El

If you want any recs feel free to ask and I’ll try my best to find some for you, I mainly read middle grade and ya books especially if they have queer and disabled characters if that tells you anything about what might be a good idea to ask.

I called it! I knew that Christopher was the changeling Cricket had been swapped with! I knew it!

I’m just genuinely reeling right now. I had to pause for a second and just stare off into space to process.

Finally! We have acceptance! (And a maybe confirmation of him being genderqueer)

Again with the trans allegories. I genuinely can’t tell if it’s “I’m not a boy because I’m trans” or “I’m not a boy because I shapeshift” I don’t know which I’m rooting for, honestly. I like both. Give me genderfluid Cricket where him being genderfluid is impacted by the fact that he can shapeshift but isn’t the sole reason he is.

Yeah, seeing someone like you even if you don’t know why does have that effect sometimes.

So Cricket is very much a trans allegory but I can’t tell if he actually is genderqueer in some way. The way he feels about meeting a genderqueer human for the first time and comparing himself to them and how seeing them makes him ache for something he doesn’t feel like he can have is so relatable to me. Seeing a visibly queer person outside makes me sad that that isn’t me but happy that they can express themself and that maybe it could be me in the future. Also thinking that others, just because of how sure they are in themselves now, were never insecure before or didn’t think they were allowed to be is something that happens so often too.

Hey, Cricket, I know what you’re trying to accomplish but that’s a bit too far. Like, I get you want him riled up and you know it’s a shitty thing to say but you’re going way too far.

I know it’s talking about him being a changeling/shapeshifter but it definitely works with how being genderqueer or just queer in general feels sometimes. I’m assuming that is the point seeing as the other main character is queer and the entire book is about starting to embrace an identity that you’ve been shunned for your entire life.

Hey so that’s cute as hell actually. Mabel mentions that most queer/sapphic stories end in tragedy and Audrey makes her an entire list where they don’t. While they’re still fighting too. Gods I love both of them so much please let them get together. (It’s quite literally a romance book so obviously they will but still.)

Edit: yeah so Audrey was actually asking Mabel out and Mabel was just being a complete idiot which I probably should have known from how she asked but still. But damn it would suck if you asked a girl out and her mind immediately went to fake dating instead of the fact that you were actually asking her out