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Dec. 11, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: I sat down to write a letter regarding the recent uproar over “Kiss Number Eight.” But just before I began, I read Glen Rose’s column in the Dec. 6 edition of the N-G and realized I had little to add to his excellent observations. He nailed it, and he did so with thoughtful, insightful intelligent writing. Moreover, he read the book.
I too read the book, and the only reason I did so was because I read a letter by Lizzy Braman condemning the book and calling for its ban, and another by Donna Prince calling for people to “pack the house” at a school board meeting to demand the same. Both writers decried the “the graphic sexuality” of “Kiss Number Eight.” The curious thing about both of their letters was that neither of the authors seemed to have actually read the book.
Having read it myself I can safely assume they did not read the book. There is more graphic sexuality in “Horton Hatches an Egg” than in “Kiss Number Eight.” I refuse to refer to this book as a novel — it is a comic book, with about as much depth as the Archie comics I read as a kid. But at least it explores a very real, common and taboo issue that young people deal with every day — the issue of discovering that one is queer, and dealing with the rejection, hate and fear that comes with that discovery, and finding a way to navigate it other than suicide. PHILLIP WELCH Rockbridge County
