Passing Strange

This was a lovely little story about love and identity with just a hint of magic sprinkled over the top for flavoring. The bulk of it takes place in San Francisco in the 1940s, where several women are living and making art on the fringes of society. When two of them fall in love, it's almost too good to be true. And when their relationship is inevitably threatened, the two have to find a way to stay together.

There were so many elements of this story that I loved - the history, the art, the love story. Klages clearly did a lot of research and her setting comes to life on the page. She examines both the queer experience and the immigrant experience at this particular place and time and the incredible specificity is a great illustration of what this was like in general.

I wish there had been a hint more magic, but what was there was a nice bit of seasoning for what was, at it's core, historical fiction. I was just expecting something that leaned a bit more heavily towards fantasy because of the publisher.

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