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The Space Between
Hi-Lo, Fiction, Chapter Books, Gender Identity, Prejudice, Mixed Martial Arts
What if everything you believed in was a lie? Eric's old girlfriend moves back to town. Even before he sees her, old feelings stir inside him. Danielle has kept a secret, though. She has never been comfortable in her own skin. Now she identifies as male and goes by Dan.
What does it mean to live your truth, and what happens when others are cruelly ignorant? Eric's honesty and integrity are questioned. Will he let prejudice destroy what was once a deep friendship?
Hard-hitting, contemporary young adult fiction is not trendy--it's not dystopia. There are no vampires, no werewolves, no castles. It's real life. It's unflinching. Gravel Road highlights the talent of YA authors committed to creating realistic fiction with emotional authenticity. No topic is off-limits: suicide, homosexuality, drugs, rape, gangs, bullying. Teens live with this reality each day. And they find a way to survive. Each paperback book is 116 to 275 pages.
What if everything you believed in was a lie? Eric's old girlfriend moves back to town. Even before he sees her, old feelings stir inside him. Danielle has kept a secret, though. She has never been comfortable in her own skin. Now she identifies as male and goes by Dan.
What does it mean to live your truth, and what happens when others are cruelly ignorant? Eric's honesty and integrity are questioned. Will he let prejudice destroy what was once a deep friendship?
Hard-hitting, contemporary young adult fiction is not trendy--it's not dystopia. There are no vampires, no werewolves, no castles. It's real life. It's unflinching. Gravel Road highlights the talent of YA authors committed to creating realistic fiction with emotional authenticity. No topic is off-limits: suicide, homosexuality, drugs, rape, gangs, bullying. Teens live with this reality each day. And they find a way to survive. Each paperback book is 116 to 275 pages.
144 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 2018
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17 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 12, 2020
do not read this book.
if you're trans, don't read this because you'll probably get mad or uncomfortable. if you're cis don't read it because it's going to try to teach you a lesson that i promise you don't want to learn from this book. i guess you can read it as a laugh either way, but don't take it seriously.
as a trans person i'm just going to say it was laughable at best. it was just...so awkward?
to start off, it's really badly written. the sentences are so short and choppy that i doubt the author has ever heard of a compound sentence. example: "His mom had made meatloaf. It was one of Eric's favorite meals. He loved her mashed potatoes too." it's just...so awkward. the teen characters all talk like really exaggerated surfers or something.
then onto the big part: the transphobia.
eric is transphobic. a transphobic protagonist might make for an interesting character, especially if they undergo a big change in their attitudes. but it's done very poorly. eric's change is very clearly supposed to tell some kind of moral (what is the moral exactly? not sure. accept others? be open minded? something vague like that) and it gets rather annoying, especially because eric can't seem to decide whether he's transphobic or not.
he keeps going back and forth between calling dan his chosen name and then suddenly changing his mind and misgendering him, and it's just. so confusing. to make matters worse, eric is going through a bizarre sexuality crisis where he thinks that dan is hot and keeps hoping he's going to "turn back into danielle" or something. his friends are all sexist dudebros that are really only there to show that eric is Better Than Them, because he's NOT a sexist dudebro!
theres this weird constant sexual tension between him and dan coupled with weird sentences about dan's body (calling him "petite", then having a weird conversation about whether he's "still a girl down there"...just overall uncomfortable stuff.) the writing was strange to the way where i wasn't even sure if it was eric or the author who was transphobic, even though the author obviously wasn't TRYING to be transphobic
i don't even understand the ending? theres some mma competition and it's just very confusing overall. still not sure if eric stopped being transphobic or not. negative one stars
if you're trans, don't read this because you'll probably get mad or uncomfortable. if you're cis don't read it because it's going to try to teach you a lesson that i promise you don't want to learn from this book. i guess you can read it as a laugh either way, but don't take it seriously.
as a trans person i'm just going to say it was laughable at best. it was just...so awkward?
to start off, it's really badly written. the sentences are so short and choppy that i doubt the author has ever heard of a compound sentence. example: "His mom had made meatloaf. It was one of Eric's favorite meals. He loved her mashed potatoes too." it's just...so awkward. the teen characters all talk like really exaggerated surfers or something.
then onto the big part: the transphobia.
eric is transphobic. a transphobic protagonist might make for an interesting character, especially if they undergo a big change in their attitudes. but it's done very poorly. eric's change is very clearly supposed to tell some kind of moral (what is the moral exactly? not sure. accept others? be open minded? something vague like that) and it gets rather annoying, especially because eric can't seem to decide whether he's transphobic or not.
he keeps going back and forth between calling dan his chosen name and then suddenly changing his mind and misgendering him, and it's just. so confusing. to make matters worse, eric is going through a bizarre sexuality crisis where he thinks that dan is hot and keeps hoping he's going to "turn back into danielle" or something. his friends are all sexist dudebros that are really only there to show that eric is Better Than Them, because he's NOT a sexist dudebro!
theres this weird constant sexual tension between him and dan coupled with weird sentences about dan's body (calling him "petite", then having a weird conversation about whether he's "still a girl down there"...just overall uncomfortable stuff.) the writing was strange to the way where i wasn't even sure if it was eric or the author who was transphobic, even though the author obviously wasn't TRYING to be transphobic
i don't even understand the ending? theres some mma competition and it's just very confusing overall. still not sure if eric stopped being transphobic or not. negative one stars
October 30, 2019
The first thing that happens in the book is you get introduced to Eric, he is your main character. Eric does MMA and he lives by his dojo's creed. Eric's old girlfriend Michele wants him back now and she feels sorry for hurting him. Eric also finds out that his childhood friend Danielle who he trusted and liked and she liked him back was moving back he was kind of worried. He was worried because of how those two left things off. His mom told him that Danielle had changed and she was no longer Danielle, she was now Dan. She had turned into a he. One day after MMA, Eric got home and there was this guy standing by a car in all black and skinny as could be. The boy was Dan. Dan was asking him about himself, school, and MMA and Eric was just shocked. Meanwhile at school Michelle his ex wanted another chance and he gave it to her. Although he had to somehow keep it from Dan he didn't know how.
I really like this book so far, it tells me that you can be whoever you want. Yes, there will probably people making fun of you and but there will also be people who will love that about you.
I really like this book so far, it tells me that you can be whoever you want. Yes, there will probably people making fun of you and but there will also be people who will love that about you.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews