Birthday cover art

Birthday

A Novel

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Birthday

By: Meredith Russo
Narrated by: Dana Aliya Levinson
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About this listen

"An emotional, winning touchdown." — Kirkus

This program includes a bonus interview with the author.

Two best friends. A shared birthday. Six years...


ERIC: There was the day we were born. There was the minute Morgan and I decided we were best friends for life. The years where we stuck by each other’s side—as Morgan’s mom died, as he moved across town, as I joined the football team, as my parents started fighting. But sometimes I worry that Morgan and I won’t be best friends forever. That there’ll be a day, a minute, a second, where it all falls apart and there’s no turning back the clock.

MORGAN: I know that every birthday should feel like a new beginning, but I’m trapped in this mixed-up body, in this wrong life, in Nowheresville, Tennessee, on repeat. With a dad who cares about his football team more than me, a mom I miss more than anything, and a best friend who can never know my biggest secret. Maybe one day I’ll be ready to become the person I am inside. To become her. To tell the world. To tell Eric. But when?

Six years of birthdays reveal Eric and Morgan’s destiny as they come together, drift apart, fall in love, and discover who they’re meant to be—and if they’re meant to be together. From the award-winning author of If I Was Your Girl, Meredith Russo, comes a heart-wrenching and universal story of identity, first love, and fate.

Praise for Birthday:

"In addition to being exquisitely written, BIRTHDAY showcases the best of YA: Its ability to instill empathy in readers. Written by a trans author, BIRTHDAY gives an essential perspective into the trans experience." — Refinery29

Coming of Age Difficult Situations Family & Relationships Friendship LGBTQ+ Literature & Fiction Romance
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Most relevant
There are times when I thing that I'm sick of literature aimed at a younger audience, it seems too shallow or too simple or all in all just not relevant to me anymore, as I'm not a teenager ready to fall in love at a moments notice. And then there come books like this one or The Poet X, that take the teenager experience and portray it in such an honest light, with all the complexity of the human condition and I'm floored.

It's a fiction book, and it feels like there's quite a bit of "how it ought to be" fantasy in there, but there's also a lot of brutal honesty, and together they make such a hopeful mix.

I loved the little chat the author and narrator had at the end of the book.

I found Merriam Webster defined wholesome as "promoting health or well-being of mind or spirit", and I think it fits this book perfectly.

Wholesome

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