King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Poignant Queer Middle Grade.
After Kingston’s brother, Khalid, unexpectedly passes away, King is convinced he has transformed into a dragonfly.
He spends his afternoons down by the bayou where the dragonflies flit about in great numbers. He’s constantly searching for the one. The one that is Khalid.
One of King’s most distinct memories of his brother was when Khalid told him he should stop hanging out with his close friend, Sandy Sanders.
The reason, people think Sandy is gay. Khalid urges King to stay away from him because, ‘you don’t want people to think you’re gay too, do you?’
This hurt King. He never thought his brother could hurt him, but this did and he doesn’t truly understand why.
Now he fears something in him is wrong. There’s a pretty girl at school, his friend Jasmine, that likes him. King’s not sure he likes her that way though. He knows people expect him too, but it doesn’t feel right.
When Sandy goes missing, the entire town begins to search.
King is surprised when he ends up finding Sandy in a tent in his backyard. Sandy tells him his Father, who also happens to be local law enforcement, has been physically abusing him.
Devastated to hear what Sandy has been suffering through alone, King vows to help him. As the two rekindle their friendship, King begins to vocalize how he is feeling about himself and his sexuality.
This is such a beautifully told story with so many great discussion points for young readers. And let’s be honest, older readers as well.
In addition to being a story of a boy discovering his truth, there are also examinations of grief, race and power.
I enjoyed the scenes between King and his parents, who are both struggling with their own grief after the loss of Khalid. The conversations between King and his Father were especially moving.
Callender did a phenomenal job of writing King’s character in regards to his feelings of trying to fit the mould that others expected him to fit; like trying to fit a circle into a square hole.
His inner dialogue as he tried to work out for himself what he was feeling seemed so real. I wanted to grab his hand and tell him it would be okay, but in our world, maybe that’s not true. I want to believe that it is and Callender definitely makes it seem like that is possible.
I highly recommend this story, well, to the world.
Everyone should read this.
Why did I wait so long to read this? Bad life choices, I guess. I loved this so much – now I can FINALLY watch the movie! There really isn’t too much I can say about this book that hasn’t already been said. I think pretty much everyone knows the basic premise of this so I won’t reiterate that here. What I do want to touch on is how this book made me feel. I am in a long-term relationship, having been with my partner for 11-years this month. In the beginning of our relationship we were long-distance. A lot of our initial ‘getting to know you’ period was perpetuated through online correspondence, via email. I absolutely adored the use of mixed media in this, showing the emails between Simon and his love interest, known as ‘Blue’. It just made my heart sing reminiscing on that feeling you get when you see a new email has come through, opening it up to behold what the person you are crushing on has written you, seeing the initial low-key flirting and how that grows into more and more over time. 
I received A Whisper of Bones as an e-ARC through NetGalley. The first thing that drew me to this book was the cover. It’s gorgeous. I love the colors…and it’s a mystery, one of my favorite genres. I failed to note however that it was #25 in a series; completely blinded by the cover…again. However, I kept it in mind and kept checking reviews to see if I could read it as a stand-alone. I certainly didn’t have time to go back and read 24 books in order to get myself ready for this one. I was so psyched when I discovered that this series, like many adult mystery series, do not need to be read in order; think Hercule Poirot, Murder, She Wrote, etc. You could definitely read this as a stand-alone so if you haven’t read any other books in this series, please don’t let that deter you!