Sapph-Lit | Even Though I Knew the End

Even Though I Knew the End

C. L. Polk

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Winner of the Nebula Award! Finalist for the Hugo Award! Finalist for the World Fantasy Award! A New York Times Best Romance of 2022! C. L. Polk turns their considerable powers to a fantastical noir with Even Though I Knew the End.

“Eerie, sharp and fiercely bittersweet.” —The New York Times.

A magical detective dives into the affairs of Chicago's divine monsters to secure a future with the love of her life. This sapphic period piece will dazzle anyone looking for mystery, intrigue, romance, magic, or all of the above.

An exiled augur who sold her soul to save her brother's life is offered one last job before serving an eternity in hell. When she turns it down, her client sweetens the pot by offering up the one payment she can't resist—the chance to have a future where she grows old with the woman she loves.

To succeed, she is given three days to track down the White City Vampire, Chicago's most notorious serial killer. If she fails, only hell and heartbreak await.

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Posts about this title from Sapph-Lit

Sapph-Lit\ \ Nina\ \ • Dec 19 2025

All the books grotto & Sapph-Lit gave away at last week's annual Holiday Book Fair 📚☃️🎄

thank you to everyone who came to scoop up some queer literature and celebrate with us, to our fabulous and supportive publishers & @threads, to @kimnarby for her sneak peek reading of Saturn Returning, and to @thestandardhighline for hosting us! We hope you’re all REALLY 👀 enjoying the goodies we stuffed into your totes from our friends at @dameproducts @getmaude @flybyjing @cheerielane 🫶🏽 these book parties really fill our cup and we already can’t wait for the next! Follow us to stay tuned! ✨🌈

46 books

Posts about this book from across Bindery

Wanderland Reads\ \ Sayer\ \ • Mar 16

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Sapphic Speculative Fiction Expands the Imagination\ \ Many people approach queer romance through familiar frameworks. Modern settings. Recognizable social rules. Families that resemble the structures most of us grew up around. I wrote about this a week or two ago, about looking beyond contemporary romance for great sapphic stories.\ \ Those stories matter. They reflect lived experience and present-day struggles.\ \ Yet some of the most thought-provoking sapphic stories appear in places where the rules look completely different.\ \ Speculative fiction offers writers a simple but radical tool. The ability to ask what happens when the world operates under different assumptions?\ \ What happens when gender does not function the way our societies expect?\ \ What happens when colonial hierarchies collapse or never existed in the first place?\ \ What happens when family and community follow different structures?\ \ Sapphic speculative fiction thrives in these questions.\ \ What counts as speculative fiction?\ \ Speculative fiction serves as an umbrella term for stories that imagine worlds different from our own.\ \ Fantasy explores magic, mythology, and alternate societies.\ \ Science fiction looks at future technology, space exploration, and evolving social systems.\ \ Alternate history reimagines historical timelines.\ \ Dystopian and utopian fiction examine political systems taken to extreme outcomes.\ \ Magical realism blends ordinary life with elements that challenge reality.\ \ All of these genres share a common feature. They build worlds where the assumptions we treat as natural begin to shift.\ \ When those foundations move, storytelling changes.\ \ Reimagining gender systems\ \ Many speculative worlds question the rigid gender frameworks common in contemporary culture.\ \ Some settings include fluid understandings of gender. Others remove the strict gender hierarchy. Some societies organize identity through entirely different categories.\ \ When gender works differently, relationships evolve as well.\ \ Characters express attraction without the scripts that dominate many romance narratives. Partnerships develop around compatibility, trust, or shared goals rather than predetermined roles.\ \ For readers, this shift opens new ways of thinking about identity and connection.\ \ Challenging colonial power structures\ \ Speculative fiction often explores empire, conquest, and resistance.\ \ Many worlds center characters fighting against oppressive systems or rebuilding communities after political collapse. Some stories draw inspiration from Indigenous traditions or non-Western perspectives to imagine societies structured around different values.\ \ Within these settings, sapphic characters frequently appear as leaders, rebels, scholars, or explorers. Their relationships unfold inside larger struggles over power, survival, and cultural memory.\ \ Love does not exist in isolation. It grows alongside questions about justice, resistance, and the future of entire communities.\ \ Rethinking family and community\ \ Another striking feature of speculative fiction involves how stories approach family.\ \ The nuclear family model rarely stands as the only option. Characters often live within chosen families, cooperative communities, traveling crews, or political alliances.\ \ Romantic relationships exist inside these broader networks of care.\ \ Two people falling in love may also share responsibilities to their crew, their village, or their resistance movement. Partnership becomes part of a wider web of loyalty and support.\ \ For many readers, this structure feels both imaginative and deeply familiar.\ \ Common tropes in sapphic speculative fiction\ \ Speculative fiction combines romance with adventure and conflict. Certain narrative patterns recur.\ \ A princess guarded by a loyal warrior or knight who begins to question her duty.\ \ Rival soldiers from opposing factions are forced to work together.\ \ A scholar and a fighter navigating a dangerous quest.\ \ Political enemies are forming uneasy alliances during a rebellion.\ \ Explorers encounter unfamiliar worlds and build trust through survival.\ \ These tropes create tension, intimacy, and emotional growth while the larger story unfolds.\ \ Why these stories expand the imagination\ \ Speculative fiction does more than entertain. It shifts perspective.\ \ When readers step into worlds built on different assumptions, the systems shaping their own lives become visible. Gender roles, political hierarchies, and family structures reveal themselves as historical constructs rather than permanent truths.\ \ Sapphic speculative fiction takes this imaginative shift even further.\ \ Queer women appear not as side characters but as central figures in the story of the world itself. They lead revolutions. Build communities. Explore unknown territories. Fall in love while reshaping the societies around them.\ \ These stories ask readers to imagine something larger than representation.\ \ They ask us to imagine entirely different ways people live together.\ \ An invitation to explore\ \ If you have not spent time with sapphic speculative fiction, consider this an invitation.\ \ Explore fantasy worlds where magic reshapes power.\ \ Read science fiction that questions identity in future societies.\ \ Look for stories where love grows alongside resistance, exploration, and discovery.\ \ These books stretch the imagination in ways that linger long after the final page.\ \ I am especially interested in reading more sapphic speculative fiction this year.\ \ Which books expanded your worldview?\ \ Which stories stayed with you long after you finished them?\ \ Here is a list of books I've read and books on my TBR!\ \ \ \ Join for free or login

Worlds Where Sapphic Stories Rewrite the Rules

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Reads with Rachel\ \ Rachel\ \ • Jan 3

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EVEN THOUGH I KNEW THE END | REVIEW

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Sapph-Lit\ \ Nina\ \ • Dec 19 2025

All the books grotto & Sapph-Lit gave away at last week's annual Holiday Book Fair 📚☃️🎄

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Boneyard Picnic\ \ Natalie Meagan\ \ • Dec 4 2025

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Sleep Token Book Recs | Weirdo Vlogmas Day 4

Let's explore the Even in Arcadia & chat about books that gave me the same vibes.

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Wanderland Reads\ \ Sayer\ \ • Oct 21 2025

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Speculative Fiction as a Labratory

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Read Rant Review\ \ Kaylee\ \ • Sep 7 2025

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[I'm going on my honeymoon in less than a week... ahhh!! It's a long time coming, and I can't wait to tell you guys all about it when I get back.\ \ Below are the physical books (novellas) I'm taking; these are personal reads, which I haven't done in a long time. Reading for leisure? Who is she? I, of course, am taking my Kindle as well and will inevitably end up reading books for reviews, but where's the fun in talking about work stuff.\ \ If you happen to be new to my behind the scenes content... the first thing you need to know is I have a collection of books with birds on the covers. It's my one weakness, and I'm obsessed. I don't know, don't ask. You'll see why I need to preface this lmao.\ \

Grief Is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter: I've had this book for a while now; this may have been the book that sparked my bird cover obsession. Anyway. A widowed father with two sons is trying to cope with the loss when a crow shows up. The crow only visits humans who are in grief and threatens to stay with the family until they 'no longer need him'. What? What a crazy premise. Also the title is a reference to an Emily Dickenson poem, Hope Is the Thing with Feathers. Truly MADE FOR ME. \ \
Even Though I Knew the End: Saphhic period piece where one of the FMC's sells her soul to save her brother? But the ante is upped when she is instead offered a deal where if she finds a notorious seriel killler, she can stay alive and grow old with the woman she loves? HELLO? This sounds like a premise that I might love even more than This Is How You Lose the Time War (my fav book of ALL time). You have no idea how pumped I am for this one.\ \
It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over: Our dead heroine is wandering the after life and has forgetten everything, except the feeling of longing for the place where she loved and was loved. That's all I know.\ \ \ I uh... just realized a common theme of these books. Another fact about me, is that I love reading anything about the afterlife and exploratin of it as a concept. Can you tell?\ \ I can't wait to give an update on how these were and a recap of all the other nonsense I'm able to squeeze in on the airplane rides and boring days at sea. \ \ Thanks you so much for reading, I'm glad you're here. 💛\ \ Join for free or login](https://readrantreview.binderybooks.com/item/mi5JpScdIRrm9p66lhB5/)

My Vacation TBR!

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Mood Reads\ \ Hannah\ \ • Mar 25 2024

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Spring Break 2024: Chicago Bookstore Tour! Second Stop: Unabridged!

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Mareas\ \ Marines\ \ • Jan 5 2024

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my top 11-20 books of 2023

I swear, I don't ONLY love books that emotionally devastate me, but, uh, mostly all of these did. I honestly didn't even notice until I was watching back after editing lmao.

8 books

Fantasy & Frens\ \ Zoranne\ \ • Mar 17 2023

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Here are some fantasy and sci-fi books that are written by trans, non-binary, and genderqueer authors! 🏳️‍⚧️🤩\ \ lemme know if you’ve read any of these or have any of your own recommendations!\ \ #transbookrecs #fantasybooks #fantasybookrecommendations #scifibookrecs

Here are some fantasy and sci-fi books that are written by trans, non-binary, and genderqueer authors! 🏳️‍⚧️🤩

lemme know if you’ve read any of these or have any of your own recommendations!

#transbookrecs #fantasybooks #fantasybookrecommendations #scifibookrecs

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Fantasy & Frens\ \ Zoranne\ \ • Mar 16 2023

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here are some fantasy and sci-fi book recommendations that are by trans, non-binary, or gender-queer authors! 🏳️‍⚧️🤩 ##fantasybooktok##queerbookrecs##fantasybookrecommendations##scifibooks

12 books

Fantasy & Frens\ \ Zoranne\ \ • Dec 31 2022

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2022 FANTASY TIER LIST!

Today I'll be following in the steps of Daniel Greene and creating a tier list of all of the fantasy books I read in 2022! How do you think I did?

The Fantasy & Frens Book Club will begin reading A BROKEN BLADE by Melissa Blair in January! Join us and read along through the link below!

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Fantasy & Frens\ \ Zoranne\ \ • Dec 1 2022

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🍂 november wrap-up 🍂\ \ i was planning to make an ✨aesthetic✨ looking reel featuring all of the books i read in november but i came to the conclusion that it was too much work because i don't know how to do those cool transitions. i'm much better at screaming at my camera so here's what i read w/ ratings :)\ \ if you wanna know my in-depth thoughts on each of these stories, i just posted my first youtube video for my november wrap up! link in my bio to watch! 😌\ - her soul to take - 4/5\ - the house in the cerulean sea - 4.5/5 so fkn cute\ - even though i knew the end (ARC) - 4/5\ - astrid parker doesn’t fail (ARC) - 4.5/5\ - the spear cuts through water - OHMYGODASDFGHJKL;/5\ - heart of the sun warrior - 4/5\ - the kiss of deception - 4/5\ - the heart of betrayal - 4/5\ - faking with benefits - 3.5/5\ \ such a fun reading month!! \ \ what was your favorite read of november?!\ also, i chopped my hair off 🙊\ \ #novemberreads #monthlywrapup #readingwrapup #bookstack #fantasybookseries #romancebooks

🍂 november wrap-up 🍂

i was planning to make an ✨aesthetic✨ looking reel featuring all of the books i read in november but i came to the conclusion that it was too much work because i don't know how to do those cool transitions. i'm much better at screaming at my camera so here's what i read w/ ratings :)

if you wanna know my in-depth thoughts on each of these stories, i just posted my first youtube video for my november wrap up! link in my bio to watch! 😌

- her soul to take - 4/5 - the house in the cerulean sea - 4.5/5 so fkn cute - even though i knew the end (ARC) - 4/5 - astrid parker doesn’t fail (ARC) - 4.5/5 - the spear cuts through water - OHMYGODASDFGHJKL;/5 - heart of the sun warrior - 4/5 - the kiss of deception - 4/5 - the heart of betrayal - 4/5 - faking with benefits - 3.5/5

such a fun reading month!!

what was your favorite read of november?! also, i chopped my hair off 🙊

#novemberreads #monthlywrapup #readingwrapup #bookstack #fantasybookseries #romancebooks

5 books

Fantasy & Frens\ \ Zoranne\ \ • Dec 1 2022

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Every Book I Read In November 2022 || Reading Wrap Up

My first Youtube video! Can you believe it?! November was full of some fun reads! Does this mean I'm a booktuber now??? Let me know what the best book you read in November was!

The Fantasy & Frens Book Club will be reading Skyward by Brandon Sanderson this December! Click the link to join the club and read along with us!

BOOKS MENTIONED: The Spear Cuts Through Water: https://amzn.to/3FVFomo Even Though I Knew The End: https://amzn.to/3vrlwmA Heart of the Sun Warrior: https://amzn.to/3CaTXl1 The House In The Cerulean Sea: https://amzn.to/3jxm4o5 Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail: https://amzn.to/3Gr65RD The Remnant Chronicles: https://amzn.to/3WzFRlr Her Soul to Take: https://amzn.to/3Z0n9VC Faking With Benefits: https://amzn.to/3YWFanW