f2m: 02/15/13

f2m by Hazel Edwards and Ryan Kennedy is a YA novel about 18 year old Skye deciding to go with her heart and transition to male. Will Finn be welcomed into the once all-girl band? What will her parents and brother think? Plus, there are family secrets!

The book is a pretty quick and tame read. For young adults who might feel the need to transition (especially those in Australia, as some of the steps are very specific to Australian health care), the book reads like a step by step process, wrapped up in a fictionalized package.

To fluff things up, there's Skye/Finn's paricipation a punk band, some stuff about getting a drivers' license and finally, the history of Great Uncle/Aunt Al, whose history is only revealed after Finn begins his transition.

Frankly, Al's story was more interesting than Finn's. From the small handful of transition stories I've now read, they all seem desperate to find a balance between making it seem normal for the character who is transitioning, while making it as dramatic / traumatic for everyone else in the book, while still making the book a "clean" read.

While I still recommended F2M for the logistics of transitioning, I think the best (meaning most believable characters) book I've read so far is Jumpstart the World by Catherine Ryan Hyde (review coming).

Four stars

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