And She Was

Gr 9 Up—When 18-year-old Dara finds her long-hidden birth certificate and discovers that her mother, Mellie, is a transgender woman, she sets off to find her biological mother's family and unravel some of the secrets surrounding her childhood. As she and her best friend Sam travel south, Mellie sends Dara long, brutally honest emails detailing her transition and the choices she made. Although this novel centers Dara's experience of learning about her mother's past, Mellie's emails are, by far, the strongest aspect of the novel. They provide a complex first-person narrative of Mellie's journey from childhood to adulthood, in an unflinching portrayal of the abuse, social rejection, suicidal ideation, and eventual self-acceptance. Dara's somewhat predictable road-trip story and budding romance with her best friend break up the intensity of Mellie's narrative and build suspense between the revelatory emails. However, the more complex elements of Dara's character, such as her professional tennis ambitions and class-related struggles, are never fully developed in the text. Instead, Dara's story ultimately serves as an opportunity for readers to learn about contemporary transgender issues by her side.