SHAE

Queerness, motherhood, and opioids are all entangled in this harrowing West Virginia–set coming-of-age story.

The way Shae tells it, one of the defining moments of her life was meeting Cam in high school. Immediately, the narrator, whom “no one had even noticed…enough to give…a nickname,” admires her new friend’s shine, even though Cam’s vegetarianism and edgy style attract homophobic bullies. The two teens connect over music and, as Shae’s family begins to unofficially adopt Cam (whose grandfather is a less-than-attentive legal guardian), they begin a romantic relationship that leaves Shae pregnant. Shortly before their baby is born, Cam comes out as a transgender woman. Shae recognizes both this move’s rightness and its danger, and seeks to help Cam with her transition, but their failure to clearly communicate soon sends the girls in radically different directions. A botched C-section brings Oxycontin into Shae’s life and a spiral into addiction follows, taking Shae to desperate and heartrending places. The novel’s subject matter and framing device, unfortunately, make comparisons to Demon Copperhead unavoidable. Maren’s portrait of Appalachia isn’t quite as evocative or expansive as Barbara Kingsolver’s, but for those seeking a tighter narrative with a queer, female perspective, there is much here to savor. Shae’s struggle to understand herself as a queer woman, mother, and independent person includes authentically teenage behavior (e.g., a tendency to not assert her own desires) that can make her point of view a frustrating one to be in, but she never comes across as anything other than deeply human.

An alternately tender and challenging trip down the rabbit hole with an unforgettable young woman.