We Are the Weirdos

Book excerpt: In this work of experimental fiction and magic realism, Maranda Elizabeth writes a vulnerable tale of perpetually misunderstood and powerless teenagers in a small town. We Are the Weirdos explores trauma, gender, poverty, invalidation, and memory, as well as themes of trust, abandonment, confinement, and revenge. The characters encounter one another, as well as authority figures and ghosts, at home and through institutions: school, court cells, a detention centre, and a group home. Each of them dream of magic and escape. Indigo is a 13-year old goth and teenage criminal with a history of antisocial tendencies, shoplifting, destructive impulses, cutting, and dysmorphia/dysphoria. When they start bleeding petals and flames along with their blood, they make connections between alienation, witchcraft, and survival. Grey is Indigo's best friend, a shy trans girl with stolen Sharpies and heavy sketchbooks whose illustrations escape borders and panels to make spells come true. Both are the only children of poor, depressed, single moms in a small, mostly-white town in Southern Ontario. In 1999, their favourite movie is The Craft, their favourite band is Marilyn Manson, and their favourite activity is spell-casting. When they find a book about witchcraft hidden in a box of letters written between their mothers, who claim not to know each other and refuse to speak - one is mostly-absent, the other is obsessed with a talk show hosted by a psychic and Saturday night episodes of Cops - they choose to communicate with ghosts, and each other, instead. As the two are separated, and Indigo is charged with crimes they barely remember committing, each of them continue casting spells - or trying to - in dangerous and painful attempts to stay alive. Shuffled through the juvenile injustice system, Indigo meets Sea, a clumsy and curious social worker who hates her job, and Mint, a 16-year old Black girl with a stick-and-poke tattoo of moon phases on her wrist, rage of her own about isolation and incarceration, and a longer sentence for a non-violent crime. Each of them wants to be believed, to be real, and to craft their own form of justice.