The trail-blazing bravery of'Flamer'

This graphic novel isn't just for LGBTQ+ kids

The blurb on the cover of Flamer, a graphic novel by Mike Curato, says “This book will save lives.”

And yet, would-be book banners are on a mission to prevent kids from reading it. It’s the most challenged book of 2023 — tied with Gender Queer — according to PEN America and the fourth most challenged of 2022, with 62 complaints, per the ALA.

So what’s wrong with it?

Flamer, which published in 2020, is about Aiden Navarro, a 14-year-old rising high school freshman who is spending the summer of 1995 at Boy Scout camp. Aiden is coming to terms with his sexuality — he doesn’t quite understand his feelings for his bunkmate, a compassionate, long-haired football player — as well as his violent home life with an abusive father. He thinks archery is cool. He dislikes his chubby body. He’s Catholic and half-Filipino, which makes him the target of anti-Asian jokes among the predominantly white campers.

Aiden is bullied at camp but he tells us it’s worse at home. And it’s the words spoken mostly by the bullies — “little bitch,” “suck any good dicks lately,” “Chinese faggot,” “gay fat fuck” — that give banners the excuse to remove it. They say that the slurs make the book inappropriate. Ron DeSantis called Flamer “garbage.”

But Flamer is only trashy if you flip through and pick out the curse words. If you read it all the way through (which is often the first recommendation to parents when they complain about a title) the effect is undeniable: Flamer is incandescent.

It’s not just the drawings, which are stunning. Somehow, Curato viscerally portrays the experience of kayaking on a vast lake under a starry country sky. But the story has incredible emotional range. It’s touching, it’s funny. It’s also deeply moving — at the book’s climax, Aiden sneaks into the chapel at camp and considers slitting his wrists with his Swiss army knife. But just at the moment he’s all but given up, he discovers his inner warrior. Flamer is obviously a slur for a gay man. It’s also an accurate description of Aiden’s alter-ego. The vision that comes to save him from himself — to reach out and assure him that “you are enough” — is literally on fire.

The book is a perfect allegory. Aiden has an inner light that refuses to be put out, like coals under an open-air blaze that he’s taught can continue to smolder long after the flames die down. Any teen, whether LGBTQ+ or not, would do well to be reminded of their strength and value in the face of bullying.

Yes, titles like Flamer are being unfairly targeted due to their LGBTQ+ themes, and we should fight back because representation matters. But I think it’s also worth noting that Flamer, which won the Lambda Literary Award in 2021, is also just a freaking great book. That’s why librarians keep trying to stock it.

In many cases, a war against gay books is a war against art and literature in general.