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Book Log: Luna, by Julie Anne Peters
Apr. 3rd, 2007 10:27 amAs I heard her slog across the floor toward my desk--where she'd unveiled her makeup caddy in all its glory--a sigh of resignation escaped my lips. Yeah, I loved her. I couldn't help it. She was my brother.
Regan is a perfectly ordinary teenage girl with an older brother who is anything but. By day, he is the brilliant student and reluctant athlete his parents and classmates know as Liam. But at night, Liam transforms into Luna, the beautiful young woman that is Liam's true self. Regan is the only person who knows that Liam/Luna is transgendered. She is Liam/Luna's only confidant, letting her dress in her room in the middle of the night, buying the women's underwear that Liam could never buy, helping her cope with the psychological fallout of her double identity. At the same time, Regan wants desperately to have a normal life of her own, cultivating a relationship with her Biology lab partner, Chris. When Regan's need for normalcy conflicts with Luna's need to embrace her true identity, their relationship is strained to its very limits.
I wanted to like this book. I really did. As a sensitive portrayal of a transgendered teen, Luna is truly groundbreaking... and maybe that is why I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. It's a bit like a really well done after school special: the issue is handled with great compassion and sensitivity, but so much energy and space is dedicated to the issue that the characters and plot get sort of neglected. The relationship between Regan and Chris gets increasingly interesting toward the end, but even then we never learn much about Regan as a character beyond her fraught relationship with Liam/Luna, and Liam/Luna herself has little personality outside of her gender identity struggles.
That Luna exists at all is a great sign for the future of YA literature. I'm just excited for when we get to the point where transgenderism can simply be one aspect of multifaceted characters and stories, rather than the only thing that matters.
Regan is a perfectly ordinary teenage girl with an older brother who is anything but. By day, he is the brilliant student and reluctant athlete his parents and classmates know as Liam. But at night, Liam transforms into Luna, the beautiful young woman that is Liam's true self. Regan is the only person who knows that Liam/Luna is transgendered. She is Liam/Luna's only confidant, letting her dress in her room in the middle of the night, buying the women's underwear that Liam could never buy, helping her cope with the psychological fallout of her double identity. At the same time, Regan wants desperately to have a normal life of her own, cultivating a relationship with her Biology lab partner, Chris. When Regan's need for normalcy conflicts with Luna's need to embrace her true identity, their relationship is strained to its very limits.
I wanted to like this book. I really did. As a sensitive portrayal of a transgendered teen, Luna is truly groundbreaking... and maybe that is why I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. It's a bit like a really well done after school special: the issue is handled with great compassion and sensitivity, but so much energy and space is dedicated to the issue that the characters and plot get sort of neglected. The relationship between Regan and Chris gets increasingly interesting toward the end, but even then we never learn much about Regan as a character beyond her fraught relationship with Liam/Luna, and Liam/Luna herself has little personality outside of her gender identity struggles.
That Luna exists at all is a great sign for the future of YA literature. I'm just excited for when we get to the point where transgenderism can simply be one aspect of multifaceted characters and stories, rather than the only thing that matters.
