Dirt-Stained Hands, Thorn-Pierced Skin

I bought this on Amazon, so I'll copy and paste my review from goodreads here because why not: 

Warning: This review may be a little more incoherent than normal, because I stayed up late into the night, eager to finish reading this story.
Oh, this was wonderful! I love the worldbuilding and how so much of the world was crafted in so little time, especially the fantastical elements like the magic plants and the automatons. (I hope that after Theomer and Heron get together, they do end up letting Heron's ma paint faces on the automatons and possibly name them, and hopefully they're nice names like Rupert and Tiffany and not 'Missing Finger' or 'Dirt In Joints.' Speaking of the magic, I like to think of the overgrown rosebush and Theomer's curse as a metaphor for the trauma of a past toxic relationship holding a person back. Heron had to cut off Tiel to set emself free, and then helped free Theomer both literally and emotionally by loving him *and* freeing him from the curse. It has layers, I like it.
Speaking of Heron, eir personality just jumps off the page, the reader gets a clear understanding of eir perspective, and begins to root for em, from page one. I love em.
I also like Theomer a lot. Watching him grow and wondering about the secrets he was keeping helped move the plot along and kept me intrigued, and I was *not* disappointed about the reveal. I'll never look at a harpsichord the same way again.
On a slightly more personal note, this is the first ever fantasy book/novella I've ever read that features a protagonist with ey/em pronouns, and I love it for that. I always like reading and writing about characters that use neopronouns in general (because neopronouns deserve more love, dammit!) but reading about Heron touched me because I briefly questioned my gender identity and presentation and felt drawn to 'ey/em' pronouns in particular. While I'm happy with my pronouns of she/her, I'm still fond of 'ey/em' and the memories I have of the time when I felt drawn to them.
Anyway I'm gonna stop oversharing and rambling on Itch.io now and get some sleep, and I will definitely revel in the fact that, like the fairytale this story puts an amazing spin on, this book was an excellent bedtime story.

Really enjoyed this one! It has been in my TBR for ages so really glad to snap it up in the Non-Binary Book bundle. Enjoyed Heron and eir relationship dilemmas.