We Mostly Come Out At Night; On Beyond Cisgender IX
by Jeff Baker
For this ninth (!!!) installment of the column’s occasional feature “On Beyond Cisgender,” we go into a recent YA anthology perfect for the Halloween Season. This feature is about books recommended for High School readers that go beyond the usual “white, male, cisgender paradigm,” an idea suggested by Amy Liebowitz, (thanks very much!) several years ago.
“We Mostly Come Out At Night,” edited by Rob Costello, published by Running Press Teens, Hatchette Book Group in 2024 https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/rob-costello/we-mostly-come-out-at-night/9780762483198/ features “15 Queer Tales of Monsters, Angels and Other Creatures,” to quote the cover blurb. Stories range from variants on a classic fairy tale to encounters with shape shifters, menacing sea-beings and even aliens by various authors.
Here’s a sampling:
“Bastian and the Beast” by Jonathan Lenore Kastin is a riff on the classic (Disneyfied decades ago) fairy tale with a Trans boy as the main character. Loved the last line!
“Other Fish” by Alexandra Villasante involves two girls who work in a bookstore who summon a sea-goddess.
“She threw back her head and you hear shrieking birds in her laugh.”
“Boys Who Run With The Boars” by Sam J. Miller.
“…She says humans are the ultimate invasive species..”
In a near-future of ecological ruin where wild boars are everywhere, our young narrator goes out into the forest searching for wild boars and finds…well…
Readers may see some of the plot coming but it is compellingly told.
Editor Costello’s own offering “The Color Of Sky On Earth,” all takes place on a bus with our unnamed narrator (a 17-year-old artist) recounting recent events including his collaboration with Hoon (from the planet Proteus) on a graphic novel. This is on an Earth where such things are taken for granted but relationships between teen boys haven’t changed.
The story is full of marvelous descriptions of the ordinary, like this:
“The high-rises downtown don’t even look real from here. It’s like somebody strung up a skyscraper backdrop to hide the secret face of L. A.”
The story also has a wonderfully unexpected moment with another artist on the bus.
The stories in the anthology range from first-person narratives to the rarely-used second person. Nonetheless, the adolescent outsider is the main focus of these stories. And after each story, the author pens a “Monster Reflection;’ about themselves, the story and (sometimes) their relationship with monsters.
“We Mostly Come Out At Night” benefits from a fine cover illustration by James Fenner, whose black and white illustrations preface the stories and lend perfect atmosphere for this excellent collection of tales.
Jeff Baker’s World Of Three Moons story “The Ghannidor-Ra” has just been published in “Schlock! Webzine” in the May 2024 issue. https://www.schlock.co.uk/index.html He blogs about reading and writing sci-fi, fantasy and horror around the thirteenth of each month in this same space. He had ancestors accused of Witchery in Salem, Massachusetts and he lives with three cats. Make of that what you will. Jeff regularly posts fiction on his blog https://authorjeffbaker.com/2024/10/12/i-just-found-fritz-friday-flash-fics-story-by-jeff-baker-october-11-2024/ and wastes time on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=679510827 and Mastodon (as “Mike Mayak.”) https://mastodon.otherworldsink.com/@MikeMayak