Ivan E. Coyote's stories feel familiar and warm. I hold them close to my heart as a trans-masc person from a rural area. Their stories tell of tomboys & fishing & girls learning to be manly from uncles and cousins, of large Irish Catholic families with strong women who run everything, tell stories, and who both have tender hearts and the ability to start a fire in sub-zero weather and fix a truck. Their stories tell of a familiar rural survivalist masculinity, where everyone is a bit butch and tough to live in that landscape, but still Ivan's queerness is an outlier, a little too tomboyish. I love how these stories show both changing attitudes in rural areas overtime, and the lives of the queers that have always lived there. I love how the stories show the acceptance of tranness and queerness by rural folks for decades or the past century, along with the real dangers of death, gay-bashing, rape, and violence. Both coexist in the same landscape, and it is both a fearful way to be, while more people are more open-minded than people in cities like to say. The stories bounce between rural Canada- the Yukon, Whitehorse, Ontario, and cities like Vancouver or trips to NYC. Ivan E. Coyote is a master storyteller who cares deeply about sharing their stories with rural queer and trans youth. I first read their work in high school, in a rural environment surrounded by conservative rhetoric, and their words were so meaningful to me. I am biased in writing this review as I love all their work not just for their skill, but how personally I have had similar experiences. Their stories are told with even pacing, but detailed and winded in a way that the elders of my families told stories. They are very talented at portraying humans in all their emotions and opinions and messiness.