Look Past

This is an amazing work, particularly in terms of taking the reader inside Avery's mind to give them a look at the reality of being a transgender teen who is out in the open in a hostile environment. The mystery is like an added bonus. I was so fascinated with Avery's thoughts and how he was dealing with his family and friends that the solution pretty much snuck up on me. This book is strongly suggested for any library, school or public, caring about timely issues faced by teens.

Look Past is a touching, sometimes gory, tale of love, identity, and the heartbreaking weight of intolerance and hate. The anchor of the story is a girl who’s been murdered and the search to find the murderer. Weaved throughout the narrative is a transgender boy’s journey, obstructed by dogmatic ignorance and flagrant insensitivity, but buoyed by unwavering family support. Both a murder mystery and snap shot a trans teen in a small town, Look Past, is well worth the read.

I bought this for my son- it was his first Eric Devine book and won’t be his last. He really enjoyed it!

This was another surprise book that snuck up on me. Another in the pile of me trying to find comp titles for my own book for query (this one wasn’t a fit), I started reading it and wasn’t that into it, but eventually I found myself devouring it. The voice was less of a draw than what was actually going on in the plot and it was the plot that really kept driving me forward. I wanted to know what happened.I think LOOK PAST might be the first book I’ve read from a transgendered individual’s POV and it definitely provides a different perspective on life, that’s for sure. Not being well-versed in this area, I can’t tell you how authentic the voice is, or how authentic it is against someone who’s writing #ownvoices, which this book is not. It felt authentic. I felt Avery’s emotions and how he struggled, how something as seemingly small as his uncle calling him his nephew is so big to him. I just didn’t quite grasp why putting on a dress was so monumentally triggering for him, and that’s on me. It didn’t take me out of the story at all, but I kept searching for reasons within the text to help me understand why this was such an issue. I think it has to do with the heinous amount of pressure that’s put on Avery to be “normal” and to be a girl when he’s not. He’s doing everything in his power to take control of his identity and move it away from what everyone else wants him to be. He gets support in all the right places, but there’s a far greater lack of it outside of that close circle. So to effectively undo the strides he’s taken to claim his true identity, to succumb to the will of an irate mob that wants him to fit into a particular mold and will still think him a freak anyway, to force him to be truly uncomfortable in his skin and in his life, that makes sense to me as to why the simple act of putting on a dress wasn’t so simple.I can see how some people would read this book and think it’s too extreme or that things like this don’t happen, but it felt painfully realistic to me and it feels like sects of these non-denominational bible churches keep growing (or I’m more aware of them because they’re not that common in New England but they are everywhere else). They’re more concerned with being CHRISTIAN than being Christ-like and the extent they’ll go to force their will on others is abhorrent. Not to mention the statistics on violence against transgendered people, especially transgendered people of color, simply for being who they are. LOOK PAST did not feel so fictionalized as to be completely out of reach. Unfortunately it felt all too real and I think that’s one of the reasons why this book really hit home for me. This is a ripped from the headlines type of book.The ending both provided a lot of closure and had me going meh. I think the book needed the type of ending it provided just to provide some light at the end of the tunnel. Otherwise it would have been dark as hell. Although, I’m more inclined to think that, in reality, it would not have ended the way it did. Don’t get me wrong, death can open people’s eyes. But it can also shut them tighter too.Overall LOOK PAST is a good, engaging read. It was hard to put down and I basically swallowed it in maybe three days. A compelling thriller and a brutal, gut-wrenching look into the life of someone I don’t think enough of us get exposure to.4.5

This book is about Avery, a transgender boy that is singled out for his choices. Mary, the murdered girl that Avery had a relationship with, was the daughter of a pastor. The killer wants Avery to repent for his change in gender and threatens his life. Avery is tasked with being true to himself or denying who he is to avoid threats from the killer. Avery realized early on in life that he was a boy and was supported by his family in his choices regarding his gender. Everyone is not on Avery’s side though and the those that disagree with his choices make their view abundantly clear. Avery is not a perfect character. He us realistic, he -has human flaws and is hard to like at times. This was a good book. I like that Avery is real. He is not just a transgender character. Avery has his good points and his bad points just like a real person.

Switching it up and adding more mystery, Devine packs a thriller with contemporary topics like religion and beliefs alongside living transgender in a community that isn't accepting. Avery has received numerous threats during his transition, yet there have been constants with some of his friends. These relationships sustain him, yet it's rocked to the core when at the start, they are searching the woods around their community for one of Avery's friends, Mary. Soon readers learn that Mary's body has been found and now Avery wants to use his forensics skills and new threats that he's receiving to figure out who Mary's killer is.While the middle dragged just a bit, both the opening and closing of the book are fast-paced, heart-wrenching, and sad and uplifting at the same time for humanity. For teens reading this book, it can certainly allow for introspection on their own thoughts and beliefs and how they both consciously and subconsciously react to situations different from their own, but as an adult, it's just as thoughtful. How can we support? How can we protect? How can we listen? And how can we forgive?I love all of these emotions in this book and the exhilarating end is worth the wait. It'll definitely be another to be shared and discussed, especially with the intersection of religion. So many teens are looking for stories of GLBTQ characters and religion because that is a topic that everyone has such strong opinions and thoughts on. I would recommend this for those that enjoyed The Less-Dead.