Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher

Title; Almost Perfect
Author; Brian Katcher
Source; Amazon
Format; Second hand paperback
Publisher; Delacorte
Publication Date; October 13th 2009

Description; You only hurt the ones you love.

Logan Witherspoon recently discovered that his girlfriend of three years cheated on him. But things start to look up when a new student breezes through the halls of his small-town high school. Sage Hendricks befriends Logan at a time when he no longer trusts or believes in people. Sage has been homeschooled for a number of years and her parents have forbidden her to date anyone, but she won’t tell Logan why. One day, Logan acts on his growing feelings for Sage. Moments later, he wishes he never had. Sage finally discloses her big secret: she’s actually a boy. Enraged, frightened, and feeling betrayed, Logan lashes out at Sage and disowns her. But once Logan comes to terms with what happened, he reaches out to Sage in an attempt to understand her situation. But Logan has no idea how rocky the road back to friendship will be.

Rating; 3.5*s

Review; There were times when I loved this book and times when I hated it.

Let us start with Logan, our main dude. Now his character was so real to me. I could picture him as an actual person, living in a small town, worried about what everyone thinks. That's why I really did not like him sometimes. He is such a real character, with quite realistic reactions (though I hate them, but quite real reactions for someone uneducated) and, in the end I just could decide whether or not to like him. His character made me so conflicted. I wanted to feel sorry for him, but at the same time he just seemed like such an asshole and all I wanted to do was hit him! He can be such fool.

Now, Sage Hendricks. My lord, I could not love this girl more! She has been through way more than someone should have to at her age, and still life keeps piling more and more on her. If her parents were my parents...I would not be able to handle that. She is a lot stronger that she realises. I wonder what the book would have been like from her point of view. I just...I want more Sage Hendricks. I want more characters like her. And I want more transgendered characters, both male and female.

In this book, a perfectly normal person - Sage - is made to feel different, when she is a perfectly normal person. It makes you think, it makes you see how bad things can be for LGBTQIA+ youth, and LGBTQIA+ people in general. I think everyone should read this book. Because of the issues it deals with, just to make you think.

There needs to be more LGBTQIA+ fiction out there. But for now, this is what I have found.

I have no idea what it feels like to be a transgendered person personally, I have never met a transgendered person in real life either, but this felt quite real to me.

The thing that I was most disappointed with, the thing that ruined the book a little was the ending.

Other than that there are some great supporting characters, and some not so great. There's just so much to love. And some to hate. But I'd still recommend it in a heartbeat. Though it may be slightly triggering for transgendered folks. If you have had to deal with (stupid) bullying and things. Just a warning.