HOLY SHIT THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD

Absolutely breathtaking.

Usually I take "based on a true story" to mean based on a story that is particularly unusual or of note- this is the experiences of a trans French boy, with the "unusual" part literally just being that he is trans. It is told by what I am assuming are a cis writer and illustrator, and then translated into English by a nonbinary translator. It could be a good read for cis folks looking to see a zoomed out trans experience, including the perspectives of family members who do not understand Nathan at first and have to go on a journey to support him. It has graphic self-harm and portrayals of dysphoria, deadnaming, slurs, and transphobic violence, and unless it is healing for a particular trans person to see their hard experiences mirrored back at them, I would probably not recommend this to trans folks looking for trans books. All in all, when I'm looking to fill a display with trans books, this is not the one I would start with, but it's not totally without merit either.