First, I just want to say that I cannot believe that I only have 10 books left before completing "The List". Crazy.
Anyway, back to the point. For this category I turned to GoodReads for some suggestions and settled on a book called Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirstin Cronn-Mills. The title was catchy and since I am a big fan of music, I thought it would be perfect.
This book centers around an 18 year old character named Elizabeth (Liz) Williams. What we discover at end of the first chapter (maybe it was the beginning of the second one) is that Liz is transsexual. Since she was young, she has identified more as a male. When the book begins we are just months away from her high school graduation. She has decided to tell her best friend and her family about who she really is, Gabe.
Gabe is obsessed with music. All different kinds of music. His neighbor, John is also obsessed. John is a man in his 70s who moved next door to the Williams's when Liz/Gabe was 10 years old. John and Gabe are great friends and John gets Gabe an hour long radio show every Friday night. Gabe titles his radio show, "Beautiful Music for Ugly Children" based on the idea that even if he is so different and so "weird," the music is essentially universal. While Liz is not mentally prepared to become Gabe at school, he is sure that once graduation is over with, he will be Gabe fulltime.
What Gabe doesn't expect is for his show to gain followers who call themselves the Ugly Children's Brigade (UCB). Eventually, Gabe is "outted" by a girl from his school who happens to have asked him on a date. This is where disaster strikes. Two masked men show up at the station and threaten Gabe. They also make threats on the Ugly Children Brigade's Facebook page. These threats turn tragic, don't worry, it's not what you expect.
I found myself really engaged in this book. I picked it up yesterday after writing the last post, and finished most of it yesterday. With the whole Caitlyn Jenner thing going on right now, this book is very relevant. More importantly, it allows for more understanding and acceptance. We are able to see how difficult this transition is for the people in Liz/Gabe's life. While his best friend and John take it well, his parents find it very difficult to accept. They are still supportive parents, but we are able to see the struggle of raising a daughter for 18 years who suddenly tells them she's really their son. The only criticism I will give is that I would have liked to see more of the internal struggles that Gabe went through. We do see some of it, but I can only imagine that a situation like this would be much more mentally and emotionally stressful.
At the end of the book, there is a note from the author. She describes exactly what it means to be "transsexual" and defines other terms like "genderqueer," "cross dresser," and "intersex" very clearly. After all of that, she says something that I think really rings true to me too, she says, "In case you're wondering, I am a female and a woman. My body matches how my brain things about my gender. But I admire and respect individuals who are brave enough and strong enough to make their own gender expressions....I admire someone who shouts, 'This is me--take me or leave me!' I'll take them every time."
All of this being said, read the book.
4 Stars
My A Side = Lover of Words
My B Side = Big Goofy Woman-Child