A lifelong fantasy reader, Petra Lord began what would become her highly anticipated debut YA novel Queen of Faces (Holt, Feb.) in 2017 as a side project while studying TV writing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. That moment in time, says the author, who is trans and biracial, was the “transgender tipping point,” when shows like Orange Is the New Black, Sense8, Euphoria, and Pose offered “a wave of fresh representation.”

Queen of Faces is set in a world where the rich buy and swap designer bodies like clothes. The poor, including teenage Ana, are stuck with whatever they can find and afford, such as the broken male body she has inhabited from a young age. With nothing but her illusion magic and quick thinking at her disposal, she must learn to navigate a cutthroat magical academy in order to earn a new body before the one she’s in breathes its last breath. Ana’s counterpoint Nell, an elite from a wealthy family, is soon to be forced into a body swap by her disapproving mother. Queen of Faces has been compared to Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone and The Magicians by Lev Grossman because of its inventive worldbuilding
and page-turning pace.

Still, Lord adds, the landscape into which Queen of Faces is launching is far different from the one in which it was written. “It is a terrifying time to be trans right now,” she says. “Every week, there’s a new unthinkable horror, and it barely registers because it’s all happening so fast.”

While she says Queen of Faces “is a trans book,” it’s also a “compelling fantasy first and foremost,” one the author says she hopes will appeal to a wide audience. “I’m especially hoping it clicks with queer edgelord teenagers.” So far, she says, “The book’s been getting a lot of love and a lot of excitement, which I’m really grateful for.”

As for introducing the book at this fraught time, Lord says, “I hope it’s one voice among many that refuses to shut up.”

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