A World Worth Saving by Kyle Lukoff

I can understand why all this was crammed into one volume but I’m also kinda wishing that the copious amounts of personal growth A had to undergo here had been stretched out to at least two. Which, I know, is one of my most complimentary criticisms, that I liked something so much that I wish there had been more of it!

A is a transgender 14 year-old Jewish boy, whose parents are pretty liberal in everything except dealing with his identity. In an effort to get A to conform to the female gender assigned to him at birth, his parents drag him to a group called Save Our Sons And Daughters. There, the parents talk about how sorry they feel for themselves while silencing their own children, which is exactly as dismal as it sounds.

A, who came out during the COVID lockdowns, only looks forward to the meetings because it’s one of the few times he has to socialize with other trans kids. Not that they’re allowed much time to talk to one another. Transness is considered a trend, one so virulent that A isn’t even allowed to go back to school despite the lockdowns having been long lifted.

When Joanna, the lady in charge of SOSAD, enlists the group in helping the election campaign of a politician who wants to legislate against the rights and very existence of trans people, one of A’s friends has had enough. Yarrow is non-binary, and when Yarrow protests too much at the envelope-stuffing event, Joanna whisks Yarrow away to receive “treatment”. In A’s quest to figure out where Yarrow has been taken to, he stumbles across what seems like a golem, who encourages him to fight back and free his friend from a malevolent force that isn’t entirely of this earth. But if demons truly have taken over SOSAD, what can one 14 year-old do to make things better?

Kyle Lukoff draws heavily on Jewish legend — with a hint of Stranger Things — for this very modern, very timely tale of trans teens standing up for themselves and taking the fight back to the forces that feed off of their despair. I’m ngl, I chose to read and review this book at this moment in time because I’m so sick of the absolute absurdity of the anti-trans movement, especially as their awful rhetoric is being constantly blared through my TV screen in the form of attack ads leading up to today’s Election Day in Virginia. What makes it even more infuriating is that I live in Maryland, so have no say in Virginia’s election and can’t vote against these absolutely abhorrent single platform losers. Reviewing and promoting this book today are my small ways of fighting back. As Mr Lukoff makes clear within A World Worth Saving’s pages, not everything in the fight for civil rights has to be a grand heroic gesture. Everyone can and should act in their own small ways to support the struggle for goodness and truth and justice and hope. What’s imperative is that we not give up.

That’s only one of the tenets of Jewish philosophy that form the backbone of this book. Mr Lukoff presents a ton of illuminating information on the connection between Judaism and social justice here, with a decent amount of thoughtful discussion regarding the metaphorical vs the actual. A might not be the most religious kid in the world but he’s definitely learning. He makes for a compelling protagonist, even if I found him to be a very exasperating 14 year-old at times. I had to keep reminding myself that my oldest is 14 too, and I just could not imagine him having to undergo even a little of what A does. Honestly, it pisses me off when parents get upset because their kid is an actual person with thoughts, feelings and will separate from themselves. That weird inability to view their kids as people makes for some seriously strange bedfellows, as this book shows. A’s mom is a liberal feminist who’s happy to go along with all sorts of regressive causes solely to “get her daughter back”. I think, too, that that’s another reason why trans panic upsets me so much. It’s so poisonous and wrong to allow all your other values to fall to the wayside just because you’re freaking out over your kid not looking how you want them to.

A goes through a lot in this book, and while I think it would have felt more convincing overall had his feelings and character development been given more time to unfold organically, I can see why this is a single volume too. Hope should not require a cliffhanger, especially when it’s meant for marginalized kids who are already going through enough. But there is a lot packed into this novel, as Mr Lukoff presents all the different aspects of the trans experience — and even the “main character” experience — with empathy and nuance, in an attempt to meet most kids where they are. And that’s the thing: an urban fantasy novel that deals with topical subjects doesn’t need to be high art, and especially not when its target audience is middle school readers exploring trans issues. If this book helps even one reader, then it’s already done a world of good.

A World Worth Saving by Kyle Lukoff was published February 4 2025 by Dial Books and is available from all good booksellers, including