Strange Bedfellows by Ariel Slamet Ries is in one word, odd. But not in the usual sense of things. The story is straightforward: a person is coming to terms with the changes in their lives, the fact they are not like their siblings as they are the “normal one” (ie: does not have powers) and is trying to deal with headache and heartaches. But there are several places where things fall short of being “smooth” and go into the odd.
First, the pages are crowded. The images and colors all blend together. The variety of colors is minimal and things are overly complex in simplicity and simple in complexity. At times I was not sure who was who as some characters looked similar (and I’m not just talking about the twins). At times it feels like we are in the middle of the story; as if this was a part two, or a companion to the why humans have found themselves in space. And honestly, with its pro LGBTQ elements, I was not always sure what we were dealing with, which I wanted to explore more as they seemed to have opened the door to a lot of goodies.
So, I’ll start there. I am assuming our main character is a gay transgender male. We have two spots where this is confirmed (the doctor talks about the hormones they are taking and there are scars on their chest where top surgery has probably been performed). But we now are in a society where “anything (almost) goes” and that’s not a big deal. I am assuming the family our character grew up in is extended, probably even a polycue. There is mention of this in another situation and there seems to be several adults at family dinners or there are really a lot of siblings (which I counted at least six). 
Then I will say that we are not really given a lead up to the community they live in. I’m assuming it is some sort of “bubble” that has a controlled environment as they are able to farm (everyone is expected to at some level), but there is a system set up to assist people, and the weather changes can be fixed or seemingly changed. Plus, on top of that, there seems to either be a foreign language mixed into things or is a new one made for this new world of the future.
And there is the idea of Ghosts, which are people who seem to have some sort of “magical” talents (bringing dreams to life, moving things, etc). They are created because the parents of these people were exposed to some sort of radiation that seems to have harmed at least the mother of our main character and the twins). There is a “big brother” overseer group, but they are not explained, only feared by one of the characters. Are they good? Bad? Experiment on people? Put them in camps? Give them cookies when you’re on a diet? After all, the siblings of the main character are Ghosts and seem to be living safely with this group, therefore it is not really explained why anyone wouldn’t want to be known as a Ghost.
These holes do make it hard for me to love things, (and one review does agree that this story finds itself juggling too many elements at once), but there is also something about it that I enjoyed and think will make it the right choice for the correct reader aged at least 13 and up as it does deal with an open and positive look at the LGBTQ communities.
