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Freakboy
From the outside, Brendan Chase seems to have it pretty easy. He’s a star wrestler, a video game aficionado, and a loving boyfriend to his seemingly perfect match, Vanessa. But on the inside, Brendan struggles to understand why his body feels so wrong—why he sometimes fantasizes having long hair, soft skin, and gentle curves. Is there even a name for guys like him? Guys who sometimes want to be girls? Or is Brendan just a freak?
In Freakboy's razor-sharp verse, Kristin Clark folds three narratives into one powerful story: Brendan trying to understand his sexual identity, Vanessa fighting to keep her and Brendan’s relationship alive, and Angel struggling to confront her demons.
In Freakboy's razor-sharp verse, Kristin Clark folds three narratives into one powerful story: Brendan trying to understand his sexual identity, Vanessa fighting to keep her and Brendan’s relationship alive, and Angel struggling to confront her demons.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published October 20, 2013
65 people are currently reading
6588 people want to read
About the author
Kristin Elizabeth Clark
4 books64 followersKristin Elizabeth Clark lives and writes in the Santa Cruz Mountains. She hikes with her dog and reads to her cats… but she’s not one of THOSE people. Really.
Her young adult debut, Freakboy, will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) on October 22nd, 2013.
Her young adult debut, Freakboy, will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) on October 22nd, 2013.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 405 reviews
September 20, 2017
So, this is yet another important book that just… isn’t actually very good.
Freakboy is a novel in verse about being nonbinary and trans. While these are two really important topics, the book doesn't have anything going for it besides the important issues, and these issues are all only addressed somewhat well. Freakboy ends up being nothing but an issues book, and not a very good one.
Angel... is a latina caricature. Yikes at the racial stereotyping. She’s also not nearly fleshed out enough, aside from her tragic backstory. It’s important to have a character who’s a trans woman and gets a happy ending, but Angel's not developed nearly enough. Still, she’s the most fleshed-out character here; the other two characters were actively annoying in places.
The prose style also bothered me, although that may be my own dislike of free verse. Just be warned that if you dislike Ellen Hopkins’ style, you won’t like this one either.
I could have ignored these flaws and given this three stars just for the positive trans rep, were it not for the unnecessarily sad ending. I’m really tired of books about lgbt issues with sad endings. How many lgbt people want to read books where we end up sad and alone? Given that I have authority to speak on this topic, here’s the answer: no, no we don't. Books about getting dumped for being bi or trans or nonbinary aren’t what most lgbt people are looking for. Those books aren't what we want; we want books where we can be represented with the same happy endings as everyone else.
Frankly, this book feels as if it’s written to educate cisgender people; in fact, it’s written by a cis author. We don’t want to be educated about the difficulties of being lgbt in our world; we want to see stories about ourselves in the same settings as straight, cis people get to see. Books saying “hey, trans people are people!” aren’t what we need anymore; we need books with interesting, 3-d trans characters that are about more than the difficulties.
Blog | Goodreads | Twitter (complete w related handle) | Youtube
Freakboy is a novel in verse about being nonbinary and trans. While these are two really important topics, the book doesn't have anything going for it besides the important issues, and these issues are all only addressed somewhat well. Freakboy ends up being nothing but an issues book, and not a very good one.
Angel... is a latina caricature. Yikes at the racial stereotyping. She’s also not nearly fleshed out enough, aside from her tragic backstory. It’s important to have a character who’s a trans woman and gets a happy ending, but Angel's not developed nearly enough. Still, she’s the most fleshed-out character here; the other two characters were actively annoying in places.
The prose style also bothered me, although that may be my own dislike of free verse. Just be warned that if you dislike Ellen Hopkins’ style, you won’t like this one either.
I could have ignored these flaws and given this three stars just for the positive trans rep, were it not for the unnecessarily sad ending. I’m really tired of books about lgbt issues with sad endings. How many lgbt people want to read books where we end up sad and alone? Given that I have authority to speak on this topic, here’s the answer: no, no we don't. Books about getting dumped for being bi or trans or nonbinary aren’t what most lgbt people are looking for. Those books aren't what we want; we want books where we can be represented with the same happy endings as everyone else.
Frankly, this book feels as if it’s written to educate cisgender people; in fact, it’s written by a cis author. We don’t want to be educated about the difficulties of being lgbt in our world; we want to see stories about ourselves in the same settings as straight, cis people get to see. Books saying “hey, trans people are people!” aren’t what we need anymore; we need books with interesting, 3-d trans characters that are about more than the difficulties.
Blog | Goodreads | Twitter (complete w related handle) | Youtube
October 23, 2013
As my first verse novel, Freakboy really surprised me. Not being a fan of poetry I was expecting verse novels to give me the worst kind of reading experience, but it was actually really moving and easier to get into the flow of it than I would have thought. The subject matter was also original and gave me a new insight in the subject of LGBT. I've read plenty of books about gay teens with confused sexualities and such, but this was my first time into the mind of a confused transsexual.
Freakboy is told through the eyes of 3 teenagers, Brendan being our protagonist. Brendan is confused about his gender, nothing being black and white - as expected with this type of story. Even after he learns about transsexuals, he doesn't feel like he fits in anywhere. It was saddening to watch him go through such internal battles. We see him question his self worth and battle depression. It's an emotional read and the verse writing style made this even more poignant. It really brought out the angles of his thoughts as well as the depth of his depression. I don't think this story would have been quite as powerful had it been written in a regular style. A side note on the format. Aside from it being in verse, there are also pages that were designed to look like certain things - for instance a Christmas tree on one page, a question mark on another - I found it clever and it also made the reading experience even more unique. There were some formatting tactics that added more to the story than others, though. A couple instances, I felt, showed more effort into making the formatting fit rather than for those passages to make sense. I chose to read those parts as a type of internal rambling.
The other narrators are Vanessa and Angel: Brendan's girlfriend, and a girl he meets who happens to work at an LGBT teen centre. Vanessa was my least favorite. I didn't like her as much as I wanted to nor did I ever connect with her. She's the tomboy girlfriend who doesn't really offer much to the story aside from showing Brandon he actually enjoys having sex with a girl - which could have been achieved through Brendan's POV. As for Angel, I found her especially compelling. She's a transsexual who is completely comfortable in her skin. She chose to become who she wanted to be despite the hardship she had to go through to get it. I found her kind of inspiring, actually. The multiple perspective does allow us to see that everyone has internal struggles no matter where they fit in society.
A very character oriented read, Freakboy is a beautiful story about learning to love yourself. It's about allowing yourself to be happy with who you are. This is one of those stories that needed to be told!
--
An advance copy was provided by the publisher for review.
For more of my reviews, visit my blog at Xpresso Reads
Freakboy is told through the eyes of 3 teenagers, Brendan being our protagonist. Brendan is confused about his gender, nothing being black and white - as expected with this type of story. Even after he learns about transsexuals, he doesn't feel like he fits in anywhere. It was saddening to watch him go through such internal battles. We see him question his self worth and battle depression. It's an emotional read and the verse writing style made this even more poignant. It really brought out the angles of his thoughts as well as the depth of his depression. I don't think this story would have been quite as powerful had it been written in a regular style. A side note on the format. Aside from it being in verse, there are also pages that were designed to look like certain things - for instance a Christmas tree on one page, a question mark on another - I found it clever and it also made the reading experience even more unique. There were some formatting tactics that added more to the story than others, though. A couple instances, I felt, showed more effort into making the formatting fit rather than for those passages to make sense. I chose to read those parts as a type of internal rambling.
The other narrators are Vanessa and Angel: Brendan's girlfriend, and a girl he meets who happens to work at an LGBT teen centre. Vanessa was my least favorite. I didn't like her as much as I wanted to nor did I ever connect with her. She's the tomboy girlfriend who doesn't really offer much to the story aside from showing Brandon he actually enjoys having sex with a girl - which could have been achieved through Brendan's POV. As for Angel, I found her especially compelling. She's a transsexual who is completely comfortable in her skin. She chose to become who she wanted to be despite the hardship she had to go through to get it. I found her kind of inspiring, actually. The multiple perspective does allow us to see that everyone has internal struggles no matter where they fit in society.
A very character oriented read, Freakboy is a beautiful story about learning to love yourself. It's about allowing yourself to be happy with who you are. This is one of those stories that needed to be told!
--
An advance copy was provided by the publisher for review.
For more of my reviews, visit my blog at Xpresso Reads
March 24, 2013
Few writers dare to tackle such a difficult--and important--topic. Kudos, Kristin, for taking a major chance!
April 20, 2014
I stayed up until 2 AM reading this. It hit home, an arrow to the heart.
You may read "prose-poem" in the book description but don't be put off by that. This is a fairly straight-forward narrative, although it's written with less words per line, in a poem-like structure without a lot of description. It still reads smoothly and easily. It still moves, inexorably, through the story of a boy who has always liked girls, and girl things, and who comes to the realization that the way he likes them isn't quite the way most of his friends do.
There are three first-person POVs in this book. One is written in bold, the other two marked by the name at the top of the section. Angel, in bold, is M2F trans. Her sections fit her font - strong, confident with a hard-won self-acceptance. Angel has always known who she is; her fight has been to convince the rest of the world. Bad stuff has happened to Angel, but she owns her truth and will rise above it.
Vanessa is a high-school girl who wrestles with the male athletes on her school team. She has moments of confusion, of wondering if that makes her somehow the freak that some of the other kids claim. But mostly she wonders about usual high-school stuff. Particularly about her boyfriend, Brendan, who is sweet and loving and moody, and hard to pin down.
The central POV is Brendan's.
Brendan is also a wrestler in high-school. He has a girlfriend. He likes looking at girls, he has friends, he thinks about sex. But when he looks at a pretty girl, sometimes he envies her, rather than wanting to do her. His life doesn't fit him quite right, and he can't figure out why he's sometimes so uncomfortable in his own skin. He has moments that are wonderful, and then moments where he can't stand to be himself. The realizations are nagging him, pushing, demanding he look them in the face.
This book was both deeply familiar and occasionally revelatory. I know at least two trans teenagers well, (one of whom incidentally got their sex-designation on their driver's license changed while attending The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. That's a very quirky school in many ways, but a quarter of the student body identifies as LGBTQIAP so it can be a safe-harbor school.) I know at least three gender-fluid teens, two of whom are very much in flux, deciding how they feel about their bodies and their identities, moment to moment, day to day. This book felt like traveling down a familiar path, where those teens will see themselves in Brendan, in Angel, and even to a smaller degree in Vanessa.
There were also moments of startled realization, particularly when Angel talks about being young and M2F trans and out on the street. The kids I know are lucky in still being within their families, although the level of acceptance varies. But it's a cold, hard world out there, and many trans kids don't have that shelter. There were moments when I read Angel's POV and thought, "Damn, yes, of course that could happen." We all need to work harder to build these teens an accepting world.
If I had one criticism, it would be the POV shifts between Brendan and Vanessa, which are marked only when they first happen, and last for several brief chapters. Once or twice, I lost the thread of whose POV I was in for a moment. Vanessa's voice is not as strong or as interesting as the other two, not only because she's a more conventional character. Her issues with Brendan were real and salient, but I didn't feel her emotions the same way. For Brendan, I ached, and for Angel, I hurt. Although I didn't cry, because Angel has her shit together, and would probably be insulted.
This is a straight-forward, engrossing, subtly-emotional and thought-provoking read. It's not the oblique, image-filled prose-poetry of David Levithan. (Read The Realm of Possibility for that type of lyrical, shimmering, heart-deep insight on a far less concrete level.) Here the simple structure and words drive home the meaning, the impact, the revelations and the changes, but in a way not that different from reading a regular novel. It's not abstract, or obtuse, or difficult to follow. It is very well done. If you want to have more insight into the world of a non-gender-conforming teenager, read this book.
You may read "prose-poem" in the book description but don't be put off by that. This is a fairly straight-forward narrative, although it's written with less words per line, in a poem-like structure without a lot of description. It still reads smoothly and easily. It still moves, inexorably, through the story of a boy who has always liked girls, and girl things, and who comes to the realization that the way he likes them isn't quite the way most of his friends do.
There are three first-person POVs in this book. One is written in bold, the other two marked by the name at the top of the section. Angel, in bold, is M2F trans. Her sections fit her font - strong, confident with a hard-won self-acceptance. Angel has always known who she is; her fight has been to convince the rest of the world. Bad stuff has happened to Angel, but she owns her truth and will rise above it.
Vanessa is a high-school girl who wrestles with the male athletes on her school team. She has moments of confusion, of wondering if that makes her somehow the freak that some of the other kids claim. But mostly she wonders about usual high-school stuff. Particularly about her boyfriend, Brendan, who is sweet and loving and moody, and hard to pin down.
The central POV is Brendan's.
Brendan is also a wrestler in high-school. He has a girlfriend. He likes looking at girls, he has friends, he thinks about sex. But when he looks at a pretty girl, sometimes he envies her, rather than wanting to do her. His life doesn't fit him quite right, and he can't figure out why he's sometimes so uncomfortable in his own skin. He has moments that are wonderful, and then moments where he can't stand to be himself. The realizations are nagging him, pushing, demanding he look them in the face.
This book was both deeply familiar and occasionally revelatory. I know at least two trans teenagers well, (one of whom incidentally got their sex-designation on their driver's license changed while attending The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. That's a very quirky school in many ways, but a quarter of the student body identifies as LGBTQIAP so it can be a safe-harbor school.) I know at least three gender-fluid teens, two of whom are very much in flux, deciding how they feel about their bodies and their identities, moment to moment, day to day. This book felt like traveling down a familiar path, where those teens will see themselves in Brendan, in Angel, and even to a smaller degree in Vanessa.
There were also moments of startled realization, particularly when Angel talks about being young and M2F trans and out on the street. The kids I know are lucky in still being within their families, although the level of acceptance varies. But it's a cold, hard world out there, and many trans kids don't have that shelter. There were moments when I read Angel's POV and thought, "Damn, yes, of course that could happen." We all need to work harder to build these teens an accepting world.
If I had one criticism, it would be the POV shifts between Brendan and Vanessa, which are marked only when they first happen, and last for several brief chapters. Once or twice, I lost the thread of whose POV I was in for a moment. Vanessa's voice is not as strong or as interesting as the other two, not only because she's a more conventional character. Her issues with Brendan were real and salient, but I didn't feel her emotions the same way. For Brendan, I ached, and for Angel, I hurt. Although I didn't cry, because Angel has her shit together, and would probably be insulted.
This is a straight-forward, engrossing, subtly-emotional and thought-provoking read. It's not the oblique, image-filled prose-poetry of David Levithan. (Read The Realm of Possibility for that type of lyrical, shimmering, heart-deep insight on a far less concrete level.) Here the simple structure and words drive home the meaning, the impact, the revelations and the changes, but in a way not that different from reading a regular novel. It's not abstract, or obtuse, or difficult to follow. It is very well done. If you want to have more insight into the world of a non-gender-conforming teenager, read this book.
October 25, 2013
Glad the book was written, but this just confirms all over again that novels written in verse just aren't for me. I just want more from books, and it's hard to explore with a satisfying degree of depth and complexity and emotion within this kind of framework.
I support LGBTQ issues so wholeheartedly, but as with TWO BOYS KISSING, the style of storytelling just wasn't my cup of tea.
I support LGBTQ issues so wholeheartedly, but as with TWO BOYS KISSING, the style of storytelling just wasn't my cup of tea.
October 28, 2023
What if sometimes you feel like
you're pretending to be male but
you don't want to feel like
you're pretending to be female?
this book is not, as we say, "very good." but it IS a book that was important to me when i was fourteen and trapped in Gender Questioning Hell. so i'm glad it exists, and i hope it's offered that same little lifeline to other trans kids out there. that said, i'm also glad there are other trans YA books, not because this one is evil but because it's clumsy.
quick synopsis: this is a novel in verse about a high schooler named brendan, who is to the outside world a cishet guy and a wrestler, though he gets a lot of flack in the sport and at school for being unmasculine (which. honestly he isn't.). he's begun to feel increasingly uncomfortable in his body and yearns to transform into a girl; he's also terrified by this. our other two POV characters are vanessa, brendan's girlfriend who also wrestles, and angel, the trans woman brendan meets who helps him out on his questioning journey. also a quick personal synopsis: i read this reaching desperately for a lifeline when i was fourteen and terrified that i was trans, and i sort of imprinted on it and i've read it three times. so no one is more disappointed than i am to say that it's just kind of... eh.
(note: brendan uses that name throughout the book; pronouns aren't discussed at the end. i'm using he for him here because... that's what the book does.)
let me start with the poetry: it's not great. granted, i haven't got a lot of experience with the form, but i don't know why this book had to be in verse. there are some segments where it really works, especially to mimic the chaotic repetition of brendan's thoughts! but most of the time it's just regular fairly-bland YA writing, except
split up
like
t h i s
the other major problem with this book is that the supporting characters are weak. i love angel, i'm fond of her, but she's got about two major traits and they're "latina" and "trans woman." there's a dichotomy going on here where brendan is the neutral, stereotypical american teen--white, upper-middle-class, has a girlfriend, plays sports, thinks being trans would make him an "american degenerate"--and angel is the outsider, a mexican trans woman who has experienced sex work, abuse, assault during sex work, and disownment by her biological family. it verges on transgender pixie dream girl: angel, as someone from outside brendan's white-picket-fence bubble, is his branch to the world of marginalization. this could be done well, but it's really not in this case, considering that every single angel line is about being trans. i mean, i talk about being trans a lot, but goddamn, give her a hobby or something? (or at least quit the exaggerated latina-stereotype speech style; it makes me wince coming from a white middle-aged author.)
vanessa i do not love and am not fond of. in fact, i hate her pretty fervently. i get it: this book came out in 2013 (holy shit, it's been a decade!) and the cis world needed a cis POV character whose hand they could hold. but her POV is so wildly uninteresting compared to the other two, because it revolves near entirely around her relationship anxieties. there's something interesting gender-wise going on under the text here, because vanessa, while cis, is her school's only female wrestler, and thus feels pressured to act hyperfeminine off the mat because of familial messaging that she has to keep her boyfriend interested somehow. there's a lot there! like the fact that being gender-nonconforming =/= being trans, or the fact that brendan and vanessa are both punished socially for diverging from their assigned gender's roles, even though vanessa is cis. but this book skims over all of that in a few pages. vanessa's storyline is shallow, and it creates a weird situation where every POV switch is like:
ANGEL: so here's that time i got kicked out of my house and physically assaulted for being trans
BRENDAN: being in my own body digusts me i am desperate to look like a woman i can't live like this but i also can't tell the truth because no one will ever love me
VANESSA: omg what if brendan is cheating on me :(
also i just can't stand her. sorry for being a mean transsexual, but here's her response to
okay! fuck you, lmfao! as if it's a personal betrayal! again, i get it, cis people feel this way, but on top of the lack of substance to the rest of her plotline, all i could think was, "fucking shut up, bring me back to brendan and angel."
so why, then, did this book get me so bad when i was fourteen? well, because the portrayal of dysphoria and questioning really rang true to me then, and it still does. the terrified guilty yearning, the torment of wondering, the desperately searching google for answers, the watching people of the other gender wishing you had what they had, the dreams, the daydreams, the sheer relief of just getting a piece of clothing that makes your silhouette look right--here this book feels genuine.
now, i don't love the conclusion of this particular arc:
and yet i'm still giving this book three stars, instead of fewer, because i can't really bear to give it worse when i found it at exactly the moment i needed it. plus it's very readable; the pro of the unremarkable verse is that it goes down fast. i wouldn't pick this as your first trans book, or even your second or third, and oh wow 2013 really was ten years ago and it shows. that said--i still appreciate this one, man, no matter how much i (and trans YA) have grown up since.
October 22, 2013
I read Freakboy as I traversed the United States. The row in front of me on the airplane, there was a baby, so I put my headphones in and blasted music into my ears. This actually really helped me focus in on the book, and remove the rest of the world. Usually, when I read, I’m distracted: by my cat, by the internet, by little sounds outside. The whole time I was reading Freakboy on the flight, I was basically trying not to be that weird girl crying on the airplane. Kristin Elizabeth Clark’s Freakboy is one of those rare verse novels that works for me, and it made me feel so many feels as well.
Read the A Reader of Fictions.
Read the A Reader of Fictions.
August 25, 2013
Freakboy is the first Young Adult novel that I have read that properly addresses transexuality. And, while I am not going to pretend to know a lot about the subject, I do think that Clark did a great job at writing and portraying transexuality. Her characters are well-written and she obviously put a lot of thought into her story. This book also happens to be the first verse novel I have read in a long, long time, and even though verse novels aren’t really my thing, I have to admit that I thought the verse to be lovely and loved Freakboy even more for it.
Things I Loved:
* The reason why this story was written. In the first pages of Freakboy, Clark writes, “to every Freakboy and Freakgirl out there. You are not a freak. And you are not alone.” My heart melted a little when I read this. By reading those three sentences, I was immediately able to tell that Clark wrote this book because she genuinely wants to help, that she wrote this book for the people out there who feel like they aren’t in the right body. I know that the intention behind the story might not impact the story of it, but I just find it to be touching enough to not care.
*The emotion. Freakboy was a very emotional story that had some moments where I was on the receiving end on a powerful emotion-face-punch. Whether something sad or happy was happening in the story, Clark made me feel every emotion vividly.
* The characters. I thought Clark’s characters to be very well done. Their problems felt real enough that it actually hurt me a little when something bad happened to them (and, of course, my heart soared when something good happened to them). Brendan, Angel, and Vanessa are all archetypes but Clark was able to bring life to them. She was able to make Brendan, the person who felt miserable and freakish because of his sexual identity, Angel, the person who has already fully embraced who she is and going forward in life, and Vanessa, the girl who has devoted herself to Brendan so much so that he is basically her world and is struggling to accept what he wants to be, feel almost tangible.
* The multiple point of views were wonderfully done. Getting into each of the characters’ heads and seeing the world through each of their eyes really added to the story. I do wish that Angel and Vanessa (I know that Vanessa will probably get a lot of hate but I was very interested in her story) had more entries in the book, but that is only a small wish, as what Freakboy did with the multiple POVs is already great.
* The verse. It was lovely and exceptionally executed. I can’t even imagine Freakboy being told in any other form of writing. I didn’t expect to love the verse as much as I do.
Things that were so-so:
* The instances when Clark chose to shape her words into somewhat of a visual form. I do love the verse prose as a whole, but the shaping words into fireworks were a little distracting and could be annoying.
*Freakboy is very open-ended. Which I didn’t exactly like. I wanted more resolution, wanted to see what the characters made of themselves. The story does end with a hopeful and uplifting note so I didn’t hate it, but I wanted more.
Things that I disliked:
* Nothing, really.
Freakboy is a brave and powerful debut and is such of an important book. I can really see this book helping people accept themselves and also helping people learn to be more accepting. The book does have its flaws, but it is a gem and I highly recommend it!
Things I Loved:
* The reason why this story was written. In the first pages of Freakboy, Clark writes, “to every Freakboy and Freakgirl out there. You are not a freak. And you are not alone.” My heart melted a little when I read this. By reading those three sentences, I was immediately able to tell that Clark wrote this book because she genuinely wants to help, that she wrote this book for the people out there who feel like they aren’t in the right body. I know that the intention behind the story might not impact the story of it, but I just find it to be touching enough to not care.
*The emotion. Freakboy was a very emotional story that had some moments where I was on the receiving end on a powerful emotion-face-punch. Whether something sad or happy was happening in the story, Clark made me feel every emotion vividly.
* The characters. I thought Clark’s characters to be very well done. Their problems felt real enough that it actually hurt me a little when something bad happened to them (and, of course, my heart soared when something good happened to them). Brendan, Angel, and Vanessa are all archetypes but Clark was able to bring life to them. She was able to make Brendan, the person who felt miserable and freakish because of his sexual identity, Angel, the person who has already fully embraced who she is and going forward in life, and Vanessa, the girl who has devoted herself to Brendan so much so that he is basically her world and is struggling to accept what he wants to be, feel almost tangible.
* The multiple point of views were wonderfully done. Getting into each of the characters’ heads and seeing the world through each of their eyes really added to the story. I do wish that Angel and Vanessa (I know that Vanessa will probably get a lot of hate but I was very interested in her story) had more entries in the book, but that is only a small wish, as what Freakboy did with the multiple POVs is already great.
* The verse. It was lovely and exceptionally executed. I can’t even imagine Freakboy being told in any other form of writing. I didn’t expect to love the verse as much as I do.
Things that were so-so:
* The instances when Clark chose to shape her words into somewhat of a visual form. I do love the verse prose as a whole, but the shaping words into fireworks were a little distracting and could be annoying.
*Freakboy is very open-ended. Which I didn’t exactly like. I wanted more resolution, wanted to see what the characters made of themselves. The story does end with a hopeful and uplifting note so I didn’t hate it, but I wanted more.
Things that I disliked:
* Nothing, really.
Freakboy is a brave and powerful debut and is such of an important book. I can really see this book helping people accept themselves and also helping people learn to be more accepting. The book does have its flaws, but it is a gem and I highly recommend it!
November 14, 2013
Synopsis:
This young adult novel is told in verse from three teen points of view, whose lives interweave as the plot develops. Brendon, the main protagonist, and for whom the book is titled is a white middle class teen from a divorced background, with atheistic beliefs, great commitment to his little sister, love of gaming, an ambivalence towards his wrestling team, a good relationship with his girlfriend with whom he enjoys sex (or at least being close to her body) but whose soft skin, long hair and gentle curves also make him envious. Vanessa, who is a better wrestler than her boyfriend, Brendan, and occasionally gets teased about being a bit butch, is in that typical teen infatuation stage of focusing everything on her boyfriend and forgetting her girlfriends even exist. Angel, whose story runs tangentially at first, is a black, working class, Christian, boy-girl trans teen, who was kicked out of home and has lived on the streets prior to working at the LGBTQ center.
Brendon’s brief encounter with Angel early on touches a subconscious nerve in Brendon, provoking him to lob a stone through the center window in a moment of great gender self-doubt. This incident brings these two trans lives together in a lovely platonic nurturing friendship which is kind of rare in teen literature. Angel’s self-confidence and courage (she outs herself to the guy she crushes on) is intentionally set in stark contrast to Brendon’s constant emotional turmoil in the novel. Much of the novel is taken up with Brendon’s inner dialogue of self-loathing, questioning, confusion, and, at times, suicidal thoughts, and the impact his conflict has on relationships around him. Angel’s sage advice and support is a breath of fresh air throughout the book.
Brendon pursuit of his place on the transgender spectrum moves significantly forward, but does not come to a tied-up, neat conclusion. Vanessa, whose priority is to discover what’s bugging Brendon and to hang on to their romantic relationship, is clearly not going to have resolution either. Angel, who has had some hellish demons of her own to fight, comes out a little more optimistically than the other two, but the book intentionally leaves the ending open.
Why I like this Book:
I admire Clark’s choice of subject and form. I am a big fan of novels in verse and find that they are often, if in skilled hands, a great choice for challenging material. While there is progressively more superb YA novels out their form the gay community, the trans/non-binary gender community is hardly represented at all in YA lit. Clark takes great care in not offering us stereotypes, and even in a foreword underlining that every trans/gender nonconforming story is unique. Each character in this novel has its own well-developed, unique voice and story, though I do feel Angel’s comes over the strongest, but this could also be because she’s a tad older and certainly more confident in her identity (gender and otherwise). I had empathy for the struggles and choices of each of the characters, finding them very authentic. Brendan’s questioning is intense and often self absorbed, which strikes me as realistic. I love that he Clark doesn’t fall into stereotyping and that one of Brendon’s questions is how can he be trans if he doesn’t want to be a girly girl?
The lack of closure was, clearly, a strong authorial choice, which I understand and respect, though I have secret hopes for a sequel as I so want to know more of Brendan’s transitioning. How great that both Angel and Brendon come to that amazingly mature revelation that their junk doesn’t define them. Amen!
I am also in love with the jacket cover design and font choice. It’s fluidity and the fluidity of the verse are part of the strong appeal of this novel for me.
Since moving to New York, I have been lucky to encounter more men and women from the trans community, and as always, knowledge and experience are powerful in breaking down prejudices. This is a gutsy, raw, important debut novel that I sincerely hope will not be read only by LGBTQ youth, but by many towards greater acceptance of what truly defines us in all our beautiful gender variation. Let me leave you with the first page quote from the author herself:
To every Freakboy and Freakgirl out there:
You are not a freak. And you are not alone.
This young adult novel is told in verse from three teen points of view, whose lives interweave as the plot develops. Brendon, the main protagonist, and for whom the book is titled is a white middle class teen from a divorced background, with atheistic beliefs, great commitment to his little sister, love of gaming, an ambivalence towards his wrestling team, a good relationship with his girlfriend with whom he enjoys sex (or at least being close to her body) but whose soft skin, long hair and gentle curves also make him envious. Vanessa, who is a better wrestler than her boyfriend, Brendan, and occasionally gets teased about being a bit butch, is in that typical teen infatuation stage of focusing everything on her boyfriend and forgetting her girlfriends even exist. Angel, whose story runs tangentially at first, is a black, working class, Christian, boy-girl trans teen, who was kicked out of home and has lived on the streets prior to working at the LGBTQ center.
Brendon’s brief encounter with Angel early on touches a subconscious nerve in Brendon, provoking him to lob a stone through the center window in a moment of great gender self-doubt. This incident brings these two trans lives together in a lovely platonic nurturing friendship which is kind of rare in teen literature. Angel’s self-confidence and courage (she outs herself to the guy she crushes on) is intentionally set in stark contrast to Brendon’s constant emotional turmoil in the novel. Much of the novel is taken up with Brendon’s inner dialogue of self-loathing, questioning, confusion, and, at times, suicidal thoughts, and the impact his conflict has on relationships around him. Angel’s sage advice and support is a breath of fresh air throughout the book.
Brendon pursuit of his place on the transgender spectrum moves significantly forward, but does not come to a tied-up, neat conclusion. Vanessa, whose priority is to discover what’s bugging Brendon and to hang on to their romantic relationship, is clearly not going to have resolution either. Angel, who has had some hellish demons of her own to fight, comes out a little more optimistically than the other two, but the book intentionally leaves the ending open.
Why I like this Book:
I admire Clark’s choice of subject and form. I am a big fan of novels in verse and find that they are often, if in skilled hands, a great choice for challenging material. While there is progressively more superb YA novels out their form the gay community, the trans/non-binary gender community is hardly represented at all in YA lit. Clark takes great care in not offering us stereotypes, and even in a foreword underlining that every trans/gender nonconforming story is unique. Each character in this novel has its own well-developed, unique voice and story, though I do feel Angel’s comes over the strongest, but this could also be because she’s a tad older and certainly more confident in her identity (gender and otherwise). I had empathy for the struggles and choices of each of the characters, finding them very authentic. Brendan’s questioning is intense and often self absorbed, which strikes me as realistic. I love that he Clark doesn’t fall into stereotyping and that one of Brendon’s questions is how can he be trans if he doesn’t want to be a girly girl?
The lack of closure was, clearly, a strong authorial choice, which I understand and respect, though I have secret hopes for a sequel as I so want to know more of Brendan’s transitioning. How great that both Angel and Brendon come to that amazingly mature revelation that their junk doesn’t define them. Amen!
I am also in love with the jacket cover design and font choice. It’s fluidity and the fluidity of the verse are part of the strong appeal of this novel for me.
Since moving to New York, I have been lucky to encounter more men and women from the trans community, and as always, knowledge and experience are powerful in breaking down prejudices. This is a gutsy, raw, important debut novel that I sincerely hope will not be read only by LGBTQ youth, but by many towards greater acceptance of what truly defines us in all our beautiful gender variation. Let me leave you with the first page quote from the author herself:
To every Freakboy and Freakgirl out there:
You are not a freak. And you are not alone.
August 6, 2019
This really hit the feels
October 22, 2013
Kristin Elizabeth Clark certainly has ambition. Her debut novel, FREAKBOY, tackles the gender spectrum - in verse. I love novels in verse and I love novels that address LGBTQ issues. I had very high hopes for FREAKBOY, which can be a bad thing for a book. But I think Clark met her ambitions.
Brendan Chase is a fairly normal guy. He's on the wrestling team (and isn't that good) and has a girlfriend (who is a better wrestler than him). He loves Vanessa, knows that he likes girls in that way. At the same time, he likes girls in another way. But as he starts to explore his feelings, he also rejects the easy explanations. Because being a guy doesn't feel wrong all the time.
His quest leads his path to intersect with Angel's. She's got it pretty together and is volunteering at a local youth center to help other kids out. Her path was hard, but she's making it. At first her story seems tangential, but I liked how her and Brendan's stories became more and more involved. (After getting a little frustrated that it seemed like the two were just going to keep barely brushing by each other.) I also liked that their relationship was platonic.
It's a mentorship in some ways, a friendship in more, and a type of relationship that's rarely seen in fiction. Angel is a transgender woman, something she knew about herself from a young age. Her certainty offers a counterpoint to Brendan's uncertainty. No one's journey to their identity is the same,
Meanwhile, FREAKBOY also explores the point of view of Vanessa. She loves Brendan, but doesn't like that he's keeping secrets from her. I liked that FREAKBOY doesn't villainize Vanessa. She fights to save their relationship, but she also has valid reasons to end it. She is her own person, with her own desires for a relationship, and she is entitled to those.
I think that poetry was a good choice for telling the stories in FREAKBOY. Brendan, Angel, and Vanessa are struggling with things that are hard to say, emotions that don't verbalize well. The poetry has an authentic flow to it. It's not stiff and halting, but organic. I do wish there had been a bit more differentiation between the three voices, but I could usually tell whose point of view a poem was expressing even without the headings.
FREAKBOY is the debut of a great talent and one that begins to fill a void in YA literature. It's different, but it feels like a logical step from predecessors like Ellen Hopkins and Catherine Ryan Hyde. I look forward to Clark's next book, because I can't wait to see what she writes as she grows as an author and storyteller.
September 2, 2013
I love reading acknowledgments. They offer a rare glimpse into the view of the author. The author of FreakBoy shared a very special acknowledgment to fellow author, Ellen Hopkins- ..."who, when I went to her, wringing my hands and whining to her that she needed to write something for gender-variant kids, listened patiently, then said, 'No, this is a story you need to write yourself.' " I'm so glad you did. My hat's off to you, Kristin Elizabeth Clark, because this is a PHENOMENAL story!
This summary is what caught my eye:
From the outside, Brendan Chase seems to have it pretty easy. He’s a star wrestler, a video game aficionado, and a loving boyfriend to his seemingly perfect match, Vanessa. But on the inside, Brendan struggles to understand why his body feels so wrong—why he sometimes fantasizes having long hair, soft skin, and gentle curves. Is there even a name for guys like him? Guys who sometimes want to be girls? Or is Brendan just a freak?
And this part intrigued me:
In razor-sharp verse, Kristin Clark folds three narratives into one powerful story: Brendan trying to understand his sexual identity, Vanessa fighting to keep her and Brendan’s relationship alive, and Angel struggling to confront her demons
I am no stranger to books written in verse. Some free verse books written from different perspectives often introduced too many characters with too little character development which made the book really difficult to follow. I was a little skeptical of this book for that reason.
Freakboy is AMAZING!! Written from three different perspectives, the author writes as though the reader can easily see the world through each character's eyes. The ability of a book to act as a gateway into another world where a person can experience someone else's life for a little bit and shut out the outside world has always been the reason reading is my all time favorite pastime. For transgendered teens, or anyone really, who is living in a world where they can't be their true selves, reading offers a way to see new avenues of possibility. There is hope beyond their current circumstance. This book is that light in the dark.
Bottom Line: Read this!
Let your freak flag fly! We acknowledge you!
May 5, 2013
2.5ish.
Brendan is a wrestler. He's got a great girlfriend named Vanessa. But that's where all of the "good" in his life really ends. Brendan's family life isn't stable, and Brendan doesn't know if he's entirely sure of who he is. He's questioning his sexuality -- even though Vanessa is great, he's wondering: am I really in the right body?
Vanessa loves Brendan, but she's about to find out that, while he loves her, he doesn't know if she's the right match because he doesn't know what it is he wants or needs.
Then there's Angel, who works at the local safe center. Where kids and teens who need a place to be themselves -- a place where they're accepted for whoever it is they need to be -- can feel safe. Oh and Angel is trans.
One night, after a fit of rage, Brendan throws a rock at the safe center's window. Breaks it. Angel and the others who find this a safe space no longer do. Because it seems like someone is targeting them. Except, of course, that's not the case. Brendan will eventually admit to this, and Angel will become Brendan's biggest ally as he questions who it is he is and who it is he wants to be.
This is a gritty novel in verse and will have mega appeal to fans of Ellen Hopkins. The styles are similar and there's no flinching in content. All of these kids have it hard, and they're all struggling. It's not just a story about sexuality, though that plays a large role in the story. There's also broken families, tough school situations when it comes to peers and peer pressure, the challenges of romance, and more.
That said, the verse didn't give me enough depth into the story and I wanted more. It worked for Brendan's questioning, for sure, but I wanted more. It wasn't until the final 1/4 of the book that all of the pieces came together but it was that final 1/4 that made me want to know all of these characters a lot better, particularly Vanessa and Angel, who take second seats to Brendan.
I don't think this trans novel is as strong as some of the others I've read, but it is a hugely welcome addition and I think it will find a nice readership.
Brendan is a wrestler. He's got a great girlfriend named Vanessa. But that's where all of the "good" in his life really ends. Brendan's family life isn't stable, and Brendan doesn't know if he's entirely sure of who he is. He's questioning his sexuality -- even though Vanessa is great, he's wondering: am I really in the right body?
Vanessa loves Brendan, but she's about to find out that, while he loves her, he doesn't know if she's the right match because he doesn't know what it is he wants or needs.
Then there's Angel, who works at the local safe center. Where kids and teens who need a place to be themselves -- a place where they're accepted for whoever it is they need to be -- can feel safe. Oh and Angel is trans.
One night, after a fit of rage, Brendan throws a rock at the safe center's window. Breaks it. Angel and the others who find this a safe space no longer do. Because it seems like someone is targeting them. Except, of course, that's not the case. Brendan will eventually admit to this, and Angel will become Brendan's biggest ally as he questions who it is he is and who it is he wants to be.
This is a gritty novel in verse and will have mega appeal to fans of Ellen Hopkins. The styles are similar and there's no flinching in content. All of these kids have it hard, and they're all struggling. It's not just a story about sexuality, though that plays a large role in the story. There's also broken families, tough school situations when it comes to peers and peer pressure, the challenges of romance, and more.
That said, the verse didn't give me enough depth into the story and I wanted more. It worked for Brendan's questioning, for sure, but I wanted more. It wasn't until the final 1/4 of the book that all of the pieces came together but it was that final 1/4 that made me want to know all of these characters a lot better, particularly Vanessa and Angel, who take second seats to Brendan.
I don't think this trans novel is as strong as some of the others I've read, but it is a hugely welcome addition and I think it will find a nice readership.
March 19, 2019
I have had this book on my TBR shelf since 2013. It is a book I added because of the LGBTQ+ storyline and because Ellen Hopkins, a favorite author of mine, left a blurb on the book. (She mentioned at a book signing that she does not do this often and she really enjoys the books when there is a blurb from her). Unfortunately, I did not enjoy it as much. Would not recommend.
This story is important because it is something that readers who may have the same feelings presented by Brendan, our MC who is questioning their gender identity, could relate to and find important to read. However, they may also feel let down by the unhappy ending. It irked me that there was so much homophobia and transphobia, truly even the title makes me uncomfortable. The sour taste this book left in my mouth led me to give it one star simply for the LGBTQ+ representation.
To start with the writing style of the book, the poetry did not flow for me at all. It felt choppy, and there wasn’t any poem that felt poetic (in the sense of the third definition of the word “poetic” as provided by Google). Even when I attempted to read the poems aloud they read clunky. I swear I think that the author left out words just for the sake of a poetic aesthetic when glancing at a page.
As for the story, I usually love books with perspectives of multiple characters but the perspective of Vanessa, Brendan’s girlfriend, felt wholly unnecessary by the end and only further contributed to a disheartening ending. Angel, my favorite character but not one I loved, is supposed to be Latina and I have read many reviews that say she is a stereotype and caricature of a Latina but nothing about her felt Latina to me at all, especially not the ~10 basic Spanish words in a few of her poems. It made me feel as though her Hispanic heritage was thrown in the story for “diversity” points.
This story is important because it is something that readers who may have the same feelings presented by Brendan, our MC who is questioning their gender identity, could relate to and find important to read. However, they may also feel let down by the unhappy ending. It irked me that there was so much homophobia and transphobia, truly even the title makes me uncomfortable. The sour taste this book left in my mouth led me to give it one star simply for the LGBTQ+ representation.
To start with the writing style of the book, the poetry did not flow for me at all. It felt choppy, and there wasn’t any poem that felt poetic (in the sense of the third definition of the word “poetic” as provided by Google). Even when I attempted to read the poems aloud they read clunky. I swear I think that the author left out words just for the sake of a poetic aesthetic when glancing at a page.
As for the story, I usually love books with perspectives of multiple characters but the perspective of Vanessa, Brendan’s girlfriend, felt wholly unnecessary by the end and only further contributed to a disheartening ending. Angel, my favorite character but not one I loved, is supposed to be Latina and I have read many reviews that say she is a stereotype and caricature of a Latina but nothing about her felt Latina to me at all, especially not the ~10 basic Spanish words in a few of her poems. It made me feel as though her Hispanic heritage was thrown in the story for “diversity” points.
September 15, 2013
Brendan has a girlfriend, but his attraction to girls is confusing. When he looks at a beautiful woman, it’s not because he wants to be with her. He imagines what it’s like to be her. His girlfriend, Vanessa, thinks he has a wandering eye, but that’s not the case.
Angel works at a safe house for GLBT youth. He sees Brendan one day and reaches out to him. In a fit of confusion, Brendan throws a rock at the house’s window and breaks it. People who work there think it’s a hate crime and vandalism, but that’s not the case. Brendan wants to pay for the window and make things right. While Brendan is going through rough times, Angel also has seen both the dark and the light. He’s transgender himself.
This verse novel delves into the lives of people who feel different, who at times don’t know how to label themselves and don’t understand their emotions. Throw youth and inexperience into the mix and things are even harder. The characters suffer through suicidal thoughts and bullying, among other things. I love verse novels and appreciate that this one tackled these topics. The reader needs to pay attention to the names at the top of each chapter, because the POVs switch between Brendan, Vanessa, and Angel, and it can be confusing at first. This is a four star book for me. NetGalley provided a copy, courtesy of the publisher.
Angel works at a safe house for GLBT youth. He sees Brendan one day and reaches out to him. In a fit of confusion, Brendan throws a rock at the house’s window and breaks it. People who work there think it’s a hate crime and vandalism, but that’s not the case. Brendan wants to pay for the window and make things right. While Brendan is going through rough times, Angel also has seen both the dark and the light. He’s transgender himself.
This verse novel delves into the lives of people who feel different, who at times don’t know how to label themselves and don’t understand their emotions. Throw youth and inexperience into the mix and things are even harder. The characters suffer through suicidal thoughts and bullying, among other things. I love verse novels and appreciate that this one tackled these topics. The reader needs to pay attention to the names at the top of each chapter, because the POVs switch between Brendan, Vanessa, and Angel, and it can be confusing at first. This is a four star book for me. NetGalley provided a copy, courtesy of the publisher.
June 2, 2016
This is my first purely poetic or lyrical book.
Some books build you up and some books break you down, by the end of Freakboy I came away asking myself if it's worth it to lose friends and loved ones to be true to ourselves in private or public in spite of social or cultural expectations. It's a hard question I wonder about a lot for a lot of various reasons but it's not really answered here. I'm glad it's not because it's a question you have to answer for yourself, or risk having that choice taken away.
Brendan is a son, a big brother, a wrestler, a boyfriend and by social standards he should be fine - but he's not. This book isn't a happy ever after unless understanding yourself makes you happier than friends or lovers might, perhaps what bothers me is Brendan doesn't choose to accept himself and come out to his family. He's outed by his best friend and bullied at school because of that. Loses his girlfriend because of that.
This book was also told from the perspective of Vanessa, Brendan's girlfriend, a wrestler herself who abandons her childhood best friends to keep Brendan in her life but doesn't understand him in the end.
We also read Angel's perspective, a Spanish transgender woman, formerly from the street, working at a youth center who meets Brendan and offers help and friendship when he needs it most.
Some books build you up and some books break you down, by the end of Freakboy I came away asking myself if it's worth it to lose friends and loved ones to be true to ourselves in private or public in spite of social or cultural expectations. It's a hard question I wonder about a lot for a lot of various reasons but it's not really answered here. I'm glad it's not because it's a question you have to answer for yourself, or risk having that choice taken away.
Brendan is a son, a big brother, a wrestler, a boyfriend and by social standards he should be fine - but he's not. This book isn't a happy ever after unless understanding yourself makes you happier than friends or lovers might, perhaps what bothers me is Brendan doesn't choose to accept himself and come out to his family. He's outed by his best friend and bullied at school because of that. Loses his girlfriend because of that.
This book was also told from the perspective of Vanessa, Brendan's girlfriend, a wrestler herself who abandons her childhood best friends to keep Brendan in her life but doesn't understand him in the end.
We also read Angel's perspective, a Spanish transgender woman, formerly from the street, working at a youth center who meets Brendan and offers help and friendship when he needs it most.
May 30, 2013
I sat down at noon today to start reading this. I didn't put it on my Goodreads because I wanted to try a chapter before I committed to reading it in front of all of my social networks. I have this thing about novels in verse not really working for me. Maybe they do and I just don't read them often enough.
Freakboy is amazing. The subject matter is tough and it is dark but there are slivers of hope lined up inside for you while reading. I cried, I hoped, I wanted more than anything for Brendan to find his way. This is such an important book for LGBT teens to read. I hope librarians and teachers and those who are able to reach these teens put copies in the hands of those that need it.
Freakboy is amazing. The subject matter is tough and it is dark but there are slivers of hope lined up inside for you while reading. I cried, I hoped, I wanted more than anything for Brendan to find his way. This is such an important book for LGBT teens to read. I hope librarians and teachers and those who are able to reach these teens put copies in the hands of those that need it.
January 27, 2013
Heartbreaking, hopeful, and beautifully written in verse. This is a wonderful book coming in fall 2013.
April 6, 2018
Review to come
February 7, 2017
I love how this book is so simple on one hand, so typical of a high school experience, that on one hand, you forget the aspects that make it unique. There are detached parents, dating dramas, and judging teens, which is a picture of any high school in America.
But it isn't a common story, because Brendan is confused about his gender identity. This IS a typical problem in America, but it isn't a typical problem portrayed in young adult literature, even though it should be.
I was captivated by Brendan's voice. He was honest and transparent and hurt and confused and hilarious. He was a kid I want to know, but perhaps the hallmark of this book is the end...when Brendan and Vanessa walk on the beach...and Vanessa seems to know before he does (which is typical of so many relationships, right?), "You got freaked figuring out you're genderqueer" (406). The simple sentence shocks Brendan into a reality and acceptance phase...and panic...
When he says, "I have no idea where I fit in" (407), my heart broke for him.
This is an essential book for all teens. Beautifully done and a fast read.
But it isn't a common story, because Brendan is confused about his gender identity. This IS a typical problem in America, but it isn't a typical problem portrayed in young adult literature, even though it should be.
I was captivated by Brendan's voice. He was honest and transparent and hurt and confused and hilarious. He was a kid I want to know, but perhaps the hallmark of this book is the end...when Brendan and Vanessa walk on the beach...and Vanessa seems to know before he does (which is typical of so many relationships, right?), "You got freaked figuring out you're genderqueer" (406). The simple sentence shocks Brendan into a reality and acceptance phase...and panic...
When he says, "I have no idea where I fit in" (407), my heart broke for him.
This is an essential book for all teens. Beautifully done and a fast read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 8, 2017
I'm thinking of making a new tag that says "out of my comfort zone" for Goodreads. While this is not a book I would normally pick up (it was recommended to me), it is definitely one that should push us all to empathize with those who struggle with transgender identity. Even though we all have our own thoughts and feelings about the issue, this book expresses a strong personal turmoil of a young boy who enjoys wearing girl's clothing. He is a wrestler, loves his girlfriend without a doubt, but is struggling in the knowledge that he likes girls also for their clothes, hair, and even societal norms. He hasn't told anyone. He doesn't doubt he loves his girlfriend, but he doubts she will stop loving him. She just wants to know what's going on. And then there is the third perspective- someone who has done the hormones and is now a woman, helping those at Willow Teen Center going through similar trials. Written as a novel in verse, the book gives insight.
August 17, 2017
4.5 stars
I really liked this. This was my first book told in verse. I was wary of that reading style but I thought it worked great for telling the story. I felt more of their thoughts, actions, etc. told that way. Also it made reading it go by very quickly.
I liked that it told between Brendan, Angel, and Vanessa even though Vanessa is the one I liked the least and sometimes didn’t see a point of her having one. I guess to see how closed minded people can be. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Which I didn’t see why because she remembered the past when she did stuff......
I liked the confusion that Brendan was feeling. Him wondering is he? Is he not? Or just kinda coming to terms with what he may be even though he was still not sure by the end.
Angel hands down was probably my favorite. She knew who she was and didn’t hide that fact. Sucks of her past on what happened but at least she had a good ending (in the story).
So yes, I thought it was good. I don’t know how well it represents but I felt it did a good job. And I need more stories told in verse now.
I really liked this. This was my first book told in verse. I was wary of that reading style but I thought it worked great for telling the story. I felt more of their thoughts, actions, etc. told that way. Also it made reading it go by very quickly.
I liked that it told between Brendan, Angel, and Vanessa even though Vanessa is the one I liked the least and sometimes didn’t see a point of her having one. I guess to see how closed minded people can be. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Which I didn’t see why because she remembered the past when she did stuff......
I liked the confusion that Brendan was feeling. Him wondering is he? Is he not? Or just kinda coming to terms with what he may be even though he was still not sure by the end.
Angel hands down was probably my favorite. She knew who she was and didn’t hide that fact. Sucks of her past on what happened but at least she had a good ending (in the story).
So yes, I thought it was good. I don’t know how well it represents but I felt it did a good job. And I need more stories told in verse now.
October 8, 2013
Actual rating is 3.5
Here is another instance where I was kicking myself when a book I had requested arrived because it wasn’t until that moment that I realized the book is told in verse. Also, here is another instance where I was pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed said book much more than I had expected! Once again I am left baffled as to why the novel was told in verse when it read in my head like a regular novel. Sure there were poems in the shape of Christmas trees here and poems within poems with their own meaning there but Freakboy has left me baffled as to why it is the way it is... in a good way.
So as you can probably tell by now I don’t read a lot of verse books. That being said this was my second and I can wholeheartedly say that I have enjoyed both of the ones that I have read. This one was a bit more fancy with it’s poems than the previous one and that left me confused in quite a few places. For instance, on one page there was the story that I followed along, but in between the lines there was these italicized words that when read together were their own sentence. These italicized words didn’t fit in the story with the non-italicized words so I was left wondering how I was supposed to have read that page. Maybe I am looking into it too much and you were just supposed to read them separately, but then why weren’t they just their own separate little stanza? I guess when it comes down to it I don’t really know how to properly read a verse book so I just try to read it as I would any other story.
As far as the story goes this was a good one. We have 3 POV’s that felt very defined to me (and not only because of the different fonts.) Brendan is a high school boy with a girlfriend who is beginning to question if he was born in the right body. He loves touching his girlfriends soft skin, feeling her breasts, but when he sits back and thinks about it he’s touching them in a longing way because he wants his body to be just like hers. We also get Vanessa’s POV, she’s the girlfriend. We get to see her struggle with coming to terms with Brendan’s distancing himself from her. What I liked about her story was that we got to watch her, a female, thrive in a predominantly male environment in her wrestling. Finally we get the perspective of Angel Hansted, a transgender who was born a male and is now living life as a female.
All three stories weave together very well when Brendan meets Angel at Willows Teen LGBTQ Center. The bullying that Brendan faces at school and the abuse Angel suffered in her life are portrayed in a very real way. One thing I can say I like about verse as a method of telling a story is that it is very concise and straight to the point. There is no room for a lot of filler so everything is put out there in a very minimal way. I will say that I lacked an emotional connection to the novel and never felt for the characters as heavily as I would have liked to. I guess that could be the downside of this sparse storytelling method. I also feel like the story didn’t really go anywhere. We see the characters struggle in their life and there is really no resolution to any of the issues that were brought forth. I guess that was very true to life, not everything resolves itself and we just work through our problems the best we can but in the stories I read I like some sort of conclusion. I like everything to come to a point, even if I don’t get a happy ending. With this I felt like the reader really started working through everything with the characters and were left hanging almost right where we started.
A touching story about finding yourself and realizing that it is okay to be who you are no matter what people say, Freakboy is an important story in it’s own right. While I didn’t have much of an emotional connection to the story, I was kept entertained and felt like I had my eyes opened even more into the LGBT world. I will definitely be on the lookout for whatever Kristen Elizabeth Clark does next because I can see that she has it in her to weave some touching contemporary tales.
An Advanced Reader's Copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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You can read all of my reviews at Alluring Reads.
Here is another instance where I was kicking myself when a book I had requested arrived because it wasn’t until that moment that I realized the book is told in verse. Also, here is another instance where I was pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed said book much more than I had expected! Once again I am left baffled as to why the novel was told in verse when it read in my head like a regular novel. Sure there were poems in the shape of Christmas trees here and poems within poems with their own meaning there but Freakboy has left me baffled as to why it is the way it is... in a good way.
So as you can probably tell by now I don’t read a lot of verse books. That being said this was my second and I can wholeheartedly say that I have enjoyed both of the ones that I have read. This one was a bit more fancy with it’s poems than the previous one and that left me confused in quite a few places. For instance, on one page there was the story that I followed along, but in between the lines there was these italicized words that when read together were their own sentence. These italicized words didn’t fit in the story with the non-italicized words so I was left wondering how I was supposed to have read that page. Maybe I am looking into it too much and you were just supposed to read them separately, but then why weren’t they just their own separate little stanza? I guess when it comes down to it I don’t really know how to properly read a verse book so I just try to read it as I would any other story.
As far as the story goes this was a good one. We have 3 POV’s that felt very defined to me (and not only because of the different fonts.) Brendan is a high school boy with a girlfriend who is beginning to question if he was born in the right body. He loves touching his girlfriends soft skin, feeling her breasts, but when he sits back and thinks about it he’s touching them in a longing way because he wants his body to be just like hers. We also get Vanessa’s POV, she’s the girlfriend. We get to see her struggle with coming to terms with Brendan’s distancing himself from her. What I liked about her story was that we got to watch her, a female, thrive in a predominantly male environment in her wrestling. Finally we get the perspective of Angel Hansted, a transgender who was born a male and is now living life as a female.
All three stories weave together very well when Brendan meets Angel at Willows Teen LGBTQ Center. The bullying that Brendan faces at school and the abuse Angel suffered in her life are portrayed in a very real way. One thing I can say I like about verse as a method of telling a story is that it is very concise and straight to the point. There is no room for a lot of filler so everything is put out there in a very minimal way. I will say that I lacked an emotional connection to the novel and never felt for the characters as heavily as I would have liked to. I guess that could be the downside of this sparse storytelling method. I also feel like the story didn’t really go anywhere. We see the characters struggle in their life and there is really no resolution to any of the issues that were brought forth. I guess that was very true to life, not everything resolves itself and we just work through our problems the best we can but in the stories I read I like some sort of conclusion. I like everything to come to a point, even if I don’t get a happy ending. With this I felt like the reader really started working through everything with the characters and were left hanging almost right where we started.
A touching story about finding yourself and realizing that it is okay to be who you are no matter what people say, Freakboy is an important story in it’s own right. While I didn’t have much of an emotional connection to the story, I was kept entertained and felt like I had my eyes opened even more into the LGBT world. I will definitely be on the lookout for whatever Kristen Elizabeth Clark does next because I can see that she has it in her to weave some touching contemporary tales.
An Advanced Reader's Copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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You can read all of my reviews at Alluring Reads.
July 30, 2013
Yay, another book in YA addressing the trans population! This makes me happy. My co-blogger and I partially addressed this book in our LGBTQ Month of July post on the blog, but it's time for a proper review. "Freakboy" follows the same free verse approach that Ellen Hopkins does, and for the most part, it works well with each character's POV, getting across the main points of the book, and pumping up the tension a fair amount. Adding to my best of 2013 list, "Freakboy" is a book you simply can't miss if you're trans, or curious about the trans sub-culture within the LGBTQ community.
The biggest flaw of the book: sometimes, the way the free verse prose was structured (into firework shapes, etc) simply got a little too distracting. That was the thing that kind of irked me the most, because I felt like by creating a literal visual of the words and feelings that the characters were feeling at the moment, it took away the meaning of those words and feelings just by pure distraction. It happens multiple times throughout the book, and while I applaud Clark for being experimental with her prose, unfortunately, in some parts of the book, it just didn't work for me.
However, the other traditional stanza approach that Clark took to the rest? It worked really well. It helped create the world, the characters, all of the important technical areas of the book I usually scrutinize pretty hard really well, and really easily. Best of all, it really helped us get into Brendan, Vanessa, and Angel's heads. In terms of POV/narration, I feel like this was the best way Clark could have gotten across various important points of the book (example: just because you're trans, doesn't mean you entirely want to get the plumbing changed, and because your partner feels they may be trans doesn't make your relationship a lie, etc). Everything is laid out clearly, simply, and bluntly - to the point, with little exposition or flowery prose. Usually, I dig flowery prose quite a bit, but I can see that with this book, and the way this story was told, it wouldn't have worked as well as the free verse approach did.
What's best of all? I'd say that Clark gets these characters (or if you want to think of them this way, archetypes) of how a outing happens down pretty well. There's Angel, the awesome, sassy (my favorite) transgirl who has been to hell and back and has major wisdom. Brendan, the boy who may not be a boy, and Vanessa, his girlfriend. These three archetypes were played perfectly, all the way down to Vanessa making Brendan's outing not about him or even helping him, but about herself, and the entire thing becoming a lie in her head, driving herself into a vicious spiral of narcissistic delusion as to what has actually occurred. As someone who identifies as genderfluid, the fact that this book got these archetypes right was a relief, as I did have my doubts about how everything would go down. As the whole trans/non-binary gender thing is now the final new brave new frontier in terms of gender and sexual identity, and the fact that the Big Six are starting to become willing to publish it is a great thing - but there's always the worry that someone won't get the facts correctly, or worse, drown the characters in stereotypical bullying, self-harm, or suicide. None of these things happened in this book, and for that I'm very, very glad.
Final verdict? If you're curious about the trans community, or you generally want to learn more about it, definitely pick up "Freakboy". It's out October 22, 2013 from Macmillan in North America, so check it out when you get the chance!
(posted to goodreads, shelfari, and birthofanewwitch.wordpress.com)
The biggest flaw of the book: sometimes, the way the free verse prose was structured (into firework shapes, etc) simply got a little too distracting. That was the thing that kind of irked me the most, because I felt like by creating a literal visual of the words and feelings that the characters were feeling at the moment, it took away the meaning of those words and feelings just by pure distraction. It happens multiple times throughout the book, and while I applaud Clark for being experimental with her prose, unfortunately, in some parts of the book, it just didn't work for me.
However, the other traditional stanza approach that Clark took to the rest? It worked really well. It helped create the world, the characters, all of the important technical areas of the book I usually scrutinize pretty hard really well, and really easily. Best of all, it really helped us get into Brendan, Vanessa, and Angel's heads. In terms of POV/narration, I feel like this was the best way Clark could have gotten across various important points of the book (example: just because you're trans, doesn't mean you entirely want to get the plumbing changed, and because your partner feels they may be trans doesn't make your relationship a lie, etc). Everything is laid out clearly, simply, and bluntly - to the point, with little exposition or flowery prose. Usually, I dig flowery prose quite a bit, but I can see that with this book, and the way this story was told, it wouldn't have worked as well as the free verse approach did.
What's best of all? I'd say that Clark gets these characters (or if you want to think of them this way, archetypes) of how a outing happens down pretty well. There's Angel, the awesome, sassy (my favorite) transgirl who has been to hell and back and has major wisdom. Brendan, the boy who may not be a boy, and Vanessa, his girlfriend. These three archetypes were played perfectly, all the way down to Vanessa making Brendan's outing not about him or even helping him, but about herself, and the entire thing becoming a lie in her head, driving herself into a vicious spiral of narcissistic delusion as to what has actually occurred. As someone who identifies as genderfluid, the fact that this book got these archetypes right was a relief, as I did have my doubts about how everything would go down. As the whole trans/non-binary gender thing is now the final new brave new frontier in terms of gender and sexual identity, and the fact that the Big Six are starting to become willing to publish it is a great thing - but there's always the worry that someone won't get the facts correctly, or worse, drown the characters in stereotypical bullying, self-harm, or suicide. None of these things happened in this book, and for that I'm very, very glad.
Final verdict? If you're curious about the trans community, or you generally want to learn more about it, definitely pick up "Freakboy". It's out October 22, 2013 from Macmillan in North America, so check it out when you get the chance!
(posted to goodreads, shelfari, and birthofanewwitch.wordpress.com)
July 5, 2023
I was reading the advanced copy so maybe some stuff was changed in the final but I had some issues with this. for one, I found Vanessa (Brendan’s gf) irritating and didn’t have too much sympathy for her even though I don’t think she did anything completely outrageous. also, the way Angel’s sections were too “sassy poc written by a white person” for my comfort. it made reading her sections awkward, as it was clearly unnatural for the author, and left me embarrassed at the author’s writing
I don’t want to take away any comfort or connection people felt to this story, but I feel like a lot has changed with queer issues, especially trans ones, in the last 10 years that makes the story less modernly relevant. of course, there are still places where these external issues can easily be experienced and internal struggle of queerness will always exist, but a more up-to-date text may help someone more nowadays. let’s discuss further:
discovering one’s queerness is an individual experience which is often difficult and certainly not all sunshine and rainbows. it is fair to show these things and not pretend they don’t exist. with this being said, I felt the book was a bummer which is dangerous considering the audience. many people reading this may be at the start of a journey discovering their queerness (especially transness!!) and while the book ends looking up a bit, the biggest bright spot is that he didn’t kill himself as he was considering. he still loses his girlfriend and his one friend and endures pretty intense bullying at school. people relating to brendan’s journey may read this ending and see living as genderqueer as possible, but difficult and full of pain/loss. elements of this are certainly true but trans joy is real too!! trans people can be happy in all elements of life including being trans. Angel, our confident older trans character, may feel comfortable in her skin now but has still been disowned and in the last interaction with her brother, who was the only family member she seemed to be in contact with, he left her, seemingly embarrassed of her transness.
The author of this book is not openly trans, which may contribute to some of the issues I take with Freakboy. Instead of this book, read one by someone with firsthand trans experiences.
I appreciate what this story is trying to do and certainly for it’s time I’m sure it was progressive and more impactful. I just wouldn’t recommend it to someone now.
I don’t want to take away any comfort or connection people felt to this story, but I feel like a lot has changed with queer issues, especially trans ones, in the last 10 years that makes the story less modernly relevant. of course, there are still places where these external issues can easily be experienced and internal struggle of queerness will always exist, but a more up-to-date text may help someone more nowadays. let’s discuss further:
discovering one’s queerness is an individual experience which is often difficult and certainly not all sunshine and rainbows. it is fair to show these things and not pretend they don’t exist. with this being said, I felt the book was a bummer which is dangerous considering the audience. many people reading this may be at the start of a journey discovering their queerness (especially transness!!) and while the book ends looking up a bit, the biggest bright spot is that he didn’t kill himself as he was considering. he still loses his girlfriend and his one friend and endures pretty intense bullying at school. people relating to brendan’s journey may read this ending and see living as genderqueer as possible, but difficult and full of pain/loss. elements of this are certainly true but trans joy is real too!! trans people can be happy in all elements of life including being trans. Angel, our confident older trans character, may feel comfortable in her skin now but has still been disowned and in the last interaction with her brother, who was the only family member she seemed to be in contact with, he left her, seemingly embarrassed of her transness.
The author of this book is not openly trans, which may contribute to some of the issues I take with Freakboy. Instead of this book, read one by someone with firsthand trans experiences.
I appreciate what this story is trying to do and certainly for it’s time I’m sure it was progressive and more impactful. I just wouldn’t recommend it to someone now.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 22, 2016
I received this book for free from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
So, I didn’t even read the synopsis to Freakboy. I had a pretty good idea, just from the title, what it was going to be about. What I didn’t know was that it would be in verse. I’m not really into poetry, in general, but this was just a great book.
Freakboy follows Brendan as he struggles to find who he is and where he fits in. His girlfriend, Vanessa, and a transgender friend, Angel, try to help him through his confusion.
Freakboy alternates between the points of view of each main character. Though, the story is mostly centered on Brendan, Vanessa and Angel have important contribution. Brandan’s struggle was hard, but really enlightening. I really felt like I learned more about the possible trials of transgender individuals from reading this book. While I couldn’t truly relate to Brendan, I was very invested in his story. I think one of the big strengths of this book is that is offers different perspectives on the same subject. Angel’s place in the trans spectrum isn’t the same as Brendan’s, and she’s in a different place in her life, trying to help other teens through the years of figuring out who they are. Vanessa, who truly cares for Brendan, has to deal with his isolation, distance, and ultimately his feelings about himself and who he is. She has to deal with a lot of confusion about what it all means for their relationship. It was a very real and raw look at a transgender story. I loved Kristin Clark’s writing. She makes great use of various poetic forms, and even though the book was lyrical, it was also very clear. I’ll be keeping a look out for anything else she gets published. Something I really loved was what Kristin Clark wrote in the preface. She admits that she can never write the transgender story, but she can write a transgender story. She certainly succeeded in opening my eyes even wider to the realities of being transgender, finding who we are, and being comfortable in my own skin.
I highly recommend this book, and I think Kristin Clark is an author to watch. Due to language and mild sexual content, I think this book is best for ages 16 and up.
Read more reviews at Owl Tell You About It.
So, I didn’t even read the synopsis to Freakboy. I had a pretty good idea, just from the title, what it was going to be about. What I didn’t know was that it would be in verse. I’m not really into poetry, in general, but this was just a great book.
Freakboy follows Brendan as he struggles to find who he is and where he fits in. His girlfriend, Vanessa, and a transgender friend, Angel, try to help him through his confusion.
Freakboy alternates between the points of view of each main character. Though, the story is mostly centered on Brendan, Vanessa and Angel have important contribution. Brandan’s struggle was hard, but really enlightening. I really felt like I learned more about the possible trials of transgender individuals from reading this book. While I couldn’t truly relate to Brendan, I was very invested in his story. I think one of the big strengths of this book is that is offers different perspectives on the same subject. Angel’s place in the trans spectrum isn’t the same as Brendan’s, and she’s in a different place in her life, trying to help other teens through the years of figuring out who they are. Vanessa, who truly cares for Brendan, has to deal with his isolation, distance, and ultimately his feelings about himself and who he is. She has to deal with a lot of confusion about what it all means for their relationship. It was a very real and raw look at a transgender story. I loved Kristin Clark’s writing. She makes great use of various poetic forms, and even though the book was lyrical, it was also very clear. I’ll be keeping a look out for anything else she gets published. Something I really loved was what Kristin Clark wrote in the preface. She admits that she can never write the transgender story, but she can write a transgender story. She certainly succeeded in opening my eyes even wider to the realities of being transgender, finding who we are, and being comfortable in my own skin.
I highly recommend this book, and I think Kristin Clark is an author to watch. Due to language and mild sexual content, I think this book is best for ages 16 and up.
Read more reviews at Owl Tell You About It.
July 16, 2013
This was the first novel I've read in free verse, and I have to be honest, it isn't my favorite way to read. The line breaks and shapes interrupt the flow of reading. The subtle messages aren't so subtle. But I get it, this novel wasn't really written for someone like me. In spite of all that, I enjoyed it.
The book is written from three different characters' points of view. Brendan, high school jock who's beginning to think maybe being a boy isn't what's right for him. His girlfriend, Vanessa, who is in love/infatuation with Brendan, to the point that she's left all her other friends behind. And Angel, who runs a teen center in Brendan's town, and happens to know what he's going through, being trans herself.
The Brendan sections by far stood out the most, but I understand why we needed to hear from Vanessa too. When something as huge as your gender identity is in flux, it doesn't only affect one person. Brendan's whole world is changing. You can't help but feel sorry for him, as going through something like questioning your gender is hard enough; but add in the stress of high school and it's almost too much to handle.
This was a quick read even though it's over 400 pages, because the pages contain so little text. I hope other kids who may be struggling with questions such as Brendan had will find solace knowing that they're not alone. For that reason, this book needed to be written.
The book is written from three different characters' points of view. Brendan, high school jock who's beginning to think maybe being a boy isn't what's right for him. His girlfriend, Vanessa, who is in love/infatuation with Brendan, to the point that she's left all her other friends behind. And Angel, who runs a teen center in Brendan's town, and happens to know what he's going through, being trans herself.
The Brendan sections by far stood out the most, but I understand why we needed to hear from Vanessa too. When something as huge as your gender identity is in flux, it doesn't only affect one person. Brendan's whole world is changing. You can't help but feel sorry for him, as going through something like questioning your gender is hard enough; but add in the stress of high school and it's almost too much to handle.
This was a quick read even though it's over 400 pages, because the pages contain so little text. I hope other kids who may be struggling with questions such as Brendan had will find solace knowing that they're not alone. For that reason, this book needed to be written.
October 16, 2013
This free-verse poem novel contrasts the journeys of two transgender anatomical males - Brendan, the white, prep-school atheist child of divorce, and Angel, the black, Christ-loving, formerly trick-turning street kid. Of the two, who would you expect to be relatively content in her situation, and who would be suicidal? Ironically, or perhaps not so ironically, it is Brendan who is tortured, seeking escape from the pressure to conform by mothering his tiny sister, withholding purchased gift lingerie, and selecting to be the busty, leggy elf character in his video game. Brendan recently lost his virginity to only-girl-on-the-wrestling-team Vanessa in duplicitous desire for her body; meanwhile, Angel encounters little friction in his world, where the whispered disclosure about her manly parts to her crush is greeted with a smile and a wink. Does Angel’s courageousness come from the content of her character, or is it just one of the few things she can afford, coming from a disadvantaged socioeconomic background? Is Brendan’s anxiety and cowardice a character flaw, or is it the natural product of the social rigidity that comes with being part of the privileged class?
March 1, 2019
I was really intrigued that someone was writing about this experience, and in a verse novel. I was disappointed. The usage of different font styles, word choices (sexual instead of gender, lack of pronoun changes), and stereotyping of several characters made me feel like this was written in 2000, not 2013. I saw someone say they thought this was written to educate cis people, but it won't even do a good job of that, partially because it's outdated now and partially because it just didn't do a great job of getting inside the head of someone who might be nonbinary, genderfluid, or trans. I do not recommend this for anyone interested in those topics. Sadly, there are so few books that have characters in the nonbinary/genderfluid spectrum that I don't have alternative suggestions. If someone else does, I'd love to hear them!
February 7, 2017
'Freakboy' is a book written in verse about three individuals,
Brendon- A seemingly "normal cisgender" boy, but in the beginning of this novel, he soon begins to fantasize about something much different that's expected of him. Brendon wants to be a girl.
Angel- A transgender Male to Female who works at a center for troubled LGBTQIIA+ teens.
Vanessa- Brendon's girlfriend who frankly- doesn't know what's really going on at all.
This book is so important because it shows the struggles of what it means to struggle with your identity from both sides of the spectrum. I'd definitely recommend this if you're looking for a mind boggling read.
Brendon- A seemingly "normal cisgender" boy, but in the beginning of this novel, he soon begins to fantasize about something much different that's expected of him. Brendon wants to be a girl.
Angel- A transgender Male to Female who works at a center for troubled LGBTQIIA+ teens.
Vanessa- Brendon's girlfriend who frankly- doesn't know what's really going on at all.
This book is so important because it shows the struggles of what it means to struggle with your identity from both sides of the spectrum. I'd definitely recommend this if you're looking for a mind boggling read.
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