It is a rare thing to read a book by a young author new to you and think, “wow, here’s a superstar in the making”. It is also a rare thing to read a book and think, “wow, this is a really good book about trans issues”. If you can say those two things about the same book, well, that’s pretty special.

I’m not entirely without reservations about When the Moon was Ours. The more YA I read, the more I come to think that real YA — books that YA fans would recognize as YA rather than books with teen characters that are written by adults for adults — is not for me. I’m much too old and cynical. Also I had quite enough teenage angst to last me a lifetime when I was a teenager. I don’t need any more of it now. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t appreciate writing craft, and there is plenty of that on show here.

If you would like to lean more about this book, my review is here.