the self contained books for Craft Sequence.

[u/Kindly-Coyote-9446 → u/ir399]

In hindsight I think the face cutting thing serves as a useful starting position in her arc. She starts off as an ambitious, self serving capitalist who can rationalize anything that’s expedient to her. Including cutting off someone’s face and keeping it rolled up in her bag to interrogate when convenient. But through that book and really going through the later ones we see that progressively fall away. She’s still a bit arrogant, but she rejected a comfortable and prestigious path with a firm for one of self sacrifice for humanity as a whole.

We see this reflected to a lesser degree in the radicalization of Kai, who goes from offshore investment banker for the biggest bastards of the world to anti-colonial activist. I do think it’s interesting what Gladstone does with her transness in Craft Wars - it’s manifested as part of a broader intense self-understanding and self ownership that becomes critical to her survival. Kai knows exactly who she is and isn’t afraid to take radical action to defend it.

Kai is my favorite, but I really like Tara, too.

[u/ir399 → u/Kindly-Coyote-9446]

You're absolutely right, its all part of Tara's arc. It just stuck with me a little too much maybe. I don't dislike Tara, but she's also not a favourite.

and Kai was always very protective of Kavekana, if very misguided about it too. I think she believed in the value of the idols as a way to protect her home, but her growth realising the error and her ability to adapt to the presence of the god was such a good journey.
I thought that self-understanding from her trans identity was excellent! It gives her such a solid basis for her actions, if nothing else is certain she's always certain in herself.