As soon as I saw the author of Dotson namedrop Red, I knew I had to seek it out. I understood immediately why a trans person would identify with the story of a mislabeled crayon and thought that honestly anybody could benefit from the core idea, which is that labels shouldn’t define you. It doesn’t just apply to the trans community, although that is probably the group that will find it the most relatable. No, anybody can take something away from this. Even if you are comfortable with the gender you were born as, that gender tends to bring with it certain (stereotypical) expectations that you and many others might reject, for one example. Our society has baked into it tons of preconceived notions based upon certain labels. People have set ideas of what certain things mean, or at least should mean, and oftentimes people are afraid to challenge them. But Red tells its readers that there’s only good to be gained from being yourself, whether that conforms to those preconceived ideas or not. And, really, I think that’s the only way to live. Do some people find it peculiar that I often read books intended for young adults or children, for example? Certainly. But if I let that stop me from reading those books, I’d miss out on so many new favorites, intended age demographics be damned. I’m glad that our society is moving slowly towards being more accepting of outliers, viewing them as quirky as opposed to faulty, and I think books like Red really help with continuing that.
