I thought this was a great collection. I thought the first story was great with a sci-fi/speculative fiction bent, and the rest were interesting/great, but I think the one story entitled “Stag Dance” just went on a bit too long. It dragged down the rest of the collection. Be warned that there’s a graphic depiction of animal death in “The Chaser.”
“Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones” (5 stars)-This was a great start to the collection. We hear about something called The Rift Wars where estrogen is kept highly rationed. The story follows a trans woman who we find out has a hard time with a relationship with another trans woman named Lexie. Their relationship shows a lot of self-hatred the narrator has for herself and the anger they have at Lexie for not being the right type of trans woman. This story follows them both as we see how the world changed post contagion and pre-contagion.
“The Chaser” (5 stars)-A story that follows two boys living in a Quaker boarding school. The narrator of this story feels different from other boys and wants to try to be different for the girls at the school, but it’s not working. And then things change between him and his roommate Robbie.
“Stag Dance” (4 stars)-We follow a man named Babe Bunyan, one of the many men who are lumberjacks and dealing with changing ideas/moods/understanding of how to treat a man named Lisen who looks and acts feminine versus the Babe of the story who is not an attractive man but wants to be treated as softly as a woman. When the leader of the camp decides there will be a “Stag Dance” it means that if you want to be courted like a woman, you have to wear an upside triangle on the front of your pants. Babe decides he wants to be courted, but the story follows as he realizes that there is still so much he doesn’t understand. I really liked the ending to this story. Peters gives us some horror mixed with science fiction.
“The Masker” (4 stars)-This felt a bit unfinished. We follow the narrator in this one who has gone to a week long event for cross-dressers and trans women. Again, you have Peters playing with what is feminine, what is a woman in this one. I liked the overall story but thought the ending was a bit abrupt.