I've been hooked on Shandy's stories for the past few days, reading through this and their short story collection. This is a kind of storytelling you don't find from most trans authors who are absorbed in transfem wish-fulfillment fluff, which while I admit can be cathartic does get tiring after reading enough.

The writing style never goes deep into the protagonist's thoughts or feelings, tending to remain surface-level to address their immediate priorities. Each character is left to be interpreted through their actions and words to learn their motivations, values, and struggles. And this really is a character exploration story more than anything else. The plot just kind of meanders this way and that, subject to the circumstances of the worlds and the consequence of a simple premise. There's great worldbuilding woven into every detail but I think it's more important to talk about the themes it's designed to explore.

Obviously one big theme is gender identity. It isn't necessarily the absolute most prevalent but it's in the top 5. A cis person reading the story might not make the connection that it's about transgender people at all, but it's handled with the nuance only a trans person could write. Half the cast get genderswapped with varying levels of consent, and they each have totally unique reactions to it. One never stops hating it, another learns to love it. One is caught up in the idea of who they feel they're supposed to be while others take it at face value and only worry about how uncomfortable it is. A few (of the adults) reflect on their s*xual identities. The best part, though, is that at the end of the story nobody has stated aloud how they identify, and while a perceptive reader could suss out who's likely to be trans there's no conclusive answers.

That trend of loose details inviting reader interpretation is everywhere. One I like was how the first two times the portal opened for long enough to travel through, it was midnight and the full moon was shining, and we can infer that that's the only time it ever naturally opens but it's not addressed since it doesn't matter by the end. I also liked how there were racial differences explicitly discussed in how they mirror our own world's ie racism, but the reader is left to make the connection that the discrimination is compounded by the class difference between wizards and spellbreakers, and how the dominant culture shuns the latter, viewing them as criminals even when most do honest work.

This story scratches a lot of niche interests and it could become understandably boring for a reader who's not here to read between the lines. But for those who like to meander through an exploration of topics like personal identity, culture clash, crisis management, reciprocal scenarios, or even just linguistic peculiarities, this story has a lot going for it. If it were the slightest bit popular I'd be finding someone to trade interpretations with... but it's not, so I'm hoping this goes far enough to bring in at least one or two new readers.

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It was very good and interesting. I love the premise and I binged it all in one day

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Portal fantasy that sends the kid to a city of wizards instead of the middle of nowhere. It's a bit slow at the start but is well-written with interesting worldbuilding! I'd like to see something else in the same setting.

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