Freakboy
KRISTIN ELIZABETH CLARK
Paperback
(Square Fish, Nov. 8, 2016)
A powerful novel in verse told from the points of view of a genderqueer teenager, the teen's girlfriend, and a trans womanâAn important story, written with compassion and startling insight.â âEllen Hopkins, The New York Timesâbestselling author of the Crank trilogyFrom the outside, Brendan Chase seems to have it pretty easy. Brendan is a star wrestler, a video game aficionado, and a loving significant other to seemingly perfect match, Vanessa. But Brendan feels so wrong. Why does Brenan sometimes fantasize having long hair, soft skin, and gentle curves? Is there even a name for people like Brendan? People who are assigned male at birth but who sometimes want to be girls? Or is Brendan just a freak? In Freakboy's razor-sharp verse, Kristin Clark folds three narratives into one powerful story: Brendan's exploration of gender; Vanessa, who fights to keep her and Brendan's relationship alive; and Angel, a woman who's struggling to confront her own demons. Praise for Freakboy:âDebut novelist Clark uses free verse to write a gripping story about a complex topic: the challenges of growing up transgender or genderqueer." âPublishers Weekly, starred reviewâThis gutsy, tripartite poem explores a wider variety of identitiesâcis-, trans-, genderqueerâthan a simple transgender storyline, making it stand out.â âKirkus Review, starred review
Z+