The Letter Q

Sarah Mood (ed.)

This isn’t a novel at all. It’s a collection of letters by queer authors to their younger selves. The book was produced because every young person identifying as queer has a right to know that their situation of feel lost, alone or misunderstood isn’t unique – there’s someone out there that can understand.

I enjoyed it because it had so many emanations with my teenage years, and it’s always pleasing to read about other success stories.

Another thing is that I often read short story collections to find new authors whose writing style agrees with me. Those are just letters, but the authors hint enough about themselves that I can tentatively pick ones that I’d buy books to try.

I initially picked up this novel because one of my favourite authors, Julie Anne Peters, has a contribution in it. I’d also already encountered Erika Moen from her comic, DAR.

I had fun trying to pick whether the writer was male or female in each case where it wasn’t immediately obvious. A weird thing to do when the authors are all queer and any sexuality or gender could be presented. I didn’t do this in a judgemental way, just in an interested way.

If you’re queer, you’re questioning, you just want to understand more about what queer people go through, this could be a good novel for you to read.