This is an extremely interesting book, though I must say that I’m not sure I entirely understood it. At the very least, my old-fashioned brain kept mis-gendering the characters. Notes From A Regicide is the story of Etoine Keming, transcribed from his written prison journal by his adoptive son, Griffon. This is interwoven with the story of how Griffon came to be adopted by Etoine and his lover Zaffre. And why, after their deaths, Griffon decided to tell the story from Etoine’s journal.

Etoine was an artist in the now-lost city of Stephensport, and he was unwittingly involved in the revolution which destroyed it. He did, in fact, commit regicide, though that was not why he was imprisoned. His fellow artist and eventual lover, Zaffre, was probably much more actively involved, but her story is unreliable. She supposedly “burned down half of Stephensport,” but her memories are described from a fuzzy distance, as though this might have been more or less accidental.

Etoine and Zaffre are old when they find their son (or maybe Griffon finds them). They have finally arrived at themselves as both artists and revolutionaries. All three are living in a future New York City, where artists and refugees abound, and most of the streets are canals. Griffon is still finding himself, as a trans man whose biological parents were abusive and, ultimately, unworthy of him. Zaffre and Etoine are also trans, but secure enough in their bodies that the way they live can be a sort of guide. However they are both broken in other ways, and seem to still be in mourning for their lost city.

I thought at first that Isaac Fellman meant for revolution to be a metaphor for transitioning. Both involve uncertain change. The Stevensport revolution was passionate and messy, barging with minimal guidance toward an unknown future. But, though it was ultimately successful, it was not clear that everyone, including the revolutionaries, was satisfied with the outcome of the revolution.

The story is told in evocative, beautifully poetic prose, but it is filled with a sense of loss. The city burned, its magical foundation dismantled. The king is dead. Perhaps too many things of value were unintentionally destroyed in the process, or the new way of life is not as much of an improvement as hoped. Fellman does not really answer these questions, telling instead a story of wrenching love and loss and change.