My Reading List

Dreadnought, by April Daniels
Dreadnought tells the story of Danny Tozer, a teenager who gains the superpowers of legendary superhero Dreadnought. However, with these powers come with the assumption of the wielder’s ideal form, and since Danny is secretly a transgender woman, her identity is blown out of the closet, bringing with it a whole host of new problems for her even without getting into superheroic problems.
I love this book, and the series it belongs to, for a host of reasons. As an author of superhero fiction and worldbuilding myself, it is always a pleasure to see superhero content from sources beyond just Marvel and DC Comics. Additionally, this book was a seminal step in figuring out my own identity and how I fit into this crazy world.

Harrow the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir
The second book in the Locked Tomb “Trilogy”, this book follows a necromancer named Harrowhark Nonagesimus, sole heir to one of the ruling houses of the galaxy, as she attempts to survive an apprenticeship to the Emperor of Mankind. It’s a tough job, made even tougher by her deteriorating mental state after the events of the previous book in the series and the death of the love of her life.
It might not be the best idea to put later books of a series on a list like this, but this is genuinely the most impactful book in the series to me, in a series full of impactful, thought provoking books. The things Harrow does with narrative, POV, and other tricks of the medium have done a great deal for shaping my writing style.

To Be or Not To Be, by Ryan North
As an English major, I am intimately familiar with the works of Shakespeare. My favorite is Hamlet, but I’m almost sorry to say why. Before high school Shakespeare, I got my start with Hamlet through reading this retelling of the story—a retelling that took the form of a madcap “choose your own adventure” version of the play, with modern vernacular and a uniquely wonderful sense of humor. You can follow the plot of the play just fine (always choose the Yorick skulls), but you can also take things off the rails in innumerable ways, and even see things from Ophelia or the King’s point of view. More than anything, this book and Mr. North’s other works have been the primary foundation of my sense of humor.