As the first transgender author to make the New York Times Young Adult bestseller list, Aiden Thomas knows the power of queer imagination.
His 2020 debut novel Cemetery Boys has gained a sizable following since publication and Thomas, whose pronouns are he/they, has garnered a loyal fanbase on social media, where he shares Pride-themed pictures of his dog, offers sneak peeks at his upcoming novels, and provides an intimate look into his life as a very online writer. Their books, which range from high fantasy to fairy tale retellings, often feature slow-burn romances, endearing trans main characters, and no shortage of queer, Latinx magic.
In The Sunbearer Trials, his third novel, Thomas crafts a Latinx combination of Percy Jackson meets The Hunger Games, immersing the reader in a world of magic, heart, and Mexican-inspired brilliance. A YA high fantasy, The Sunbearer Trials takes readers of all ages on a high-stakes adventure filled with unexpected heroes and LGBTQ+ representation. Protagonist Teo, the trans son of Quetzal, the goddess of birds, is one of many LGBTQIA+ semidioses, or demigods, living in the world of Reino del Sol. As a lowly Jade semidiós, the 17-year-old Teo finds himself struggling with dysphoria and his destiny all at once. But with his life on the line and the power of Sol in need of replenishment, Teo is forced to reckon with his identity and fight to become the Sunbearer in the book’s eponymous contest.
Ahead of the book’s publication, Aiden Thomas spoke with Them about writing LGBTQ+ themed high fantasy, exploring the trans teenage experience, and finding their queer power.
You wrote The Sunbearer Trials during COVID, right? What was the inspiration? How did it help you survive months of quarantine?
I did! Quarantine was awful for all of us, and I was having a particularly bad time dealing with being isolated in my less than 500 square foot apartment. To survive it, I needed a distraction. The Sunbearer Trials was inspired by two of my favorites series: Percy Jackson and The Hunger Games!
I wanted the world to be inspired by and reflect my Mexican culture. Like with Cemetery Boys, it really turned into a love letter to my community. I watched all thirty-plus Crash Course: World Mythology videos on YouTube and learned how to create a pantheon of gods that represented my culture. You have the greater gods of elements needed for human survival, like Lumbre (fire), Tierra (earth) and Agua (water). But then I have lesser gods like Quetzal (birds), Maize (harvest) and Pan Dulce (home and hearth). Guerrero, the nonbinary god of war who is half jaguar and has top surgery scars, is a personal favorite of mine!
Why did you want to tell this story in particular?
There were a lot of things I wanted to explore in The Sunbearer Trials, but American exceptionalism was a big one. Instead of having a story where there is one chosen hero who saves the world and then is given a position of power, I wanted to tell a story that showed the importance of community-led leadership and interventions, and how caste systems are bad, actually.
I also just wanted a super fun action adventure story where queer, trans and Latinx kids could see themselves as not only heroes, but as the children of gods. I want them to be able to read The Sunbearer Trials, connect with one of the characters and root for them as the story goes on. It’s such a powerful, thrilling thing to be able to see yourself in a book. I think this is a story that all young adults readers will be able to find someone they really attach to and identify with, from the Stoic Hero, to the Well-Meaning Troublemaker, or the Beefy Lesbian with a Sword!
Can you talk about how you approached the portrayal and exploration of the trans experience in the novel?
I wanted queerness, including transness, to be not only accepted in Reino del Sol, but celebrated. There are gender-confirmation ceremonies where if someone discovers they are a different gender than they thought, it’s a party! The all-powerful omniscient sun god they worship, Sol, is nonbinary, and there are several gods and semidioses who fall under the trans umbrella too, including a trans boy, a trans girl, a nonbinary teen, and someone who isn’t quite sure of their identity. Like with Cemetery Boys, I wanted the magic in the world to also be gender-affirming, but I can’t quite go into detail on that one without spoilers.
How did you heighten the emotions of the queer youth in your book, especially as they're navigating things like dysphoria, acceptance, and, well, surviving a game meant to determine a sacrifice?
I was excited to create a fantasy world that has a lot fewer hangups about queerness than the one we live in. While dysphoria is still deepy uncomfortable for my trans characters, and my queer characters peel back layers of their identity as they grow, I think that’s an inevitable and beautiful part of being queer. Being queer is just less fraught for these kids than we all had to deal with. And you’re totally right, they have a lot of other stuff to worry about instead!
I love that you had so much queer representation in your novel; normally, I feel like we only get one or two queer characters but you had a whole cast! Why was this so important for you to do when creating your characters and how did you avoid falling into tropes outside your own identity?
Having different kinds of queer representation in The Sunbearer Trials was important to me because it reflects how the queer community is in real life! Even though I am queer and am an active part of the queer community, that doesn’t mean I’m not capable of falling into tropes or stereotypes outside of and inside of my own identity. With how diverse our identities and lived experiences are, it was crucial to get authenticity readers to provide critical feedback on The Sunbearer Trials while I was writing it, including for Teo, even though he and I share exceptionally similar identities.
Everyone has their own internalized biases, whether they know it or not, and my first priority when writing books is to never do harm, especially to my own community, so I am always committed to calling in members of the marginalized communities I write for to check my work, and to of course pay them for said work.
Can you tell me a bit more about the creation of a gender-confirmation ceremony? It was so interesting to see how accepting and normalized this was among the dioses and their children. Honestly, the world should be more like Reino del Sol.
Gender-confirmation ceremonies sprung from how much I loathe gender reveal parties. Instead of proclaiming a child’s gender before they’re born or even have their own sense of self, I wanted there to be a holy ceremony to celebrate when people (including kids and adults) discover which gender identity best represents them! Honestly, I think this is something we should adopt in our own world. I think it’d make the experience of “coming out” a lot more exciting if you knew there would be a party and cake!
What role does love and friendship play in the book?
Love and friendship is at the core of everything I write. All my teen characters in The Sunbearer Trials are contending with societal expectations and figuring out how to trust each other, open up and look past their preconceptions, all while literally fighting each other to the death. There are a lot of trios in this book — but no love triangles! — with all the delicious complexity of that triangular push and pull. Teo’s falling in love, but it starts with rediscovering a childhood friendship, and starting there was really important to me. Friendship should be at the core of all relationships.
What do you hope young queer readers take away from your book?
Eat the rich. And that you’ll find your power, and your place in the world, and your people, by staying true to yourself. It’s a big world, with a diverse queer community, and there’s a space for you that’s going to feel really right!
This interview has been condensed and edited.
The Sunbearer Trials is out now from Feiwel & Friends.
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