I received an ARC from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Ciel is excited to start high school. A gender non-conforming trans kid, Ciel has a YouTube channel and dreams of getting a better camera to really make a mark. Ciel can always rely on their best friend, Stephie, a trans girl who also happens to be a huge nerd, but their friendship begins to feel distant when Stephie makes it clear she wants the fact that she’s trans to be more invisible in high school. While navigating this new friendship dynamic, Ciel is also trying to make a long-distance relationship work with their boyfriend Eirikur, who just moved back to Iceland. When Ciel befriends Liam, a new trans boy at school, things become more complicated by the minute.
This book is to be released on September 15, 2020.
I’ve read Sophie Labelle’s comics and so when I saw she had a book coming out, I had to grab an ARC.
This is a cute slice-of-life novel about entering high school as a nonbinary teen. I feel like the author really hit the uncertainties of freshman year well, with stress regarding coming out again to teachers, gender presentation, and keeping and making friends.
This book was really comprehensive in it’s portrayal of being trans. Ciel, the main character, is half-Brazillain and nonbinary, but doesn’t mind being perceived as feminine and will use Alessandra in classes. They’re friends with Stephie, a trans girl who wants to go stealth in high school and later means Liam, a trans boy, who swims competitively. They represent a wide array of how people can be trans and I really appreciated that. Also, I think all of these characters are on hormone blockers, so I’m really excited that that was entirely normalized!
One complaint I had was that the secondary characters didn’t have very fleshed out storylines and I feel there was more potential for that, especially with Liam and Stephie. Some dialogue and narration felt weirdly worded as well, but not enough to take away my enjoyment of the story.
I rated this book 3.5 stars! This is the middle grade trans book I’ve been waiting for, and I’m excited there are trans kids who are going to be able to read this!
Kappa Reads 