In a future time when government control requires gender identity determination at an early age, Kivali is one who struggles to escape the narrow definitions. Her hormone levels put her right at the designated space between male and female; although she could take “T” to boost her male attributes, she chooses not to. Her outward appearance is that of a traditional girl, but she doesn’t feel like anything but herself. Now she’s been sent to Crop Camp against her will, where success means a chance at a safe life, and failure means relocation to the Blight, an unsanctioned area for societal castoffs. Kivali forms a bond with (and a crush on) her tent-mate Sully, and in collaboration with a few other like-minded campers, they risk their futures and maybe even their lives to challenge Machete, the disingenuous Camp director, and the Crop Camp system. Kivali’s world of gender definition, treachery, love, loyalty—and perhaps even aliens—is gradually unveiled through context and word clues, requiring readers to fill in the details of the setting incrementally while the plot unfolds, and rewarding them with a richly imagined and complex speculative future. (Age 13 and older)

In a futuristic society run by an all-powerful Gov, a bender teen on the cusp of adulthood has choices to make that will change her life—and maybe the world.

Fifteen-year-old bender Kivali has had a rough time in a gender-rigid culture. Abandoned as a baby and raised by Sheila, an ardent nonconformist, Kivali has always been surrounded by uncertainty. Where did she come from? Is it true what Sheila says, that she was deposited on Earth by the mysterious saurians? What are you? people ask, and Kivali isn’t sure. Boy/girl? Human/lizard? Both/neither? Now she’s in CropCamp, with all of its schedules and regs, and the first real friends she’s ever had. Strange occurrences and complicated relationships raise questions Kivali has never before had to consider. But she has a gift—the power to enter a trancelike state to harness the “knowings” inside her. She has Lizard Radio. Will it be enough to save her? A coming-of-age story rich in friendships and the shattering emotions of first love, this deeply felt novel will resonate with teens just emerging as adults in a sometimes hostile world.