Flying Out

In this heartwrenching own voices debut, a girl on cusp of adulthood spends the summer in her old hometown, where she quickly bonds with a transmasculine local and, over the course of their friendship, realizes that they dont identify with the gender they were assigned at birth.

The world wants to put Mac in a box. But they just want to fly.

Mac has never been comfortable in her own skin. The performance of femininity has become frustratingly abrasive over the course of her teenage years, but the remarks that get lobbed at Mac when she transgresses the ways in which shes expected to act are almost as painful.

The summer before college, Mac decides to return to her hometown. There, she meets Fuse, a young transmasculine guy who dreams of being an airplane pilot. As the two quickly develop a bond, Fuses brash and charming energy gives Mac the courage to take a bold first step in exploring their gender identity.

But as soon as Mac shaves off their hair, people start pushing back. And as the summer wears on, even Macs friendship with Fuse is tested by burgeoning romantic feelings and a simmering class resentment.

Thoughtful and nuanced, yet also full of lighthearted charm, Flying Out is a generation-defining YA graphic novel debut that pulls no punches in exploring, and offers no simple answers to, the questions that arise when a young person realizes theyre gender queer.