Uni High Reads

(Available from William Rainey Harper College through I-Share)

Kisses for Jet is perfect for fans of Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, Fine: A Comic About Gender by Rhea Ewing, and Welcome to St. Hell: My Trans Teen Misadventure by Lewis Hancox.

Kisses for Jet is a semi-autobiographical, coming-of-age graphic novel based in Holland. The bulk of the story takes place at the end of 1999 when Dutch teenager, Jet, is sent to live at a boardinghouse for students while their parents temporarily relocate to Brussels while Jet’s mom works on a Y2K bug fix. We watch as Jet struggles to make friends at the boardinghouse and stay connected to their oldest friend, Sasha, as they embark on a journey of self-discovery (partly accelerated by Sasha). Lots of second embarrassment is felt, and I definitely physically cringed a few times when making my way through the panels. Since Jet is growing up during the pre-internet days, they struggle with finding the words for what they feel, and most of their information is gathered from television documentaries. The story ends as Jet starts puberty blockers with the support of their parents and friends. The art is primarily drawn in black, white, and blue with small amounts of pink used to emphasis Jet’s emotions.

Compared to other graphic novels, the dialogue in Kisses for Jet is sparse, and the story felt, at times, disjointed due to the lack of dialogue and context. I found myself having to re-read certain pages to decide whether they were a continuation of the same situation or if the narrator had moved onto another topic entirely. There are a couple of lines that seem to indicate that Jet could potentially be intersex, but that isn’t explored or discussed past those initial couple of lines. I did appreciate that this book challenges the notion that all trans folks need to have “always known” they were in the wrong body. It is through exploration and self-reflection, like pasting their own picture on a magazine image of Kurt Cobain’s face, that Jet comes to realize their gender identity.

Kisses for Jet does a really good job at portraying the messiness of teenage development and identity formation. I just really wanted this graphic novel to be longer with more information packed in! I would have loved a deeper exploration into Jet potentially being intersex, as well as Jet’s relationship with their mom, who is noted to have been affected by post-partum depression after Jet’s birth. Kisses for Jet is worth the read as another perspective in the diversity of trans experiences, but I found it slightly underwhelming.