A review by andintothetrees
Birthday by Meredith Russo

5.0

I loved this book and read it too quickly! It's a coming of age romance set in an economically deprived part of the southern USA following two characters, Morgan and Eric, from their 13th birthdays to their 18ths, checking in with them each year, One Day style. I loved the narrative device and it worked really well as a way to show character development over the 5 year period. Morgan is transgender, and also lost her mum to cancer quite young, and watching her work through these issues (often without healthy coping mechanisms) was often painful, but well-handled. Eric seems on the face of it to have an easier life, but as time goes on we see issues in his own family. Choosing to set the novel in a small town where people don't have a lot of money (to travel, or to do anything) and where football is super important and gender roles very entrenched, was a genius move on Meredith Russo's part, as not only did it show the reader a side of the USA often underrepresented in books (at least those that make it to this side of the Atlantic) but it also showed how the challenges faced by, for example, LGBTQ teens , are so different in that environment than, for example, an urban, liberal one. Birthday went to some dark places but that kept it real, and I highly enjoyed and recommend this book.