Before reading my review, I'd just like to note that I'm not much of a reader of Dystopian books but upon reading the blurb I found this novel peaked my interests, which was the reason I requested and got approved to read it.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the book as much as I hoped to, although, I might pick it up myself one day and try to reread it as to see if the second time would help change my mind but for now here are my thoughts and review of the book.

For most of the time, I found this book hard to read (partially due to the language created and used throughout the story) and difficult to connect with it's characters, although, I did appreciate how the mentions and use of drugs, gender and the state of the city and it's occupants reflected and allowed the reader to imagine the world these characters were living in and how terrible their lives may have been and what they'd have to face and put up with to survive.

I really wanted to like this, but I think I am entirely the wrong reader for it. I will not belabor the point, but there were several issues for me.

One, the entire book is written in a made-up language/dialect that I struggled with. It is hard to immerse yourself in a story when you are struggling to figure out what somebody just said. I thought it would get easier, but there were some characters I simply found incomprehensible. All the credit in the world to L.M. Pierce for the imagination and literary skill invested in the telling, but I do not want to work that hard to decipher a story.

Two, this is a book that is so consumed with drug abuse that it almost becomes more about drugs than gender. I do not want to read about how characters get their drugs, how those drugs make them feel, or how they struggle with coming down or withdrawal. Again, I think Pierce conveyed that aspect of their lifestyle incredibly well, but it is something I have zero interest in and cannot tolerate when it is so prevalent/predominant.

Three, this is a dirty story. I am not talking dirty in the sense of erotic or pornographic, but in the literal sense of dirt and filth and decay. It made me itchy to read. Seriously, I came away from each chapter wanting a shower and a delousing. I know it is a reality for homeless youth, and I know it feeds the drug abuse culture that bothered me so, but I look to escape <I>into</I> science fiction and fantasy - I do not want to feel a panicked urge to escape <I>from</I> it.

Finally, and this was the breaking point for me, I had no empathy and no connection to any of the characters. I desperately wanted to find one that I could love and/or admire, just one that made me feel compelled to follow their journey and see how (or if) they came out of it, but I was unable to make that connection. The characters will reasonably well-drawn, each with their own personality, but that alone does not make them relateable.

I am sure other readers will say that I missed the point. They will insist that this is an allegory for the suffering of homeless youth, and for the oppression of the transgender community. They are absolutely right. I do not deny that, and I do not want to take away from the important story Pierce has told here. None of that changes my enjoyment of the story, however, and the simply truth is that what I might endure in non-fiction is very different from what I am willing to suffer in fiction.

Set in a future dystopian world, Andi is a member of the Trans Liberty Light Brigade, a ragtag group of intersex “Transgressors” fighting for their right to remain intersex and not be forced by the government into surgical gender assignment. Elenbar, the Brigade’s leader, knows that Society is closing in on them and needs to get a message out to beyond the United Free States and chooses Andi to go with her. Andi is a junkie but even in her addled state agrees because she and Elenbar have a shared history and come from the same orphanage.

I spent the first 20% percent of this book learning a new language and feeling my skin crawl at the way the characters live in the slums; dirty, hungry, high and subject to brutal contact. The descriptions of the vile surroundings, smells and conditions are interesting and inventive.

“The water’s a shade of blotchy underpants, grayish yellow from the repeated wash and piss stains of the world revolvin’ around it.”

While reading this I had a strong sense of the book being a mash-up between ‘A Clockwork Orange’, ‘Trainspotting’ with a dash ‘Stepford Wives’ and an odd flash of ‘The Lorax’ but not in anything tangible like its content or characters, but more in an impressionistic way.

I struggled with the filth and grossness and I think there was only one brief period that anybody was clean. As I felt myself relax I realised that they were in the clutches of the baddies and relief was shortlived. I found Andi an interesting character (the book is written from he/r point of view) but I never felt that I connected. I preferred Elenbar but he/r portrayal was limited by Andi’s vision and knowledge.

What I really liked was that the orphanage, St Aggie’s, where Andi and Elenbar grew up was run by nuns who love and protect the children in their care. They support their right not to be forced into gender assignment.

My enjoyment of this novel was curtailed by the filth and my lack of connection to the main character. The premise was interesting and the action fast-paced. I didn’t mind the language or the swearing.