Little does Esther know what's really in store for her. She is hoping to become a morally upright woman like the librarians.

Esther feels shameful about her queer identity based on the approved reading material she has read over the years about queer identity. These female librarians are considered to be morally upright women. Before Beatriz had been hung, she had been betrothed to the older man that Esther found herself betrothed to after Beatriz's public hanging.Įsther becomes a stowaway on a wagon belonging to the female librarians that deliver approved reading material by the state throughout the region. Inspired by the pulps, film noir, and screwball comedy, Passing Strange is a story as unusual and complex as San Francisco itself from World Fantasy Award winning author Ellen Klages. Beatriz was hung for deviance and for possession of unapproved materials prior to the start of Upright Women Wanted. To make matters worse, Esther has witnessed the hanging of her secret lover, Beatriz. Esther is a young woman who runs away to escape being forced into an arranged marriage by her father to an older man she does not love. This novella focuses mainly on queer identity and what that means for the main character, Esther Augustus. Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey deals with queer identity and how fascism/fascist governments can control the flow of information within a society, etc. It's described as a 'pulp western' novella by the author and is set in the USA in the near future after society has collapsed into a military state. I really enjoyed reading Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey.

Passing Strange by Ellen Klages