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30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Probably my favourite Julie Anne Peters book yet..., June 18, 2004
This review is from: Luna (Hardcover)
This is a story dealing with a topic not often dealt with in YA fiction - transgender teenagers. Regan is fifteen and her life is dominated by her older brother, Liam (Lia Marie, and later Luna, at night). She has drifted apart from friends her own age because of him, and in order to try and help him she has offered to let him use her room at night, to try on girls' clothes. The only thing she has that's *hers* is her babysitting job for a family she sees as perfect and normal, in sharp contrast to her own, with her drugged-up mother and domineering father.
Regan is a sympathetic character, a girl who tries so hard to be there for her brother when he needs her, but also someone who resents how she has to be everything for him, his sole confidant, and who alternates between feeling sorry for him and for wishing that he could just be normal. She also has her own dilemma, involving an infatuation with a boy at school. "Luna" is Regan's story as much as it is Liam's.
Liam/Luna's story is dealt with effectively as well, with flashbacks of their childhood showing early signs that he really did want to be in a girl's body. The separation of gender and sexuality is also made quite clear, and the idea of constructed gender roles is also dealt with (though not as much as I'd like to have seen it discussed - but the perfect amount for a YA novel). It is by no means a definitive transgendered-teen story but it shouldn't have to be, either - it's merely the story of one girl in a boy's body, trying to break free.
A worthwhile read that will hopefully challenge readers' ideas towards gender and sex while telling a compelling story.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Metamorphosis - Excellent, Extraordinary, Exemplary, August 28, 2005
This review is from: Luna (Hardcover)
Luna is a gem of a book, very unique in character and style. The book outlines the life of a boy who knows he is really a girl in a boy's body. He is a Transgender. And to be even more poignant, the story is told from the perspective of his sister, who is 2 years younger.
Julie Anne Peters goes to just the right lengths to accurately describe both the emotional and environmental situations. Some of her most eloquent statements are made with regard to the manner in which Liam/Luna's transmogrification, transition, metamorphosis affects those around him/her as much as it affects him/her and sometimes even more. The one who truly empathizes and suffers the pain almost as much as Liam/Luna is his sister Regan. She is Liam/Luna's confidant, his/her enabler, and his/her instrument to the realization of his dream. Despite all this good, Regan suffers most terribly with the knowledge of her brother's suffering.
The writing technique that the author uses is particularly fascinating. She does some most effective flashback sequences that are truly artistic. In addition, she is quite adept at writing the text and the subtext (what is going on in the character's mind and how it differs from what comes out of their mouth) that her paragraphs are like little sparkling emeralds in a field of rock and dirt.
In addition, the story moves along well. The reader has no time to get bored or complacent. And the messages departed along the way show all too well, how society makes life very difficult; not just for the normal, but also for the extremes, and not in any rational proportion. Just as life plays itself out; sometimes advantageously, but more of the time, unfairly. As we all know, life is not FAIR, but sometimes we surely wish it were.
This book is highly recommended for all people interested in cross gender relations and in the phenomenon of Transexuality. It does a good job explaining the difference between transsexuals and homosexuals. And it does it in a manner that is very intimate and not objectionable. It truly is a mirror on today's society and should be viewed as such.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A story that needs to be told, July 21, 2004
This review is from: Luna (Hardcover)
Luna is the first young adult novel written about a transsexual teen. Luna/Liam is a girl that was born in a boy's body. The only one who knows the truth is Regan, Luna/Liam's younger sister. Regan has spent so much of her life protecting and worrying about Liam that she really hasn't developed and identity seperate from that role. She has no friends, and she is a loner and an outcast at her school. And she is frightened and freaked out when Luna begins to go public with her secret. Luna is well-written. The anguish and fear of the characters is palpable and real.
This book is so important because it is the first of its kind. I never really knew that much about transgender people before, and although I am a huge supporter of GLBT people, I did not understand transgenders, and I was uncomfortable about the subject. This book showed me that Liam/Luna was just as normal as any other person...they had just been born in the wrong body, and there is nothing freakish or weird about it. On the contrary, it was agonizing to read how desperate and hopeless Liam felt trapped in a body that was so horribly wrong for him. This book is groundbreaking, and needs to be read not just by young adults, but everyone who feels weird about the idea of a transsexual. They do not ask for this pain, they do not want to scare people. They just want what is in their hearts and minds to match their bodies.
Much thanks to Julie Ann Peters for tackling a very hard subject and presenting it with heart, dignity, and hope.
~Anna M. Nelson, Young Adult Librarian, Seabrook, NH
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