Six Misfits

by Dylan Lewis, Michael Bent (Editor), Rosalie Bent (Editor)

Six teenagers - all misfits from society - are taken to a country camp as part of their Group Therapy. Daria is an angry Indian Lesbian, Steven - a gay Aboriginal, Lily - an Asian transgender girl, Chloe - an obsessive Lolita Cosplay addict, Martha - rejected by her Exclusive Brethren family and finally, Dylan, a Teen Baby. Together, these six misfits from society with identity issues come together on a camp none of them wanted to go on. And there the adventure - and discovery - begins... The first book in a Trilogy.

125 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 4, 2018

Reviews

[Bluesky · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had purchased this book for the sole purpose of finding out how the author had portrayed the character and experience of the former Exclusive Brethren member (one of his six ‘misfits’). The book is short, light and almost simplistic to read – perhaps aimed at a reading level of early teens or pre-teens. It introduces the reader to six ‘misfits’ – teens who are ‘misfits’ in wider society, primarily due to their less-than-common sexual and/or gender identities. They are each also struggling with their home/family environments among other challenges, and the main external narrator-type voice in the book is that of their shared social worker, Georgia. It is through this social worker’s perspective that we get the most commentary on each of their characters, and the rest is shared with the reader through the dialogue and interaction between the six characters over the course of the book.
The plotline follows the anxiety and angst of the six ‘misfits’ as they come together for the first time in a bus heading towards a week-long camp in rural Australia, organized by their Social Worker as an opportunity for personal growth. The story depicts eir own conflicts, connections and acceptance of each other as well as dramatically portraying a wider context of rejection and danger from some ‘redneck’ rural Australians. Each of the six characters has been chosen by the author to represent certain gender/sexuality/alternative identities and aspects of their unique characteristics and struggles. Some of these are more common (e.g. being gay) and others are less so (e.g. cosplay fantasy, paraphilic infantilism (adult-baby syndrome).
Due to my particular interest in seeing how the former Exclusive Brethren member was portrayed, I was disappointed with the shallow character sketch of this character. I felt that the story gave minimal understanding or insight into the trauma of being a young person excommunicated by the Exclusive Brethren or of the challenges of ‘coming of age’ into one’s sexual identity in such an environment. The main distinction of Martha’s character was that she did not fit with the Brethren’s strongly defined concept of female roles, especially in that she wanted to (for example) ride motorbikes and wear jeans. The term is not used in the book, but she is obviously what would have been called a ‘tomboy’ in the past. She is happy being a heterosexual female, so her struggle is primarily due to her former community’s rejection of her refusal to fit their prescriptive normative idea of ‘female’. A secondary struggle for her is to learn how to accept other people who do not fit other normative concepts of gender and sexuality that she unconsciously holds due to her conservative upbringing.
The book is not worth purchasing or reading if your primary goal is to learn more about what it is like to struggle with your sexual/gender identity as an Exclusive Brethren (or other religious group) member; the character sketch and commentary is far too light to help with this. My previous paragraph provides the same amount of information as the book does! However, if you want a super light, Enid Blyton-esque LGBTQI+ adventure novel then this is the book for you.