Kiss Number 8

Kiss Number 8 is a graphic novel for young adult readers written by Colleen A.F. Venable and illustrated by Ellen T. Crenshaw. Published in 2019, Kiss Number 8 was longlisted for that year’s National Book Awards for Young People's Literature for the way this coming of age story addresses its protagonist’s emerging bisexuality, her discovery of that one of her grandparents is transgender, and her attempts to square her love of her family with their religion-based homophobia and transphobia. Set in 2004, the graphic novel is billed as historical fiction—a story set in a time very recognizable to present-day teens, but still quite distinct from our own. Crenshaw’s illustrations are black and white, with varying panel placement that makes it easy to follow the story and decipher the characters’ emotions.

Amanda (nicknamed Mads) is a nerdy, baseball-loving, church-going junior at a Catholic high school. Her best friends are wild and boy-crazy Cat, a girl who surrounds herself with drama and is not particularly nice to Mads; Laura, a quiet girl who is even more of a rule-follower than Mads; and Laura’s brother Adam, who has had an unrequited crush on Mads for as long as either can remember. As the novel opens, Mads compares her relative demureness to Cat’s love of kissing boys. Mads describes her kissing experiences to date: seven in total, ranging from lackluster to disgusting. She isn’t really sure why other people seem to be so eager to engage in it.

At home, Mads has typically difficult relationships with her family members. She is often angry with her always-tired, seemingly disengaged mother. She mostly shies away from her distant, authoritarian, strictly religious grandparents. On the other hand, her dad is her best friend in many ways—they love going to baseball games, watching sci-fi TV shows, and playing video games. At the same time, Mads is stressed about the growing distance between her mom and dad. Recently, she’s caught her dad making furtive phone calls to someone named Dina and is floored by the idea that her dad might be having an affair. He refuses to discuss any of this with Mads, freaking her out all the more.



Mads confides her fears in Cat and Laura. Cat could not care less, but Laura agrees to help Mads investigate what is really going on, especially after Mads receives a letter with a picture of a long-lost grandparent named Sam who has recently died and left her an inheritance of $30,000. What they discover is a long-held family secret: her dad’s mother came out as trans, but when the family couldn’t accept him, he left the family to become Sam, a high-powered lawyer and trans rights activist. Dina, the woman Mads’s father was talking to on the phone, is Sam’s widow. She had called to tell the family about Sam’s death and to try to connect to her step-granddaughter.

Mads tries to speak with her father about this, but he can only communicate his vitriolic transphobia. His perspective on what happened is very warped, as readers find out when the novel compares his distorted memories to the actual events in side-by-side panels. Some readers find his frankly described hatred and shame hard to bear.

At the same time, as Cat acts out more and more and Mads continues to indulge her whims rather than distancing herself, someone suggests that Mads has a crush on Cat. This makes Mads angry at first, but slowly she realizes the truth of the idea. When Cat confronts her about the possibility, Mads does not deny it, and Cat gets very upset—which in turn also upsets Mads. That night, an out of control Mads loses her virginity to Adam and kisses Laura. This kiss, the titular Kiss Number 8, finally feels right, making Mads confront the truth about her sexuality.



The first problem comes when Mads returns to her conservative, Catholic school. Everyone has found out about the kiss, and goes out of their way to shun her, gossip about her, and make her life miserable. The second problem comes when Mads comes out to her parents. Her father immediately rejects her with hurtful homophobia. Her mom, on the other hand, accepts her.

As the months pass, the exposure of the family’s deep divisions and secrecy actually ends up being healing. Mads’s dad comes around and accepts her. Mads, meanwhile, grows closer to her mom and builds a relationship with Dina, her step-grandmother. Mads also gets a clearer sense of her sexuality, understanding that she is bisexual. When she transfers out of her Catholic school to a public school, she finds a new group of friends, who are supportive and allow her to gain a large measure of self-acceptance.

The graphic novel ends on a very hopeful note with a flash-forward into Amanda’s adult life, tracking several more kisses until Amanda meets Zoey, the woman she ends up with.