{"id":13516,"date":"2020-10-19T19:23:11","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T23:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=13516"},"modified":"2025-10-01T16:11:49","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T20:11:49","slug":"passing-strange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13516","title":{"rendered":"Passing Strange"},"content":{"rendered":"

Passing Strange<\/a><\/em> (2017) Ellen Klages<\/p>\n

\"Passing<\/a>Set in San Francisco in 1940.<\/p>\n

Haskel is an artist who makes her living doing pulp covers. She and her friends live on the edge of polite society, either because they aren’t white or because of their sexuality, but they are found family.<\/p>\n

\u201cAh, Jack. You failed the three-garment test with a perfect zero, not a single piece of women\u2019s clothing on you.\u201d <\/p>\n

A girl in a skirt and sweater reached for her beer and looked puzzled. \u201cHuh?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe law says women can\u2019t dress like men. If the cops check, and you\u2019re wearing three bits of ladies\u2019 duds, you\u2019re in the clear.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And I just discovered a recording of Gladys Bentley singing and playing piano on “You Bet Your Life.”<\/p>\n

This is an interesting story, an historical, that opens and closes with bits in modern times. The fantasy world lives underneath and alongside our world.<\/p>\n

Strangely, I found the historical bits more satisfying than the fantasy bits; there was more I wanted to know about how magic worked, but magic instead was something that existed, hidden, but wasn’t anything we were allowed to understand.<\/p>\n

Publisher : Tor.com
\nRating: 6.5\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Passing Strange (2017) Ellen Klages Set in San Francisco in 1940. Haskel is an artist who makes her living doing pulp covers. She and her friends live on the edge of polite society, either because they aren’t white or because of their sexuality, but they are found family. \u201cAh, Jack. You failed the three-garment test […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[292,2,48,204,33,148,26,34],"tags":[545,638,898],"class_list":["post-13516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ebook","category-fantasy","category-female","category-good","category-historical","category-queer","category-romance","category-urban-fantasy","tag-ff","tag-great-depression","tag-ww-ii"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-3w0","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3300,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3300","url_meta":{"origin":13516,"position":0},"title":"Lord John and the Private Matter","author":"Michelle","date":"November 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Lord John and the Private Matter (2003) Diana Gabaldon I read a Lord John short story by Diana Gabaldon in the anthology Down These Strange Streets, and if you know anything about my reading preference, you should be impressed when I tell you it was a zombie story, and I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"Lord John and the Private Matter","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/lord-john-and-the-private-matter.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12079,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/12079","url_meta":{"origin":13516,"position":1},"title":"Murder on Amsterdam Avenue","author":"Michelle","date":"September 13, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Murder on Amsterdam Avenue (2015) Victoria Thompson Set in New York city in the late 1800s--probably 1898 Sarah Brandt and Frank Malloy are waiting for the remodeling of Frank's house to be finished so they can finally get married. In the meantime, she is spending time with her parents, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Murder-on-Amsterdam-Avenue.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5588,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5588","url_meta":{"origin":13516,"position":2},"title":"The Tokaido Road","author":"Michelle","date":"December 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Tokaido Road (1991) Lucia St. Clair Robson Set in Japan in Genroku 15, the Year of the Horse (1702) This story is based upon the real-life events of the revenge of the forty-seven ronin, expanded to follow the daughter of Lord Kiro's outside wife, who has become a courtesan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Tokaido-Road.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1275,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1275","url_meta":{"origin":13516,"position":3},"title":"A Beautiful Blue Death","author":"Michelle","date":"August 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A Beautiful Blue Death (2007) Charles Finch A Beautiful Blue Death has come up for awhile now as a recommended book for me, and there is good reason for that: I love historical mysteries. Charles Lenox is a gentleman who likes to dabble in the investigation of crimes. Being a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"a-beautiful-blue-death","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/A-Beautiful-Blue-Death.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19725,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/19725","url_meta":{"origin":13516,"position":4},"title":"Something Fabulous","author":"Michelle","date":"January 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Something Fabulous (2022) Alexis Hall (Something Fabulous) Set in Historical England. To be honest, I don't think this is historical England as much as fantasy historical England. Which is fine, since as he says in the author's note, almost everyone in the story is queer. Valentine Layton, the Duke of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Something Fabulous","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Something-Fabulous.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Something-Fabulous.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Something-Fabulous.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Something-Fabulous.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Something-Fabulous.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Something-Fabulous.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8976,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/8976","url_meta":{"origin":13516,"position":5},"title":"The Ritual Bath","author":"Michelle","date":"March 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Ritual Bath (1986) Faye Kellerman Rina Lazarus is a young widow with two sons who teaches at the yeshiva and who helps maintain the mikvah--the bath used for ritual cleansing. Peter Decker is a detective for the LAPD, and is called out when a rape occurs at the yeshiva.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Ritual-Bath.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}