Thread by @sirens_con

2021: Sirens will challenge what it means to be a villain—and especially of what it means for people of marginalized genders and other identities to so easily be cast as villainous. Here are 10 wicked works (with more books/info here: sirensconference.org/news/2020/10/s…): 1/

#SirensAtHome

1. A FEAST OF SORROWS by Angela Slatter: “My father did not know that my mother knew about his other wives, but she did. It didn’t seem to bother her, perhaps because, of them all, she had the greater independence and a measure of prosperity that was all her own.” #SirensAtHome

2. AMERICAN HIPPO by Sarah Gailey: “Winslow Remington Houndstooth was not a hero. There was nothing within him that cried out for justice or fame. He did not wear a white hat—he preferred his grey one, which didn’t show the bloodstains.” #SirensAtHome

3. BENEATH THE RISING by Premee Mohamed: “My earliest memory of her smells like blood. I remember just enough.” #SirensAtHome

4. GIDEON THE NINTH by Tamsyn Muir: “In the myriadic year of our Lord—the ten thousandth year of the King Undying, the kindly Prince of Death!—Gideon Nav packed her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and she escaped from the House of the Ninth.” #SirensAtHome

5. JADE CITY by Fonda Lee: “The two would-be jade thieves sweated in the kitchen of the Twice Lucky restaurant. The windows were open in the dining room, and the onset of evening brought a breeze off the waterfront to cool the diners...” #SirensAtHome

6. QUEEN OF THE CONQUERED by Kacen Callender: “My mother kissed my forehead with a smile when I cried, upset that the party would carry on as I was sent away to sleep, and while I lay awake in my bed of lace, huddled beneath my covers...” #SirensAtHome

7. SLICE OF CHERRY by Dia Reeves: “Fancy only allowed three people in the whole world to get close to her: Daddy, who was on death row; Madda, who was working the graveyard shift; and Kit, who was dead to the world in the bed next to hers...” #SirensAtHome

8. THE BONE WITCH by Rin Chupeco: “The beast raged; it punctured the air with its spite. But the girl was fiercer. She held no weapons except for the diamonds glinting like stars above her brow, against hair like a dark mass of sky. She wore no armor...” #SirensAtHome

9. THE POPPY WAR by R.F. Kuang:
“‘Take your clothes off.’
Rin blinked. ‘What?’
The proctor glanced up from his booklet. ‘Cheating prevention protocol.’ He gestured across the room to a female proctor. ‘Go with her, if you must.’” #SirensAtHome

10. THE SHADOWS BETWEEN US by Tricia Levenseller: “They’ve never found the body of the first and only boy who broke my heart. And they never will.” #SirensAtHome