First book of fantasy quintet shares diversity in gender and species while honouring found family

The Stars of Mount Quixx is the fascinating and fantastical first book of the new Brindlewatch Quintet by S. M. Beiko. The narrative follows the Ivyweather sisters, two outsiders, forced into spending their summer vacation in the always foggy town Quixx, built on the slope of a mountain rumoured to be filled with monsters.

Constance, the older sister, is a perfectionist and finds the real world stressful enough, whereas her younger sister, Ivory, is more than happy to climb the mountain and discover its secrets.

“I definitely feel like both Constance and Ivory are representations of me. I have Ivory’s spirit for adventure and dreaming, but I deal with anxiety like Constance does,” says Beiko. “No person is ever truly ‘one thing,’ and I love how they play off of one other. They’re stronger together, that’s for sure.”

Beiko, a Winnipeg-based author, artist, and editor, found herself making stories and drawing characters back in high school. She created the beginnings of the world of Brindlewatch – inspired by fairy tales and Tim Burton’s work – after she wrote her first book The Lake and the Library back in 2006. After publishing that novel in 2013, Beiko wanted to re-explore the earlier characters and let them tell their stories.

“I had interesting characters, but no real plan for them,” she says, “and after writing 100 pages, lost the plot (literally). I tucked the book away in a drawer.”

In between books of her YA trilogy, The Realms of Ancient, Beiko, who now had “better methods for developing stories” and a “more practised voice,” decided to develop the plot of the two sisters in Quixx, and an engaging plot it is.

Shortly after arriving, Ivory mysteriously vanishes, leaving it up to Constance to bring her back to safety. On her rescue mission, she meets Derrek, a Mount Quixx monster who is a kind of “friendly spider professor,” passionate about removing the fog that has stunted the town’s growth. The sisters agree to help Derrek get back the night sky for the townspeople.

Many of the characters featured in this first Brindlewatch book are diverse in not only species, but also gender. Beiko, identifying as bisexual, deems it important to represent the LGBTQ2IA+ identities and relationships in media, and so features several queer characters: lesbian, gay, trans, non-binary, and more. “They are blatant and discussed, but the plot doesn’t hinge on them,” she says.

“It was important to me to represent LGBTQ2IA+ identity and relationships as ‘normal’ and just simply part of the tapestry of community, in both Quixx the town as well as the creatures of the mountain.”

Celebrating the concept of “found family” is also important to Beiko. “Friendship and companions outside of familial bonds are often just as, or arguably more, important than the family we are born into,” she says. “All of the protagonists – Constance, Ivory, Derrek, even the monsters of Mount Quixx – are stronger when they are supported by one another, despite whatever differences there may be or challenges they’re going through.

“Isolationism breeds unwarranted contempt, and only when communities can come together without prejudice can the ‘fog’ be cleared.”