Jes Honard & Marie Parks are joining us today to talk about their novel, Undeniable. Here’s the publisher’s description:
A lifeless body awaiting immortality.
Magic that erodes a sister’s identity.
Enemies bent on retribution.
Bridget has saved her sister, Dahlia, from imprisonment. But their reunion has come with enormous costs. Their friend was murdered in the rescue efforts, and Dahlia herself is no longer fully human.
Together, they seek to grant their friend a second chance at life. But the magic that will save him also paints a target on their backs.
As the sisters race to uncover the key to resurrection, Dahlia’s former captors pursue them-coveting the ancient powers and seeking justice for their own fallen companions.
At the same time, they must also contend with how Dahlia’s immortal life, new abilities, and fracturing personality are changing their relationship forever.
UNDENIABLE is the second book in The Grigori Cycle. Multi-Hugo Award-winning author Mary Robinette Kowal called UNRELENTING “a tapestry of emotion that effortlessly weaves together the threads of grief and obsession.”
What’s Jes and Marie’s favorite bit?
The world needs more queer joy.
When we set out to write Undeniable, the sequel to Unrelenting, we were already working with a cast that included many queer characters. The protagonist, Bridget, is asexual. Several supporting characters are various other colors of the rainbow.
This is not a series about coming out or resilience in the face of queer oppression. As Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz say, these books have ambient queerness.
It’s also not a joyful book (sorry). At its core, Undeniable is a contemporary fantasy about grief, identity, and the cost of single-minded focus.
But at the edges of that story is another one.
It’s a story where a nonbinary funeral home director in rural Ohio tries to do right by their charges.
Where an asexual woman lets go of her need to control relationships with others, focusing instead on her relationship with herself.
Where two gay men come together after centuries of denial.
Those two men, Gaul and Viri, are at the core of our favorite bit. For the most part, they remain outside of the spotlight. Viri offers his home when Bridget and her new, supernatural allies, led in part by Gaul, need to hide.
Gaul isn’t what you would call warm. In fact, one of Bridget’s first interactions with him is a conversation where he advocates for killing her on the basis of being human.
Charming.
In his defense, he’s centuries old, and he’s seen the worst of humanity. His primary goal is to protect his charges, and anyone outside the fold is a potential enemy.
Undeniable begins in Viri’s countryside home. He’s an avid gardener, and life springs from every corner of his house, inside and out.
And, in the face of all this earnest joie de vivre, Gaul’s walls begin to crumble. Oh, he tries to resist it at first (as he’s done for centuries). After all, his prior attempts at relationships have ended horribly. He was used by someone who saw him and his magical abilities as a means to an end. The events were cataclysmic, not just for Gaul, but for all of humanity.
As a result, Gaul spent centuries pushing Viri away.
For his part, Viri pushed away, too. Despite the pull he feels toward Gaul, he’s a devout Christian, and he was born in a time and place where homosexuality was simply not an option. He’s spent much of his long life unsure how to navigate his closeted sexuality.
And yet, they couldn’t ignore one another entirely.
As their lives advanced into the twentieth century, they chose to settle down near one another, though they kept their relationship strictly professional. They offered help when needed, but there were no deep conversations or dinner dates.
However, in Undeniable, they’re forced under one roof. And as danger creeps nearer, they stop being able to avoid one another—or their feelings.
Because when they’re together, they’re happier, even when the world is falling apart around them.
Through the events of Undeniable, Gaul and Viri realize how important they are to one another. Even though they have different roles to play in keeping their friends safe, they make the quiet choice to remain in each other’s lives, if they survive the challenges ahead.
It’s a small spark of joy, set against grim odds. It gets relatively little screen time compared to Bridget’s single-minded focus on raising the dead. But it kept us writing, waiting for the moments when the two of them would appear on screen.
As queer authors who, unfortunately, need to exist in the real world, we’re no strangers to grim odds. It’s bleak out here. The current situation is dire for all marginalized groups, especially immigrants, people of color, and trans folks. It can be so easy to fall into despair.
So, it’s no wonder that in between protests and calls to Congress and donating to worthy causes, we search for light in the darkness. Sparks of joy and resilience, both fictional and real.
We reach for each other, as best friends and coauthors.
We gather our loved ones close and build family and found family, together.
These are the moments that keep us moving forward.
LINKS:
Bluesky – Jes
Bluesky – Marie
Instagram – Jes
Instagram – Marie
BIO:
Jes Honard and Marie Parks are best friends, hiking and camping buddies, and unabashed nerds. They’ve been co-writing speculative fiction since 2009, and their 2022 contemporary fantasy debut, Unrelenting, won multiple awards, including the NM-AZ LGBT Award. The sequel, Undeniable, was published by Not a Pipe Publishing in 2025. Jes lives in Kalamazoo, MI and Marie lives in Albuquerque, NM.