Kiss Number 8

This book needs warnings, because it is as not light and fluffy as it appears, but the main character and a large section of their community does grow. There's homophobia, transphobia (particularly mis gendering and dead naming) and good ol' misogyny. Also sex (off page) that is instantly regretted and underage drinking.

Reading books by and about diverse creators of every type, there is often a tight balance between creating stories that show our hopes for what could be and the horrible things people have lived through and often still have to suffer through. Personally, although everyone is obviously free to disagree, I think there is a place for both of these kinds of stories, and everything in between, as long as hate is seen as hate. That said, none of this is required reading across the board and no one, in particular, should feel pressured to read about hate.

As far as gender goes in Kiss Number 8, there are two things that are going on in this volume. Firstly, the presence of transgender characters, and secondly, the relationship between Mads and her mother.

Digging into the transgender representation, as the main character Mads is not herself going through this particular story arch I would definitely say that the level of misgendering and dead naming that goes on does render this book something I would only hesitantly recommend to people who are going through their own journey and struggle with hate in this department. We still need many more trans stories for trans people and this is not that.

That said, I did appreciate how this story about a cis girl discovering her own bisexuality was not presented in a silo either. Mads is part of a community of diverse people who are all very different, most of them trying their best. Nothing is black and white and there are many shades of grey and nuance. There's also the strong reminder that queer (particularly trans) people are not something new and have been around for a very long time.

Mads relationship with her mother was a particular point of nuanced I could relate to. As someone who has struggled with both their sexuality and gender, my relationship to how I was told I was supposed to present was difficult. It's a nuance that I really enjoyed seeing in there, even as my relationship to things traditionally feminine is much more relaxed now that I know myself better and am surround by people who support me being me.

Another big theme in the book, sexuality is presented in many positive ways throughout the volume. Similarly to the transgender representation, there are some characters who are initially homophobic and change, as well as some characters who hold onto this homophobia throughout. As someone on the bi/pan sexual spectrum, I really appreciated the extra step that Venable went to have positive bi-sexual presentation as it is still so needed. Sigh. It was also nice that Mads' community included a lot of people who talk about sexuality in different levels of frankness.

Race and class, while much much less central, are still signaled to in a way that really helps fill out all the minor characters as very different from each other. As usual, ability vs disability is touched on the least.

The art is very nice and the page layouts were varied but easy to follow.