Quite a brutal and graphic book, but one I enjoyed. Miles Abernathy is a young trans, autistic man who lives in rural Virginia, and his family is part of a blood feud with the local sheriff. The blood feud is resolved violently, and the book does a good job capturing the graphic nature of what happens.

It feels like a nuanced, realistic depiction of being trans and autistic – it’s messy and confusing, not a neat list of personality traits or an explanation straight from Google. Not everybody handles it well, and not everybody understands immediately.

I like the depiction of relationships that get cut off abruptly – for example, Cooper and Miles will never get to properly reconcile, and we just have to imagine what might have been. Most friendships don’t end in such gory circumstances, but it happens all the same.

We had a good discussion of this at Ace Book Club; it’s not something I would have picked up spontaneously, but I’m glad I read it.

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