The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime that Changed Their Lives (2017)

A central tension in the book is whether gender identification is a big deal or not. Slater wants to help the reader become comfortable with identifications outside of the binary male/female, addressing the reader directly about it—“You’ll get used to it” (15); at the same time, Sasha’s nontraditional physical presentation is strongly suggested to be Richard’s motivation for attacking them. Slater also plays with the tabloid-style breathlessness with which non-binary gender identification is often treated, pandering to that prurient interest while also calling attention to it.

By presenting various people’s reactions—or lack thereof—to Sasha’s identification as agender, Slater is inviting the reader to consider which of those reactions might be their own, and which of those reactions might be offensive or surprising. When Sasha’s own friends and family slip up in their pronoun usage, Slater leaves open the question of whether that is simply from habit or whether it’s because people genuinely struggle with something beyond the binary they have always known.

Sasha’s friend Andrew’s gender transition experience parallels and informs Sasha’s exploration of gender identity; Andrew is unable to bring himself to visit Sasha in the hospital because he fears facing the reality of this violent act.