My review of The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson, cross-posted from my Goodreads account.
This is not the queer YA book you’re looking for. Other people have said most of these points, and I am cis and American and therefore doubly unqualified to speak to trans culture/language in Britain, but these were my main problems with this book:
- The main character is referred to by her deadname and male pronouns for almost the entire book, even in Leo’s internal monologue after she comes out to him and after he learns her new name.
- The language is centered, almost exclusively, on “wanting to be a girl”. “Being a girl” is very much defined as physically transitioning. Kate’s identity isn’t really validated until she dresses like a girl; until she plausibly passes.
- Just in general, the language and attitude towards trans identity and transitioning felt very early-2000s to me. Language is always evolving, and while the author is clearly well-intentioned, her info seems out of date.
- Leo’s identity as a trans boy is treated as a plot twist. And when he comes out to Kate, Kate reacts by saying “You’re a girl”, asks him some very insensitive questions, and uses the excuse “this vocabulary is new to me,” when not two chapters ago she’d been watching a YouTube video by a trans man vlogger. That entire scene reads painfully like a self-insert character answering all your Trans 101 questions, and not at all like two trans kids interacting. (And don’t get me wrong, I’m glad the book answers those questions, even though some answers feel outdated; but there are PLENTY of cis characters who could have asked them. Let the trans kids have their moment.)
- Both Leo and Kate are straight, which felt…oversimplified? Reductive? Yes, of course many trans people are straight, but it felt like a wasted opportunity for intersectionality and discussions of sexuality and gender.
- Dialogue often felt stiff, too narrative, out of character, out of sync with the characters’ ages, etc.
Ultimately, I’m glad this book exists. If trans kids pick it up and take hope from it, and if cis kids (and adults!) read it and gain more empathy for their trans peers, it was worth it. But it wields some pretty transphobic tropes, and I’ll definitely keep looking for better trans YA books to recommend.
