Between Perfect and Real: A Novel - Hardcover

Stoeve, Ray

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1419746014 ISBN 13: 9781419746017

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, 2021

Synopsis

Ray Stoeve’s Between Perfect and Real is a moving YA debut about a trans boy finding his voice—and himself.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Dean Foster knows he’s a trans guy. He’s watched enough YouTube videos and done enough questioning to be sure. But everyone at his high school thinks he’s a lesbian—including his girlfriend, Zoe, and his theater director, who just cast him as a “nontraditional” Romeo. He wonders if maybe it would be easier to wait until college to come out.

But as he plays Romeo every day in rehearsals, Dean realizes he wants everyone to see him as he really is now––not just on the stage, but everywhere in his life. Dean knows what he needs to do. Can playing a role help Dean be his true self?

“Perfectly captures the roller-coaster ride of being a queer high school senior. Stoeve gives voice to the heartbreaks and triumphs of regular kid life in that time when we’re all trying to figure out who we’ve been, who we are, and who we want to be. A beautiful read.” —Daisy Eagan, writer and Tony Award–winning actor

About this title

About the Author

Ray Stoeve is the author of the young adult novel Between Perfect and Real, which was a 2021 Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. They also contributed to the young adult anthology Take The Mic: Fictional Stories of Everyday Resistance. They received a 2016–2017 Made at Hugo House Fellowship and created the YA/MG Trans and Nonbinary Voices Masterlist, a database that tracks all books in those age categories written by trans authors about trans characters. When they’re not writing, they can be found gardening, making art in other mediums, or hiking their beloved Pacific Northwest.

Reviews

Gr 7 Up—When Dean is unexpectedly cast as Romeo in the high school play, he realizes that he's a trans man. The plot follows the five-act structure of Romeo and Juliet as Dean goes through the process of finding himself and coming out all over again during rehearsals and performances for the play. Throughout the story, Dean's friends, girlfriend, and drama teacher affirm his identity, with some challenges, while Dean's parents struggle more with the news. While Dean is bullied by one classmate and has a fight with his mom, by and large the adults and teens in his life range from moderately to extremely supportive, and while no one else in Dean's life or school is trans, he is able to find a trans community in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. Dean's process of figuring out his identity and his love of acting will be relatable to many teens, and Stoeve does not shy away from the nuances of navigating life after coming out. Dean and his family are identified as white, while his friends have a variety of racial identities. VERDICT A coming-out story with a nod to Romeo and Juliet. Recommended for purchase.—Kelsey Socha, Westfield Athenaeum, Westfield, MA

Edition details

• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1419746014
• ISBN 13: 9781419746017
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304