OLIVIA GRAY WILL NOT FADE AWAY

Seventh grader Olivia feels out of place. Everyone in her life is focused on crushes and relationships, but she’d rather spend her time drawing and watching her favorite YouTuber. Her brother, Malcolm, who’s gay, is prioritizing his new boyfriend; her friends are obsessed with a new social media app called KruShh; and everyone’s talking about who’s taking whom to the fall formal. The more Olivia, who’s cued Black, feels pressured to “like” people, the more invisible she feels, until she actually starts to flicker in and out of corporeality. Only tan-skinned Jules, her nonbinary classmate, and purple-haired, white-presenting Ms. Amelia, the new school librarian, can consistently see and hear her. Through a book club, the pair, who are ace, introduce Olivia to the idea that she might be aromantic and asexual. As she grapples with her identity, her interpersonal relationships, and her invisibility, Olivia must decide if she’ll give in to allonormative peer pressure or find a way to be seen as she truly is. Burch deftly portrays the challenges of shifting middle school friendships, effectively using the fantastical element of invisibility to highlight Olivia’s experience with external and internalized aro- and ace-phobia (Jules also periodically experiences invisibility). Olivia and Malcolm’s parents are enthusiastic allies.