It’s Gonna Be May Challenge - Day 28
28. Book with a diverse cast.
I know I keep going on about Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen (and its sequels) but I am a fandom of one and this needs to change. It’s a YA-New Adult crossover, set in an alternate Texas with magic and cryptids and all manner of monsters. It’s impeccably Wild West, from the narration to the characters to the settings. There are saloons and cowboys and ramshackle towns and desperate treks across deserts. And the cast, since that was the prompt? (Spoilers for the series):
the Black Indian bi trans male hero who eventually ends up disabled*
a snarky asexual Native man
his tough-as-nails bi/pan disabled sister
the Native woman who sets our hero on his quest
the gay Ranger love interest
a depressed Irish man
a Chinese doctor (can’t remember if she’s lesbian or bi, now, but I’m leaning to the first)
Latino Rangers, cowboys, and chupacabras
Black railway workers
an Aztec nun
other Native, Chinese, and Black Indian characters
* WoV starts with him believing he’s female, so it necessarily starts with a deadname and the wrong pronouns.
The themes of the series are about seeing people as people and not as stereotypes, unlearning social conditioning and toxic masculinity, and kindness and teamwork. Everyone in the main cast has their own opinions, their own hang-ups from their pasts, and as a result, nobody’s portrayed as solely right or wrong (unless they’re being -ist or -phobic and then Bowen shuts them down hard).
