Fragile Remedy Cosplay + Review
Fragile Remedy by Maria Ingrande Mora
A YA queer dystopian fantasy for fans of the Fever King, Shipbreaker, and found families, out March 9, 2021 from Flux
Personal Rating: I’d swim through the sludge channel to join Reed’s gang
Reasons to Read: The immersive prose, the queer found family, the plot that keeps you guessing, the hope among the bleakness
Is that a trope more heartwarming than queer found family? This book has such a grim and gritty setting (described so vividly that you’d never want to go there), but the story ends up surprisingly heartwarming. It takes place on the Withers, an island quarantined decades ago due to a since-eradicated “lung rot” epidemic (what’s with me and unintentionally reading epidemic books in 2020?!). The protagonist Nate is a GEM, Genetically Engineered Medi-tissue, a type of human created during the epidemic to be used as medical fodder. He was born in the high-tech and glamorous Gathos City, but was smuggled to the Withers for his own safety, because he would’ve been treated like an object if he didn’t get out.
“To the folk in those towers, you are not a person.” She’d spoken slowly, raising her voice over the whistle of the wind in their ears. “To them, you’re not a boy. You’re no one’s son. They made you to carve you up or bleed you dry.”
The blood of GEMs has a drug-like intoxicating quality and can heal even critical wounds, which makes them highly valuable and sought after on the gritty streets of the Withers. The biggest threat comes from the Breakers, a group on the hunt for GEMS with big money to pay. Here’s where Nate’s biggest dilemma comes in: the gang he runs with doesn’t know he’s a GEM, and though they’re a close-knit found family, some of them have shown a burning desire to find a GEM and turn them in for the cash reward, which would be enough that they’d stop having to worry about feeding themselves. If Nate keeps hiding his identity, he’s putting them all in unwitting danger. If he comes clean, they could report him out of desperation for the money.
Nate couldn’t force his friends to choose between loyalty to another street kid and the opportunity to rake in a huge bounty.
Guilt formed a knot in Nate’s throat. His gang was sitting on a fortune. And they had no idea.
Because he wasn’t brave enough to tell them the truth.
What’s worse, a GEM’s body starts deteriorating once they reach a certain age, and they need a medicine called Remedy to stop the process. The only person Nate can get Remedy from is Alden, a trinket shop owner / drug dealer who he has a very complicated relationship with. Alden had taken Nate in and given him a place to stay, but fed on his blood so intensely that Nate had to run away. But since Alden is the only one who knows how to cook Remedy, Nate has to keep returning for doses behind his gang’s back. Nate’s secrets are a wedge between him and Reed, the beefy, green-eyed leader of his gang–who he has fallen in love with.
He couldn’t imagine Reed wanting to be with someone who looked half dead, someone troublesome and secretive.
But sometimes, Nate woke up disoriented and hot, skin prickling with half-remembered dreams. He’d never touched anyone the way he touched Reed in those dreams—darting his tongue out to taste the soft skin at Reed’s throat, Reed rumbling deep in his chest and clutching him closer, hot and sweet at Nate’s mouth.
Nate and Reed’s relationship was very sweet, with Reed always being concerned for Nate’s health and Nate being too afraid to tell the truth, but my favorite dynamic was actually that of Nate and Alden. Alden is a character you genuinely don’t know if you can trust in any given scene. There are moments where he seems to care about Nate, but Nate also had to run away from him for a very good reason. There are so many layers to their relationship that I legit could not tell if Alden was manipulating Nate. I really appreciated this complex portrayal of a queer character, who are often unquestionably good people. Sure, it’s important to offset the villain coding of queer characters that have happened so often in the past, but it’s no fun to have them just be Good. Let them be morally gray too!!
“Tell me what you’re really asking. Tell me you want Remedy for free and want to give me nothing in return. Tell me you’re willing to put my shop, my life, and my grandmother’s life at risk just by being here. Just by being what you are.”
“Alden.”
“Tell me you’re lying to the people who shelter you. That your life is worth more than the rest of us.”
All of it was true. But Nate was a coward, and the words bubbled out of him softly, a wretched admission. “I don’t want to die.”
The various multilayered conflicts kept up a sense of doom, danger, and tension throughout the entire book. I literally had no idea how things would turn out. The writing itself was also very visceral, describing the grimness and filth of the Withers very efficiently. There’s one descriptor, “sun-ripe piss,” that is now one of my favourite descriptors of all time. But, as bleak as the situation is, the story is ultimately about queer people sticking together and supporting each other through the impossible. Preorder it if that sounds like your thing!
Alden had told him that hope was a fragile thing, but here they were with nothing left but hope.
(Finally, for you Yugioh fans out there, the setting gave me major 5D’s vibes. Nate is even a Tinker good at working with tech, just like Yusei. So if you’re a 5D’s fan, definitely check this out!)
Bonus Shots of My Alden Cosplay:
