My third book I read for Pride Month!! I’m unsure how to rate this. I was anticipating reading it once I’d heard about the obsessive friendship aspect tbh. A lot of it is unmistakably tied into J—‘s gender identity and queerness, and I think that’s a very interesting angle to write about that from— especially through the lens of a trans girl from late elementary school to middle school, where there’s still that childhood innocence, kinda mixed with the inability to label your emotions because everything is so new and huge. 

When it comes to mixing the distressing nature of growing up with the slightly lesser known experience of doing it while trans, “Glitch Girl!” excels at keeping its narrative both incredibly personal, and accessible for a wider audience to connect with. I’ll admit, the mix of very real emotions/settings and fictitious elements was a little bizarre sometimes, especially in the case of the Sims and Roller Coaster Tycoon hybrid, Coaster Boss, which becomes J—‘s main form of escapism and venting throughout, with varying levels of disturbing. Still, I was very much sucked into the narrative, even with the slightly disjointed stream-of-consciousness writing style, Rainie Oet evidently relived a lot of her childhood writing this, and in doing so, forces the reader to as well. (And the nods to different bits of 2000’s pop culture, even outside Coaster Boss, were very fun.)

J—‘s spiraling was so sad and unfortunately real. I highlighted a lot of moments where she talked about her dysphoria or tried to shut it down, the disassociation that comes with it was SO well-written. (I’m also a sucker for middle grades that tackle gender dysphoria and questioning early in puberty.) I also LOVED the ADHD representation, I don’t see much high/medium support needs representation without it shutting out the voice of the character who has it. (I also know a transfem from my IRL young adult group who acts and thinks a bit like J— so! Reading from a perspective like J— was so interesting.)

Now! Despite my lengthy praise, I have a couple reasons for keeping this unrated: firstly, J— has a narrow and oftentimes distorted line of thinking that limits how much we truly know about the cast. While this can strengthen some dynamics, such as the one with her parents—her shifting perspective as a kid brings out the complications in her relationship with them—it ruins others, such as the ones with all her classmates that aren’t Sam. For this reason, most of the cast feels very flat, and while that’s true to life, it’s a little boring to read in a fictional narrative.

And, most egregiously: I don’t know what to think of the writing style. While it’s powerful emotionally, “Glitch Girl!” is another novel in “free verse” that feels more like prose broken up into different lines. This only changes towards the last one or two parts of the novel. Additionally, there isn’t much plot, it’s very character-centric and grounded. I saw another StoryGraph reviewer describe this book as “literary fiction for kids” and I’m inclined to agree! Unfortunately, I don’t know if it will keep the attention of the target demographic, and as such, I’m conflicted on how to rate it.

I think I would still recommend it, though? It was an interesting reading experience, and one I don’t regret putting myself through for Pride Month. I’m curious to know what kids think of it, and if Rainie Oet will publish a prose novel one day. (I think I’d prefer seeing her writing in that style.)