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Zee
Zee can hear what you’re thinking and feel what you’re feeling. She sees herself through your eyes and what she sees changes who she is. Sometimes Zee is the precocious daughter of her four grown-ups. Other times, she’s a rough boy from Brooklyn, New York, playing basketball and getting into trouble.
Zee’s grown-ups are worried. They test Zee’s special powers and conspire to keep them secret. Zee figures out what they’re up to and fights back. Zee just wants to fit in, to meet the confusing expectations coming at her from all directions, but will losing sight of who she is put Zee in even greater danger?
Zee’s grown-ups are worried. They test Zee’s special powers and conspire to keep them secret. Zee figures out what they’re up to and fights back. Zee just wants to fit in, to meet the confusing expectations coming at her from all directions, but will losing sight of who she is put Zee in even greater danger?
184 pages, Paperback
Published November 16, 2020
1 person is currently reading
12 people want to read
About the author
Su J. Sokol
8 books31 followersSu J Sokol is a social rights activist and a writer of speculative and interstitial fiction. Cycling to Asylum, xyr debut novel, was long-listed for the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic; its French translation, Les lignes invisibles, is a finalist for the Prix de traduction de la Fondation Cole. Su’s novels also include Run J Run; and Zee, a finalist for the QWF Janet Savage Blachford Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. Five Points on an Invisible Line, the sequel to Cycling to Asylum, is scheduled to be published in the spring of 2025. Su's short fiction and essays have appeared in various publications.
Sokol's short fiction has appeared in various magazines and anthologies including in The Future Fire, Spark: A Creative Anthology, Glittership: an LGBTQ Science Fiction and Fantasy Podcast, After the Orange: Ruin and Recovery (B Cubed Press) and Amazing Stories, and Revue Solaris.
When xe is not writing, battling slumlords, bringing evil bureaucracies to their knees, and smashing borders, Sokol curates and participates in readings and literary events in Canada and abroad.
Sokol's short fiction has appeared in various magazines and anthologies including in The Future Fire, Spark: A Creative Anthology, Glittership: an LGBTQ Science Fiction and Fantasy Podcast, After the Orange: Ruin and Recovery (B Cubed Press) and Amazing Stories, and Revue Solaris.
When xe is not writing, battling slumlords, bringing evil bureaucracies to their knees, and smashing borders, Sokol curates and participates in readings and literary events in Canada and abroad.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 29, 2021
From Casual Debris.
"Just be yourself."
"But which self should I be?"
The notion of self-discovery is additionally complicated when one can see a variety of selves through the critical eyes of others. In Su J. Sukol's Zee, we follow a young girl with an unusual ability that both propels and impedes her development.
Zee is a child described as hypersensitive and hyper-empathic, qualities that enable her to read the thoughts of others. This unusual ability has various consequences as Zee evolves along her formative years.
In one of the novel's strongest sequences, setting up what will haunt our protagonist in the years to come, Zee sits in class during her first day of kindergarten. She is listening to her educator taking attendance, and as Ms. Alison reads the names on the class list, Zee catches glimpses of the associated thoughts ("Black boy, ADHD?", "Jewish, lesbian?"). Innocently, Zee waits excitedly for her turn, wondering what thoughts would be associated with her, and picks up the educator's confusion at the name on her list, thinking it is actually Zoe (because "What were her parents thinking, giving her a name like that?"). In turn, Zee happily believes that she is indeed Zoe. She allows her self to be shaped by the pre-judged (as opposed to prejudiced) thoughts of others. While not all thoughts are intended to be mean, whether stating facts or trying to understand others, but by stating facts as we know them, and trying to understand the world around us via race, gender and culture, we are pre-judging.
This incident is one along a string that helps Zee define who she is and how she should be presenting herself, based primarily on the expectations of others. Yet Zee is already on the outskirts of society, and the thoughts she may experience can be particularly "othering." She is the child of a quad of devoted and loving caregivers: a gay white biological mother and her partner, and a gay black biological father and his partner. Aware of her special talent and devoted to helping raise her, these adults try to guide her to be herself, and yet they are also struggling with how they must present themselves. Insecure, they try to define their relationship with Zee, and their relationships with one another, often acting in contradiction to their feelings. While the search for self is a challenge in one's youth, the aspiration to be oneself is a challenge for all ages.
Not normally a reader of young adult fiction, I genuinely enjoyed this book. Characters are well portrayed, presented sympathetically, their complex sets of emotions well handled--a difficult task. The book is important for young readers. While it presents negative and otherwise minor characters fairly two-dimensionally, seeing others for what they appear to be, and while Zee herself often acts as a secondary character, the main adult characters remain complex, and it is through their world view that many of the ideas in the novel are approached.
"Just be yourself."
"But which self should I be?"
The notion of self-discovery is additionally complicated when one can see a variety of selves through the critical eyes of others. In Su J. Sukol's Zee, we follow a young girl with an unusual ability that both propels and impedes her development.
Zee is a child described as hypersensitive and hyper-empathic, qualities that enable her to read the thoughts of others. This unusual ability has various consequences as Zee evolves along her formative years.
In one of the novel's strongest sequences, setting up what will haunt our protagonist in the years to come, Zee sits in class during her first day of kindergarten. She is listening to her educator taking attendance, and as Ms. Alison reads the names on the class list, Zee catches glimpses of the associated thoughts ("Black boy, ADHD?", "Jewish, lesbian?"). Innocently, Zee waits excitedly for her turn, wondering what thoughts would be associated with her, and picks up the educator's confusion at the name on her list, thinking it is actually Zoe (because "What were her parents thinking, giving her a name like that?"). In turn, Zee happily believes that she is indeed Zoe. She allows her self to be shaped by the pre-judged (as opposed to prejudiced) thoughts of others. While not all thoughts are intended to be mean, whether stating facts or trying to understand others, but by stating facts as we know them, and trying to understand the world around us via race, gender and culture, we are pre-judging.
This incident is one along a string that helps Zee define who she is and how she should be presenting herself, based primarily on the expectations of others. Yet Zee is already on the outskirts of society, and the thoughts she may experience can be particularly "othering." She is the child of a quad of devoted and loving caregivers: a gay white biological mother and her partner, and a gay black biological father and his partner. Aware of her special talent and devoted to helping raise her, these adults try to guide her to be herself, and yet they are also struggling with how they must present themselves. Insecure, they try to define their relationship with Zee, and their relationships with one another, often acting in contradiction to their feelings. While the search for self is a challenge in one's youth, the aspiration to be oneself is a challenge for all ages.
Not normally a reader of young adult fiction, I genuinely enjoyed this book. Characters are well portrayed, presented sympathetically, their complex sets of emotions well handled--a difficult task. The book is important for young readers. While it presents negative and otherwise minor characters fairly two-dimensionally, seeing others for what they appear to be, and while Zee herself often acts as a secondary character, the main adult characters remain complex, and it is through their world view that many of the ideas in the novel are approached.
December 24, 2020
Zee was an amazing novel all about the nature of gender and family. It made me examine my own notion of what makes up a family and what gender really is. Its poetic writing took me right into Zee's world and I wanted to hug them tightly and let them know everything would be okay. I *heart* this book and will now look at the alphabet in a different way.
January 10, 2021
J'ai lu ce livre dans le cadre d'un comité de lecture jeunesse.
Plusieurs sujets ont lieu à ce roman qui sont fort intéressants et pertinents en 2020-21 : les familles non-normatives, inclusion des communautés ethniques et les mères monoparentales.
Pour résumer : Zee est née d'une mère monoparentale lesbienne qui décide d'avoir un enfant avec son meilleur ami noir et gai. Chacun est issu de la communauté LGBTQ+ (le père est en relation avec un homme hispanophone et la mère avec une femme). Zee, dès son plus jeune âge, a des dons pour lire dans les pensées des autres. Elle découvre, lors d'une partie de basketball avec des inconnus, que son corps est le sien peut importe son genre. Elle ne se définit pas en tant qu'homme ou femme, elle est.
En soit, c'est une belle histoire et les thèmes sont d'une importance cruciale dans l'esprit des ados.
L'affaire, c'est que le livre s'apprête plus souvent de la perspective des parents sur leurs perceptions de l'évolution de l'enfant, on se sent tellement détaché comme lecteur que c'est difficile d'apprécier. Zee, à un moment, souffrira d'un trouble alimentaire. Il y a tellement de thèmes abordés en deçà de 200 pages de lecture que... trop, c'est comme pas assez ? Je le répète, les sujets abordés sont très essentiels à une meilleure ouverture sur le monde, mais j'ai l'impression que l'auteur a trop voulu plugger de thématiques que ça enlève de la crédibilité à l'histoire bien sincèrement. Je n'ai pas l'impression que ce livre s'adresse tant que ça aux jeunes, plus un roman jeune adulte. Me mettre en position d'un ado, j'aurais aucun intérêt parce que je n'aurais pas l'impression qu'on s'adresse à mon public cible.
C'est ce qui explique ma note très « à côté » des autres critiques pour le moment.
Plusieurs sujets ont lieu à ce roman qui sont fort intéressants et pertinents en 2020-21 : les familles non-normatives, inclusion des communautés ethniques et les mères monoparentales.
Pour résumer : Zee est née d'une mère monoparentale lesbienne qui décide d'avoir un enfant avec son meilleur ami noir et gai. Chacun est issu de la communauté LGBTQ+ (le père est en relation avec un homme hispanophone et la mère avec une femme). Zee, dès son plus jeune âge, a des dons pour lire dans les pensées des autres. Elle découvre, lors d'une partie de basketball avec des inconnus, que son corps est le sien peut importe son genre. Elle ne se définit pas en tant qu'homme ou femme, elle est.
En soit, c'est une belle histoire et les thèmes sont d'une importance cruciale dans l'esprit des ados.
L'affaire, c'est que le livre s'apprête plus souvent de la perspective des parents sur leurs perceptions de l'évolution de l'enfant, on se sent tellement détaché comme lecteur que c'est difficile d'apprécier. Zee, à un moment, souffrira d'un trouble alimentaire. Il y a tellement de thèmes abordés en deçà de 200 pages de lecture que... trop, c'est comme pas assez ? Je le répète, les sujets abordés sont très essentiels à une meilleure ouverture sur le monde, mais j'ai l'impression que l'auteur a trop voulu plugger de thématiques que ça enlève de la crédibilité à l'histoire bien sincèrement. Je n'ai pas l'impression que ce livre s'adresse tant que ça aux jeunes, plus un roman jeune adulte. Me mettre en position d'un ado, j'aurais aucun intérêt parce que je n'aurais pas l'impression qu'on s'adresse à mon public cible.
C'est ce qui explique ma note très « à côté » des autres critiques pour le moment.
March 31, 2021
Zee is a trip! The author brings you into (mostly) a teenager's life in a whole new way. If you've ever imagined you knew what someone else was thinking, this gives you the chance to experience it! The cast of characters are interesting and sympathetic.
The story pulls you along and keeps you interested... my child-at-heart in me wanted to know the ending sooner than the book allowed.... But I didn't peak... and was very satisfied by how it all came together. I thought about it and wondered what it reminded me of.. There were moments of To Kill a Mockingbird... something about the way the story is told. And then I thought of the Wizard of Oz: home (however we define it) is there all along if you are surrounded by people who love you. It made me feel all warm and gushy, in the nicest, gentlest and at the same time sophisticated kind of way. I think it is a great TV series... or movie.
I flipped through the French version (well done!), but didn't read it through. What I read, however, felt very right. The translation captured the same feelings... it felt like a nice 'français international' with Canadian idiom. Very readable.
I want a series please... with sequels and prequels, etc.. Stories of Abuela.. and ti Pédro..and their special mindedness (to be discovered!)... Emma, of course... and then you have the slaves to their own thoughts.. like Malcolm.. It could be a Tales of the City in a whole new way..
I also loved Run J Run by the same author (Su J Sokol).
The story pulls you along and keeps you interested... my child-at-heart in me wanted to know the ending sooner than the book allowed.... But I didn't peak... and was very satisfied by how it all came together. I thought about it and wondered what it reminded me of.. There were moments of To Kill a Mockingbird... something about the way the story is told. And then I thought of the Wizard of Oz: home (however we define it) is there all along if you are surrounded by people who love you. It made me feel all warm and gushy, in the nicest, gentlest and at the same time sophisticated kind of way. I think it is a great TV series... or movie.
I flipped through the French version (well done!), but didn't read it through. What I read, however, felt very right. The translation captured the same feelings... it felt like a nice 'français international' with Canadian idiom. Very readable.
I want a series please... with sequels and prequels, etc.. Stories of Abuela.. and ti Pédro..and their special mindedness (to be discovered!)... Emma, of course... and then you have the slaves to their own thoughts.. like Malcolm.. It could be a Tales of the City in a whole new way..
I also loved Run J Run by the same author (Su J Sokol).
November 10, 2023
I met Su J. Sokol while at Can*Con 2023, Canada's speculative fiction conference, this fall. I seemed to run into her everywhere I went. She was moderating the panels I attended, at the desk while I was volunteering, and we were scheduled for a book signing together.
It was one of those times when it felt like the universe was trying to tell me something, so it didn't surprise me when we started talking that we had a shared interest in people's ability to know things without knowing and feel things that are unsaid.
Zee is the main characters of the book. "Ever since she was born, Zee’s had a talent, a particular kind of intelligence. She perceives things no one else can. Zee is able to hear other people’s thoughts, feel their emotions. She can even see herself through their eyes, and this seeing changes her."
This book is a short, subtle, nuanced look at what it means to know the things people don't say and to understand people in way they don't even understand themselves. We may wish to know what people are really thinking, but for Zee it leads to her knowing two different, conflicting worlds: the one that is out loud and the one of unspoken emotions and thoughts. It is a brilliant unveiling of prejudice and bias and I found myself thinking and seeing the world in a new way once I had read it. This was so well done that I will be seeking out Su's other books.
It was one of those times when it felt like the universe was trying to tell me something, so it didn't surprise me when we started talking that we had a shared interest in people's ability to know things without knowing and feel things that are unsaid.
Zee is the main characters of the book. "Ever since she was born, Zee’s had a talent, a particular kind of intelligence. She perceives things no one else can. Zee is able to hear other people’s thoughts, feel their emotions. She can even see herself through their eyes, and this seeing changes her."
This book is a short, subtle, nuanced look at what it means to know the things people don't say and to understand people in way they don't even understand themselves. We may wish to know what people are really thinking, but for Zee it leads to her knowing two different, conflicting worlds: the one that is out loud and the one of unspoken emotions and thoughts. It is a brilliant unveiling of prejudice and bias and I found myself thinking and seeing the world in a new way once I had read it. This was so well done that I will be seeking out Su's other books.
June 9, 2021
Su J. Sokol’s Zee is a gorgeous piece of writing. There isn’t a single misstep as the narrative guides you through the life of this ultra-sensitive child / adolescent. I have just begun to reread it and I find it even more beautiful this time, perhaps because my curiosity about what was going to happen next has been calmed by the first reading. I can simply be in the moment with the plainspoken but evocative words. It is only 177 pages and about 2/3s of the way into the book, (the first time) I started putting it down frequently because I wanted my experience to last. I wanted to stay in the world of Zee and her four grown-ups. We always bring ourselves to the text, and this time as I was reading about Tio Pedro singing to Zee, I thought, this is glimpse of heaven. I think hyper-sensitive or not, most of us long for this kind of safety and belonging and love.
July 2, 2021
Zee was a fascinating piece of literature. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the journey of a individual coming of age. It was a very skilled attempt at demonstrating an adolescent's struggle to deal with their own needs, trying to decipher the very different expectations of each of the important adults in her life. In addition, there is peer pressure, societal pressure and school pressure. The adolescent struggle of trying to balance: what is me? and what is not me? Who am I ? and feeling defined by all of the other influencers in her life. Su Sokol has an amazing gift of being able to see inside the mind of an individual and write about it and share it with us so we can understand it and empathize with them.
October 28, 2021
I zipped through Zee in the space of about 24 hours and wished it weren't over so soon! I loved it. The characters are vivid and the story is original and at the same time exactly what I was looking to read right about now. I love how on the one hand it seems Zee has superpowers, but on the other hand the story doesn't careen into a whole fantasy world--it just sheds light on daily life, which is already dramatic enough. Zee is about growing up and learning about what really matters--for all the characters involved.
January 14, 2021
Très bon roman abordant notamment des sujets contemporains, comme l'identité transgenre et les modèles familiaux non-conventionnels. On vit, à travers l'enfance et l'adolescence du personnage principal, les problèmes liés à son hypersensibilité et à la construction de son identité. Les personnages sont attachants et apportent un regard bienveillant sur les problématiques abordées.
January 4, 2021
Interesting and insightful book. Zee is not only relatable to young adults but encompasses so much while encouraging any age reader to look inside themselves. The author's compassion and sensitivity is admirable and her writing is engaging. I look forward to reading her next book.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews