The Real Problem with Bone Crier's Moon (AKA how the 2020 publishing industry disappointed me)

So, Bone Crier's Moon. Honestly, it has a lot of flaws. It has an unhealthy relationship, a weird plot, and a nonsensical ending. But what else is new? Those traits aren't uncommon, or even restricted to YA despite how often YA books are specifically criticized for these traits. I could deal with those. It wouldn't be a favorite or anything, but I wouldn't, you know, hate it. Which I do. I hate it, and it's for a reason that's hit a lot of people hard: Erasure.

Let's talk for a moment about erasure. It can happen to a lot of minority groups. However, when racial minorities are erased (as in not even acknowledged, which does still happen), I tend to raise my eyebrows a bit more. Usually, when someone is a different race you can tell. This isn't always the case, of course, but generally racial minorities are a "visible" minority. LGBTQIA is different.

I'm pansexual. My group isn't even in the longest version of the acronym, and there are people within the community who don't know what that means. I don't mind. For most LGBTQ+ folks, their minority status is "invisible" so I kind of get it when people outside of the community don't have us at the forefront of their minds when writing. Of course, I love it when they do, but I don't require a book to have an LGBTQ+ main character, or even side character, to love it. Take the Throne of Glass books. Gay and bi people play a very minor role, but they're there and it's not a big deal. It's also my favorite series of all time.

However, what I will never buy is that no one ever heard of us, especially with today's media spreading constant support or hate depending on where it comes from. So when I picked up Bone Crier's Moon, I wasn't expecting any outstanding representation. I usually don't. What I didn't expect was such thorough erasure and denial of the existence of gay, bi, pan, ace, etc. women.

So, in Bone Crier's Moon, Bone Criers (essentially an all-female race of grim reapers) all have a soul mate. They have to kill said soul mate in order to become a true Bone Crier and access their full powers. That actually sets up a perfect tale of forbidden love. That excited me when I read the synopsis because I love me a good star-crossed lovers story as long as they make better decisions than Romeo and Juliet did (spoiler: they didn't.)

Then I read the book. Every single Bone Crier's soul mate was a man. Every one mentioned was a man, and it was all but stated outright that there had never been a soulmate who was a woman. Soulmates were almost always referred to with male pronouns. When a Bone Crier summons her soulmate, she kills him. If the soulmate answers the call, he will die. There's almost no ambiguity. All Bone Crier soulmates were men. All Bone Crier soulmates will always be men. I didn't notice this at first because it kind of sneaks up on you, but as it dawned on me that this was erasing the existence of f/f relationships entirely, a heavy weight settled on me. I had one hope: the main character's best friend, Sabine.

So, the man who the main character, Ailesse, summons isn't her soulmate. This is kind of clear from the get-go. I had a bit of a hope that Ailesse's soulmate would turn out to be Sabine. That would be a fun gay twist, and I love fun gay twists.

There are a few reasons why I thought this. Sabine always had Ailesse on her mind. For most of the book, all Sabine can think of is saving Ailesse when she gets kidnapped. She breaks her own moral code for the sole purpose of seeing Ailesse safe again. She even refers to Ailesse's laugh as her favorite sound in the world.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but that sounds a hell of a lot like a lovesick teenager. Also, calling someone's laugh your favorite sound in the world is not a friendship thing. I'm sorry to all my friends, but if I was to choose someone's laugh as my favorite sound ever, in the whole entire world, it wouldn't be any of theirs. It would be my boyfriend's laugh. Making your friends laugh is always nice and fun because you know they're happy, but making your significant other laugh is something else entirely. That's when I know for sure I want to be with this man forever. Saying any sound someone makes is your favorite in the whole wild world, no matter how innocent or lurid, is a very relationship-y thing. 

(For anyone wondering, my favorite sound in the world is purring.)

So I was excited about the prospect that maybe they would be the first Bone Criers to be each other's soulmates and it would be some fun controversy and drama for book two.

Nope. Sabine isn't Ailesse's soulmate. Sabine isn't even gay. She summons her own soulmate eventually and kills him. Plus, the Bone Criers are all beautiful beyond imagining, so if Sabine was into women she'd be attracted to at least one of them. What disappointed me the most about this was actually just how far the author seemed to go with making Sabine seem queer only for her to turn out... not queer. There was actually too much stuff that leaned far, far more towards romance than friendship in what she said, thought, and did for Ailesse. It felt a lot like queerbaiting.

Let's be clear: I very, very rarely jump to the conclusions about people being gay, even if they're fictional characters. It takes a lot for me to guess that a character is gay without them outright saying "I'm gay" or kissing someone of the same gender. So assuming Sabine was in love with Ailesse wasn't done lightly. I won't say that it was queerbaiting for sure because that can't be proven, but I will say that I wouldn't be surprised if the author confirmed it.

I didn't expect that in the 2020 YA publishing industry. Young Adult is getting to be known for its racial and LGBTQ+ diversity. There's still a long, long way to go, but especially for queer authors and characters this is a golden age. So I don't expect every character to be gay. I don't expect the main characters to be gay. I don't expect much.

I just never expected that level of erasure in a book from 2020. It left me feeling sad, frustrated, and worse than invisible.