*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

I just finished Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach, a goblincore fungipunk Māori post-apocalyptic scifi(?) and it’s so unlinke anything I’ve ever read it’s hard to quantify. The story follows Yat Jyn-Hok, former street rat, current cop, very soon to be murdered. This is a post apocalyptic world where inorganic materials such as metal and plastic are shunned. The city is made of fungus—it’s alive. Doors can be regrown to the hinges, bodies can be modified to promote far-sightedness and gender modification, and the city reclaims the dead. But in this alive city, not everything is as it seems: extreme wealth disparity, a never ending war with a far-off island, and disappearing people. 

When Yat is murdered, she is thrust into the dark underbelly of the city she thought she knew. She’s confronted with the dark reality that her indifference to the realities of the city and her role as a cop is just as cruel as the violence around her. Meanwhile, her aging partner, a smart man who’s seen too much, is trying to help her in the only way he knows how. And the Māori gods are calling her, tugging on the threads that keep her alive. The story is such a fantastical mix of everything. Such interesting world building, a mystery, the mythological elements bringing a touch of fantasy, and a woman trying to find her way in a society that doesn’t accept her. 

The book does have extreme homophobia, but Yat does find a found-family in the form of a raging queer pirate crew that consists of a literal goddess of a captain, her trans wife (who has to shave because while she knows who she is she is also comfortable with her body as it is) a non-binary boatswain who plays a nose flute, and a chonky strong Tigress crew member who Yat is mysteriously drawn to. Such a fascinating read. I think I’ll want to read it again honestly. I think because I’m unfamiliar with a lot of the mythology and cadence I didn’t fully grasp the story the first time. 

4/5 sapphic fungipunk stars