“Every girl needs to be at least a little bit dangerous”

I don’t even know where to start with this one because I am stripped of the words to describe its fullness. Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir starts with the narrator eschewing the idea of safe spaces. What she sets her trust in instead, is dangerous stories – of adventure, of revolution and glittery dreams. Kai Cheng set out to write such stories about trans girls rather than the narratives they’re pigeonholed into. This is a tale that espouses femme badassery, collective care and a sprinkling of magical realism. It is a coming of age story of a young Asian Trans girl living in the fictional city of Gloom and to whom escape is the only constant. She runs away to the City of Miracles and is adopted into a ‘vigilante gang of glamorous warrior femmes’ who set out to avenge murdered trans women.

I really enjoyed reading this and was invested in almost every character that came into the picture. Kai Cheng’s writing is to the point and never wavers from her narrator’s voice. The young girl who lets us see the world through her eyes, views herself in a dichotomy – she is at once small and helpless but also capable only of immense hurt. This is a nuanced soliloquy worth listening to.

I was impressed with the motifs running through this novel with the narrator engaging with her past trauma through angry bees inside her. She also pays constant odes to her pocket knife, both protector and absolver. There are also multiple trigger warnings to be mentioned – Content warning for Rape, Abuse, Murder and Violence.

All in all, What an important and beautiful tale