Too Bright to See

I saw my younger pre-realizing-I'm-trans self so clearly in Bug and it makes me so happy that the author's note at the end is about how to refer to Bug when talking about the story. In a time when there's rampant moral panic about drag queens and trans kids, it gives me hope to read a story about a kid coming to understand himself as trans with a little supernatural help from his ghost drag-queen uncle, and then being fully affirmed by his mom, his friends and the administration of his new school. This book is necessary and important.

What a lovely read. Bug is a great character and a wonderful kid, and the depiction of grief is empathetic and realistic despite all the ghostly happenings. Probably a 3.5 for me-as-a-reader, but an easy 4 stars or more for the intended MG audience.

This was great! I loved the way that Lukoff presented Bug's journey through the lens of a haunting and a feeling of wrongness. So many tears in this one - both happy and sad!

btw earlier in this stack of reviews I said I'd listened to 3 audiobooks in the last week but actually it was 4. I mean middle grade audios are like 4 hours long so it's been breezy. Anyway this is why I haven't done anything in the past week except read. I'm very behind on television. I STRUGGLE.

ok enough about my PROBLEMS, I loved this book and I think it's great that the audiobook reader is OwnVoices for the character.

I love that this is a book that validates young trans people in a slightly different way than a lot of other youth media and in fact seems to be in conversation with some other media–reassuring readers that it's okay to be questioning and not to immediately always KNOW your gender identity and that that doesn't make it any less valid (but nor does it invalidate those who have had a more immediate understanding that they are trans).

Bug is just such a GOOD KID and also their haunted house is cool and ughhh just chef's kiss