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While We're Still Beasts
A Queer Ballad of Tamlin retelling.
Unknown Binding
About the author
Alex Nonymous
26 books589 followersAlex published 18 books in 18 months in their early 20s as part of a personal writing challenge which is apparently not a great longevity idea but they're slowly trying to get back into writing.
He uses any pronouns so its incredibly easy to talk about Alex behind her back (just please stop adding me to 'women writers' lists oh my god) and they're still trying to figure out how to present themself as a professional a full year into publishing.
If you want to join their email list for updates on book release dates, early reader copies, and to vote on genre polls to control the next book they write, email them at alexnonymouswrites@gmail.com to let her know!
Alex also writes books for queer teenagers and recognizes that a lot of the people who need those kinds of stories the most can't safely be purchasing them, shoot them an email for free discrete ecopies of anything he's written!
He uses any pronouns so its incredibly easy to talk about Alex behind her back (just please stop adding me to 'women writers' lists oh my god) and they're still trying to figure out how to present themself as a professional a full year into publishing.
If you want to join their email list for updates on book release dates, early reader copies, and to vote on genre polls to control the next book they write, email them at alexnonymouswrites@gmail.com to let her know!
Alex also writes books for queer teenagers and recognizes that a lot of the people who need those kinds of stories the most can't safely be purchasing them, shoot them an email for free discrete ecopies of anything he's written!
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 22, 2026
Hehehehehe book out
April 24, 2026
Immaculate ending. Consistently solid to prior works.
Perhaps audacious or early to claim already, but I truly think Alex Nonymous has now cemented for me as one of my all-time favourite authors.
There's just something about their writing, particularly character work and conflict, that consistently just hits for me and I am, truly, moved; a rarity for me. On top of other factors like the constant ways to better literature representation of queer and disability especially, both in the text itself and the extratextual, transparent databases they share. Or the personal appealment to fairy tale inspiration and stories of wonder, where meticulous world building details can be let fallen to the wayside. Lewis vs. Tolkien if you will.
But this says nothing about the book yet but the book feels tantamount as a moment to comment this, following readings of "A Tale of Hijinks and Honeydew" (4.75 / 5) and "A Dying of Starlight" (5 /5), the latter I still think often of.
In actual truth, I struggled to get along with the book as early and it's also the least of my favourite that I've read so far of three, whilst still being an loved read by the end. I worried this was the bead that eventually breaks the string as 20-30% I wasn't so connected to either world or characters or motivations etc. And on top of a repeated rapid switch of time jumps, it even felt a bit lost in cohesion. Which is the point as you undo the confusion alongside the characters, but it adds a layer they don't have.
Yet despite all these reservations and more notable gripes, by the end it falls into the consistent, excellent Alex Nonymous writing I seek for and the pieces of prior do make sense with the developed context. Whilst these worries get abated easily and soon into safe, good, familiar territory, the last 15% was immaculate vibes.
And then there are writing style quirks I can find charming a while but can be a lot at times too. The constant juxtapositions, "he was and he was not", or the more frequent use of lists "she was x, y, and z, and omicron, rho, theta too", or an exasperation to the natural world itself "skies and stars above, name". But if you took any of this out it probably wouldn't feel like an Alex Nonymous book by then - and they switch gears. Such are the joys of pattern recognition. So this part is more humourous-to-me observation than anything else, certainly not a call for them to do less.
But of the three I've read so far, whilst you could pull at generic similarities of story writing, the story and characters and world themselves do all feel so independently different that it never feels just a run of something else.
As for actual spoiler-y details of the book, hmm, well, there isn't? Well, there is, but because it's in character work it's more just quotes. And the sell of the book is often half the destination. One of the main characters is aroace? Is that a spoiler if that plot detail from the book was specifically promoted about even even if isn't really discussed until 30-40% into the book anyway? I love the explorer themes of a well-meaning allo/aro loving friendship and points you can see Genevere still not fully get aroness initially. I love the parrallel to Beast's curse as watching someone die and the helplessness of it. I love how it ends with [spoilers]. I love that it's affirmed Beast is a human and not another species creature, lest it fall into bad "only aro because not human species, like rest of their species" representation. I love that we get emotional competency in side characters I initally slept on amongst our emotionally messier leading characters. And everything else I love is particular lines of text very much worth quoting.
It also was just a nice light 4 hour / 180 page read to bash out.
24/04/2026
Perhaps audacious or early to claim already, but I truly think Alex Nonymous has now cemented for me as one of my all-time favourite authors.
There's just something about their writing, particularly character work and conflict, that consistently just hits for me and I am, truly, moved; a rarity for me. On top of other factors like the constant ways to better literature representation of queer and disability especially, both in the text itself and the extratextual, transparent databases they share. Or the personal appealment to fairy tale inspiration and stories of wonder, where meticulous world building details can be let fallen to the wayside. Lewis vs. Tolkien if you will.
But this says nothing about the book yet but the book feels tantamount as a moment to comment this, following readings of "A Tale of Hijinks and Honeydew" (4.75 / 5) and "A Dying of Starlight" (5 /5), the latter I still think often of.
In actual truth, I struggled to get along with the book as early and it's also the least of my favourite that I've read so far of three, whilst still being an loved read by the end. I worried this was the bead that eventually breaks the string as 20-30% I wasn't so connected to either world or characters or motivations etc. And on top of a repeated rapid switch of time jumps, it even felt a bit lost in cohesion. Which is the point as you undo the confusion alongside the characters, but it adds a layer they don't have.
Yet despite all these reservations and more notable gripes, by the end it falls into the consistent, excellent Alex Nonymous writing I seek for and the pieces of prior do make sense with the developed context. Whilst these worries get abated easily and soon into safe, good, familiar territory, the last 15% was immaculate vibes.
And then there are writing style quirks I can find charming a while but can be a lot at times too. The constant juxtapositions, "he was and he was not", or the more frequent use of lists "she was x, y, and z, and omicron, rho, theta too", or an exasperation to the natural world itself "skies and stars above, name". But if you took any of this out it probably wouldn't feel like an Alex Nonymous book by then - and they switch gears. Such are the joys of pattern recognition. So this part is more humourous-to-me observation than anything else, certainly not a call for them to do less.
But of the three I've read so far, whilst you could pull at generic similarities of story writing, the story and characters and world themselves do all feel so independently different that it never feels just a run of something else.
As for actual spoiler-y details of the book, hmm, well, there isn't? Well, there is, but because it's in character work it's more just quotes. And the sell of the book is often half the destination. One of the main characters is aroace? Is that a spoiler if that plot detail from the book was specifically promoted about even even if isn't really discussed until 30-40% into the book anyway? I love the explorer themes of a well-meaning allo/aro loving friendship and points you can see Genevere still not fully get aroness initially. I love the parrallel to Beast's curse as watching someone die and the helplessness of it. I love how it ends with [spoilers]. I love that it's affirmed Beast is a human and not another species creature, lest it fall into bad "only aro because not human species, like rest of their species" representation. I love that we get emotional competency in side characters I initally slept on amongst our emotionally messier leading characters. And everything else I love is particular lines of text very much worth quoting.
It also was just a nice light 4 hour / 180 page read to bash out.
24/04/2026
September 12, 2026
truly gorgeous representation of deep platonic love, absolutely loved the ending ❤️
November 13, 2026
my favorite book from the author so far <3 I've felt so deeply for the characters since the beginning although it was maybe a bit slow to start. I'm always in awe of the way the relationships and dialogues are written, it feels really natural ! Finishing this story made me realize how much I crave for more platonic love stories.
What a beautiful ending.
What a beautiful ending.
May 17, 2026
Another great story filled with queer rep and fae tales. Loved this one! This might even be my favorite from this author yet.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews