Blond Boy; Red Lipstick
by Geoff Bunn
This is a love story, deliberately pitched at a mainstream audience and at a level far removed from the dark and often sordid world of transsexual prostitution on Bois de Boulogne in Paris. The idea is to subtly lead the reader into this setting and give them an insight into the life of a transsexual. In this first book, we meet the Narrator and Alley – a vivacious young boy with bleach blonde hair and red lipstick. The two begin a gentle romance. Issues such as homophobia are only touched upon, rather than explored fully. By the time readers finish the book, they will know the characters, be interested in them, and they will have some empathy towards and a little more understanding of transsexuals. Blond Boy; Red Lipstick is the first of two, where the sequel, already planned out, will be a darker story (albeit with a happy ending).