Excerpt from So Many Stars by Caro De Robertis, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

I think we can listen to ourselves. And create what we want. As a man, I still want to be kind, I want to be mindful. Your gender doesn't have to get in the way of how you want to be with others, with the world, with your family, with anyone.

We receive the message that if you're a woman, you have to do X,Y, and Z. If you're a man, you have to do that and that. But what if nomatter what we are, we create what we want to be? Create the worldthe way we believe it should be?

JOAN BENOIT: There's just no one way of being. And you can't pin somethingdown. I've transitioned through so many identities and genderpresentations throughout my life. I feel like I'm settling more andmore into my own skin, the older I get. In a lot of ways, I defy labels.I'm not just this or that thing.

TUPILI LEA ARELLANO: I try to explain to people who don't understandtrans. I say, "You know what? This is about your freedom. The nonbinarypeople, they're the leaders of justice and freedom for us queerpeople. They are the leaders because they are refusing to step into oneof those two choices of pink or blue. Nonbinary people and trans peopleare leading the fight for freedom for all peoples, from the prisonsof gender."

STORMMIGUEL FLOREZ: Being trans, to me, is just an awesome thing. Ilove being trans. That's my gender really: I'm trans. And if I couldcome back and choose how I came back, I would be trans for sure. I'dnever wish that I was born in any kind of cis way.

I love how I am in the world, and who I am.

I love my body.

I love my gender.

I love being queer. Yes.

C. NJOUBE DUGAS: I'm remembering what it was like being on mySchwinn. As a kid, I had the baddest Schwinn in the neighborhood:banana seat and the handlebars and the little horn. And just jumpingon that bike and whipping off my shirt and being free.

It's all about child's play. It's about freedom. We come here likethat, and then this society pushes us and pulls us and puts us in thisbox, and we're all boxed up. It's about crawling out of a box to knowyou're in another box, to crawl out of that box to know, oh shit, you'restill in a box, but you're getting closer.

So the bottom line is getting free.

I just want everybody to just get free.

Excerpted from So Many Stars by Caro De Robertis. Copyright © 2025 by Caro De Robertis. Excerpted by permission of Algonquin Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.