This is a fantastic short essay collection about the 1980s movie Labyrinth, a fever dream of a Henson movie that blends puppetry with live actors, and features David Bowie and a young Jennifer Connolly in a coming of age movie about the importance of stories. This is one of my all time favorite movies, so it was fantastic to read essays from someone who is also similarly passionate, and specifically hearing about it in the context of neurodiversity also adds even more to my own experience. Highly recommended read.

I loved this rumination on fantasy, desire, gender, and other kinds of identity. Using the movie Labyrinth as their focus, Jes Battis explores the many fascinating layers of the film, its cast and crew, the puppetry used in it, and how it functioned for them and for other young people who found meaning in it. Battis examines the inclusion of David Bowie in the film and how his sexuality informs his character and that of Sarah; how the movie engages with the context of AIDS and governments refusing to address it; the marginalization of children as people, as well as how the film reflects cultural movements headed by young people; and, most of all, what it means to be queer, and how queerness permeates fantasy, play, and the lives of children and teens. This is an essential volume for anyone teaching queer studies/film, and an important read for everyone interested in culture and queerness and erasure in the 1980s. For fans of the movie, it's also a perfect read, elegant and honest and straightforward in its musings, offering readings fans might not have considered before and providing guidance for watching it again.