#trans boy rep

[lgbtqbooks]

Peter Darling by Austin Chant

Love story: 💖💖💖💖💖 (5/5)

Writing: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 (4/5)

Happy ending? Yes

Is it about coming out? Yes

mlm books, fantasy, fairytale, trans mlm protagonist

Summary: Ten years ago, Peter Pan left Neverland to grow up, leaving behind his adolescent dreams of boyhood and resigning himself to life as Wendy Darling. Growing up, however, has only made him realize how inescapable his identity as a man is.

But when he returns to Neverland, everything has changed: the Lost Boys have become men, and the war games they once played are now real and deadly. Even more shocking is the attraction Peter never knew he could feel for his old rival, Captain Hook—and the realization that he no longer knows which of them is the real villain.

Thoughts: Wow. I loved this book. The plot is quick but well-paced, the tension between Hook and Pan is searing, and the portrayal of Peter as a trans boy is brilliant and powerful. What begins as Peter’s next fairytale adventure ends as a charming love story between two men who escaped to Neverland to forget the pain in their real lives.

Warnings: Transphobia from Peter’s family, dysphoria, action violence and death of minor characters

[lgbtqbooks]

When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore

Love story: 💖💖💖💖💕 (4.5/5)

Writing: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (5/5)

Happy ending? Yes

Is it about coming out? Yes

trans books, magical realism, fantasy, Latina main character, Italian-Pakistani trans boy main character, lesbian minor character

Dedication:

Summary: To everyone who knows them, best friends Miel and Sam are as strange as they are inseparable. Roses grow out of Miel’s wrist, and rumors say that she spilled out of a water tower when she was five. Sam is known for the moons he paints and hangs in the trees, and for how little anyone knows about his life before he and his mother moved to town. But as odd as everyone considers Miel and Sam, even they stay away from the Bonner girls, four beautiful sisters rumored to be witches. Now they want the roses that grow from Miel’s skin, convinced that their scent can make anyone fall in love. And they’re willing to use every secret Miel has fought to protect to make sure she gives them up.

Thoughts: The book is a re-imagining of the tale of La Llorona. The story also incorporates the Afghani and Pakistani cultural practice of bacha posh, in which families without sons will dress a daughter as a boy. Traditionally, when the bacha posh reaches adulthood, she returns to living as a woman. Sam struggles to decide if he can leave behind his boyhood and grow into womanhood, or if his true desire is to live the rest of his life as a man.

This is a beautiful tale that wraps you up in a world of magic, secrets, and love. Highly recommended.

Warnings: Transphobia and misgendering, Traumatic childhood experiences, Body horror for the roses that grow out of Miel’s wrist (*details/spoilers below)

Characters threaten to out Sam as a trans boy. (*Spoiler*) This does not end up happening.

Miel experienced some abuse as a child from her parents’ attempts to cure her of the curse of the roses. She relives these memories later on.