Recommended Reads - Spring Edition

Spring is finally here, and bringing flowers and warmer weather with it. Alt+H would like to bring you something too: A short list of recommended reads for your alterhuman needs. Content warnings have been given where applicable, just as a heads-up. If you have any questions or concerns about content, feel free to ask.

Available for sale at Amazon.com

Fiction: Shifting Hearts

Shifting Hearts is an anthology of otherkin romance short stories, and one of the few books I have ever encountered that deal with the subject of otherkin directly. While the writing style of some stories can feel a bit unpolished, I greatly enjoyed what this book has to offer. Very few published stories contain any actual otherkin representation, and I found some of these to be relatable to my own everyday feelings of being nonhuman. A short and engaging read; I finished the whole book in a single day. Follow the journeys of human and nonhuman protagonists as they discover themselves, learn from each other, and maybe even fall in love.


Tokophobia cw for Ch. 1 (light) and Ch. 2.

Available for sale at Amazon.com

Nonfiction: Staying with the Trouble

Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene is Donna Haraway's latest book, and one that I have reviewed in the past. Haraway calls human exceptionalism into question, which is important from an ecological and ethical point of view, and also from an alterhuman one: To be strictly 'human' is less important than to "live and die well" with our fellow critters. Her closing chapter contains a work of speculative fabulation, in which some humans are genetically modified to contain the genes and express the traits of chosen critters, as part of an effort to restore balance between human and nonhuman nature. An intriguing read from start to finish, and largely straight-forward without much jargon, just a few novel uses of words.

Cw for some mentions of  human rights abuses (mainly ch. 3), animal abuse/neglect/death (mainly ch. 3 & 5), and light tokophobia cw (mainly ch. 5). 

Print books available for sale on Storenvy

Webcomic: Skin Deep

Skin Deep is a webcomic by Kory Bing about ordinary college kids who are also mythical creatures. They are able to shift between human and nonhuman form by the magic contained in medallions. Michelle Jocasta- unaware that she is not as human as she thinks- is given one such medallion by a stranger, unlocking her ability to shift. She is suddenly thrown into a tumultuous and fantastical world where monsters walk among us, and wars fought long ago still haunt the present. Overall, Skin Deep is an intriguing and unique comic that is ten years old and still ongoing, and can be read for free at the link below:

http://www.skindeepcomic.com/archive/issue-1-cover/




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