New Book Review: Spoons and Snowpaws

Title: Spoons and Snow Paws

Author: Olinda Brown

Date: 2026

Quote: "The majority of the population were animal hybrids."

Not my idea of a good fantasy premise, but here we are. Olivia is a very sick human, probably suffering from reactions to whatever abominations technocracy has inflicted on her world to make even gnomes and brownies more common than pure humans. In the first chapter of the book she dares to walk her dog but then feels faint and has to lie down on the ground with her feet up on a park bench. Although pure humans are sought after as breeding stock by all kinds of trans-humans, in this fantasy, and although Olivia has inherited lots of money, she doesn't expect anyone can love her enough to put up with her chronic illness, so although she's attracted to the leopard-woman who offers help, she doesn't dare to hope, etc., etc. 

I don't claim to know how the conversations in a lesbian romance should work, but even as romances go this one is a bit of an express train trip. I'm totally turned off by the transhumanism. What this book does have to offer is insight into the way very sick young people's fantasies go: They don't know how to dream about being fit and healthy. How would they? They've grown up with illnesses and disabilities. They can't remember or imagine a glyphosate-free world but they can imagine Romantic Love. Which, of course, is a dangerous fantasy for everyone, especially for people with chronic illness. I had a long-term illness while I was also a baby-face who could easily have gone back to high school--probably as a freshman!--so I do understand how much this is not what a sick 22-year-old wants to hear, but it's true: You do not want to shake the hand of anybody who finds your body, in its current state, attractive. You want to restore your body to a condition that decent people will find attractive. 

You do, if you are less sickly than a person like Olivia, want to learn how to coexist with such a person, which makes you the right audience for this book. Romance is contraindicated but you can be an empathetic, supportive housemate or office-mate.