Like this one which I've been wanting to read since I first heard about it, and have been waiting and waiting for the library to stock. When they didn't, I bit the bullet and bought a copy of my own.
It is the story of a girl called Kristin who is elected Homecoming Queen, is a rising track star and has a wonderful boyfriend. But when she and Sam decide to take their relationship to the next level, sex isn't the wonderful, pleasurable expression of love she was expecting. A second attempt isn't much better, so Kristin decides to go and see a doctor.
What she discovers about herself is frightening: she's intersex. While outwardly she looks like a girl, she doesn't have a womb. Oh, and she does have testes, she's just never noticed them because they're inside her.
The book explores how Kristin navigates this new discovery about herself and how it changes her preception of herself. It also explores the reactions of the people around her as they struggle to understand (and largely fail) what it means to be intersex.
I really enjoyed this book and hope it becomes widely read in schools and beyond so people can get a better understanding of what being intersex is, and how painful it can be to discover something like that about yourself at a time when you're already fighting to find your true identity on so many other levels.
But don't just listen to me. Here's the blurb:
A groundbreaking story about a teenage girl who discovers she was born intersex... and what happens when her secret is revealed to the entire school. Incredibly compelling and sensitively told, None of the Above is a thought-provoking novel that explores what it means to be a boy, a girl, or something in between.
What if everything you knew about yourself changed in an instant?
When Kristin Lattimer is voted homecoming queen, it seems like another piece of her ideal life has fallen into place. She's a champion hurdler with a full scholarship to college and she's madly in love with her boyfriend. In fact, she's decided that she's ready to take things to the next level with him.
But Kristin's first time isn't the perfect moment she's planned—something is very wrong. A visit to the doctor reveals the truth: Kristin is intersex, which means that though she outwardly looks like a girl, she has male chromosomes, not to mention boy "parts."
Dealing with her body is difficult enough, but when her diagnosis is leaked to the whole school, Kristin's entire identity is thrown into question. As her world unravels, can she come to terms with her new self?
That does sound good. I've definitely never seen a book like it before.
ReplyDeleteWow, this sounds like a heavy read. It must be such a shock for someone to make that discovery.
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