Synopsis
“Wait—rewind. I was still a girl back then, before the universes converged.”
Guided by premonitions and a fateful car ride, a burned-out retail worker stumbles into the grand exit from womanhood. Meanwhile, in a galaxy not so far away, an alien prince goes rogue with his sentient spaceship, seeking purpose in the great glimmering void. As the two of them come together in a fusion of body and mind, they must reckon with their assigned identities.
Tender, witty, and daring, Pluralities is a slipstream-meets-space-adventure story honoring the long and turbulent journey into gender euphoria.
“A tender exploration of gender and body that revels in its own strangeness. Avi Silver never shies away from the awkward, horny, or complicated aspects of nonbinary identity. This is the 401-level nonbinary speculative fiction I’ve been waiting for.” — Nino Cipri, author of Finna
Review
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the audio of this one! The narration was done by the author, which is always awesome! Other than a couple little tonal things when chapters switched, it all sounded great.
Pluralities is a journey of identity, self discovery, and the search for inner peace. The main character, sometimes referred to by her mother as just ‘SHE’, wears her she stamp and goes to work every day until one day, the burnout and desire for more becomes far too much to bear. A lucky car ride home from the boy from the froyo stand changes everything.
The novella features another POV, which is a galactic space prince gone rogue and his sentient ship. He wants to be an adventurer, to forge his own path, and to not be held by the confines of his family. And while this did confuse me a bit (I wasn’t expecting it), I loved that the two stories were perfectly paralleled.
This does include a sex scene, which is typically not my bag, however this is a scene of awakening and discovery. It’s about feeling, imagining, becoming more. And while I can’t completely understand or empathize, I thought it was done exceptionally well.
‘SHE’ has never felt like one, she doesn’t think she’s truly a woman. And after this awakening, they still don’t truly know what they are or what they desire to be, but that’s okay. I loved the inclusion of someone further along their own path being included to tenderly be there for all the ups and downs.
If you’re looking for a resource that does a great job of explaining the feeling, the why, and even the lack of why that people feel while discovering their gender or personhood, this describes it very well.
“I was a shapeshifter, worshipped for my pluralities. Without, within. So many stories of self, huddled together to wander the void of my own uncertainty, fleeing and seeking in equal measure.”
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