I’m sure this book has already been discoursed to death here at Cannonball Read, so I won’t get too much into that. (It was a book club pick, yes?) I finally decided to read it because I have been much more active in my local anti-censorship organization this year, and wanted to be able to better defend the book if someone came after me with questions about it.
The book is so stunning, warm, and earnest. It’s the most thorough exploration of this specific form of gender identity, and while I don’t think I could every truly inhabit the shoes of someone who struggled so much with their gender, Kobabe’s explanations and visuals got me 90% of the way there.
This is one of those books that can feel tough to defend against book banners. I mean – not REALLY, f*ck them! But a graphic novel with explicit sexual content is alarming even to some very liberal parents. The book is clearly aimed at older teens and adults, but of course so many people think shielding sexual content from teens will make them uninterested in the subject despite eons of proof otherwise. It’s so interesting, of course, to read the context of those mature pictures and quotes that not-quite-Millions of Moms and dusty-ass congressmen love to showcase at town halls. The scene is more about what ISN’T working for Maia than what gets em off (in fact, Maia has a very complicated relationship to eir sexuality). The best way to defend the scene, if one ends up in that situation, would be to explain that the scene clearly isn’t there to titillate. It’s there to explain a very personal emotion, to let a genderqueer person see themselves on the page, and to provide the relatable idea that sexuality and gender are very personal and sometimes dicey to figure out.
Aw hell, I said I wouldn’t discourse, and I discoursed! Anyway, if you haven’t picked this up yet, I highly recommend it. Some very powerful moments depicted in the illustrations! I especially loved the ways fandom helped Maia figure out eirself. My only complaint is that it has an abrupt ending (to me). But that does make it clear that Maia’s journey is ongoing.