''Euphoria Kids'' is a 2020

young adult In medicine and the social sciences, a young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence, sometimes with some overlap. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

novel by Alison Evans. It tells the

coming of age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...

story of three

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

young people named Iris, Babs and "the boy". The story contains elements of

magical realism Magical realism, magic realism, or marvelous realism is a style or genre of fiction and art that presents a realistic view of the world while incorporating magical elements, often blurring the lines between speculation and reality. ''Magical rea ...

, including the presence of

witches Witchcraft is the use of magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meaning. According to ''Enc ...

dryads A dryad (; , sing. ) is an oak tree nymph or oak tree spirit in Greek mythology; ''Drys'' (δρῦς) means "tree", and more specifically " oak" in Greek. Today the term is often used to refer to tree nymphs in general. Types Daphnaie Thes ...

and

faeries A fairy (also called fay, fae, fae folk, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, generally described as anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic, found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Cel ...

, and that Iris "grew from a seed in the ground" while Babs is "made of fire". The title refers to the concept of

gender euphoria Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to inconsistency between their gender identitytheir personal sense of their own genderand their sex assigned at birth. The term replaced the previous diagnostic label of gender ide ...

. Evans states in the novel's foreword: In 2024, the novel was reissued in an expanded second edition which added classroom discussion points.

Reception

Meleika Gesa-Fatafehi of ''

The Saturday Paper ''The Saturday Paper'' is an Australian weekly newspaper, launched on 1 March 2014 in hard copy, as an online newspaper and in mobile news format. The paper is circulated throughout Australian capital cities and major regional centres. Since i ...

'' called ''Euphoria Kids'' "a love letter to queer and transgender teens... it’s exhilarating to read about these characters being so open about their identities, and living with such pride". Australian Arts Review found it "groundbreaking" and compared it favourably to the work of

Francesca Lia Block Francesca Lia Block (born December 3, 1962) is an American writer of adult and young-adult literature. She wrote the '' Weetzie Bat'' series, which she began while a student at UC Berkeley. Early life and education Block was born in Los Angele ...

and

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio based in Koganei, Tokyo."Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment". ''Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment''. Retrieved 2020-12-14. It has a strong presence in the animation industry and has exp ...

. Jemimah Brewster of ''Artshub'' agreed with the Ghibli comparison and speculated that YA readers "will love (''Euphoria Kids'') for its beautiful atmosphere as much as its portrayal of vital friendships". Jordi Kerr of ''Books + Publishing'' called the novel "quietly enchanting", adding that it "will not speak to every reader, but to those it does it will mean the world".

References

{{reflist 2020 Australian novels Australian young adult novels 2020 LGBTQ-related literary works Australian LGBTQ novels Novels about transgender topics 2020s LGBTQ novels