pedestrienne

I'm so happy to have a YA book with a trans cover model, written by a trans author, that is half a story about just being oneself in the world and half about trauma associated with coming to the point where one can be oneself. Russo says in her afterward that she absolutely made Amanda be the "ideal" as far as passing goes so that the book could be ensured to reach a wide audience including many people who might not read about a trans girl, and for that reason the book is definitely aimed towards cishet readers. It succeeded for me because it wasn't just a primer on the issues of Amanda's life. It had a real emotional core - I could feel the pull of wanting to be stealth, to just get to the part where she got to live her life as the person she is, and the tension and sadness of the world pulling it back to fear and framing her life as something other and different. My one problem with the characters here is the use of Bee as a conduit for the setback. It felt really unkind to her as a character and kind of unnecessary. Still, this is a good contemporary read for YA and an essential for collections.