No Matter who you voted for, it’s impossible to deny the heightened political and social tensions, and the increase in hate crimes taking place across the United States in the wake of Trump’s presidential win. But before inauguration day rolls around and you break out the bottles to toast your happiness or overwhelming fear of policy roll-backs, government-sanctioned harassment, environmental destruction, and global nuclear war, there are three books you really ought to read.

1) The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

Harry Crewe had been fascinated by the mysterious and dangerous Hillfolk since she moved to Istan, at the edge of the Homelander empire, but being kidnapped in the middle of the night was not how she wanted to learn more about them! Her struggle to make sense of a new culture in a land where no one speaks her language, and figure out why they took her in the first place, are a tiny introduction to the feelings of a member of the white, “civilized,” and proud majority, who has suddenly become a minority.

(Buy The Blue Sword here.)

2) Ms. Marvel (volume #1: No Normal) by G. Wilson, Adrian Alphona, and Sara Pichelli

If you’re a comic book reader, you’ve already experienced the Ms. Marvel craze that swept through the US about a year ago, when the internet realized that the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story had gone to Marvel’s first graphic novel starring a Muslim character. The story of a teenage Pakistani-American girl from New Jersey turning into a superhero is fun, occasionally funny, and so, so relatable. Kamala Khan is the voice of everyone who, at one point or another (maybe even right now) wished we they were someone more stereotypically pretty, more popular, or just more normal. But she’s also the face of millions of racial and religious minorities in the US whose voices have been sorely lacking in mainstream literature.

(Buy Ms. Marvel here.)

3) Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire

This smart and funny urban-fantasy could have been a dystopian novel if it was written from the perspective of one of the cryptids—every non-human from vampires to tiny talking mice—living in New York City. Instead, it’s in the perspective of Verity, a part-time cocktail waitress, occasional ballroom dancing champion, and secret cryptozoologist who’s spending a year in the city trying to decide which takes precedence—her own life and wellbeing, or the help she can provide to this at-risk group. Because the cryptids of New York are facing a new foe; a man has arrived who has been raised to see all cryptids, no matter their species or nature, as evil beings who must be eradicated in order to preserve the “pure” human race. And it’s up to Verity to stop him.

(Buy Discount Armageddon here.)

Images (5)/Cover Art, Marvel Database