Our Infinite Fates

Laura Steven is an English novelist who has written several books for children and young adults, including Every Exquisite Thing (inspired in part by Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray) and the middle grade novels And Then I Turned Into a Mermaid and its sequel, Don’t Tell Him I’m a Mermaid. Her works often include supernatural or fantastical elements, and she most enjoys writing LGBTQ+ characters, saying, “Truthfully, I write the world the way I see and experience it, and as a Bisexual woman, I’ve surrounded myself with a glorious Queer community. It would feel strange to me not to represent that on the page” (Anderson, Lindsey. “Laura Steven Explores the Power of Anger in Soulless Girls.” SGN, 6 Oct. 2023). 

Our Infinite Fates, a romantasy that features gender-fluid main characters, is emblematic of Steven’s interests and oeuvre. Like The Society for Soulless Girls, which is a “sapphic horror retelling of Jekyll & Hyde,” Our Infinite Fates explores relationships among characters who don’t identify as heterosexual (“About.” Laura “L.K.” Steven). In every life, Evelyn and Arden are reborn, each with the potential to become a boy or a girl. In their very first lifetime, they are both women, but in subsequent lifetimes, they are reborn as men or as individuals of different genders; however, they are always attracted to one another. In short, their sex and gender simply do not matter in terms of their love. As Steven suggests, “Writing Queer characters […] opens up opportunities for more romantic possibilities” (Anderson). The novel also explores the nature of gender as part of its exploration of The Fluidity of Sexual and Gender Identity: During their lifetime in Austria-Hungary in 1898, Arden asks, “Which [gender] feels the most like you […] Girl? Boy?” (113), as well as describing a man who has argued for the existence of a third gender. In the same conversation, Evelyn describes gender norms as “confusing” and “ever-shifting,” suggesting that these external roles often do not align with a person’s internal experience of gender.

Taylor Swift’s “Exile” lyrics also helped firm up Steven’s idea for Our Infinite Fates. In 2017, Steven wrote in her journal, “What if a girl who can remember that she was murdered in a past life wants revenge in this one?” (Noble, Fiona. “Laura Steven Explores the Intertwined and Recurring Lives of Two People in Her New YA Fantasy Novel.” The Bookseller, 29 Nov. 2024). She liked the idea but struggled with format and genre until Swift released her Folklore album, featuring the song “Exile” and its lyric, “I think I’ve seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending” (Noble). Evelyn’s “ending” in every life is either to kill Arden or be killed by him; either way, however, both die.