"This is how a family keeps a secret...and how that secret ends up keeping them. This is how a family lives happily ever after...until happily ever after becomes complicated. This is how children change...and then change the world. When Rosie and Penn and their four boys welcome the newest member of their family, no one is surprised it's another baby boy. At least their large, loving, chaotic family knows what to expect. But Claude is not like his brothers. One day he puts on a dress and refuses to take it off. He wants to bring a purse to kindergarten. He wants hair long enough to sit on. When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl. Rosie and Penn aren't panicked at first. Kids go through phases, after all, and make-believe is fun. But soon the entire family is keeping Claude's secret. Until one day it explodes. This Is How It Always Is is a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. And it's about the ways this is how it always is: Change is always hard and miraculous and hard again; parenting is always a leap into the unknown with crossed fingers and full hearts; children grow but not always according to plan. And families with secrets don't get to keep them forever"--
This is How it Is is a very moving book. It explores the family dynamics that change when a loved one is going through the process of transitioning. I loved Poppy's resilience to become who she truly is despite judgement and liked that it sent the reader on a journey through several years and were able to digest the enormity of Poppy's decision.
However, midway through the book Claud shaves his head and with that the novel jumped the shark. Claud debates whether he should fully transition or continue to be what society considers normal. To clear his head he goes to Thailand and teaches English as a second language (keep in mind he is only ten). I just felt like the author didn't know where to go from there and the plot began to unravel.
Overall, I thought it was a good book and really enjoyed the narrator Gabra Zackman but, the novel never sprung back from its diverged road.
This review was originally posted on First Impressions Reviews
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24 January, 2020:
Reviewed