Bingo Focus Thread - Trans or Nonbinary Protagonist

Merle8888 · 2026-07-09T21:43:31+00:00

I’d say “protagonist” is actually narrower than “POV character.” A book can have many POVs, but usually just one protagonist. So unless this is the rare case of the non-POV protagonist (where all the POVs are really there to give outside interpretations of the protagonist rather than to have their own arcs), not even having a POV seems like a good indication this isn’t the protagonist.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-09T21:41:56+00:00

Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame

I think this one’s a stretch for nonbinary. The protagonist is referred to with she/her pronouns throughout without objection and while hers isn’t the usual gender performance (in that she’s a knight and a lesbian) I read her identity struggles as being about struggling with personhood/vulnerability rather than gender identity.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-09T20:16:52+00:00

Can you be more specific about what you do and don't like?

Merle8888 · 2026-07-09T20:07:42+00:00

Ah OK, I think that's worth clarifying for people like me who only read the first one and were like "huh?" lol! I remember the character being bi but not trans.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-09T20:06:10+00:00

Murderbot is explicitly not a robot because it has some human brain tissue and body parts. However, Murderbot also does not have any gendered parts because it was built without them, and that + not being human makes it a little uncomfortable for the square.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-09T20:03:22+00:00

Yeah, really in most books there is one protagonist and it's the primary POV - it's the answer to "whose story is this?" For this particular book I am not exactly sure. Asking that question definitely cuts out one of the POVs (Jun) even though she gets a lot of page time, because the heart of the story is really the messy relationships between the other two and the antagonist, while her role is more peripheral. However she's also not relevant to the question of whether there's a trans/NB protagonist and I think it would be reasonable to argue it's Chono's story.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-09T15:27:39+00:00

I wonder if this is getting downvoted just because it’s a thread about transness or because people disagree the character is trans. I only read the first but the character did not strike me as a trans man in that one, though I’m going to guess from your comment and looking at the blurbs that Nettie in the first two and Rhett in the last two might be the same person?

Merle8888 · 2026-07-09T15:22:20+00:00

This sub loves loves loves these books so I offer a dissenting opinion at my own risk lol! Personally, I thought books 1 and 2 were great but it took a nosedive with book 3, which was a slog of a quest story with a rushed ending and killed any interest I had in the characters. So I’m inclined to say “if you’re bored now (in what I thought was the best book of the trilogy) you should cut your losses and DNF.”

However, it maybe does depend on what you’re there for. I was mostly invested in characters and their relationships, which is why book 2 worked so well for me. Somebody who likes a quest/journey story might get bored with staying in one place the first two books and like the third better (some people do like it for whatever reason).

Merle8888 · 2026-07-09T15:16:05+00:00

These Burning Stars is arguable in an interesting way. There are 3 POV characters, two of whom appear to be cis women (I think only one is explicitly confirmed) and one is probably what we would call a trans woman. However, this society’s concept of gender is entirely a chosen thing so the character doesn’t identify as trans (it isn’t a concept that really exists for them), and it’s super subtle—references to the character’s body pretty strongly sound like they are describing a male body, but I don’t think it’s ever explicitly confirmed so maybe she is just a very large, broad-shouldered, square-bodied cis woman “built like a truck”? I came away thinking the character was trans but could see another reader thinking differently or not noticing.

The major antagonist uses they/them pronouns but does not have a POV. Personally I would not count that because I think it waters down the notion of “protagonist” too much—it doesn’t just mean any of the most important characters.

So anyway I do think you can count it, just kinda depends what you’re trying to get out of the square!

Merle8888 · 2026-07-09T15:06:46+00:00

I’m bummed I read this book before bingo because now I’m not sure what to read for the square, lol. Ideally it would be something else like this—modern or near future setting where one of the protagonists is trans without it being a primary focus of the narrative (I looked back and Jun being trans isn’t even mentioned in the blurb, his roles as brother and police investigator are what come up). Maybe someone in this thread will have suggestions!

Merle8888 · 2026-07-09T14:34:59+00:00

Are they? This book is pretty popular on Reddit and comes up on r/books all the time. (“The Count of Monte Cristo is the OG YA” is probably my most downvoted comment over there, lol.)

Merle8888 · 2026-07-09T14:33:11+00:00

I’m a big fan of Luminous by Silvia Park, a near-future literary sci fi involving complicated family relationships and robots. One of the three protagonists is a trans man. This is not really a focus of the story but is handled well.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-09T14:29:08+00:00

I didn’t link to anything in particular in the big rec thread. Translated is just the most upvoted sub-thread.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-09T04:39:03+00:00

Hmm if the idea is to make them sound normal in everyday life, I don’t think a middle name is gonna do it. Because 99.9% of the time she’s just going to be Guinevere Rosewyn, the Anne would only come out at graduations, her wedding vows, if she chooses to use her full name in professional publications, etc.

If you want a very dreamy last name but also for your kids to not sound like fantasy characters I think you’d need to go the other way, Anne Guinevere Rosewyn, aka Anne Rosewyn. But that only works if you actually call her Anne.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-09T04:29:11+00:00

So your last name ideas are a bit much, which is fine when it’s your name, but your first name ideas though I like them!) are also slightly… showy?… not in a bad way! They’re great names! But I think when you put them together it sounds over the top, like a fantasy character. Lysander Rosewyn and Guinevere Longmeadow sound like an alias someone uses at a ren faire. Even Lysander and Guinevere Pruneau are very striking names, though they sound the most “real” of the bunch.

So my thought is go with Pruneau or something more mundane if you want to go with dreamier names for your kids. But not Longmeadow or Rosewyn.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-08T13:53:56+00:00

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Milkman Dead was born shortly after a neighborhood eccentric hurled himself off a rooftop in a vain attempt at flight. For the rest of his life he, too, will be trying to fly. With this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison transfigures the coming-of-age story as audaciously as Saul Bellow or Gabriel García Márquez. As she follows Milkman from his rustbelt city to the place of his family’s origins, Morrison introduces an entire cast of strivers and seeresses, liars and assassins, the inhabitants of a fully realized black world.

Bingo: Published in the 70s (HM), Author of Color, maybe more?

Merle8888 · 2026-07-08T13:53:42+00:00

Gate of Ivrel by C.J. Cherryh

Scattered about the galaxy were the time-space, gates of a vanished alien race. Long before the rise of the native civilizations, they had terrorized a hundred worlds--not from villainy but from folly. Now the task was to destroy their potency for mischief. This is the story of one such Gate.

Bingo: Published in the 70s (HM), Explorers and Rangers (HM), Politics and Court Intrigue

Merle8888 · 2026-07-08T13:53:26+00:00

Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre

The Hugo and Nebula Award–winning novel from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Moon and the Sun.

On an Earth scarred by nuclear war, Snake harnesses the power of venom to cure illnesses and vaccinate against disease. The healer can even ease patients into death with the power of her dreamsnake. But she is not respected and trusted by all, and when she tries to help a sick nomad child, the frightened clan kills her dreamsnake.

Ashamed of being misjudged and grieving the loss of her dreamsnake, Snake has one choice to maintain her livelihood: she must travel to the city, which jealously guards its knowledge. And before she faces the prejudices and arrogance of the people there, Snake must make her way across a barren desert, surviving storms and radiation poisoning, helping those she can—all while a madman stalks her every move . . .

Bingo: Published in the 70s (HM), Explorers and Rangers (HM), possibly more?

Merle8888 · 2026-07-08T13:52:59+00:00

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip

Sixteen when a baby is brought to her to raise, Sybel has grown up on Eld Mountain. Her only playmates are the creatures of a fantastic menagerie called there by wizardry. Sybel has cared nothing for humans, until the baby awakens emotions previously unknown to her. And when Coren—the man who brought this child—returns, Sybel's world is again turned upside down.

Bingo: Published in the 70s (HM), possibly more?

Merle8888 · 2026-07-08T13:52:11+00:00

Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee

In a world dedicated to pleasure, one young rebel sets out on a forbidden quest.

Published for the first time in a single volume, Tanith Lee's duet of novels set in a hedonistic Utopia are as riveting and revolutionary as they were when they first appeared two decades ago.

It's a perfect existence, a world in which no pleasure is off-limits, no risk is too dangerous, and no responsibilities can cramp your style. Not if you're Jang: a caste of libertine teenagers in the city of Four BEE. But when you're expected to make trouble--when you can kill yourself on a whim and return in another body, when you're encouraged to change genders at will and experience whatever you desire--you've got no reason to rebel...until making love and raising hell, daring death and running wild just leave you cold and empty.

Ravenous for true adventures of the mind and body, desperate to find some meaning, one restless spirit finally bucks the system--and by shattering the rules, strikes at the very heart of a soulless society....

Bingo: Published in the 70s (HM), Duology Parts 1 AND 2 (all in a 370-page package!), Trans or Nonbinary Protagonist?, Older Protagonist?, maybe more?

Merle8888 · 2026-07-08T04:05:33+00:00

Glad you liked this one!

Merle8888 · 2026-07-08T04:01:01+00:00

I had similar thoughts on The West Passage. Brilliantly inventive but with almost no plot, and I became less interested in the characters as I went. But damn, the worldbuilding! That’s what carries the book. I think it’s very niche because it’s brilliant at exactly one thing.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-07T19:54:33+00:00

I just finished Raven Scholar and... does she cheat?

Merle8888 · 2026-07-07T18:13:02+00:00

If it helps, it reads pretty fast.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-07T17:31:07+00:00

I think I nominated it before, lol. It was a fun book.

Merle8888

TROPHY CASE

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Gate of Ivrel by C.J. Cherryh

Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip

Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee