I still love this book. It isn't perfect, but it helps fill a huge gaping hole in books, especially LGBT books. I have many opinions on how trans people are handled in media, but it's not even like I'm given many people to have an example of. The writing, at times, seems to jump around, skipping events that seem to later be tied into important character development. The ending could be a bit more solid (and not in that it can't be ambiguous but instead smooth the transition from climax to end).

But I adore Poppy. I know this book is from the mom's perspective, I adore her. I love this family dynamic. As I read this book a second time (and with more knowledge about the trans experience under my belt and a better ability to read my own dysphoria) my previous opinions changed big time. More specifically, the message about living in the "Middle" felt more at home than before in my life I felt like I needed to rail entirely to one side of the binary and to fall into the middle meant questioning being trans.

I thought that, when Poppy thought she was actually Claude, the author suggested a world in which the parents had decided too early and maybe Poppy really was Claude, but now I see. Claude was dysphoria. Crippling, life destroying. Claude was no future, Claude felt like Nothing. But Poppy felt like there was life forward. I relate to this so strongly. Once a trans person lives as their right gender, going back feels so impossible. Going back is no longer an option, as you taste what being Real feels like, and how can someone go back to that? It's literally standing in defiance of questioning, it's that thought process that talks me out of questioning moments.

I love stories like these because there are few trans women characters in books who's narratives feel like they exist outside of sexuality, a thing that often bothers me as I feel like being trans should not have to constantly bring up discussions about what happens in the bedroom.... Rare is there a story of a trans woman who isn't tied to that so much as I can tell... This alone hurts my chances of reading representation of the experience I relate to.

There are even fewer trans narratives about trans kids, which, I argue, is one of the more important groups of trans people one can write about. This book isn't perfect but it does what not many do and does it really well and does it really powerfully. Stories of trans kids hit me harder than most. They come from a very sensitive place and a very pure place. Not to mention that the more we can put out there into the world, the more trans kids who can find themselves in characters, and the more parents can potentially develop the empathy to understand.

So yes. 5 stars. It'll stay that way because it's doing amazing work, trying to do things no one seems willing to do.