I’m not always one to jump on the bandwagon, but we recently had the Trans Rights Readathon, which ran from March 17 to March 31. I picked up the book “You Shouldn’t Be Here” and noticed an important character was a member of the trans community.
Well this accidental Trans Rights Readathon participant says you should be here! What exactly is the Trans Rights Readathon? It’s a time when readers are encouraged to read books featuring trans, nonbinary, 2Spirit, and gender-nonconforming authors or characters.
The world we live in is full of many different types of people. We may not be aware of them. They may seem invisible to some of us. The current presidential administration might even claim trans people don’t exist. Ahem….
A friend of mine who grew up in a small town said she didn’t know any LGBTQIA people while growing up. Not even in high school! However, that changed when she went to college. The first time she heard a woman talking about her perfect mate who was also female opened her eyes to the larger world that surrounds her. It made more people visible to her!
Since I talked about the subject of invisibility and not realizing what’s in the larger world, the book I’m choosing to talk about is “You Shouldn’t Be Here” by Lauren Thoman. Ghosts are communicating with people from the past and present. Lauren is a master of using time and uses it well in this book. She keeps the reader on the edge as they go back-and-forth between different timelines.
One of the timelines includes Madelyn Zhao, who moves to East Henderson, Pennsylvania in an effort to find out what happened to her missing cousin. Her best friend who she knew through college is Syzygy.
Madelyn is obviously a feminine name, but what exactly is Syzygy? It’s definitely a gender-neutral name for someone who uses they and them as pronouns. Just like the real world, gender nonconforming Syzygy added mystery to a pretty cool mystery book! I wanted to learn more about this character. Their “style was probably best described as chaotic, gender neutral.” Syzygy was also very protective of Madelyn.
My point of this whole essay is I did not set out to participate in this Readathon. While I’m an ally, I also have a large to-be-read list (TBR list) and Lauren’s second book was next. I happened to read a book with a cool non-conforming character. I would be happy to call someone like Syzygy my friend. If one of my kids knew someone like Syzygy, I would make them feel welcomed.
I am a cis heterosexual male, and the existence of different people doesn’t bother me. I just want to say, “I see you, and I have your back. I will probably screw up on the pronoun things more than I can probably keep track of, but I’m trying. I realize what you have to go through is hard, and it’s not something someone would choose on a whim. YOU SHOULD BE HERE!”
I recently saw a sign at The Lawrence St. Patrick’s Day Parade that said, “Deny our existence and expect resistance.” Exactly! Everyone has a right to live their lives in peace.
Now back to the book…. “You Shouldn’t Be Here” kept me engaged and up way past my bedtime! I couldn’t stop reading it. Lauren’s conversation between her characters is so engaging. Her plots push time in such a way that I can’t wait to get to the end. It was a little obvious that the overprotective Syzygy would come to the rescue, but I had no clue how it would happen. The plot twists and surprises in this book are excellent. I highly recommend it! Thanks Lauren Thoman for the honor of making me an accidental Trans Rights Readathon participant!
I also highly recommend her first book “I’ll Stop The World,” which had to do with time travel. The song I Melt With You came out in the 80s, and the band Modern English did a Covid/isolation version of the song. It was perfect for Lauren to put that in her book dealing with those exact time periods!
