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obviousthings's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
I read part of this as a kid (sometime around 2010, judging by the bookmark left in it) and... wow, I'm glad I never finished it back then. There's some weirdly insidious transphobia in here.
There are a lot of female main characters in kids books who struggle with being forced to do Girly Things, or with not being allowed to do the same things as boys, or with misogyny in general, but I would say most of them don't read as trans-coded. Rose Rita, though, seems to dislike being a girl more than any of the difficulties that come with it. Her feelings about gender and about growing up are eerily similar to my own before I knew I was trans.
What disturbs me about this book is that, by the end of it, Rose Rita is taught that it is wrong for her to want to be a boy.She nearly makes a deal with a demon to become one, and afterwards, though she's supposedly learned her lesson, she doesn't seem any happier about being a girl. She seems resigned to it.
There are a lot of female main characters in kids books who struggle with being forced to do Girly Things, or with not being allowed to do the same things as boys, or with misogyny in general, but I would say most of them don't read as trans-coded. Rose Rita, though, seems to dislike being a girl more than any of the difficulties that come with it. Her feelings about gender and about growing up are eerily similar to my own before I knew I was trans.
What disturbs me about this book is that, by the end of it, Rose Rita is taught that it is wrong for her to want to be a boy.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment, Transphobia, Bullying, Car accident, and Kidnapping
Minor: Medical content
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