Euphoria Kids by Alisan Evans (Echo $19.99)
Title: Euphoria Kids
Author: Alison Evans
Publication Date: February 4th 2020
Synopsis: "Ever since the witch cursed Babs, she turns invisible sometimes. She has her mum and her dog, but teachers and classmates barely notice her. Then, one day, Iris can see her. And Iris likes what they see. Babs is made of fire.
Iris grew from a seed in the ground. They have friends, but not human ones. Not until they meet Babs. The two of them have a lot in common: they speak to dryads and faeries, and they're connected to the magic that's all around them.
There's a new boy at school, a boy who's like them and who hasn't yet found his real name. Soon the three of them are hanging out and trying spellwork together. Magic can be dangerous, though. Witches and fae can be cruel. Something is happening in the other realm, and despite being warned to stay away, the three friends have to figure out how to deal with it on their own terms."
My thoughts: This book kind of came out of nowhere and sucker-punched me right in my emotions. Honestly I was a little scared by how much I loved this book - even at about 80 pages in, I was putting off reading the book because I was really worried that something was going to happen that would make me stop loving this book so much (spoiler alert: I loved the whole darn thing).
We follow Iris, who is made of plants, nonbinary, and quite magic, and Babs, who is made of fire, trans, and has a mother who has fibromyalgia, and also makes a living as a witch. The boy, as he is referred to for a lot of the book since he hasn't found his name yet, is trans, too, and just ... all three of them together made my heart soar, I don't mind telling you. I identify as nonbinary, and some people who are really close to me identify as nonbinary or trans, or genderqueer, and reading this book just made me feel quite...warm fuzzy-ish.
I think some people would say that nothing really happens in this book, and I think the lyrical writing might be off-putting for some people, but for me it was beautiful and evocative and have I mentioned I really loved this book? The only reason I'm not giving this a full ten out of ten is because I found I felt a little distant from the characters at times, but that was relatively fleeting. It was just so wonderful to read a story with genderqueer characters that I saw so much of myself in. (A friend of mine also reviewed this book and received a letter from the author talking about writing trans stories with more euphoria and less trauma, and I highly recommend you give it a read here!)
Anyway, I think you can tell that I highly recommend this book. It's just so beautiful. I read it too quick, so I think I'll need to go back and read it again (and again...) to get a few more of the messages from it. If it sounds at all like your kind of read, I highly recommend it.
{I received a review copy of this book from Echo Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!!!}
A favourite line from the book: 'I didn't mean to be a strange baby made of plants, but it hasn't caused any problems. I don't know if anyone else can tell. Only Clover and Moss talk about it.'
You would like this book if: You enjoy lyrical, magical writing; you're looking for LGBTQ+ representation.
Tea to drink while reading this book: The characters in this one are fans of many a hot beverage, but it seems that Earl Grey with a touch of lemon was the favourite. Sounds lovely.
Rating: 9.5/10
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