Identify

by Lesley Choyce

Overview

Ethan is an anxiety-ridden loner who relies on medication to get through his day. During one of his fairly frequent panic attacks, a girl from school named Gabriella comes to his rescue. Gabe, as she prefers to be known, is facing her own inner turmoil. She has always been a tomboy, but the more pressure she faces to act and dress "like a girl," the more she wonders just who she really is.

When he learns that Gabe is being constantly harassed at school, Ethan discovers he is able to overcome his own fears in order to stand up for his new friend. Then Gabe finds a disturbing note in her locker, and the threats begin to escalate. Ethan confronts the person responsible, but things take an unexpected turn, and he suddenly finds himself being questioned by police, accused of assault. With a dose of courage and a surprising ally, the two friends come up with a plan to set things right and end up discovering who they really are along the way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459814080
Publisher:	Orca Book Publishers
Publication date:	04/18/2017
Series:	Orca Soundings Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	120
File size:	584 KB
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Lesley Choyce, who has been teaching English and creative writing for over thirty years, is the author of more than ninety books of literary fiction, short stories, poetry, creative nonfiction and young adult novels. He has won the Dartmouth Book Award, the Atlantic Poetry Prize and the Ann Connor Brimer Award. He has also been short-listed for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humor, the White Pine Award, the Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award, the Aurora Award from the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association and, most recently, the Governor General’s Literary Award. He lives in Lawrencetown Beach, Nova Scotia.

Editorial Reviews

"Identify does not hold back in exploring difficult but relatable topics."

CM Magazine

"Well-written and compulsively readable…While both teens make progress in the story, they still have growing to do, and this helps make the book uncommonly powerful."

Foreword Reviews

"The subject matter is very strong and very necessary."

Resource Links

2017-02-20
A pair of teens under stress finds comfort in each other.Ethan suffers from anxiety and self-medicates with downers. After he tries a day sober, a panic attack causes him to flee school and hide, when he's spotted by Gabe, a girl with short hair, who calms him down and fends off bullies who spotted them. Over a few days, Ethan and Gabe form a friendship as readers learn that Ethan's parents fight constantly, leaving Ethan feeling panicked and isolated, and Gabe's having a sort of gender issue that's getting her bullied to the point of deleting her social media and pressured by her parents to conform to girlhood. Some insight comes with the revelation of events, but the depth of the characterizations suffers from the novel's brevity. With so little information about Gabe's gender issues, it's hard to imagine why she'd be bullied so relentlessly for her short hair and "masculine" clothes when she hasn't explored, let alone declared, any gender changes or fluidity. There is a greater peril introduced by a stalker/bully, but it doesn't quite land for suspense. Choyce is conscientious in dealing with gender and anxiety, but with so little time spent with Ethan and Gabe, this pretty good novella can't be a really great novel. Racial cues are entirely absent. Definitely worth exploring for those completely new to gender fluidity or anxiety issues in teens, as it makes a good primer, but not a deep, character-driven read. (Fiction. 12-16)

Kirkus Reviews