#the heretic's guide to homecoming

[aroaessidhe]

Trans aro & ace books (part two)

OUR BLOODY PEARL / nonbinary aspec MC, ace MC

THE THREAD THAT BINDS / multiple nonbinary and aspec MCs

STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY / trans ace-spec (word of god) MC

WERECOCKROACH / agender aroace MC

THE BRUISING OF QILWA / aroace nonbinary MC

THE WOLF AMONG THE WILD HUNT / aroace MC, aroace nonbinary major character

THE HERETIC’S GUIDE TO HOMECOMING / greyace genderqueer MC

TEARS IN THE WATER / ace-questioning & demi trans MCs, aroace side character

SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN / nonbinary acespec MC (word of god)

#primarily by trans authors! #asexual #aromantic #aroace #trans #our bloody pearl #the thread that binds #werecockroach #the brusing of qilwa #the heretic's guide to homecoming #tears in the water #she who became the sun #trans rights readathon #transrightsreadathon #aroace books

[imaginariumgeographica]

Heretic's Guide giving us all the dream of being held by a thousands-year-old ambiguously supernatural being while he tells you all the things he likes about you

#when ronoah started crying i did too #the heretic's guide to homecoming #the fucking. platonic intimacy is off the charts #book blog #heretic's guide

[gealach-in-a-misty-world]

Ashamed of his past and overwhelmed by his future, Ronoah Genoveffa Elizzi-denna Pilanovani feels too small for his own name. After a graceless exit from his homeland in the Acharrioni desert, his anxiety has sabotaged every attempt at redemption. Asides from a fiery devotion to his godling, the one piece of home he brought with him, he has nothing. That is, until he meets Reilin. Beguiling, bewildering Reilin, who whisks Ronoah up into a cross-continental pilgrimage to the most sacred place on the planet. The people they encounter on the way—children of the sea, a priestess and her band of storytellers, the lonely ghosts of monsters—are grim and whimsical in equal measure. Each has their part to play in rewriting Ronoah’s personal narrative.

Change requires work. Sienna Tristen's The Heretic's Guide to Homecoming - Theory is like a long hug, a thorough exploration of living life with a crippling anxiety disorder, and of the steps to take in order to get better. Disguised as a fantasy travelogue, this books takes its time delving into Ronoah's psyche and his struggles, picturing them with a language that is both compassionate and precise. The reader gets to truly experience the terrible vertigo of his self-destructive thoughts, but also his journey towards healing. The writing is phenomenal in this regard, pulling at heartstrings all the way.

Deciding to follow Reilin in his journey is only the first step for Ronoah, who begins experiencing new things and learning that he too has value, sometimes yanked in that direction by his travelling companion. Reilin might seem callous at first glance, but he's supportive in his own pushy way, helping Ronoah begin his journey towards healing. Along the way, Ronoah will meet different people and experience important lessons, and he'll learn to share a part of himself - slowly, painstakingly slowly, he'll put in the work.

The world is painted vividly, so rich with a staggering history and complex in its own right. Interwoven in the text are snippets of tales, perhaps true, tales of the gods who made this world, tales recounted by the characters. It is a book about the importance of stories, about how context and a change in perspective can change how a story is read. The middle part, taking place in a caravan of traveling storytellers, is delightful, and it shows well the variety of this world. But stories permeate the text, both in the beginning and at the end; stories upon stories.

A glance at the plot might make one think that this novel is going to feature a queer love story, but in this first book of the duology it hasn't been the case; one detects a certain attraction, certainly admiration, towards Reilin, but this doesn't seem to be that kind of story. This is not a flaw: the book works perfectly on its own, painting Ronoah's important journey with all the care it deserves. It's still, to an extent, a queer book, and thus I feel like it should have a place on this blog: Ronoah comes from a country where queer relationships aren't frowned upon, and he's surprised to learn that this is not the case in other countries, that he's travelling through a country where queer love is punished. There's a beautiful conversation with a queer minor character who discovers, through a story, that he's not alone, that queer people do exist other than him; and a character seems to be nonbinary, to the extent that a word like that can mean something to an all-powerful being.

The Heretic's Guide to Homecoming - Theory is a precious journey to experience.

✨ 4.5 stars

[You can find more of my reviews about queer speculative fiction on my blog MISTY WORLD]

#sienna tristen #the heretic's guide to homecoming #lgbtq books #queer lit #queer books #books #sff #book reviews #reading #gealach reads #gealach writes

[gnomebud]

ok sorry i cannot get over this still. what if your best friend was literally an embodiment of the entire universe and they thought YOU were the most special thing in it, the most important to them. im normal

#heretic’s guide you are everything to me #thgth2 lb #rambles #the heretic’s guide to homecoming

[atleast15lemons]

Hi heretic’s guide to homecoming is my favorite book and I’m here to start the fandom if it doesn’t already exist

#heretics guide to homecoming #hgth? is that a tag for other things #shale

[lgbtqreads]

Do you have any fiction recs that feature qprs

Yep!

Baker Thief by Claudie Arseneault

Journey Home by May Barros

Seafoam and Silence by S.L. Dove Cooper

The Witch King by H.E. Edgmon

The Reckless Kind by Carly Heath

If it Makes You Happy by Claire Kann

Fire Becomes Her by Rosiee Thor

The Heretic’s Guide to Homecoming by Sierra Tristen

The Wolf Among the Wild Hunt by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor

[merynger]

canary lime cerulean :3

from colorful interview!

[ canary ]  do you have pets? if yes, how many and what?

i have one dog...! her name is sophie she is a weird little tan mutt (pit bull + ??????). her favorite activities are being cute, opening doors, and psychologically tormenting me (she has a brain but she only uses it to play tricks)

my sister also has an 8 year old guinea pig that's still having the time of her life

[ lime ]  describe yourself as a character / mix of characters you've always related to the most.

oh BOY. ronoah from the heretic's guide to homecoming for sure. link from botw/totk specifically! other smaller ones also (peri from the far meridian, spock, mob mp100). gimme a character that is autism-coded and/or has anxiety and i go👍awesome

[ cerulean ]  what is your favorite ( type of ) character to write?

characters who are a little tormented by something i think. characters who think they're right but aren't! i don't think i'm very good at it, i need to work at it more, but i really like introspective, character-driven stuff. what are their issues!!!

#introducing the people to sophie i see!!!!!! #answered #ooc #ily :')

[amethystviolist]

Check out The Heretics Guide to Homecoming. It’s an aro-ace fantasy novel you may like

This feels like an ad in a mailbox somehow but I did look into this novel, and it does look interesting! If my library gets a copy I might read it. Thanks anon.

Everyone else: send me more book recs, and why you liked it!

#books #reading #book recs

[sunrise-of-wonder]

The Heretics Guide to Homecoming Book Two: Practice

#my friends' book launch #always so aesthetique

[tianwenmp3]

“What's wrong with you, he thought, that you can hate yourself so easily?”

– The Heretic's Guide to Homecoming, Sienna Tristen

#sienna tristen #the heretic's guide to homecoming #b #p331

[aspeccharactersoftheday]

Ronoah Genoveffa Elizzi-denna Pilanovani from The Heretic's Guide to Homecoming is grayromantic asexual!

#ronoah genoveffa elizzi denna pilanovani #the heretic's guide to homecoming #canon aspec #grayromantic #asexual

[aroaessidhe]

There's a Kraken Collective & Friends sale on at the moment, of 30 queer SFF books for 99c each! find them all here

#book sale #ebook sale #booklr #queer books #the heretic's guide to homecoming #failure to communicate #sanctuary #i bought yours celestially and from the dark we came

[imaginariumgeographica]

Book ask! #3?

3 - What were your top 5 books of the year?

I have to try to not succumb to recency bias on this one but I did read some bangers at the end of the year. Anyway...

Obviously Translation State by Ann Leckie! Even without my all consuming love for the presger treaty extended universe its an excellent book. I've talked/reblogged at length about all the things I love about it - the new characters, the very gender of it all, the various family dynamics, the new bits of worldbuilding, Sphene....

Is it cheating to do a duology? I read The Heretic's Guide to Homecoming by Sienna Tristen this year after meaning to for quite a while and it rewired my brain minorly. It's like an adventure road trip story that's so quiet and thoughtful and nice. There's deep platonic intimacy, there's a thousands-year-old kind of immortal being who keeps changing its name and gender and appearance, there's stories, there's emotions...

A more recent book I finished is Lockjaw by Matteo L Cerilli which actually isn't out til June of 2024 but my friend wrote it so I requested an ARC from netgalley because June is very far away. It's a small town horror YA novel and you can read my relatively spoiler free review on storygraph. Highly recommend preordering.

I read or reread a lot of middle grade this year, and (another duology oops) I really loved Sal and Gabi Break the Universe and Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe by Carlos Hernandez. It was so fun! I've said this a few times thru the year but I'm glad the kids are having adventures! And the adventures in these books are unmatched. There's a lot of parallel universe shenanigans, there are robots, there's random middle school shenanigans, there's a canonically aromantic character... I was very well fed on these books.

Finally coming back to the end of the year, I read The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard which is another relatively lowkey book about people enjoying each others' company but also is somehow about bureaucracy and reforming the government. The main character is the most busy at all times and that really resonated with me when I was also the most busy all the time. It's a very long book but I was engrossed.

#thank you nonny sorry i ranted about books! #honorable mentions to the archive undying system collapse emergent properties and the new percy jackson book #book blog

[gealach-in-a-misty-world]

Freshly-risen from the underworld of his insecurities, Ronoah Genoveffa Elizzi-denna Pilanovani is halfway through his journey to the fabled Pilgrim State. But the world this side of the Iphigene Sea is not an easy one: violence and subterfuge litter the way forward, and something meaner stalks the edges of Ronoah’s certainty, something that threatens to turn the very reason for his pilgrimage to dust. To survive, he will have to be clever and kind in equal measure. To ask for help from the acrobats and queens-to-be and foreigners’ gods that cross his path. To confront that beguiling, bewildering companion he travels with, the one whose secrets are so vast and unforgivable. He will have to draw on every story he knows in order to make it to the Pilgrim State with his soft heart intact—and then make it home again.

"Speak of this to everyone". Sienna Tristen's The Heretic's Guide to Homecoming - Practice is a stunning conclusion to this rich duology filled with empathy and self-care. Ronoah's journey towards healing is not over after the first book; now he has to practice what he learnt. Meanwhile the author shows us with their stunning prose their world filled with joy and life, a wonderful tapestry of stories where everything is connected. Ronoah builds new, lovely connections with people, and his relationship with the god first known as Reilin only grows in complexity and tenderness, towards a miraculous ending.

✨ 4 stars

[You can find more of my reviews about queer speculative fiction on my blog MISTY WORLD]

#sienna tristen #the heretic's guide to homecoming #lgbtq books #queer lit #queer books #books #sff #book reviews #reading #gealach reads #gealach writes

[gnomebud]

extremely good book. so good. i love an ending that feels satisfying. im so freaking glad ybh (formerly hanéong. if you’re following along) came with ronoah, i was so sad abt ronoah’s belief that they had to part ways, so happy and :’’) at ybh’s “of course i want to be with you”. gahhhh

also just like. man! what if your best friend is kind of a god but also kind of the whole entire universe and you accidentally took some of the universe within you and now you can kind of be with them always. and also they are SO old and powerful but they love you very much. height of queerplatonic romance tbh

read the heretic’s guide to homecoming

#thgth2 lb #rambles #ronoah’s family made me so :’’) also. it felt so fitting for it to be easy at the end of all things #like not totally but he was so afraid. but they still love him so much #they’re going to see the world #ALSO THE ENTIRE PILGRIM STATE STUFF MADE ME HYSTERICAL. it just sounds so nice there #and yanah…………. #also when ronoah tried reaching out to genoveffa with his new powers and she overwhelmed him it made me so. #AND THE FIREWALKER. FIREWALKER!!!!!!!!!!!!! #he got his sister’s name….. gwahhhhhh

[atleast15lemons]

I have never wanted fish before but I want to make a Two Dark moons inspired fishtank

#16lemons #heretic’s guide to homecoming #two dark moons #shale #gonna do the 5 fingers with little wood bridges betweeen them #and then I’m gonna get bright fish and shrimp to make the lizards of the underbrush #and then maybe if I have access to a 3D printer I’ll make some other details later on #I have the space it just needs to be cat proof