Luna (novel)
Luna is a novel for young adults by Julie Anne Peters and was published in the original English in 2004; the German translation by Catrin Frischer followed in 2006.
Summary
The novel is told from the perspective of 15-year-old Regan. She wrestles with the secret that her older brother, Liam, is a transsexual who wants to live as a girl named Luna. (Liam adopts the name "Luna", which means " moon ", to show that she can only show herself as a girl at night.) Regan secretly helps Luna dress as a girl , but panics when she talks about always being Luna. Regan dreads what her parents will think and how society will accept Luna. Plus, Regan's own love life is at risk if she is constantly forced to take care of her sister. Although she wishes she had a “normal” brother, she knows that Luna's only hope is that she will ever be happy. There are many other problems for Regan and Luna in the book as well. Her mother is a busy wedding planner who takes a variety of antidepressants and is not home enough to take care of her family. Her father loves Regan and tries to convince her to tell him that Liam is gay . He also tries to get Liam to wrestle and play baseball , but he is unsuccessful in his endeavors. Regan and Liam try to get Liam's best friend, Aly, to accept her transsexuality and are unsuccessful to begin with. Towards the end of the book, Liam (who is now always Luna) leaves town to be free. Regan is thus "liberated". She is freed from the burden of protecting her sister and her worries about how the secret could affect her life and she can finally live her own life.
Characters
Regan: Regan is a 15 year old student in high school. She often puts the needs of others, mostly her brother Liam / Luna, before her own. Because of this, she often feels like she doesn't have an identity of her own. As the book progresses, a relationship develops between her and her classmate Chris, and she feels a need to spend more time with him in order to make herself happy and spend less time looking after Liam, who is constantly posing as Luna .
Luna / Liam: Luna is a transsexual 17 year old who was born in the body of a boy, Liam. Luna is the name she takes as a woman. Luna is a smart, nice person, as shown by her good grades and positive behavior towards her often rude parents. She's also very fashion conscious, which makes Regan jealous. She is often portrayed as lost in her own world when she is Liam during the daytime. Luna needs Regan to become Luna, for example she uses her room to change. However, she mainly needs Regan for emotional support as she begins to dress as a girl in public, such as the mall and "Taco Bell".
Chris: Chris is Regan's lab partner in her chemistry class. He's a new student, so he doesn't know a lot of people, but he is quickly becoming popular. He immediately falls in love with Regan, despite their often embarrassing mishaps. He's nice, but not particularly clever, as he has to drop out of chemistry class so he doesn't fail. He is caring and understanding, as evidenced by the fact that he worries about hurting Regan's feelings and empathizes with her when he realizes she has many family problems.
Jack (father): Regan and Liam's father. He loves jokes and his children, but he cannot accept Luna. He forces Liam to do “masculine” things, like exercising and going out with girls, especially his girlfriend, Aly.
Patrice (mother): Regan and Liam's mother. Patrice is a wedding planner who loves her job. It seems like she uses her job as an expression of her identity and to escape her duties as a housewife. She had known about Liam's transsexualism since he was young, but she made him keep it a secret, especially from his father. She ignores it because she doesn't know how to deal with it, regardless of the emotional damage it takes Liam.
Awards
Luna has received numerous awards including:
- 2004 National Book Award finalist in Young People's Literature
- 2005 Stonewall Honor Book, awarded by the GLBTQ Round Table of the American Library Association
- An American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults 2005
- 2005 Colorado Book Award for Young Adult Literature
- 2005 Lambda Literary Award finalist
- 2004 Borders Original Voices Award finalist
- Chicago Public Library Best of the Best 2004, Books for Great Teens
- Michigan Library Association 2005 Thumbs Up! Award nomination
- Rhode Island Teen Book Award 2006 nomination
- Missouri Gateway Book Award 2006 nomination
- Vermont Green Mountain Book Award 2006 nomination
- New York Public Library Books for the Teen-Age List 2005
- An Original Voices selection by Borders Books and Music.
- 2004 Book Sense Summer Reading List for Teens
- To ALA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults