Luna by Julie Anne Peters

I feel I owe Julie Anne Peters a huge debt of gratitude. When I first read the description of this book, I felt a little disappointed that it was about a transgender person. I wanted to read a GLBT book, but I seemed to hope it would focus more on the “GLB” part of the label. While I know many gay, lesbian and bisexual people, I know only one transgender person. I realized, as I was reading, that my hesitation was because I had subconsciously considered gay, lesbian and bisexual as somehow more “normal” than transgender. Peters not only made me understand my own discriminatory thinking, but she also helped me overcome it. And I thank her.

I think this book really normalizes the idea of transgender and takes into account how difficult it is for people to accept and understand significant differences. Even Regan, Luna’s closest ally, often has a hard time knowing how to fully accept her. I think Regan’s own struggle to accept her sister made me feel better about my initial hesitation. Regan’s constant questions in her own head reminded me of times I have worked with myself, having silent conversations inside my head, to understand and accept people who are different than me. I’ve always thought that open-minded people who don’t admit that these conversations happen are deluding themselves. Many people say they have never had a racist or discriminatory thought. Growing up in the South, surrounded by racists so mired in their systemic discrimination that they didn’t even know how racist they were, I think everyone has racist or discriminatory thoughts about others. In my opinion, it is what you do with those thoughts that counts. Do you have an honest conversation with yourself in your head, or do you block out the thoughts and pretend they don’t exist? I think the truly open-minded have those conversations, just as Regan has them about Luna.

One internal conversation Regan had really resonated with my own thoughts. When Luna wants to go shopping the second time, Regan begins a conversation in her own mind: “Why can’t you just give this up? Leave it the way it is, the way it’s always been?” (p. 106). To the insider, it seems so much easier to conform, to simply do what’s expected; but, to the outsider, there is nothing more difficult. Whether it’s a little girl who hates dresses or a teenager who loves to read Shakespeare, a lesbian falling in love for the first time or a transgender person trapped in the wrong body: people are who they are. Trying to change to make other people happy is the most unfair thing we can ask of them.

To look at the conversations Regan has from a more critical standpoint, I think Peters’ using Regan as the narrator, rather than having Luna tell her own story, is the key to this book’s success. Because we can hear the dilemmas Regan confronts in processing what is going on with her sister, we have a more direct link to the issues and emotions of the entire family and community. If Luna were the narrator, it would be her story only and would feel removed from the reader (unless the reader was also transgender). I think the use of Regan as narrator allows us to confront the realities and questions in our own minds, just as Regan is allowed to work through her own issues involving full acceptance of her sister.

The flashback scenes are also enhanced by Regan’s serving as narrator. As she shares childhood memories, we begin to understand, along with Regan, the pain Liam has endured throughout his life. Regan shares her own thoughts and comes to realizations about Liam, just as the reader begins to understand and empathize with his issues. For example, as Regan processes her memory of her father spinning her round and round as her “girly whirligig” (p. 14), she remembers the look of hatred on Liam’s face. She asks herself, “What did Liam want, to be the girly whirligig? It struck me like a hammer to the head. Well, duh, Regan. That’s exactly what he wanted. It’s what he’s always wanted”
(p. 14). Peters uses Regan to help the reader form her own thoughts and understanding of Liam’s challenge.

Finally, Regan’s character is so fully developed on her own that it allows us to draw a parallel between her and Luna. Regan, like Liam, is an outsider. She has no friends and isn’t in with the popular crowd. She doubts herself constantly, labeling herself as an invisible person compared to “the ones with shape, form, matter. They Who Mattered” (p. 65). As Peters allows us to see inside Regan, a teenager most readers can relate to as a self-conscious, insecure high school student, we begin to understand that she is no different than Liam, who appears to the outside world to fit in, but, in reality, could not be more miserable. The more we get to know Regan, and those she has contact with, the more we begin to see Liam in the same way: as someone who “just want[s] to blend in” (p. 70). Peters does an expert job helping us understand this difficult, and not completely common, issue through a completely common sister. She helps us understand that we all want to find people like us, just as Liam exclaims when he discovers the testimonials of TG’s in transition: “It’s me, exactly me, same as me” (p. 70). Peters helps us realize we’re all the same: Liam, Luna, Regan, the reader. We all want and need to be accepted for who we are, but sometimes need a little help and understanding to get there.