In 2015, Sirens examined rebels and revolutionaries, and what it takes to stand against oppressors, with Guests of Honor Rae Carson, Kate Elliott, and Yoon Ha Lee (and in our 2018 reunion year, Guest of Honor Kameron Hurley represented rebels). We cast a wide net in our definition of rebels and revolutionaries, seeking not just traditional fantasy uprisings, but more revolutionary notions of rebellion as well.

In 2015, we suggested a number of books that portrayed this wide variety of rebels and revolutionaries. For Sirens at Home, though, we want to feature 10 books that we think have something to say about what it means to rebel or revolt, especially for those with marginalized identities. Here are those books, as well as their opening words—and we’ve included links to those works at Bookshop in the titles. Bookshop supports both Sirens and independent bookstores, so if you’re looking to purchase any of these titles, they’re a great option!

1. Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
	“The thing always appeared in the hour between sunset and full dark. When the light began to wane in the afternoon, casting shadows of gray and violet across the stable yard below the tower where he worked, Reza would give himself over to shuddering waves of anxiety and anticipation.”
2. An Accident of Stars by Foz Meadows
	“Sarcasm is armour, Saffron thought, and imagined she was donning a suit of it, plate by gleaming, snark-laden plate. ‘Nice undies,’ leered Jared Blake, lifting her skirt with a ruler. No, not a ruler—it was a metal file, one of the heavy ones they were meant to be using on their metalworking projects. He grinned at her, unrepentant, and poked the file upwards. The cold iron rasped against her thigh. ‘Are you shaved?’ ‘Fuck off, Jared,’ Saffron shot back. ‘I’d rather have sex with an octopus.’”
3. An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
	“Aster removed two scalpels from her med-kit to soak in a solution of disinfectant. Her fingers trembled from the cold, and the tools slipped from her grasp, plopping ungracefully into the sanitizer. In ten minutes’ time, she’d be amputating a child’s gangrenous foot. This shaking and carrying on would not do.”
4. Bitch Planet: Extraordinary Machine by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro
	“‘Excuse me?’ ‘Pardon me?’ ‘I’m so very sorry!’ ‘She’s not there?’ ‘No, and she’s got 10 seconds to walk through that door before I read the damned thing myself. 10…9…8…’”
5. Conservation of Shadows by Yoon Ha Lee
	“It is not true that the dead cannot be folded. Square becomes kite becomes swan; history becomes rumor becomes song. Even the act of remembrance creases the truth. What the paper-folding diagrams fail to mention is that each fold enacts itself upon the secret marrow of your ethics, the axioms of your thoughts. Whether this is the most important thing the diagrams fail to mention is a matter of opinion.”
6. Court of Fives by Kate Elliott
	“We four sisters are sitting in the courtyard at dusk in what passes for peace in our house. Well‐brought‐up girls do not fidget nor fume nor ever betray the least impatience or boredom. But it is so hard to sit still when all I can think about is how I am going to sneak out of the house tomorrow to do the thing my father would never, ever give me permission to do.”
7. The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley
	“‘Persistence.’ It was the answer to a question posed to science fiction writer Kevin J. Anderson in an interview about what he thought a writer required most in order to succeed in the profession. I read that interview when I was seventeen, hungrily scouring the shelves of the local B. Dalton bookseller for advice on how to be a writer.”
8. The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
	“Prayer candles flicker in my bedroom. The Scriptura Sancta lies discarded, pages crumpled, on my bed. Bruises mark my knees from kneeling on the tiles, and the Godstone in my navel throbs. I have been praying—no, begging—that King Alejandro de Vega, my future husband, will be ugly and old and fat.”
9. The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho
	“There was a brief lull in the general chatter when the bandit walked into the coffeehouse. This was not because of the knife at his hip or his dusty attire, suggestive of a life spent in the jungle. It was not the first time Weng Wah Coffeehouse had seen a bandit and it would not be the last.”
10. We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia
	“Daniela Vargas woke at the first whisper of footsteps coming up the road. By the time the sound of shattering glass in the courtyard alerted the campus to the presence of intruders, she was dressed and ready. For what? She wasn’t sure. After a childhood of heavy-footed military police in close pursuit, she knew better than to mistake the luxury of her surroundings for safety.”

For more information about our 2015 conference, including the programming presented that year, please see our 2015 archive page.