The magic is small and personal, but powerful in meaning. Two other women also use a different kind of magic, but spoilers means I can’t tell you.

Franny can create origami maps that when folded and unfolded allow the wielder to cross short distances in a matter of seconds. Haskel and Emily are friends with Helen, as well as Franny and Babs (two lesbians as close to married as they can get), and Franny’s English niece Polly. But for two white queer cis women, San Francisco was still better than being forced to be straight back home. Redlining and Jim Crow were in full swing, and Asian Americans and Indigenous people were barred from attending public schools until 1947 (although this rule was frequently violated). Being a person of color was also no picnic.

Queerness was still illegal, and the police had no compunction about tormenting and torturing anyone who defied gender norms. The story then jumps back to early mid-century San Francisco to focus on the blossoming relationship between Haskel and Emily, two young women who fled their oppressive homes for the freedom of the City by the Bay. In fact, it’s something far, far greater than a simple painting. The scene is sweet and romantic, the exact opposite of Haskel’s usual fare, but it’s no forgery. In the 1940s, Haskel was known for their lurid covers of pulp fiction novels, but this piece features two women dancing against a nighttime cityscape backdrop. Helen tracks down an unscrupulous antiques dealer and sells him a rare piece of art – the final illustration from the mysterious artist Haskel.

The story is bookended by Helen Young, an elderly Asian American woman who has come to the end of her life, but has one last thing to do before she goes. Passing Strange is a charming and unexpectedly sharp novella about queer love, female friendship, and the everyday acts of subtle resistance by people in marginalized communities. They discover love and danger on the borders where mystery, science, and art intersect.” (via Goodreads) Six women find their lives as tangled with each other’s as they are with the city they call home. Tourists flock to the cities within the city: the Magic City of the World’s Fair on an island created of artifice and illusion the forbidden city of Chinatown, a separate, alien world of exotic food and nightclubs that offer “authentic” experiences, straight from the pages of the pulps and the twilight world of forbidden love, where outcasts from conventional society can meet. “ San Francisco in 1940 is a haven for the unconventional.

Passing strange by ellen klages