Gender Identity

Z’s story focuses on gender identity. It is important to them that they are not identified as a man or a woman as they wish to focus on their self-worth and not society’s expectations of them.

First, the novel's use of they and them pronouns shows how important this identity is to Z’s character. The narrator never refers to Z as a she or a he, even though the other characters continually call them Susan or misgender them throughout the novel. After Z tells another classmate to call them Z instead of Susan, their former friend Bethany even says, “It’s because she’s like, such a tomboy… Nobody calls her that, though, don’t worry” (41). This shows how other characters do not take Z seriously. It also shows that Z struggles to maintain respect from others. Z knows what kind of...