PLEASE DON'T KILL THE FRESHMAN

In Trope's memoir of her sophomore year, the teenage author struggles with society and her own identity, falls in love with a girl who becomes a boy and, in a postmodern moment, describes publishing this memoir. The paper-over-board book reads like a diary, with plenty of explicit language and sex talk; characters are given cryptic names ("Linux Shoe" is her gay best friend; "Scully/Skull" is her "first girlfriend turned first boifriend") and some of the writing is cryptic too. Trope juxtaposes sophisticated references and ideas next to talk of band practice and earth club, reflecting her complicated emerging identity as a bright, talented and driven teen who doesn't fit into society's mold. The entries progress in seductively brief, self-contained bites (more like fits and starts than a traditional chronological memoir) and readers will find many moments to which they can easily relate ("Forced out of slumber to argue with my hair. I claim defeat"). At times, Trope's rants can be pretentious or obvious ("I wonder when I will be content with everything and nothing that I have"), but the author's willingness to make herself vulnerable, especially in her writing about Scully's gender transformation, makes for an impressive read ("My heart knows that my boyfriend is truly genderless, a creature beyond definition, a walking heart with limbs and lips"). Ages 14-up. (Oct.)