Well, all the hoopla about Amazon has accomplished something positive for me, at least. I found a great book that I'd like to recommend (I didn't buy it from Amazon - I downloaded it as an ebook from Fictionwise). It's entitled Luna, by Julie Anne Peters, and it was simply outstanding.
Luna is told from the perspective of 16-year-old Regan, who is facing all the normal things a girl her age faces, and one thing most of them don't. Regan is the only one who knows her brother, Liam, isn't really a boy, he's a girl who calls herself Luna. For years, Regan has been letting Luna use her room to come out at night and been her confidante and adviser, but things are starting to change. Their family is dysfunctional with a capital D, for the first time in her life a cute boy is taking an interest in Regan, and to top it all off, Luna is no longer content with hiding in the shadows.
This is truly a remarkable story, and I think a very important one. The characters are vibrant and alive, the situations utterly believable and the emotional current raw and brilliant. I HIGHLY recommend this story to everyone; it will make you laugh, cry, rage - and most of all it will inspire you.
Luna is rated as Young Adult, so it's pretty much safe for all readers.
Comments
2 out of 3
Julie Anne Peters has---I think---3 books out. Luna was incredible- a harrowing but ulimately hopeful TS story, utterly devoid of the wish fullfillment element (which I love) you see in stories on t.g. sites. I'm glad you wrote this blog Scott, & I went looking for it. The title character's first trip out in public as Luna with her sister was a nightmare. And the family situation was gritty and disfunctional. Juvenile fiction has come a long way since those first few forays into "topical" material back in the 60's...
FAR FROM XANADU was incredible too. A buff teenage dyke named Mike falls in love with a crazy beautiful troubled girl, and with another dark family history. Father a suicide and the mom right out of GILBERT GRAPE. A painful lesson in a gay person falling in love with a straight one. These two books have me considering Julie Peters a new favorite author; I'm eager to read the third, and to hope another is in the works.
Yes Luna is definitely worth looking into. So is her other stuff.
~~~Laika
Well shit, I guess it really CAN happen here..,
.