Down to a Science

Honestly, I would support buying this book just based on how it came to be, alone. For Pride Month 2022, IHeartSapphFic (best name ever) got 8 authors to contribute novel/las and released them as part of a set. I expected to get some middling short stories the authors had been toying with but weren't good enough to publish on their own.

Instead, they blew me away in their own right. 

Though I will always be grateful to Down to a Science for setting up the characters for On the Same Page, I find myself fiercely protective of both Mia and Ellie, in different ways. Mia's got a somewhat predictably tragic backstory (in the same way no Disney princesses have mothers, most lesbian romance interests have on average 1.4 dead parents), but it feels true to her character both in how it shaped her life in the broad view as well as how it impacts her in the moment-to-moment. 

Ellie, on the other hand, is another neurospicy character who feels authentic, rather than cheaply staged or exploited, which is both helped and made harder by the fact that (as the book is written from her perspective) we get the full breadth of her thoughts and feelings. Having her whirling emotions helps ground the character in reality, but is an authorially bold move given that too often attempts to write neurodivergent characters wind up missing the mark. However, much like Love is for Losers, Ellie felt real to me in a way that's mildly unnerving, given how much I identify with or at least understand her reactions to different situations.

I promise, this is not intended to be a neurospicy queer book website! But it's nice to see the genre widening out to include more diverse perspectives into the lives of queer people, and I want to celebrate when that's done well. Whether it's neurological differences, race, gender, aro/allo, it's a legitimate cause for joy when media is created that allows people to feel seen. And this book has that, well, down to a science. 😉