Tilda was not happy with her life, she could admit that now, which was great except she had to die to get to that point. As a Postman on Earth Tilda's job was pretty much the only thing she loved right up until she was hit by a train rescuing a young boy. Now she's been reborn as Luck Bunny tasked by the Goddess Opha to help Juno, a letter carrier herself, to catch a little bit of a break. Tilda realizes pretty quickly she's got a couple of problems though; 1. She is thoroughly enamored with Juno and 2. Tilda doesn't know how to confess to her especially since that means that Tilda has to tell her that on Earth, she was considered a man.
Tilda and Juno are absolutely adorable and Wolff packs a lot of real-life concerns involving transitioning into a relatively short read so it's a lot to unpack but it was a ton of fun!
Tilda was an absolutely wonderful character, not just because she was an adorable bunny, but because we really got to see a different side of transitioning. While you could, and the only reason I am mentioning this is because I can see it being brought up, say that Tilda is forced to transition I'm going to just shut that down immediately. The wonderful thing about an Isekai and especially in this case what Tilda tells the Goddess she wants is that the goddess is well a freaking goddess. It is implied that the Goddess sees what Tilda doesn't because of our society. It's actually a beautiful use of the Isekai genre to be honest and one that I am rather surprised isn't used more often. What I found really stood out to me more than anything isn't the transition though, it was Tilda's discussions on how we treat men. When Tilda tells the Goddess what she wants she simply says she wants to be soft and lucky. This theme of soft really carries throughout the book as Tilda points out that as a man, and a 250 lb linebacker of a man (I have no idea what a linebacker is I've just heard this term used often maybe a quarterback would work better here no idea fill it in with whatever sports reference works for you) who was never treated with anything that could be considered softness or kindness. And ya know what that's an actual problem that men face as it's certainly not the first time I've heard it. Hell in my own relationship in the last week Chris asked me if I would read a book to him and immediately followed up with "That seems like something a girl would ask never mind." Honestly, heartbreaking because of course I would have, but this very oddly specific request "felt" feminine and soft, so he withdrew it. Tilda mentions often about how she would try to make herself as small as she could, even though given her size this feels like an impossibility and omg yes we all know that man who is just built large and you see him fold in on himself, he walks hunched over, plasters himself against walls, apologizes constantly for simply existing. It's not okay. No one should ever be made to feel like that, and we allow it to happen far too often. The other thing Tilda touches is on is because Tilda could not be her true feminine self on Earth, she finds herself being unable to enjoy the things she likes, there is one particular scene where she is recalling listening to a French album and her grandfather making fun of her for it. Again, heartbreaking. The album was too feminine for a "real man" to listen to. And again a man doesn't have to be transgender to experience these things, we all of us, I don't care how good you are at catching yourself at one point in time will decide that something a man in your life did or does is too "girly", and to be fair as long as you are aware of that it's fine but I don't think many of us are so I really wanted to discuss this portion of the book here. Men are allowed to be soft, to want compliments, and to listen to French Music.
Okay that was a lot so onto Juno. I loved her as the person Tilda needed; she gives Tilda so much space to adjust to her new existence that it was truly wonderful to read. But she has her own problems and unfortunately, it's a common one for too many women. So I will give a heads up here that it does include a pretty graphic description of child loss due to premature birth/miscarriage. However, for me it wasn't the loss of the child that was triggering it was the idea that Juno needed closure from her child's father to move on from the loss. As someone who lost a child under similar and far more violent circumstances since I myself also died as a result of my miscarriage this felt like a very stereotypical take on the subject. That being said everyone grieves differently especially with this type of loss so even though I didn't agree how it was handled the very fact that it was included period is enough for me. Miscarriages, still births, etc are just not talked about enough in media which is mindboggling considering how many families (no matter what that family looks like and yes, a family can just be one person) will experience it.
This really focuses on Tilda's transition so while yes there are Goddesses and magical beings and magic and geopolitics at play here it's not really the main theme of the story, so I am not going to go to much into the world building side of thing. There was just enough to get a basic understanding of how the magic in the world worked and that it is used in place of many of our technological advances. Now, if Wolff is planning to continue this (which omg I would love a book two!) I think we'd need more information, but since this story was really contained within one city in the world what we got was perfect for the story.
Finally, I think my favorite thing with the stories by Wolff, I have read so far is her Sgt Frog level dedication to pop culture. I lost count of how many references to anime, tv shows, and books that are in here and I know it's a weird thing to enjoy but I love it. It gives the reader a firm grasp of the timeframe in which this was written but I also think a better understanding of Tilda specifically based off of where her references came from. Tilda doesn't even need to say she was a nerd because omg she obviously was and I love that!
I highly recommend this one for anyone, but this book in particular I would recommend to people that are interested in learning more about transitioning. Especially those who transition later in life, this is a really safe and honestly snuggly place to understand why some people may not even be able to fully recognize that they are transgender due to societal norms and fear.
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