Published: 16 February 2021 (print)/16 Feb 2021 (audio) 
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr)/Tantor Audio
Pages: 224/5 hrs and 6 mins
Narrator: Amanda Dolan
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Young Adult
★ ★ ★ – 3 Stars
In this elegant dual narrative, Essie is a thirteen-year-old girl feeling glum about starting a new school after her professor dad takes a temporary teaching position in a different town. She has 110 days here and can’t wait for them to end. Then she meets Ollie: delicate, blue eyes, short hair, easy smile. At first, Essie thinks she has a typical crush on a beautiful boy. But as her crush blossoms, she soon realizes that Ollie is not a boy or a girl, but gender non-binary.
Meanwhile, Ollie is experiencing a crush of their own . . . on Essie. As Ollie struggles to balance their passion for queer advocacy with their other interests, they slowly find themselves falling for a girl whose stay is about to come to an end. Can the two unwind their merry-go-round of feelings before it’s too late?
As much as I love the range YA offers, it’s important to remember this ranges characters from 13 to 17 or 18 at times. This is one of those times a character is 13 and I think that’s important in how you view the story. There’s nothing bad, but you can definitely attribute the naivety and the newness of puberty and feelings being worked out in a clumsy way that feels right for a thirteen year old. Polonsky does a great job of pointing out that it is a weird thing Essie does and in a gentle way pulls her up on how she treats Ollie and their identity. On the flip side, the circumstances of being more mature than a parent would think but also needing the guidance one can give is explored wonderfully.
I like that it isn’t normalised to start asking private questions, even if it is innocent curiosity and trying to understand. Sometimes you have to leave it alone. But it’s also great as Essie suddenly realising she might have to look at her own identity, while still lamenting why anyone needs a label and what that means.
It is a fast read, one clearly directed but it’s a good exploration of family, friends old and new, growing up and new beginnings. It’s not quite an introduction to gender – Polonsky doesn’t go that deep. But it is a personal reflection about what it means when these feelings come up and how to navigate them. As one character says the kids are far more ok with it than the adults so it isn’t a big deal, but it still is something that requires understanding and as a gentle introduction this is a good start.
I loved that this story makes a point to constantly remove itself from being a book About Gender. As Ollie gets to narrate we see the struggle to be themselves instead of their sole identity being their identity. There’s more to being a person than their gender and it’s a fight Ollie has and the balance to be seen as other than the non-binary kid is real.
The story is told from 110 days down to the final days from Essie’s perspective then it switches to the same 110 day countdown from Ollie’s. I knew it was a duel narrative but I thought it was alternating simultaneous, but I didn’t mind, especially cause we get a speed run of Ollie’s since their side is less detailed than Essie’s while still getting their story in their own words.
This is a great book to bridge the gap between primary school read and early high school. It’s about starting a new school, finding friends, growing up, and it still reads like a YA novel. There’s gripes with parents, trying to grow up and be cool but still dealing with being children and discovering their footing in a changing world.
You can purchase Spin With Me via the following
Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson
Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust
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