reviews_and_ramblings | Circle of Change by Laney Cairo

This is a coming of age story: Kim is 18 years old and his beau, Dash, is 19 years old, so this is the classical story of love that feels too much and too strong, of difficulties that seem insurmountable, of the awkwardness to find a place where you can be together, when you are still living with your mother or in a dorm with a roommate. The fact that Kim is a gay teenager out and proud who is struggling to finish the last year of high school to finally reach the dreamland that is the college campus, and that Dash is a strange guy, all long trench and eyeliner, would make this already an interesting book, but there is something more.

Kim is not exactly a gay teenager, he is a transgender female to male; the previous year, when he was still underage, he had a breakdown, but the consequences were not so bad, both his mother than his doctors understood that for Kim was not just an attitude, he was really a man trapped in a woman body, and they took the necessary step. Now Kim frequents a new school and both his friends than his family think at him as a guy. And he looks also as a guy, a pretty boy sure, but a boy nevertheless. And so when Dash meets him, he has no doubt that he is looking and a very pretty boy, one he would be interested to frequent.

Dash is a first year university student with a bit of a rebel behavior, but all in all not a bad life. From a wealthy family that seems to have not problem with him being gay, Dash is also quite handsome and so he has no problem to meet guys. Actually Dash is the perfect teenager dream date, all dark and fashion, what fashion define an emo boy, I believe. He has some bad experiences in the past, he lost his sister to illness, and even if not exactly explained, I believe there were some tensions with his family on his chosen path for the future (both as sexual preferences than professional career); but truth be told, Dash comes out like a very lucky guy, even maybe a little spoiled, his family fears to deny him something since having lost a daughter, now they pour all their love on the remaining child. Knowing that, Dash's first reaction to Kim's revelation that he is transgender is almost expected: Dash is not used to have things don't go as he wants, and he is used to have all simple and ready; probably at first he thinks that it's not worth to complicate his life with Kim. But then Dash is not a bad guy, and after the first shock he is willing to try.

Dash is a nice character, but most of the story turns around Kim. The plot doesn't develop Kim's struggle to be accepted as a man, when the book starts he has already the support he needs, now it's only a question for him to really understand if he has to go on with the change. It's not even something related to the outside world, if we arrive to the bone of the matter, Kim is attracted to men, so probably he would have no problem to find a man that would comply with his request in bed even if he was a woman. Kim decides to change since he is not comfortable with himself, he is not comfortable inside his body. It's not a matter of Kim related to the world, it's a matter of Kim related to himself.

As always Laney Cairo chooses a not simple plot, and deals with it with enough analytical approach to make it real, but also with enough romance attitude to make it appealing; while reading you are aware that this is an important issue, that it was not simple for Kim, and that probably it will be not even in the future, but you are also aware that this is a love story, and it's sweet and romantic, and powerful as only a teenager love story can be.

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Amazon Kindle: Circle of Change

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