Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Pageboy by Elliot Page

17 reviews

daisymoffit's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

Extremely well written, Elliot has a talent when it comes to describing things that feel wordless. A brave telling of a tumultuous life

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

imscrem's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

2.5

I appreciate that Elliot Page took the time to write down his story. I listened to the audiobook, and found it difficult at times to understand what time period in his life he was writing from due to the somewhat jumpy narrative.  I didn’t enjoy hearing about his sexual escapades or the many, many times he was sexually abused, but I have to acknowledge that these are true parts of his story and the book would not have been complete without them. It was uncomfortable to hear about who licked what while I rode the subway. Overall, I this book definitely wasn’t what I expected — I thought it would be a more uplifting take on the trans experience, but came out thinking it’s more of a dismal array of all the ways that people can be horrific to someone for being different. I wish the world was kinder. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Blood, Stalking, Lesbophobia, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Deadnaming, Death, Physical abuse, Medical content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

Minor: Vomit, Car accident, and Pandemic/Epidemic

acechemicals's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Deadnaming, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Self harm, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Minor: Cancer, Death, Racism, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical trauma, Outing, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

vixenreader's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.25

A structure based on the journey towards self-love, this memoir is deeply poignant, unflinching, and vulnerable, and a honest experience about how wilful ignorance and prejudice ultimately perpetrates the bigotry experienced by the trans community. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Deadnaming, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Lesbophobia, Outing, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Homophobia, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Be aware that there are themes of parental neglect, rejecting a trans child, bi-erasure, putting actors in harm’s way, the influence of the internet, tension within unhealthy relationships, unhealthy polyamory, heartbreak, threats towards trans and queer folks, nudity in film, erasure of queer identity, and being forced back into the closet.

nad_books623's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

“It is painful the unraveling, but it leads you to you.”

This book would be 5 stars if the timeline wasn’t so confusing. I had to constantly go back or think about the timeline. Due to Elliot mentioning something where he’s 10 for example and then when he’s 33. If it was in chronological order I think it would be easier to piece together. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Mental illness and Misogyny

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Vomit, Stalking, and Pandemic/Epidemic

phouka's review against another edition

funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Deadnaming, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexual content, Transphobia, Stalking, Lesbophobia, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Car accident, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexism, Blood, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

stevia333k's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

4.25

The last 3rd was good, and i say this because the first 2 thirds were violent as hell. I had to learn that he was in a lot of action movies basically in order to handle it & i also could only listen 10 minutes at a time at triple speed. 

Anyways, after a while certain parts about being trans were like oh good my transfemme self isn't alone. 

The relationships though & the shadow work kinda went over my head because I'm aromantic but the workplace accident (because of how wreckless the directors were to black & queer lives) helped connect me to the kind of stuff he meant, so I am thankful he included workplace incidents like that.

Also the memoir isn't told as chronologically, so basically if you're taking notes then I recommend trying to make a character list sort of glossary since the time dimension doesn't sort them, but some segments are like public letters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

usuallyaudio's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

I loved hearing Elliot Page's journey, espicially it read by the author. It was very introspective and heart wrenching to hear his struggles, and being able to peek behind the curtain of the film industry as a young LGBT+ individual. His stories were sincere, and he kept identities anonymous for those who didn't want to be named. 

The timeline jumped around somewhat, and only once was I unsure when a story was taking place. I am so happy for Page that he felt safe, secure and confident enough to share his story, but am so sorry he had to go through as much as he did. Page also graciously  acknowledged his privilege, and how it helped him quickly receive medical/gender affirming care once he was finally ready to reach for it. I hope this memoir can help others feel seen, and can help to create safer spaces and foster healthy relationships. I really look forward to what he will do next!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Mental illness, Transphobia, Lesbophobia, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Stalking, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Deadnaming, Drug use, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Outing, and Gaslighting

hollalorenz's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Deadnaming, Drug use, Mental illness, Rape, Dysphoria, and Pandemic/Epidemic

tigger89's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

Elliot Page's memoir, told in nonlinear format, covers topics ranging all the way from his emotionally-exhausting childhood in Nova Scotia to the fallout of his coming out publicly as trans at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. A unique blend of queer and celebrity memoir, we follow Page as he explains how his identities as both a queer person and as a boy(later a man) being forced into a straight, feminine role both on- and off-screen put him in a position of constant crisis. Something had to give, and it did, first in 2014 when he came out as queer and again in 2020 when he came out as trans.

As far as the queer memoir side of things go, this was a satisfying, illuminating read. Obviously Page's experience isn't everybody's experience. He admits that he's privileged in many ways, but he isn't ashamed — nor should he be — in recounting his lived experiences. I was particularly interested in his depiction of life as a closeted queer person, secretly dating women while working in the film industry, as well as how his childhood experiences shaped how he interacted with the world as an adult. I would caution readers that there are many passages — particular pertaining to sexual assault and gender dysphoria — that read as incompletely-processed trauma. There's not a lot of shielding on the emotions. Page provides content warnings at the front of the book, so please, take them seriously.

For the celebrity side of things, I don't really feel qualified to judge. I primarily know Page from his activism, and also I watched Juno. So mostly I was interested in how the celebrity stuff interacted with the queer stuff, and all the names just washed over me. The experience worked for me, but I can also understand someone who might want more anchoring being frustrated at the lack of explanation of who most of these people were. And of course there was the obligatory discretion, where "a member of crew" or "an acquaintance" did horrible things. I have no idea who those people were. In a way, the facelessness works. They could be anybody and we wouldn't know, which is the reality, since we know the list of people who have faced consequences for their behavior is woefully limited.

I personally loved the nonlinear format. The chapters are each gathered around a theme, concept, or state of mind, though it's not always obvious when you start off. Sometimes I had to flip back through, looking at the chapter title, before I spotted the connection and understood why the things were arranged the way they were. Another thing that will bother some people is Page's writing style. He frequently emphasizes or describes by stringing together several short sentence fragments. Distinct, painting a picture, individually striking. While Page is guilty of blatant comma abuse, I actually liked it. But I completely understand why it made some readers' skin crawl.

Important question time: do the dogs die?

Page owns two dogs over the course of the book. The first is alluded to as passing offscreen, and the second is still alive and well as if the end of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Stalking, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Cancer, Car accident, Outing, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic