Berry's parents, friends, shrink, religious leaders, doctors, and the ambiguously sexual eccentrics who admire his moxie all seem to have their own plans for Berry; none of them help him to figure out what he is, or what he's becoming. That search for comfortable identity is a common theme in Charlie's work; the bay-area writer's other book, , is a guide for, well, exactly who it sounds like. She's also responsible for GodHatesFigs.com, as well as locally-produced other magazine, "pop culture and politics for the new outcasts." Scott Heim, author of Mysterious Skin, uses words like "strange" "complex" and "engrossing" to describe Choir Boy. That pretty much covers it.