Chloe's Reviews > Any Other City

Wow wow wow wow wow! I am in love! I thought Little Blue Encyclopedia couldn't be topped, but Hazel Jane Plante's follow-up is somehow even more beautiful and tender and fucked up and evocative. Maybe it's the subject matter- rock and roll has always matter to me so much more than anime. Or maybe it's the way in which the fictive City becomes a character in ways I've not seen outside of the fantasy worlds of NK Jemisin or Catherynne Valente. But I think what it probably is, is the love. Plante loves trans women and sees us with all of our fucked up insecurities, neuroses, and assorted damages and manages to show us that, either in spite of or perhaps because of them, we are still wonderful creatures moving through the world as creators of our own lives and stewards of our own mythic histories.

I avoided reading this book for months since its release because I'd been waiting for it since I finished Little Blue Encyclopedia and knew that it would be a years long wait until Plante writes a follow-up and wanted to savor the anticipation of finally getting to cracking this open. But a friend was desperate to talk with me about it so I bumped it up my queue and devoured it this morning while laying in my hammock and watching the sunrise. Plante's writing is a gift and she absolutely deserves every possible accolade for this book. I won't recount the plot, you can read the synopsis on the book Jacket just as well as I can, but suffice to say that the story-as-mixtape conceit works astoundingly well for me and I was smitten with all of Plante's characters. Absolutely top notch writing, please do not miss this.