Where to find it: Available in hardback and ebook anywhere books are sold, and likely, your local library
What is it, in summary?: Monarch is a novel about teen pageant queen Jessica Clink, whose body has been, unbeknownst to her co-opted by her Mad Scientist father, Mysterious Ageless Mother, and a shadowy pseudo-governmental agency to be a sleeper agent super spy. It’s a spy thriller with a sci-fi twist. It’s a novel about uncovering and piecing together your own identity in a world that doesn’t make that easy for young women. It’s about reclaiming your body. It’s also really funny.
What do you love about it?: Jessica as a narrator is, by turns, wry, hilarious, exhausted, vulnerable, indestructible. It’s a book packed with references to what it was like to grow up in the 90s - from Lorena Bobbitt to Fight Club, it’s all in there. Jessica is queer and has a canonical female love interest - and a lot of the novel is about how love and human connection forms the core of a person, the “real” center that survives all the identities girls have to put on and take off. The world building is fully of creepy science, mysterious universities, powerful strange adults who wander in and out of Jessica’s life, and half-remembered secret missions that leave bruises and more invisible scars.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Jessica/her canonical female love interest OR Jessica/her super-smart but slightly bumbling female antagonist
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: Listen, I think you gotta read the whole book, but I found it a really quick read.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): I would not describe any of the violence as graphic, but it does grapple with themes of bodily autonomy in ways that might be tough if you’re particularly sensitive to that issue.
Monarch - Candice Wuehle
Title: Monarch - Candice Wuehle
Media: a novel
Approx length: 256 pages
Where to find it:
Available in hardback and ebook anywhere books are sold, and likely, your local library
What is it, in summary?:
Monarch is a novel about teen pageant queen Jessica Clink, whose body has been, unbeknownst to her co-opted by her Mad Scientist father, Mysterious Ageless Mother, and a shadowy pseudo-governmental agency to be a sleeper agent super spy. It’s a spy thriller with a sci-fi twist. It’s a novel about uncovering and piecing together your own identity in a world that doesn’t make that easy for young women. It’s about reclaiming your body. It’s also really funny.
What do you love about it?:
Jessica as a narrator is, by turns, wry, hilarious, exhausted, vulnerable, indestructible. It’s a book packed with references to what it was like to grow up in the 90s - from Lorena Bobbitt to Fight Club, it’s all in there. Jessica is queer and has a canonical female love interest - and a lot of the novel is about how love and human connection forms the core of a person, the “real” center that survives all the identities girls have to put on and take off. The world building is fully of creepy science, mysterious universities, powerful strange adults who wander in and out of Jessica’s life, and half-remembered secret missions that leave bruises and more invisible scars.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?:
Jessica/her canonical female love interest OR Jessica/her super-smart but slightly bumbling female antagonist
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?:
Listen, I think you gotta read the whole book, but I found it a really quick read.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence):
I would not describe any of the violence as graphic, but it does grapple with themes of bodily autonomy in ways that might be tough if you’re particularly sensitive to that issue.