Otherwise

August 15, 2014
In a near-future United States, unisex gender presentation becomes mandated by law. In short free-verse lines with occasional rhyme, a narrator of unspecified gender explains that Pennsylvania has just become the final U.S. state to pass this legislation, and "in 30 days / this will be our law: / No Gender Specified." Under the new law, everyone must shave their heads, wear body-shaping suits, take voice-altering medication and avoid asking names of other people. When the narrator, who takes the name Spark (unisex names are, apparently, acceptable), meets Whistler at a campground, the teens are instantly drawn to each other. Descriptions of the pair's desire for each other are moving, but basic plot questions remain confusingly unanswered: If the law is not yet in effect, why can't Whistler know Spark's gender? How does the government plan to enforce its ban on love and sex for young people? In light of young people's increasing awareness of transgender experiences, the idea put forth here that knowing the shape of someone's physical body reveals the person's true gender feels both dated and simplistic. And with no discussion of how sexual orientation works in a unisex world, the book feels oddly out of step with readers' current reality, in which social and legal acceptance of same-sex marriage is becoming the norm. More likely to confuse than to provoke thought. (Dystopian romance/verse. 12-16)

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September 1, 2014

Gr 7-10-What if identification with a particular gender became illegal? What if the powers that be decided that overpopulation and other unspecified societal ills could be solved by requiring all citizens to appear not male or female but "otherwise"? In this book set decades into the future, Pennsylvania is the last state to sign off on S868A, just such a bill. Unfortunately, this bizarre dystopian novel-in-verse lacks an internal logic that would help make its premise tenable enough. A teen girl chooses the unisex name Spark when she meets a gender-unknown love interest at a New Jersey campground. Just as for Spark, who becomes attracted to another without knowing their sex roles, so the author attempts to hide from readers the gender of Whistler, a person who follows Spark home to her parents' house with less than a month before gender identification becomes unlawful. This hi-lo offering fails to deliver a satisfying narrative. Even if the ideas could pique the interest of reluctant readers, who desire a slim book with plenty of white space, its convoluted logic undermines teens' potential enjoyment.-Suzanne Gordon, Lanier High School, Sugar Hill, GA

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