#Logan Kisner

[lgbtqreads]

New Releases: September 10, 2024

Middle Grade Splinter & Ash by Marieke Nijkamp Ash—or Princess Adelisa—is the youngest child of the queen, recently returned to the city of Kestrel’s Haven after spending six years on the other side of the country. Ash was hoping for a joyous reunion, but the reality is far from it. Her mother is holding the kingdom together by a thread; her brother has only taunts and jibes for her; and court is…

[transbookoftheday]

Old Wounds by Logan-Ashley Kisner

Two transgender teens end up in a small, isolated town, where they must escape the locals who plan to sacrifice one of them to an ancient monster that only eats girls. A pulse-pounding thriller perfect for fans of Midsommar and Hell Followed with Us!

Erin and Max are two transgender teens trying to get to California. Max is desperate to finally transition, and Erin is longing to understand why she’s on this trip to begin with. The last she spoke to Max was when he suddenly broke up with her two years ago.

But when they find themselves stranded in the middle of the woods in a small Kentucky town, they realize they have much bigger problems. The locals need a female sacrifice for the monster that lives in the woods—according to them, the sun won’t come up again until the monster eats a girl . . . and it only eats what it kills. Fighting back is futile; no one selected as the offering has ever survived the night.

When the two strangers show up, the locals believe they have the perfect candidate. The irony of the situation is almost too much to fathom.

The thing is, the locals don’t know who they just trapped as their sacrifice. They don’t know Erin’s and Max’s secrets, which could be a death sentence on a good day. And the monster that lives in their woods has never faced prey who have already fought so hard to live.

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Old Wounds

YA horror

two trans teens escape from their small town to drive to California

when they run into car trouble in the middle of nowhere after seeing a flash of something in the trees, they end up at the mercy of a group of men intent on sacrificing them to a beast - but the beast only takes girls

the question of whether the beast respects gender identity gives them a potential chance to escape - but either way one of them will be in danger, and they’ll have to do whatever they can to escape, and maybe repair their strained relationship in the process

[bookaddict24-7]

(New Young Adult Releases Coming Out Today! (September 10th, 2024)

___

Have I missed any new Young Adult releases? Have you added any of these books to your TBR? Let me know!

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New Releases:

Old Wounds by Logan-Ashley Kisner

Gita Desai is Not Here to Shut Up by Sonia Patel

To the Bone by Alena Bruzas

Ida, In Love & In Trouble by Veronica Chambers

How to Lose A Best Friend by Jordan K. Casomar

Desert Echoes by Abdi Nazemian

Till the Last Beat of My Heart by Louangie Bou-Montes

Murder On A Summer Break by Kate Weston

They Thought They Buried Us by NoNieqa Ramos

New Sequels:

Tiger's Tale (The Tiger Saga #6) by Colleen Houck

___

Happy reading!

[haveyoureadthistransbook]

Old Wounds by Logan-Ashley Kisner

goodreads

Erin and Max are two trans kids who are just trying to get to California. Max is desperate to finally be able to transition, and Erin is longing to understand why she’s on this trip to begin with, after Max suddenly broke up with her two years earlier. But when they find themselves stranded - and eventually separated - in the creepy woods of rural middle-America, they suddenly have much bigger problems. First, there’s the creature that, according to legend, feeds on girls, hunting them through the shadows. And then there are the locals, who are searching for a female sacrifice. If either of them hope to survive to see the sunrise, Erin and Max will have to come together and stop running: from their attackers, from each other, and, ultimately, from themselves.

Mod opinion: I haven't read this horror novel yet, but I loooove the cover and I can't wait to check it out!

[gaylittleguys]

ok I know people have written/talked about Ginger Snaps (2000) as a trans allegory from Ginger’s perspective but when I first watched it I read it as a trans-allegory horror from Brigitte’s perspective. More along the vein of being a transmasc teenager and seeing female puberty and the transformations that come from that as horrifying, and fearing that happening to you too.

[the73rdpostscript]

By the way, for my fellow horror fan mutuals, the news about the Suzy Izzard horror movie feels like a great time to promote this person: logan-ashley kisner

He's been researching and trying to create the first comprehensive list of every trans character in horror, and because of the nature of film, the project has also become one of preservation.

You find all it's work here: https://linktr.ee/transhorror

And if you want to listen/watch a pretty decent rundown of how the work was going a year ago, he's recorded one 2 hour video detailing the movies he had watched at that point and their place in the historical timeline/eras of trans representation in horror: https://youtu.be/rmKiBNGMy_k

The video includes some pretty great insights about trends in both bigotry and storytelling across the history of horror - but it especially highlights the positive aspects of some trans horror stories that might get generally dismissed as "problematic" without context.

This whole project is INCREDIBLY cool and informative. I really hope my fellow horror fans check it out and maybe show him some support.

[the-final-sentence]

It’s a long and convoluted path, perhaps, but it’s one she’s confident will bring her back to Max, as it did before and as it hopefully will again.

Logan-Ashley Kisner, from Old Wounds

[shxpeshifterr]

[solreads]

Old Wounds - Review

Title: Old Wounds

Author: Logan-Ashley Kisner

Genre: Horror

Sub-Genre: Paranormal 

Audience: Young Adult

Format: Novel

Representation: Trans girl POV character, trans boy POV character

Summary: In a desperate bid to escape his abusive, transphobic mother and step-father, trans boy Max ditches his phone and sneaks out in the night to make a cross-country trip, telling nobody save his ex-girlfriend, Erin.

Erin doesn’t know why she agreed to this. Max broke up with her two years ago with no warning and no explanation. Since then he’s hardly spoken to her and yet she finds herself unable to say no when he asks for her help to make his escape.

Unanswered questions, unspoken jealousy, and hurt hang between them as they make their way from Ohio to California. But their uncomfortable reunion becomes the least of their worries as their car breaks down outside a small town, leaving them at the mercy of a monster, the people that feed it, and a landscape that distorts to keep them trapped. With legends claiming the monster wants only female victims, neither the two trans teens nor the men hunting them are sure which is the beast’s true prey.

Reflections: This had a fun premise. There are a lot of assumptions and a lot of commentary to be had with the trope of a monster demanding or targeting specifically female victims. What does a monster care for human ideas of sex and gender? What is it really looking for and why? Bringing trans characters into this situation shoves that whole mess right into the light. Of course, they would want and need to ask these questions and I like the way they were answered.

The monster was just an animal or at least something like it, a force of nature. It wasn’t following human standards; it was taking what it was given and the humans enforced their beliefs about it and fed their own biases.

Max and Erin’s relationship also simmered with all sorts of fun hang-ups. Regardless of her strained relationship with her mother, Erin had the support of her family and was able to socially and medically transition as a teenager. Max’s family forced him back into the closet, isolated and abused him, and drove him to attempt suicide. Of course, Max is simmering with jealousy (that he knows is unfair) and unable to express a damn thing. Of course, Erin is irritated, confused, and hurt by him when he can’t manage to talk to her and gets cold and snappish for no reason she can understand. But they are the only trans kids out in their hometown and they grew up with the closeness brought by understanding something in the other that nobody else sees. The mix of that closeness and the distance of how different their struggles ended up being came across very well.

Their pasts informed their reactions to getting caught up in a horror story in a realistic way. Max, who has been stuck in survival mode for years and finally has some tantalizing, desperate hope waiting for him, wants to get out no matter what, no questions asked and does not care what happens when he’s gone. Erin, who has safety and love in her life and has always had room to think beyond life or die, immediately starts asking, ‘What happens next if we escape? Who takes our places?’ and can’t fathom taking the selfish, self-protective path. I can sympathize with Max only being able to see the next step ahead of him and what keeps him alive and with Erin’s empathy pushing her to take dangerous risks because she won’t put herself above any other girl. (And then the ways both of their convictions get undermined later on.)

I did think some of Erin’s interactions with the monster felt a little too easy. It’s not what the town’s people make it out to be, sure, but it is still a man-eating monster; it did kill all the girls before her. She got on its good side and figured out its behavior with no effort, almost immediately. It seemed like there was time in the story to do a little more with the monster. The narrative was not so tightly packed that it would have gotten in the way.

Warnings: Depictions of transphobia, misgendering, transphobic violence (including sexual assault to determine a trans person’s sex), and dysphoria. Discussion of the murders and suicides of real trans people. 

Notes on Rep: Both MCs identify as transgender on page. 

[the-bi-library]

Happy bisexual visibility day! Here are bisexual books out in September!

Books listed:

The Lovers by Rebekah Faubion

Pumpkin Spice & Poltergeist by Ali K. Mulford and Elle Morrison

Love and Loathing in El Olvido by Sylvia San Sebastian

At the End of the River Styx by Michelle Kulwicki

We Will Devour The Night (The Essence of the Equinox, #2) by Camilla Andrew

The Hunter's Gambit by Ciel Pierlot

The Seemingly Impossible Love Life of Amanda Dean by Ann Rose

The Age of Larkspur by Aleighsha Parke

She Slipped Through the Cracks by W. Payne Sillavan

The Glass Scientists, Vol. 2 by S.H. Cotugno

The Shadowbearer's Curse by Jasmyn Morning

Nightstrider (Nightstrider, 1) by Sophia Slade

No One Does It Like You by Katie Shepard

Imbued (Imbued, #1) by Helyna L. Clove

Ménage à Claws (Wayward Déine Chronicles Book 1) by Amelia Lascaux

Spells to Forget Us by Aislinn Brophy

Not The Fainting Kind (Not That Kind Of Dandy Book 2) by Will Soulsby-McCreath

Old Wounds by Logan-Ashley Kisner

The Gods Below (The Hollow Covenant, #1) by Andrea Stewart

Gravity’s Fire by C.J. Aralore

Hating a Witch by Brigid Hunt

Stuck in the Middle With You by Frances M. Thompson

You and I Collide by E. A. M. Trofimenkoff

The Kings of Dusk & Dawn (The Heir to Moondust, #4) by Lou Wilham

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

💙💜💖 Bi Books Coming Out September 2024

💖💜💙 It's Bisexuality Visibility Month! Here are a few bisexual books coming out in September that would make fabulous additions to your never-ending TBR! Happy reading!

💙 I apologize for any discrepancies. Publishing days are subject to change.

💖 The Seemingly Impossible Love Life of Amanda Dean - Ann Rose 💜 Old Wounds - Logan-Ashley Kisner 💙 The Lovers - Rebekah Faubion

💖 This World Is Not Yours - Kemi Ashing-Giwa 💜 The Gods Below - Andrea Stewart 💙 Old Wounds - Logan-Ashley Kisner

💖 The Hunter's Gambit - Ciel Pierlot 💜 We Will Devour The Night - Camilla Andrew 💙 The Shadowbearer's Curse - Jasmyn Morning

💖 She Slipped Through the Cracks - W. Payne Sillavan 💜 The Age of Larkspur - Aleighsha Parke 💙 At the End of the River Styx - Michelle Kulwicki

💖 Love and Loathing in El Olvido - Sylvia San Sebastian 💜 Pumpkin Spice & Poltergeist - Ali K. Mulford & K. Elle Morrison 💙 The Gods Below - Andrea Stewart

💖 You and I Collide - E. A. M. Trofimenkoff 💜 No One Does It Like You - Katie Shepard 💙 Stuck in the Middle With You - Frances M. Thompson

💖 Imbued - Helyna L. Clove 💜 Spells to Forget Us - Aislinn Brophy 💙 Ménage à Claws - Amelia Lascaux

💖 Hating a Witch - Brigid Hunt 💜 Not The Fainting Kind - Will Soulsby-McCreath 💙 Gravity’s Fire - C.J. Aralore

[moony-myles]

Queer Coding in Re-Animator!

A mini list of my favourite works that examine Re-Animator through the ways in which it is queer coded!

✶ ✶ ✶

"Refuse of God's Failures" and Transness in Bride of Re-Animator - Logan Ashley Kisner. Gayly Dreadful.

https://www.gaylydreadful.com/blog/pride-2021-refuse-of-gods-failures-and-transness-in-bride-of-re-animator

A short piece that talks about how Bride of Re-Animator exhibits symbolism of the trans community through themes of body modification and creation.

Queering the Slasher : Re-Animator - vide0 n4sty. youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGQe9CmBsN0&list=LL&index=1

A video essay which analyzes Herbert West in specific as an example of a queer character in horror. As well as how the Re-Animator films are queer coded overall.

Made to be Monsters ; 'Re-Animator' - Logan Ashley Kisner. An Injustice!

https://aninjusticemag.com/made-to-be-monsters-re-animator-659943b944df

Another piece by Kisner, this work is longer and goes into more detail about the queer coding of both the first and second films. Specifically they again talk about trans coding and symbolism that can be found in the movies, though this time more through the lens of Herbert being a trans man rather than relating it to the Bride.

[lgbtqreads]

Hi, I recently read Alison Rumfitt's book Tell me I'm Worthless and I loved it so I requested her other book brainwyrms from my local library. But i was wondering if there are any other trans or lesbian horror books.

Sure are! If you like her stuff, check out Gretchen Felker-Martin's as well - Manhunt and Cuckoo, and there's also The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo - trans horror but with a male protag (and historical). A little further away, Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White and Old Wounds by Logan Kisner are YA trans horror. And in lesbian, check out My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna Van Veen, The Wicked and the Willing by Lianyu Tan, We Ate the Dark by Mallory Pearson, Yellow Jessamine by Caitlin Starling, and Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield.

[jigsaw-copycat]

Forever enjoying the fact the final year film school almost 70 page dissertation I put this image in gave me a 1st in my whole uni degree

(Og image is from an article by Logan Ashley Kisner - their article was referenced in my writing)

[Image ID: A screengrab of Ash Williams from the TV show Ash Vs. Evil Dead photoshopped on top of a static trans flag. The image is pasted into a word document. Text above reads Ashley "Ash" Williams. End ID.]

[fullmetalfisting]

Here is what I read in the month of September!

1. Love and Other Conspiracies by Mallory Marlowe ⭐⭐⭐

2. The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton ⭐⭐⭐

3. Us in Ruins by Rachel Moore ⭐⭐

4. 49 Miles Alone by Natalie D. Richards ⭐⭐

5. A Family of Killers by Bryce Moore ⭐⭐⭐1/2 

6. Old Wounds by Logan-Ashley Kisner ⭐⭐⭐

7. To the Bone by Alena Bruzas ⭐⭐⭐

8. Red River Road by Anna Downes ⭐⭐⭐

9. The Lies We Conjure by Sarah Henning ⭐⭐

10. The Ornothologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton ⭐⭐⭐  

11. Look in the Mirror by Catherine Steadman ⭐⭐⭐ 

12. Guillotine by Delilah S. Dawson ⭐⭐⭐