Choir Boy (novel)
 | |
| Author | Charlie Jane Anders |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Published | April 5, 2005 |
| Publisher | Soft Skull Press |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 320 pp |
Choir Boy is a 2005 novel by Charlie Jane Anders.[1][2]
Plot
Berry, a 12-year-old boy, wants nothing more than to remain a choirboy. Desperate to keep his voice from changing, Berry tries to injure himself, and then convinces a clinic to give him testosterone-inhibiting drugs that keep his voice from deepening but also cause him to grow breasts. Suddenly Berry's thrown into a world of unexpected gender issues that push him into a universe far more complex than anything he's ever known.
Reception
Choir Boy won the 2005 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Literature.[3]
Tikkun described it as "engaging", noting its "believable, frustrating quality", and lauded Anders for "handl[ing] issues of gender (and religion, race, and class) with a light touch."[4]
Kirkus Reviews called it "groundbreaking and unflinching", with Berry's story being "memorable", but overall faulted it for a "lack of a cohesive voice and too much figurative language", with "[a]trocious metaphors, sloppy editing and too many pithy observations [that] detract from the prose."[5]
References
- ^ "Choir Boy". Goodreads.
- ^ Maguire, James (December 4, 2014). "Keeping S.F. safe for subversives at Writers With Drinks". San Francisco Chronicle.
- ^ Gonzalez Cerna, Antonio (2013-12-11). "18th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 11 December 2013. Retrieved 2022-01-23.
- ^ Choir Boy, reviewed by Katje Richstatter; in Tikkun; vol. 21, no. 1 (January/February 2006), p. 75; archived at Project MUSE; retrieved December 4, 2022
- ^ Choir Boy, reviewed in Kirkus Reviews; published April 15, 2005; archived online May 20, 2010; retrieved December 4, 2022