Pluralities

First of all: I. Need. More!

Oh god, this was SO good and SO short and I’m not ready to let this novella go just yet. Avi Silver packed so much emotion into this novella that I actually had to keep taking breaks to catch my breath.
This text about identity and being and finding yourself is so wonderful. It’s accessible and visual and painful and beautiful.

„Pluralities“ is like a little journey of self-discovery that you embark on and where you might even learn a thing or two about yourself.

The writing and narrative style is also simply marvellous and everything is tightening up inside me because I just haven’t really processed the text yet.
I highly recommend reading it if identity and the freedom of your own self are important to you. And also if you want to better understand people who can’t live within the set norms because it simply doesn’t include them.


The English audiobook:
Avi Silver took it upon themself not only to write the novella, but also to read it and I think that was a wonderful decision!
The speed of the reading is pleasant and the emotions come across incredibly well. The sound quality is good, if a little „hollow“. (Like sitting in a rather empty room?)
I simply loved the performance and would listen to the audiobook again and again!

What a euphoric journey! And what a writer! Prose-master, really. Great narration, too.

This is a short novel with two parallel narratives that uniquely queer the notions of identity and relationships.

I must admit feeling a bit lost in places. I thought this was about gender identity and trans finding. How the tale of a prince and his bestie fit in went over my head until the very end, where (view spoiler). This is all about pluralities and opening up new paths rather than drawing hard lines.

I also couldn’t help but appreciate the timing of a new article in Nature on the concept of “gender modality.” This is a recent idea that helps being clarity to an individual’s gender identity and personal history … and also troubles the assumption that including a “trans” option is enough.

I look forward to reading whatever versions of plurality Silver comes up with next.

This made me feel seen! I loved this book, from the writing, to the story. Omg it made me feel so much. The way the writer tells the journey of realising that they are trans was so personal and I just lost myself in this story, I wish there was more. This was beautiful!
4.75⭐️

What an unexpectedly tight work of SFF&F that is at once affirming on a personal as well as cosmic level. The two parallel narratives do such a masterful job of highlighting crucial character growth arcs, one towards gender euphoria and the other towards understanding consciousness and connection. The author's voice, both in their writing AND as an audiobook narrator, is beautiful in its simultaneous vulnerability and self-assuredness. So excited to read more from the author.

This is a really fascinating novella about complicated journeys of gender exploration and nonbinary identity. I really enjoyed it!

I liked how it explored how it can be complicated figuring out nonbinary identity when you’ve been raised in an environment of womanhood-can-be-anything feminism, and even when you’re well aware of queer/trans identities. I also didn’t go into this expecting it to be aromantic (for some reason - I know the author is), but it was a pleasant surprise to find the MC is aro-coded and for it to centre a friends with benefits relationship with a lot of depth!

I really enjoyed the alien story too. I love sentient spaceship creatures and also the realisation that oh, the MC is like fully an alien (many eyes…). The two stories aren’t necessarily connected in the literal way some might expect them to be, but they do have similar themes of identity and running away from your current life to find yourself.

Short and powerful novella, switching between the coming out story of a nonbinary retail worker and the travels of a space prince and his living ship, all fitting a theme of finding your identity among loved ones who give you the space to figure it out, not forcing the words out of you, but lovingly guiding you to what you know is true for yourself. Absolutely gorgeous writing.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6628209957?book_show_action=false

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/e1451e24-aacc-4aba-9413-272216d02856

Check out this review of Pluralities on Fable. https://fable.co/review/f91b2567-42b5-4c40-b2fd-ca1738ee019c/share

This was absolutely fantastic. A brilliantly imaginative, nuanced exploration of gender through a blend of one classic sci-fi adventure and one close look at a character's relationship with their very binarised society. The synopsis called one MC's discovery a "grand exit from womanhood" and this perfectly sums up what happens. It's no small thing for them to discover they're nonbinary, and the narrative gives it the gravity and poignancy it deserves. The two POVs run in parallel and don't converge, but both characters' storylines sit effortlessly next to one another, their questions and journeys to understand their identities complimenting and contrasting each other. This novella also contains some of the best writing I've read in a long, long time. Just phenomenal.