Anna Lightwood in 'Every Exquisite Thing' - A Queer Icon

By: Ace.Ven (Edited by: Ace)

The first time that I read ‘Every Exquisite Thing’, I literally bawled for a day. For those of you that need a refresher or don’t know, EET is one of the short stories from ‘Ghosts of the Shadow Market’ which is a collection of short stories that follows the travels of Jem Carstairs, AKA Brother Zachariah, from the ‘The Infernal Devices’ series. This particular short story revolves around the character of Anna Lightwood, the eldest child of Gabriel and Cecily. While the piece does have a storyline to it, regarding the exploits of Anna, Jem (his name may be Brother Zachariah but he will always be dear ol’ Jem to me) and Ariadne Bridgestock, this article will focus mainly on the characterization of Anna, and not her adventures.

While the LGBT+ storyline is not a new element in the SHC universe, Anna is quite different from Alec, Magnus and Matthew. While Alec was a sassy, closeted gay man and Magnus is a queer GOD, Anna introduced something else altogether. Many novels or series have gay characters or gay romances but what was new about EET was that it explored the constructs of gender. In my experience (which includes reading more YA novels than can be quantified), a lot of authors try to stay away from the topic of ‘gender identity’ because it is quite an internal process. While sexuality is something that can be expressed, it is, arguably, more difficult to do the same with gender since people perceive gender (or lack-there-of), if not by pronouns, then by the way one dresses or behaves. Which the border between ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ slowly disintegrating, gender no longer has any real meaning in our modern world and the constructs and ‘rules’ slowly cease to exist.

Anna, a biological female in the late 1800s, is shown to be going through what one might arguably call dysphoria. She is clearly not okay with the way she is ‘supposed’ to dress and is shown to take a liking to dressing masculine by that day’s standards. She often steals her father or brothers clothes as she feels wildly uncomfortable in dresses and with long hair. She knew very well that she would be ostracized for her behavior and so kept it a secret, only walking about in men’s clothing in the dark or to places where no one knew who she was. This character strikes a personal chord with me by representing my journey as a non-binary person – which goes to show that due to the sheer number of books that Cassie has written, almost everyone can find a character that they relate to in the series.

Her personality is quite outlandish for a woman in those times, being proud, brave and rebellious even without the clothes. The way Cassie describes all of Anna’s emotions and thought processes throughout the short story makes you feel involved and gives you deep insight into her character. The scene where she decided to cut her hair is something I will never forget (hair is a big thing to me) and not to forget – in the end, when Cecily and Gabriel see and accept her for who she is, without her even having to tell them what she is feeling is absolutely beautiful and gives me hope for my own future. In times when a woman who talks alone with a man is seen as promiscuous, Anna Lightwood makes her own rules and lives her life fearlessly, being unscathed by ignorant opinions and closed-minded comments.