What a weird book. Primarily atmospheric and yet also a lot of seismic events happening. Wendy's passive/accepting approach to life is maybe why it feels that way? I was struck by how little Wendy hurts/disappoints others, it's all going the other way, except one scene right at the end, where it becomes clear for a moment that that's just her perspective on it and she might actually be causing hurt too. ( )

One of my favorite books I've read in 2023! Plett writes her characters with such tenderness. ( )

2018. Trans women in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Mennonites. This book was almost as interesting a look at Canadian culture as it was of trans stuff. CW suicide, alcoholism, rape, sex work, drugs, depression. I liked it though. It was real. I was all involved. I hoped she’d stop drinking so much and blacking out. Not really a cheery read, but with five trans femme characters and a whole lot of Mennonite stuff, it was interesting. ( )

This book was brutal and beautiful. I couldn't put it down! Plett's depiction of Winnipeg/rural MB brought me back to those places so vividly it was a bit painful.

Not to mention...the prairie winter! Wendy! So glad Little Fish exists. ( )

I read this book like super fast, it only took a few days. I had heard the premise which was interesting but it really dove straight into it with basically no introduction and then weirdly didn’t do much with it. Usually I get annoyed by books about like millennial who do nothing but sit around talking about gender politics but I’ll admit this one won me over by the end. The problem was, coming away from the book I couldn’t tell you much about the characters at all, like did they have hobbies? what do they do for fun? what’s they’re favorite type of music? A lot of this humanizing detail was sacrificed in favor of like weird sex, trauma porn, and alcoholism. I suppose the thing I liked best about this book (and my favorite part of Safe Girl To Love) was stuff about religion, because even if I can relate to queer parts I can’t really relate to the religious parts having been raised atheist and I like reading about experiences that are different than mine. The book was a really interesting portrait of mennonite culture, a culture I knew basically nothing about, and it made a lot of good points on generational trauma and how that can be passed down. ( )