Saving Grace by Amanda Hawkins (#trans #scifi)

If you have never stopped by Amanda's Reading Room, it really is a lovely place to spend some time. Amanda Hawkins has a different take on image captions, one that is heavy on the text/story, using the image to provide some context (not to tell the story). She also writes some longer fiction, all of which is available for free on the site.

Saving Grace is one of those stories, and it makes for a fantastic read. It starts off a bit silly, with some definite B-movie clichés being tossed around, and some amusing caricatures of government officials. Aliens have landed, humanity has already taken heavy casualties, and all we know about them is really just a desperate theory. Without saying too much, it appears crossdressers may just be the key to the world's salvation.

The story gets really interesting in that middle portion, as crossdressers across the area are exposed, recruited, and provided with a blank cheque for feminization. High end department stores, hair salons, nail salons, and more are put at their sole disposal, with the US government picking up the tab. This allows for a lot of character building as we get to know the girls, along with a little gender sensitivity training for the soldiers.

There is a major turning point for the story that I will not spoil, but suffice to say it contains more than a few shocking surprises. The story actually gets rather dark going into the final arc but, as with all good science fiction, it also gets rather thoughful as well. There is a lot of talk about gender, gender identity, and gender expression, with the girls turning a mirror on the alien's own violent prejudices. Amanda asks some interesting questions, and approaches the issue from a fresh perspective.

There is a cute epilogue to Saving Grace as well, but to say anything about that would be to spoil the whole story. It is a wonderful read, and you can pop over and do so for free . . . so get going already!

Amanda's work is transgender erotica, not porn. The pictures found on her blog are not pornographic; most involve no nudity at all and the few that do are tasteful, involving only bare female breasts. Some stories do involve sex, but it is not explicit. Needless to say, underage persons are not involved in any mature situation. Her work is not restricted to any of the themes commonly found in transgender fiction. It ranges from straightforward cross-dressing to any and all varieties of magical and SciFi tropes. The files are tagged with keywords to provide an idea of what each story is about.

https://amandasreadingroom.wordpress.com
@AmandaHawkins71

Reviewed by Sally