I Read Queer Books

A black, nonbinary novel in verse

From the publisher:

“Cerulean Gene is free everywhere except school, where they’re known for repeatedly challenging authority. Raised in a free-spirited home by two loving parents who encourage Cerulean to be their full self, they’ve got big dreams of moving cross-country to live off the grid with their friends after graduation. But a fight with a teacher spirals out of control, and Cerulean impulsively drops out to avoid the punishment they fear is coming. Why wait for graduation to leave an oppressive capitalist system and live their dreams?

Cerulean is truly brilliant, but their sheltered upbringing hasn’t prepared them for the consequences of their choice — especially not when it’s compounded by a family emergency that puts a parent out of work. Suddenly the money they’d been stacking with their friends is a resource that the family needs to stay afloat.

Salt the Water is a book about dreaming in a world that has other plans for your time, your youth, and your future. It asks, what does it look like when a bunch of queer Black kids are allowed to dream? And what does it look like for them to confront the present circumstances of the people they love while still pursuing a wildly different future of their own?”

My Review

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While this book may not be to every reader’s taste, I think it excellently captures the way in which life can feel incredibly, suffocatingly constricting in your teenage years. Cerulean is not infallible, and I think it would be a mistake to ask them to be. They are simply a teenager trying to reckon with what blackness and queerness means in this world. No wonder they want to disappear.

I found Iloh’s verse to be well-thought-out without feeling superfluous. This book definitely manages to read like a true novel while balancing poetry concepts. I think for high school-aged readers, this can be a perfect story to step out of their comfort zones.

This is an incredibly short review for this blog, but I really don’t have too much more to say.

4 out of 5 stars

Further Resources

You can learn more about being an ally to transgender youth here https://www.thetrevorproject.org/resources/guide/a-guide-to-being-an-ally-to-transgender-and-nonbinary-youth/