Caution: Mild spoilers for Malinda Lo’s Adaptation below.
If you like badass queer fiction, September is going to be a fun time for you. Malinda Lo announced yesterday that in addition to her Adaptation sequel, she’ll also be releasing an Adaptation companion novella this fall! Inheritance (the sequel) hits shelves on Sept. 24 and Natural Selection (the companion) will be available only as an ebook on Sept. 1.
If you’re unfamiliar with Adaptation, here’s the gist: Reese Holloway and her debate partner David Li almost die in a car accident just outside of Area 51, but are miraculously saved by some suspiciously advanced technology administered by some super secretive surgeons. Their life-saving procedures happen on the heels of a national disaster involving the crash of dozens of planes that are attacked by birds. The events are connected to one another and as Reese gets closer to solving the mystery of the plane crashes, she also discovers lots of stuff about herself, including the fact that she’s bisexual and in love with an alien named Amber Gray.
Inheritance picks up right where Adaptation left off, while Natural Selection explores the events of Adaptation – including Amber and Reese’s love story, I presume – entirely from Amber Gray’s perspective.
I am on record (repeatedly) as being a huge fan of Malinda’s YA novels. In fact, each time she writes a new book, I end up reading it in a single sitting. Inheritance was no exception. As the release date gets closer, I’ll talk more about it, but for now let me say I devoured my advance copy. In less than 500 pages, Malinda explores race relations, sexual fluidity, gender identity, Internet commenting culture, modern news media, and other really important topics I can’t talk about because of spoilers. And she does it all seamlessly. One of the big motifs of Inheritance is empathy, and the book itself is a prejudice-vanquisher for vastly underrepresented members of the queer community. I did a literal air-punch alone in my bedroom when I finished it.
You can pre-order both Inheritance and Natural Selection now, and follow Malinda on Twitter (@malindalo) for more information about her novels.
