Here at Banksia Journal, we hear June is pride month. To mark the occasion, we’ve decided to talk about stories featuring some of our favourite queer characters.
This post contains spoilers for The Diviners, The Forgotten Garden, This is How You Lose the Time War, The Locked Tomb, and Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. We have included links to skip past stories you don’t want spoiled.
Lauren
Ling Chan, The Diviners
Finally, a chance to gush about my beloved Diviners series by Libba Bray! Two out of three of the main cast are LGBTQ+, with my favourite being Ling Chan. She’s a science nerd in the 1920s when that wasn’t really the done thing for young women. She’s also mixed-race which plays a large part in Lair of Dreams, the second book and my favourite out of all of them. And, she’s blunt and honest, valuing the truth above all things, and is a bit jaded after losing the use of her legs to a childhood disease. Having grown up myself in an entirely neurodivergent household, I suspect she’s also neurodivergent, though that may just be my preferred headcanon.
All that is to say, when she does get a crush on [REDACTED], another woman, and further realises she’s asexual (though in the ‘20s it was more like “uninterested in a physical relationship-ual”) she’s already primed to believe that she’s fundamentally wrong and unnatural.
Henry DuBois III, The Diviners
Enter Henry DuBois III, who can pull off a straw boater hat like nobody’s business. He’s known he’s gay since he can remember, and ran away from home in the Deep South to find his true love who went missing years ago. Ling helps him by dream-walking with him—it’s a power they sort-of share, did I mention this book is 1920s supernatural Young Adult (YA)?—and along the way Henry teaches Ling (but really they teach each other) that it’s never shameful to be one’s true self.
They develop a brother/sister bond that represents allyship and support from within one’s own community so well. The whole series is written with such careful craftsmanship it’s like gazing at a masterpiece. The plot is tightly woven, the scenes are dynamic and compelling, and the characters are so real.
I pretty much just use this blog to ramble about my favourite books, don’t I?
Eliza Makepeace, The Forgotten Garden
Speaking of! *Drum roll* Eliza Makepeace from Kate Morton’s The Forgotten Garden! It’s not technically spec fic; it’s family legacy historical. But, if I had to pick a favourite standalone novel it would be this one, largely because of the character of Eliza. And also the craftsmanship. Always the craftsmanship.
Known as “the Authoress” for a large chunk of it, she’s a mysterious figure who we eventually see as she grows up. Orphaned, she’s sent to live with her aunt, uncle and cousin Rose, who becomes her dearest friend. Rose is a “typical” girl of the late Victorian/early Edwardian period, who longs for marriage, and balls, and pretty dresses. But, Eliza is quite content to take the tiny cottage on the cliff side away from the family’s main estate, and dream up fairytales, and publish stories for the rest of her life.
When Rose needs something only Eliza can provide, she’s happy to do it for her beloved cousin, though she comes to regret it. It’s through this situation that we really see the extent of her orientation, which is to say completely and totally asexual. (Disclaimer: that’s my interpretation. But I’ve read it so many times and choose to believe it because we don’t get enough rep.)
I can’t really go into more detail without spoiling everything, but if you’re looking for good ace representation in your heart-wrenching YA and/or historical fic, I couldn’t recommend The Diviners or The Forgotten Garden more!
I also apparently just use this blog to advertise books… do I get signed copies if I ask really, really nicely?
Brittany
I pitched the theme of this blog post as queer characters, and the stories featuring them. But, as I tried to decide who to write about, I found myself thinking about stories I find do interesting things with identity.
Not identity as in the labels we use to describe our gender and sexuality; identity as in the personas we create, how people see us, and the gap between how we’re seen, and how we see ourselves. Identity as in delineating where the self ends, and others begin.
This is How You Lose the Time War
This is How You Lose the Time War is a Nebula and Hugo award-winning novella by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, published in 2019.
Two women—or at least, woman-like beings—Red and Blue, are agents on opposing sides of a time war. They are implanted into different point through history, where they live out lives under assumed identities, nudging history in the direction their side desires. They exchange letters, of a sort—read in tea leaves, and tree rings, and the cod in a seal’s stomach—taunting at first, then increasingly intimate as they fall in love.
The identities Red and Blue take are many and varied, from a commander in the horde of Genghis Khan, to a priest in a futuristic order, with chrome makeup and key caps on her fingers. They must be careful even within their own organisations, their work, and loyalties closely watched. It is only in corresponding with each other that the masks begin to peal back.
They pour so much of themselves into these letters, so many intimate details, the fragments are enough to bring [REDACTED] back to life.
The Locked Tomb
Jump to Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation
The Locked Tomb is a science fiction/fantasy series by Tamsyn Muir, beginning with Gideon the Ninth, published in 2019, followed by Harrow the Ninth in 2020, and Nona the Ninth in 2022. A forth book is forthcoming.
A quote from Charles Stross on the cover of Gideon the Ninth reads “Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!” If that doesn’t grab you, we clearly have different taste in books.
Throughout the series, necromancers attempt to become lyctors—two souls merged within one body—to imperfect results. Characters identities become muddled, and confused.
This mix is expressed in an interesting way in Harrow the Ninth. The story is told predominantly in second person. Then, towards the end, it switches to first person. This first person narrator, it is revealed, had been the one telling the story the whole time, from her perspective as a soul locked inside another’s mind and body.
It can be hard to pull of second person point of view well, so it’s not used often. But here, I really enjoyed the effect Muir created.
And, if you’re interested in a queer reading of Gideon the Ninth, I’d recommend “The Unapologetic Dyke Camp Style of Tamsyn Muir’s Locked Tomb Series” by Kate Wallace Fry.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation[1] is a webnovel by Chinese author Mo Xiang Tong Xiu[2], first serialised in 2015 – 2016. An English translation was released in five volumes in 2021 – 2023.
The story opens with proclamations as to what a terrible villain Wei Wuxian[3] is, and rejoicing at his death.
Skip forward thirteen years, and a young man, Mo Xuanyu[4], destroys his soul and sacrifices his body to Wei Wuxian’s ghost, to take revenge on his abusive family.
Wei Wuxian’s villainy is soon called into question. He claims to have been a peaceful ghost, and looks for loopholes to get out of killing Mo Xuanyu’s family. They are ultimately killed, but Wei Wuxian’s involvement is incidental.
This recurs throughout the story; we see others retell events, then, we see how Wei Wuxian experienced them. A stark contrast is created: There’s the villainous caricature of retelling. Then, there’s the slowly elaborated character who, while not perfectly innocent, was trying his best in difficult circumstances.
With a new face, and a new name, Wei Wuxian tries to make a new start at life. But, despite the widespread misconceptions about him, those who had been close to him still remember him well: his fears, the songs he knows. Enough so, he’s quickly recognised, and pulled back into their circles.
But what of Mo Xuanyu? He is initially described as a gay lunatic who was cast out of his sect. In a bleed between identities, we gradually discover Wei Wuxian is also gay, has had his mental and emotional stability called into question, and was cast out of his sect. And, while it never comes into focus, hints appear that there’s also more to Mo Xuanyu story than we’re first told.
[1] 魔道祖师 | Mó Dào Zǔ Shī; can also be translated asThe Founder of the Monstrous Path [back]
[2] 墨香铜臭 | Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù, a pen name that translates to Scent of Ink, Stench of Copper [back]
[3] 魏无羡 | Wèi Wúxiàn [back]
[4] 莫玄羽 | Mò Xuányǔ [back]
And finally, last month we ended on photos of Brittany’s puppy, Argyle. This month, meet Lauren’s rabbit, Hercule!
What about you? Do you have a favourite queer character? Perhaps a story you think has an interesting take on identity? Or even just a book you want to recommend? We’d love to hear about it in the comments!
Brittany Lee is the co-founder, and editor of Banksia Journal. She is a writer from Perth, Western Australia, with a BA in Linguistics, and Postgrad Diploma in Journalism. Her work has appeared in AntipodeanSF, Dusty Attic Publishing, and Perth’s Raine Square Story Dispenser. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, knitting, and taking photos of flowers (such as banksias).
You can find her online at brittanyerinlee.com.
Lauren Hancock-Coffey is the co-founder and financial manager of Banksia Journal. She’s also a writer and devourer of historical fiction with a speculative twist and an avid fantasy RPG-er with more books and games than sense. She’s a full-time editor with a BA in Linguistics and an MA in Professional Writing and Publishing.