Grabbing Gardens

In a post-industrial age, centuries after the revolts against the patriarchy, Gynoecium stands as a powerful city with rich culture, strong social structures, and absolutely no men -- or so it would appear on the surface.

Turmoil hits the city, when the Empress, the illustrious and progressive Del Quinn Ari who wished to reunite men and women, is poisoned at one of the city's greatest celebrations. Panic ensues as the women (or 'woes' as they call themselves) of Gynoecium struggle to find a new leader, while a young Matron prison-keeper named Cody, harbours the very man accused for the Empress' death.

Meanwhile, two teens leave the city to escape the pressures of their society: Saxil, a boy who has lived his whole life presenting as a girl, and now hopes to find freedom as a man on the farmlands; and Pate, a girl who wants nothing more than to escape the dark legacy of her family name. Both find themselves in the strangest company, as a Witch hosts them in its magical and ominous garden -- a garden that seems aware of their presence, starved for their tears, and desperate that neither Saxil nor Pate should ever leave...

Disclaimer: while this book often discusses gender in a binary sense, it is helpful to read from a spectral perspective.