Poet Max Fischer's devastating and divine YA debut novel-in-verse, The Unpoetic Life of August Grey, follows a transgender teen grieving the death of his friend and trying to find the determination to declare his identity.
Every summer since his parents' divorce, August leaves his mom in Nebraska and visits his dad and stepbrother in New York City. When August was 10, he met Waylon Halloway at the beach off Brooklyn's Pier 3. The two shared a love of writing, and Waylon became August's best friend and crush. At 15, August realized he's trans; a year later, Waylon drowned in the East River. "Three minutes," August thinks. "That's how long you can survive/ underwater before going/ unconscious." Now 17, August has been accepted into his and Waylon's dream writing workshop. He's trepidatious about returning to New York but envisions this summer as a self-imposed, figurative "third minute": it's his "last chance--/ to relearn how to/ breathe" and speak out before his past drowns him, too.
The Unpoetic Life of August Grey is told through August's direct, passionate perspective. August feels isolated in his ongoing struggle to live authentically; his father insists on calling him by his "...