The Lotterys More or Less: 12/18/18

The Lotterys More or Less by Emma Donoghue is the sequel to Lotterys Plus One. It's set during last year's ice storm between Hanukkah and Christmas.

Sumac loves the winter holidays in Toronto. She's put together a huge family calendar of everything her family has done in the past and what they plan to do this year. But now it looks like nothing is going right.

One of her dads and her oldest brother are in India. With the weather, they won't make it home in time. Then there is Luiz, their Brazilian couch surfer. He should be on his way before the holidays but he's also stranded by the weather and by an injury.

Tucked into this book of weather driven chaos is some commentary on Brian. In the first book Brian is introduced as girl who has decided she's a boy, but Sumac refers to Brian with feminine pronouns. This time around there's a flashback showing Brian learning about other transgender people and the use of the single they. When asked if she wants to be a he or a they, Brian refuses to answer. So for now, Brian is a boy with feminine pronouns not for familial pressure as implied in the first book, but for personal choice.

My favorite scene involves a phone call with the family members stuck in India regarding storm preparations. The dad who had gotten the house ready for the ice storm had forgotten (or just assumed) the the other three parents knew what he had done. None of them did and so the remaining family had been suffering needlessly.

It's a story of a family adjusting to the unexpected. It covers the ups and downs. It's not one tragedy after another. There are some fun times too, like the Polar Bear Plunge.

Five stars

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