If there's an LGBTQ+ specific short story collection. I'm absolutely going to be first in line to read it. Transmogrify! is such a unique blend of stories that there is something for everyone. This is absolutely a book we are going to get for our library collection!

Thank you HarperTeen and NetGalley for this eARC, these opinions are my own. I enjoyed this anthology of short stories that center trans protagonists! I loved the elements of magic and fantasy had how the characters identities interwove with the rest of the stories! An example of the stories you’ll read would be Mason Deaver’s Genderella about a transgirl named Ella who lives with her with stepmother and just wants to attend the school dance and talk to the girl she likes. Or there’s Sonora Reyes’ story about Zosia who’s left their magical realm to come to the non magical realm because their mom has found a new love. They’re learning all kinds of things about this realm as well as their magic powers. Also first love and how to get rid of unwanted attention. There are 12 other stories similar to these, all full of trans magic goodness!

A lot of these stories feel very fast and like they are trying to fit a lot into a small part of the book. I think fantasy is a difficult genre to make into small stories that are not all part of one work. I thought it was an interesting choice to name one of the stories after a Halsey album. I love this concept but I think the mark was mostly missed.

As always with short stories, this was a mixed bag of stories mostly centered on magic schools

I took some notes on the first stories but most left me bored so I stopped.

Origin Story by Saundra Mitchell: queer kid kicked out of magic school. Ends up in Indiana. What is even the plot. Boring 2☆

Halloween love by sonora reyes: elemental witch magic hair color. HS love story. 4☆ wasn't bad but there was not much going on

Verity by renee reynolds: the writing and especially dialogue was painful

Dragons names themselves by capetta and Mccarthy : It's kinda cute taking care of a dragon egg 5☆ (this did surprise me as I have disliked everything I've read by them in the past)

High tide by Francesca tacchi. 4☆ Italian setting but don't remember anything else

In a name by Ayida Shonibar: no thoughts

The Hallow King: was fun

Genderella: a trans lesbian Cinderella! It worked so well as a retelling I loved this one


Note: not including trans women in a trans anthology is a bit unserious (or even looking for trans women writing self published fantasy right now). It seems like the stories are all by nonbinary writers too but I am not sure if it was intentional when I looked up the original pitch

Withholding my review until Harper Collins Strike is over.

Visit @HCPUnion on Instagram for more ways you can support the union: https://www.instagram.com/hcpunion/

I enjoyed this collection a lot. Each story was unique and magical in its own way. I liked the variety of stories as well.

This collection of magical-trans short stories was amazing. It had tons of great things going for it: a diverse assortment of authors and plots, magic, and trans rep.

I learned a lot about gender, pronouns, and the lgbtq+ community from reading these stories. Not everyone fits into a mold, and these stories are proof that there are endless ways of self-expression, and all are valid. Everyone deserves the freedom to live their truth, and the stories in this book are beautiful examples of characters who are learning to be themselves, support others, and stand up for what is right.

I also love that the stories in this collection use magic and gender to highlight the characters' uniquenesses. Magic makes these characters special, but they also all have inner magic, and I love that these short stories are all pointing out that everyone has a certain magic within. It is a beautiful metaphor and I loved this magical collection!

I enjoyed this book a lot and will be on the lookout for more from the contributors!!

story rankings:
Origin Story 4
Halloween Love 5
Verity 3
Dragons Name Themselves 4
High Tide 5
In a Name 4
Bite the Hand 4
If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power 3
The Hallow King 5
Genderella 5
Seagulls and Other Birds of Prey 3
Bend the Truth, Break it Too 4
Espejismos 5
The Door to the Other Side 4
average score=4☆☆☆☆

Transmogrify! contains fourteen stories of Trans young adults, and the magic that they contain, each powerful in their own way. As a whole, this book exists as a spite to the well-known children's author who uses her popularity to stand against trans people, thereby ruining a series previously beloved by many. These authors used their words to show those kids she has hurt, that magic is for them too. That premise alone is worth the ratings. As a trans person, it means a lot to read stories like these.

The biggest hold-up I have is the ordering of the short stories. While the last story is an interesting premise, I felt very uncomfortable that this book ends with a trans person who has killed themselves, and when asked about if they "regret it" they said they do recognize they missed out on some things, but were glad to have met the spirit. While I doubt it was the intention of the author, it reads like telling readers that suicide is a valid option to escape the feelings of not-belonging. Even though the point was for the other trans character to find there was some place for them--that still happened because they agreed to follow the spirit into the door (going to the afterlife). It gives the wrong impression, and is especially a bad story to end on.

[I will be withholding my review on social sites until the HC Union is given a fair contract, but I felt that the detrimental impression given by the last story is worth publishers knowing before the book is sent to print, so an opportunity is given to change it.]

Transmogrify! is a spectacular binding of trans and queer fantasy stories. This has an imposing lineup of authors so if you're familiar with trans novels you'll likely recognize at least one author. My favorite author on this list is Mason Deaver; if you know me, you'll read anything they write. Ignoring that, I enjoyed a majority of the stories! Anthologies are always a mixed bag but this was definitely on the better side. I adored the representation in this and the different ways it was displayed. I am so happy that a book full of Trans joy exists. The only real downside was that stories focused more on fantasy elements and did not have much time to progress and develop. That is probably why I enjoyed the low fantasy stories more but that was just my preference. Overall, this is a fun read I'd recommend to any queer people looking for short stories full of magic.

I’m sad I was overall disappointed in this. Many, if not most, of these stories took a more comedic, goofy approach to fantasy which isn’t my cup of tea. I ended up DNFing quite a few of these due to no enjoying the quirky tones. Also many stories took on way too much world building than should have been attempted in a short story. By the time I understood the setting, the story was over. Or often times I never understood their world.

A few I did like though were:
The Hollow King
Genderrella
Espejimos

Sadly overall as a collection, It didn’t work for mw

This is a very difficult review to write. I am incredibly sad to not have loved this collection as much as I had anticipated; however, I know for a fact that that there are so many readers who are desperately needing this representation and will see themselves throughout the stories. Representation wise, this gets a much higher rating.

As a collection however, I found it difficult to feel connected to most of the stories. This is something that can be the case for many short story anthologies, but since this one focuses on magic, I found that each story had to used up precious space to give us enough information about how their specific fantastical elements worked--while also not having enough in most of them to hold my attention. This felt a bit more like a collection of previews for larger, separate projects.

I still would definitely recommend because I still do find value in having this in a collection, and did like a few of the stories, but it just wasn't quite there for me overall.

This was a lovely book brimming with so much diversity and richness, with each story exploring a different magical universe and a variety of main characters, whom I loved for the majority of the time. The way different authors built their words were so much fun to read about, and there were such a rich diversity of voices that I'm sure anyone would be able to find one story in this collection that they love and connect to. Specifically, Origin Story was my favorite, and it was a very strong start to a book filled me with so much love. However, as much as the book benefits from the different, disconnected stories, I also believe it suffers from it too. There were so many stories where I just wanted to learn more about the world, where I wished they were longer so different aspects of the characters could be explored. Building a magic system and introducing characters in such a short space is incredibly difficult, and I found myself confused and dissatisfied in certain stories. Still, the beautiful part of this book is that even if one story isn't for you, there are others that'll surely catch your attention and make you laugh or smile or cry. Overall, if you like queer stories, diverse characters, and rich magic worlds, this book is for you.

This was a pretty good book, but it wasn't really for me. If you're looking for a cute magic-y book, I highly recommend it. But overall, I didn't really love the writing style.

This has a lot of representation, which is really great, but none of the stories really grabbed my attention. The story by Dove Salvatierra was probably my favorite, mostly because I liked the writing style a lot. In general, I thought the quality of the stories was just fine, but I'm glad the anthology exists for trans teens.

I LOVED this! Queer anthologies are some of my favorite types of books to read, and I'm so happy that there are more being published every year. Please pick this one up if you're looking for a magical and whimsical collection of queerness!

an absolute beautiful collection of fourteen short stories involving trans people and magic! what a treat this was to read, as i usually have to hunt for a novel or story with decent trans representation. these stories really show the bond between lgbtqia+ people, especially those of us under the trans umbrella. each voice is diverse, strong, and full of fun. all of the contributing authors cast aside the “kill your gays” / depressing endings, and made their stories about love, connection, and found family.

while some definitely felt more geared towards children, the overall quality of each short story was quite good. i loved the subtle satirization of “harry potter” in an effort to strike back against transphobic jkr. i wish stories like these had existed when i was young. congratulations to all of these authors; you’ve made my inner child feel seen.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review!

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974

Powerful short stories by LGBTQIA+ persons with themes of magic, self discovery, fighting back and love. There's something for everyone here. I hope this is the first of many anthologies of it's kind.

Each story in this collection was really well written and worked with the topic of the collection. I'm glad this was a collection and I enjoyed what was going on. I had a great time in each story and how they improved from story to story. I couldn't pick a full favorite as each stories were really well done. High Tide was really well done and I also enjoyed If I can’t have love, I want power.