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caedocyon 's review for:
Beautiful Music for Ugly Children
by Kirstin Cronn-Mills
3.5 stars, really. I am resisting the urge to give it 4 or 5 stars because it would only be in comparison to the other horrible clunkers I (tried to) read recently, [b:I am J|8140535|I am J|Cris Beam|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1305820681s/8140535.jpg|12936997] and [b:Parrotfish|522782|Parrotfish|Ellen Wittlinger|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348477148s/522782.jpg|510662]. I didn't make it more than ten pages into either of those books, and they happen to be Beautiful Music's main competition in the trans subset of YA Issue Books.
Beautiful Music for Ugly Children builds some lovable characters and interesting, complicated relationships. Cronn-Mills doesn't spend much time with Gabe's parents, but their reactions are contradictory, pained, confused, and loving, in a way that feels realistic. Gabe and Paige's relationship explores all kinds of new territory for them and resists resolution. Gabe and John, Gabe and Mara, John and Gabe's family---I could go on, but they all resist easy categories and they're all interesting.
The issues Gabe runs into around being trans are handled very well (yay!!), even if it dips into melodrama sometimes. Beautiful Music for Ugly Children mostly succeeds at being a book about a person who has other interests and other things going on in his life, and also happens to be trans. I hope other books will do it even better in the future, but this is, so far, the cream of the crop.
Beautiful Music for Ugly Children builds some lovable characters and interesting, complicated relationships. Cronn-Mills doesn't spend much time with Gabe's parents, but their reactions are contradictory, pained, confused, and loving, in a way that feels realistic. Gabe and Paige's relationship explores all kinds of new territory for them and resists resolution. Gabe and John, Gabe and Mara, John and Gabe's family---I could go on, but they all resist easy categories and they're all interesting.
The issues Gabe runs into around being trans are handled very well (yay!!), even if it dips into melodrama sometimes. Beautiful Music for Ugly Children mostly succeeds at being a book about a person who has other interests and other things going on in his life, and also happens to be trans. I hope other books will do it even better in the future, but this is, so far, the cream of the crop.