#old wounds Logan Ashley Kisner

[yookdraws]

Quick doodle of these two because I read the book and couldn’t stop thinking about them ❤️

[aritany]

for anyone looking for excellent trans horror: OLD WOUNDS by logan-ashley kisner

[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

[shxpeshifterr]

[venting-intothevoid]

“He didn’t pass as a boy, and he made for a terribly ugly girl.”

fuck.

[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-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

[s3dated-w4y]

the Eldritch horror thing in the book I'm reading only takes girl sacrifices, so l'm wondering if its going to take max (ftm) or Erin (mtf). do cryptids respect gender identity? think they should. actually no. I going by biology, which is good because I like Erin better anyway

[semper-legens]

29. Old Wounds, by Logan-Ashley Kisner

Owned: No, library Page count: 347 My summary: Erin and Max are getting out. Two trans kids in the rural South, they just want to get to California and start their lives anew. But when their car breaks down in rural Kentucky, they find themselves at the mercy of the woods. Time is folding in on itself, a beast is stalking through the shadows, and the local people want their blood. Can Erin and Max escape with their lives? My rating: 2/5 My commentary:

This was something that looked interesting from the shelf. A YA novel about transgender teens, not afraid to talk about the bigger issues of being a trans eighteen year old in America, abstracted through the idea of a monster that eats girls. But I really couldn't get along with it. I'll talk about why under the cut, and I'm not even sure that any of the issues I've seen are things that the author is conscious of and deliberately put into his narrative, but nonetheless, they were there. I didn't find Max to be all that engaging as a protagonist, and Erin didn't have a whole lot of personality to be working with. The teen drama elements and the supernatural elements didn't mesh all that well together in my mind - the supernatural threat felt like something of an afterthought to me, something that wasn't as developed as the points the author was making about the societal problems faced by our protagonists. It's a shame, I think there was a lot of promise in this premise, but there were just too many things getting in the way.

Here's one of my bigger problems. For a novel that has a transfeminine main character, this was a very transmasc book. Max is the one who struggles with transness; Max is the one whose family doesn't understand his identity, he can't transition, he is bullied and abused, whereas Erin just seems to have an easy ride? It didn't ring true for me. Erin didn't seem aware of the basic dangers of being a trans girl in the world today - Max was far more concerned for his safety than Erin was for hers, which didn't feel authentic. Trans women are some of the most endangered people in the queer community, and yet Erin was fine? And structurally, this was Max's story more than Erin's. He's the one who needs to run away in order to actualise his trans identity, providing the inciting incident; he's the one who starts hormones at the end of the book, wrapping it up in a nice bow. It's his story, Erin's just window dressing to it. And that really rubbed me up the wrong way. It felt like Erin as a character was almost being thrown under the bus to service Max and his story, despite Erin being set up as a secondary protagonist. It's not good to see transfems sidelined to be bit players in the stories of transmascs - we should have equal representation! To be clear, too, I don't mean to say that writing about transmascs is somehow Unwoke or whatever. But this wasn't a book that presented itself as being a transmasc story, it presented itself as being the story of these two kids, one transmasc and one transfem. But it wasn't Erin's story as much as it was Max's. Erin got sidelined for Max, and that's the issue I have with it. Hell you could remove Erin's transness without too much problems in the story, but not Max's.

However, there's more to this that just kind of irked me - I don't know, I don't know if I'm just seeing things. Certainly I don't think the author intended any of this. But there's a particularly gendered way that the threat of 'a monster who eats girls' is presented. Erin is the creepy townsfolk's target initially, but then she outs herself in a ploy to buy herself some time, leading them to realise that Max is also trans and shift their attention to him. Max spends most of the time being targeted and brutalised, whereas Erin is able to become a threat in her own right because she gets their gun, something she knows how to shoot because her father taught here. There's just these tiny whispers towards the whole 'trans women are male socialised' and 'trans men are delicate little flowers who are girls underneath' mindsets that I just can't get by. And again, I want to emphasise, the author here is trans himself, but the latter especially is an attitude I see from trans men online who nonetheless want to cling to some aspect of femaleness because they were 'raised as girls'. (As a nonbinary who was assigned female at birth, I don't get it.) I am not necessarily saying that the author has that mindset, but what I am saying is that perhaps he has some unconscious biases which have leaked out into the book, and that's what's making me uncomfortable here. The narrative also seems to treat Max being referred to as 'she' by the antagonists as a huge, horrible experience (which it is!) but doesn't give the same depth to Erin being called 'it'? She doesn't seem fazed, she passes well, she has no problems, not like Max. It's just…it just gave me the ick, that's all.

Next, back to the court of Anne Boleyn - and there's witchcraft afoot.

[miseryabyss]

When Max first started growing his beard he definitely sent a really close up selfie to Erin and then they started a video call.

[judgingbooksbycovers]

Old Wounds

By Logan-Ashley Kisner.

Design by Liz Dresner.

Cover art by Zoë van Dijk.

[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

[bookaddict24-7]

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

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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

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Happy reading!

[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 ⭐⭐⭐