Out Of Salem by Hal Schrieve, Published by Seven Stories Press, 2019

In this dysphoric YA fantasy novel set in the 1990’s, genderqueer fourteen-year-old Z Chilworth wakes from death
as a zombie after a car crash that has killed their parents and sisters. They are now legally a non-person, needing
an adult guardian to sign on to the responsibility to incinerate their body when they begin to decompose and lose
their sense of self.

Always a talented witch, Z now can barely perform magic and is rapidly decaying.  Faced with rejection from their remaining family member, Uncle Hugh, who hates monsters and constantly calls Z by their deadname and uses she/her pronouns for them, Z moves in with Mrs. Dunnigan, an elderly witch who is also Z’s godmother.  She is a widowed lesbian and owner of a queer and pro-monster independent bookstore.  At school, with this new zombie persona, Z is an outcast, shunned by former friends.  Z decides to befriend two other loners at school.  Aysel is a loud would-be-goth Turkish American lesbian, who fears her classmates might discover her status as an unregistered werewolf.  Tommy faces discrimination by classmates because he is a descendant of fey (fairies, elves and magical beings) and has fairy blood.

When a local psychiatrist is murdered in an apparent attack by unregistered werewolves, the police and the people of Salem, Oregon begin to crack down hard on all magical beings.  Z, Aysel and Tommy form a closeknit friendship as they attempt to survive in a place where most people are nasty to them and wish they didn’t exist.  Ultimately, these three friends forge an unbreakable bond of chosen family, committing life-altering magical and emotional oaths to help one another.

It is rare to find a fantasy novel geared for teens like this one that tells the story of magical oppression for zombies, werewolves, and fey alongside trans and nonbinary characters, and characters of color, and where fascism, racism and Islamophobia are also addressed.  Our heroes, Z, Aysel, and Tommy are oppressed for both real-world and fantastical reasons in this novel, that are not dissimilar from current-day events like anti-trans attacks, racism, and fascism.  The novel ends on a hopeful note, with the three brave teens surviving the worst of their circumstances, and with a few caring adults, who are in positions of authority, stepping in to provide understanding, support, guidance, and love along the way.

Hal Schrieve (ze/hir) is a children’s librarian in Manhattan who writes books and comics about teens, queer community, monsters and aliens.  Ze also enjoys facilitating comics and creative writing workshops with young people.  Ze is the author of several YA novels in addition to Out of Salem (which was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature in 2019) including How To Get Over the End of the World, about a telepath, a queer youth group on the brink of disaster, and trans teens making music, and Fawn’s Blood which I enjoyed reading and reviewing in May 2026.  Hal’s comics are featured in We’re Still Here, an all-trans comics anthology, and the zine Very Online.  Hir indie graphic novel Vivian’s Ghost was on the shortlist for Comics Beat’s 2023 Cartoonist Studio Prize Award for Best Webcomic.  Follow Hal at @howlmarin on Instagram and @hal_schrieve on Twitter.

This book review was submitted by Stand with Trans advocate Barb Shumer, past board member
and retired public librarian.