Alex As Well
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
What do you do when everybody says you're someone you're not?
Alex wants change. Massive change. More radical than you could imagine.
Her mother is not happy, in fact she’s imploding. Her dad walked out.
Alex has turned vegetarian, ditched one school, enrolled in another, thrown out her clothes. And created a new identity. An identity that changes her world.
And Alex—the other Alex—has a lot to say about it.
Alex As Well is a confronting and heartfelt story of adolescent experience—of questioning identity, discovering sexuality, navigating friendships and finding a place to belong. Alex is a strong, vulnerable, confident, shy and determined character, one you will never forget.
With the same tenderness and insight as YA stars such as John Green and David Levithan, Alyssa Brugman has crafted a knockout story about identity, sexuality and family that speaks effortlessly to a universal teen experience.
Alyssa Brugman was born in Rathmines in New South Wales in 1974. She has written several books for young adults including Finding Grace, which was shortlisted for the Printz Award, and Walking Naked, which was a CBCA honour book. She lives in the Hunter Valley with her partner and their children.
textpublishing.com.au
'A compassionate and moving account of a teenager's struggle with identity.' Jane McCredie, author of Making Girls and Boys
'Brugman's beautiful writing offers a startlingly accurate portrayal of teenage life and is a remarkable exploration of gender and sexuality. In typical Brugman, Alex as Well tackles its subject matter with fearless honest as well as with strong insight and a delightful sense of humour...Readers of authors such as John Green will devour this novel.' 4 stars Junior Bookseller & Publisher
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Despite her parents' insistence, Alex knows she's a girl. And while she's still discovering her personal history, this battle has old roots: born intersex, Alex was declared a boy and put on hormones. Now 14, she has stopped taking her meds, transferred to a co-ed school, and is intent on changing her life. The costs are high: Alex's father leaves, and her emotionally unstable mother loses whatever grip she had. Brugman (Finding Grace) gives Alex a running dialogue with her male self (also Alex), who was trained in masculinity, and doesn't always know how to handle himself around girls or during the modeling gigs that Alex lands. Both Alexes are game, clear, and sometimes funny, and watching Alex navigate her new terrain is rewarding. But the book also includes Alex's mother's distraught, typo-riddled posts to a parenting website (complete with reader comments), which feels gimmicky and ill advised. While these passages show that parenting an intersex child can be confusing, they give readers information Alex doesn't have, dramatically lessen sympathy for Alex's mother, and aren't needed to make Alex relatable. Ages 14 up.
