Choir Boy (novel)

Last updated
Choir Boy
Choir Boy (novel) book cover.jpg
Author Charlie Jane Anders
LanguageEnglish
GenreFiction
PublishedApril 5, 2005
Publisher Soft Skull Press
Publication placeUnited States
Pages320 pp

Choir Boy is a 2005 novel by Charlie Jane Anders. [1] [2]

Contents

Plot

Berry, a 12-year-old boy, wants nothing more than to remain a choirboy. Desperate to keep his voice from changing, Berry tries to injure himself, and then convinces a clinic to give him testosterone-inhibiting drugs that keep his voice from deepening but also cause him to grow breasts. Suddenly Berry's thrown into a world of unexpected gender issues that push him into a universe far more complex than anything he's ever known.

Reception

Choir Boy won the 2005 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Literature. [3]

Tikkun described it as "engaging", noting its "believable, frustrating quality", and lauded Anders for "handl[ing] issues of gender (and religion, race, and class) with a light touch." [4]

Kirkus Reviews called it "groundbreaking and unflinching", with Berry's story being "memorable", but overall faulted it for a "lack of a cohesive voice and too much figurative language", with "[a]trocious metaphors, sloppy editing and too many pithy observations [that] detract from the prose." [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edmund White</span> American novelist, memoirist, and essayist (born 1940)

Edmund Valentine White III is an American novelist, memoirist, playwright, biographer and an essayist on literary and social topics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesléa Newman</span> American author, editor, and feminist

Lesléa Newman is an American author, editor, and feminist best known for the children's book Heather Has Two Mommies. Four of her young adult novels have been finalists for the Lambda Literary Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature, making her one of the most celebrated authors in the category.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlie Jane Anders</span> American science fiction author and commentator (born 1969)

Charlie Jane Anders is an American writer specializing in speculative fiction. She has written several novels as well as shorter fiction, published in magazines and on websites, and hosted podcasts; these works cater to both adults and adolescent readers. Her first science fantasy novels, such as All the Birds in the Sky and The City in the Middle of the Night, cover mature topics, received critical acclaim, and won major literary awards like the Nebula Award for Best Novel and Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Her young adult trilogy Unstoppable has been popular among younger audiences. Shorter fiction has been collected into Six Months, Three Days, Five Others and Even Greater.

<i>Keeping You a Secret</i> 2003 young adult novel by Julie Anne Peters

Keeping You a Secret is a young adult novel by Julie Anne Peters. It was first published in hardback in 2003, and later in paperback in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Boyd</span>

Helen Boyd is the pen name of Gail Kramer, an American author, academic, and activist. Helen is the author two books about her relationship with her trans partner. Her partner is referred to in both books as "Betty Crow", though this is also a pseudonym. Helen is on staff at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin as the I.D.E.A.S. Division Affinity Groups Coordinator and PRIDE Center Coordinator.

Red Hen Press is an American non-profit press located in Pasadena, California, and specializing in the publication of poetry, literary fiction, and nonfiction. The press is a member of the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses, and was a finalist for the 2013 AWP Small Press Publisher Award. The press has been featured in Publishers Weekly,Kirkus Reviews, and Independent Publisher.

<i>Beautiful Music for Ugly Children</i> 2012 young adult novel by Kirstin Cronn-Mills

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children is a young adult novel by Kirstin Cronn-Mills, published October 8, 2012, by North Star Editions. The book tells the story of Gabe, a transgender high school student. It received various awards and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature.

The Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction is an annual literary award, presented by the Lambda Literary Foundation to a work of fiction on lesbian themes. As the award is presented based on themes in the work, not the sexuality or gender of the writer, men and heterosexual women may also be nominated for or win the award.

Joshua Gamson is an American scholar and author. A graduate of Swarthmore College and the University of California, Berkeley, he served on the faculty of Yale University before becoming a professor of sociology at the University of San Francisco. His work has appeared in The Nation, The American Prospect, Newsday, Gender & Society, the Journal of the History of Sexuality, and Sociological Inquiry. He is the son of sociologists William and Zelda F. Gamson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ryka Aoki</span> American author

Ryka Aoki is an American author of novels, poetry, and essays. She teaches English at Santa Monica College and gender studies at Antioch University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Gino</span> American childrens book writer (born 1977)

Alex Gino is a genderqueer American children's book writer. Gino's debut book, Melissa, was the winner of the 2016 Stonewall Book Award and the 2016 Lambda Literary Award in the category of LGBT Children's/Young Adult.

<i>All the Birds in the Sky</i> 2016 novel by Charlie Jane Anders

All the Birds in the Sky is a 2016 science fantasy novel by American writer and editor Charlie Jane Anders. It is her debut speculative fiction novel and was first published in January 2016 in the United States by Tor Books. The book is about a witch and a techno-geek, their troubled relationship, and their attempts to save the world from disaster. The publisher described the work as "blending literary fantasy and science fiction".

Ellen J. Levy is an American writer and academic who was an associate professor of English at Colorado State University before retiring from this role. Her collection of short stories, Love, In Theory, was published in 2012, and her first novel, The Cape Doctor, in 2021 to positive reviews.

<i>Punch Me Up to the Gods</i> 2021 memoir by Brian Broome

Punch Me Up to the Gods is a memoir, written by Brian Broome and published May 18, 2021 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The book won the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction (2021), as well as the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Memoir or Biography (2022).

The Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Literature is an annual literary award, presented by the Lambda Literary Foundation, that awards books with transgender content. Awards are granted based on literary merit and transgender content, and therefore, the writer may be cisgender. The award can be separated into three categories: transgender fiction, transgender nonfiction, and transgender poetry, though early iterations of the award included categories for bisexual/transgender literature, transgender/genderqueer literature, and transgender literature.

<i>Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms</i> 2021 graphic novel by Crystal Frasier

Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms, sometimes stylized as Cheer Up!, is a young adult graphic novel written by Crystal Frasier, with art by Val Wise and lettering by Oscar Jupiter. Published on August 10, 2021, by Oni Press, it tells the story of two queer high school girls, Beatrice – who is transgender – and Annie, as they try to become cheerleaders.

The City of Devi is a 2013 novel by Manil Suri. In 2013, it won the Bad Sex in Fiction Award and the Bisexual Book Award for Fiction.

References

  1. "Choir Boy". Goodreads.
  2. Maguire, James (December 4, 2014). "Keeping S.F. safe for subversives at Writers With Drinks". San Francisco Chronicle .
  3. Gonzalez Cerna, Antonio (2013-12-11). "18th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 11 December 2013. Retrieved 2022-01-23.
  4. Choir Boy, reviewed by Katje Richstatter; in Tikkun ; vol. 21, no. 1 (January/February 2006), p. 75; archived at Project MUSE; retrieved December 4, 2022
  5. Choir Boy, reviewed in Kirkus Reviews ; published April 15, 2005; archived online May 20, 2010; retrieved December 4, 2022