SEPT - Yellowthroat

September review for Book Riot's Read Harder 2018: Yellowthroat by Penny Hayes, 1988. [western category]

In order to find a book for this category, I pretty much just googled "lesbian western." And I found Yellowthroat by Penny Hayes, who apparently is the lady who came up with the lesbian western in the first place! Good to know that I started from the beginning. I've always been sort of a purist that way.

Yellowthroat was published by Naiad Press, one of the publishing companies dedicated to lesbian lit (succeeded by Bella Books), and I think I may have gotten a very early edition of the book, because the pages were falling out of the old glued binding by the time I was done. But I love this copy. I love the cover design, I love the simplicity of it. It is what it is, and nothing more. A sentiment Margarita (the bandit) and Julia (the kidnapped) both emulate in their own ways by the end.

The gist of Yellowthroat is a wlw romance, which I am obviously here for. I loved the scandalous description on the back cover for what happens once Margarita's band of bandits is required to take a female hostage back to their camp because one of them is gravely injured: "Once more Margarita's life undergoes drastic changes. Because amid a growing emotional attachment to Julia Blake, she has discovered the unthinkable: a sexual attraction to another woman." GASP. This is exactly what I wanted. Another item of note in the pro column of this review, is that the lady romance is not the climax of the book. So many of the lesbian novels I read climax quite literally with a single sex scene between the two women in the last act of the book. But Yellowthroat subverts that by introducing the attraction early on, and allowing the falling action of the book to be the women coming back together for their happily ever after (once Margarita has stopped being an idiot).

That being said, the ending fixed itself. Throughout the latter half of the book, there was a lot of internal monologue of Margarita's where she denied herself her desire to live out the rest of her life with Julia. She claims she doesn't want to be tied down, but in the next breath talks of how she will most likely marry a man again eventually. The two women start a damn business together and move to a gold mining town and everything is going pretty great when Margarita throws a grenade into everything, saying "sorry I cannot be with you because it doesn't fit what I think my life should look like so bye." I am grateful that the scenes after where Margarita lives by herself in the valley again and berates herself for leaving go by quickly and do not take up nearly as many pages as their time together. I am also incredibly grateful for her finally coming to her senses and returning to Julia, even though she tells herself she's just stopping by as she passes through the town. (No one just stops by in the Old West. It takes too long to get there. It is very clear you wanted to see Julia and kiss her again so just admit it! -- my brain as I read the last few pages.)

But we do get a happily ever after! There is no kill your darlings, return to heteronormativity, or self-denial in this tale! And boy was I happy to get there. I do believe I will be checking out the rest of Penny Hayes's ouvre in the coming months. I do enjoy a woman who knows how to ride a horse...

SEPT - Ash

September review for Book Riot's Read Harder 2018: Ash by Malinda Lo, 2009. [romance novel by POC category]

I really liked Ash by Malinda Lo. It was a simple retelling, which I always enjoy, but even moreso when they're queer! Because queers deserve fairy tales too. As in, all the fairy tales need to be queered. (Note to self: write queer fairy tales.) It is a reimagining of Cinderella but with faeries and hunters and lady love. As is standard with Cinderella stories, we begin with an overview of Ash's childhood: her mother's illness and subsequent death, her father's distance and remarriage, the tyranny of her new stepmother after her father passes. The one constant throughout all of her trials are the fairy stories her mother used to tell her, as well as a copy of a book of fairy tales her father bought her as a way to remember her mother. She copes with the death of her parents by escaping to the woods at night, trying to find the fairies, and Ash focuses a lot on what it means to love fairy tales, and how you would respond to the opportunity to live in one.

There's a fantastic review in the Los Angeles Review of Books that talks about the positions of women in this universe: the Huntress, Kaisa, at the head of the King's Hunt, Greenwitches responsible for the magic of the land, et cetera. Ash doesn't interact with very many men after her father dies, and the fairy she meets is not necessarily gendered, although she uses male pronouns to describe him. Women abound in Ash's world, and she is constantly trying to see how she is going to fit. She does not think that she has a place in any of these spaces, just a quiet orphan girl with no skills or anyone to back her up. But still she manages to find her way in the world, meeting a faerie and the King's Huntress and moving through it with their influences, conscious or no.

Ash starts to feel "something as yet unnamed" (p202) when she starts spending time with Kaisa, going on hunts and reading together in the sunshine. I absolutely love this phrase, the way it acknowledges the complexities of emotion and budding sexuality. She does not shy away from this, but keeps observing in her small, shy way, and goes to attend the final ball and see Kaisa once again. But, of course, she is thwarted and has to flee the night. Normally I root for the faeries but not when dawning lady love is at stake! Damn faeries...

But everything is alright in the end. And what an excellent ending, may I say!! Happy endings are few and far between for queer tales, and it left me incredibly pleased. I also enjoyed that (spoilers) she didn't have to choose between endings: she submitted to her deal with the faerie who helped her get out, and then she goes to find Kaisa and tells her that they are free to love each other and that she has found a home. I mean, how much more perfect can you get? Not only a happy ending, but one that was actively and determinedly chosen by a young girl who has found her own power in her story.