just finished reading

I loved the range of emotions I felt with this book. I loved the quirky, fully developed characters. I loved the complex relationships. I loved the author's voice--quite like having a late-night, in depth conversation with a great friend. It's thought-provoking and eye-opening.

The story focuses on the Walsh-Adams family: parents Rosie and Penn and their five sons, including Claude and his struggle with gender dysphoria. It's the story of the impact of Claude's struggle on each sibling and both parents.

From the publisher:

This is how a family keeps a secret…and how that secret ends up keeping them.

This is how a family lives happily ever after…until happily ever after becomes complicated.

This is how children change…and then change the world.

This is Claude. He’s five years old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess.

When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl.

Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They’re just not sure they’re ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day it explodes.

This Is How It Always Is is a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. And it’s about the ways this is how it always is: Change is always hard and miraculous and hard again, parenting is always a leap into the unknown with crossed fingers and full hearts, children grow but not always according to plan. And families with secrets don’t get to keep them forever.