Mira Levin is one of the two main characters in Darcy Liao’s 2024 debut novel, Make Room For Love.
Mira is a grad student, teacher, classicist, and union organizer at a university in New York. After she breaks up with a toxic ex who shows up at a club where she was trying to dance to blow off some steam, a stranger — Isabel — intervenes and scares him off. As she walks Mira to the subway, Isabel learns Mira has been couch surfing since the breakup (she can’t afford regular rent on her piddling grad student budget) As such, Isabel offers Mira her spare bedroom at a discount, and the two become roommates.
When Isabel reveals, after months of cohabitation, that she has feelings for Mira, Mira must confront her growing attraction towards her. Mira always thought she was straight, but when she discusses the development with her friend Vivian during a walk in the park, she comes to a few realizations. First, Mira’s attraction to Isabel is not a one-off; she realizes the affection she felt towards other past friends and colleagues wasn’t always platonic and was similar to what she feels towards Isabel. Second, after her gentle discussion with Vivian, Mira realizes she is in fact bi. Armed with these new revelations, she confesses her mutual feelings towards Mira, and the two begin a slow-burn relationship. Mira is open about being bi with her friends and colleagues, uses the label freely for the rest of the novel, and introduces Isabel as her girlfriend.
Mira is well-developed as a character far beyond her bisexuality. She is kind, thoughtful, brilliant, considerate, and funny. She has hopes, dreams, fears, strengths, and flaws that have little to do with her queerness (including a major and empowering storyline about becoming a union organizer). And while there are complications in her relationship, they are not related to her realizing she is bi but rather stem from more typical issues the couple navigates together.
Mira is an ultra-rare example of a bi trans woman of color being a romantic comedy lead in a novel. As such, Make Room For Love is very much worth checking out for its high quality of bi representation.