Like a Hurricane

Employing aesthetically stylized, sensate verse, Bécotte artfully captures one character’s struggles with coming out and self-esteem. In first-person narration, the novel tracks the unnamed protagonist’s worries surrounding his feeling that “I am racing in a marathon/ but the finish line/ keeps moving” when he thinks about the fact that he doesn’t know how to come out to his family and is navigating unrequited love. His self-worth takes a hit when revealing his crush on his best friend results in them hardly sspeaking anymore. He often describes himself using natural disaster metaphor (“I wasn’t born to be a hurricane./ But I can no longer/ hold back the winds inside”), believing that keeping his queerness a secret will bring about rejection from his family and friends. The text is formatted in varying font sizes and placements, and makes use of negative space to visually capture the narrator’s internality. Succinct, highly emotive text sensitively conveys the protagonist’s shifting worldview and his developing courage in owning who he is and allowing his family and friends, who are minimally characterized, to act as a support system amid his internal storm. Ages 9–12. (Feb.)