Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

Pageboy: A Memoir by Elliot Page

32 reviews

thriftstoreclown's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Murder, Alcohol, Eating disorder, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Transphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Rape, Self harm, Stalking, and Torture

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic, Deadnaming, Pregnancy, Vomit, and Excrement

Some of these subjects are kind of par for the course when contextualized with what we know about Elliot publicly already (as a public figure who came out as a lesbian in 2014 before eventually coming out as trans) such as lesbophobia, transphobia, religious bigotry, mentions of (potential) hate crimes. But Elliot’s story is also full of history not only around the Canadian landscape of his youth, but also of characters that he has played, and he does not shy away from sharing all of the gory details of

Spoiler

a local explosion that devastated Nova Scotia, or even the way that one of his film characters was murdered.

, which are mentioned in great detail. There are also several instances mentioned in detail where Elliot describes being

Spoiler

sexually assaulted

, and he also describes other instances of verbal abuse, often closely linked.

booksandcoffeewithlexi's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Excrement

Moderate: Vomit

jamiejanae_6's review against another edition

hopeful informative reflective sad tense

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Stalking, Bullying, Eating disorder, and Excrement

elijah__'s review against another edition

medium-paced

3.5

While I have some criticisms, I do want to start by saying I respect Elliot Page and don't think this book was bad. It's worth a read.
It's hard not to compare this book to I'm Glad My Mom Died, which is written in a similar voice, is another memoir by an actor, and shares several themes and topics -- and, frankly, McCurdy is simply the better writer. When Page jumps back and forth between periods of his life, it doesn't feel intentional or logical; while stories need not be presented in chronological order to be understood, the jumps are constant and confusing in Pageboy, as Page often leaves little to no indication that the setting has changed. While two editors are credited, I felt that the novel could've been combed over and cleaned up a bit more thoroughly. It feels like a friend telling you a convoluted, twisting story -- with all the errors and confusions that entails -- but with flowery language and metaphor thrown in, often without an apparent benefit to the prose.
That being said, I think the bones of a good memoir are present; Page has lived an interesting life and has interesting things to say about the film industry, love, and queerness, even if I don't think these things are expressed as well as they could be.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Car accident, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Rape, Bullying, Transphobia, Sexual assault, Self harm, and Misogyny

woweewhoa's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Transphobia

Moderate: Stalking, Rape, Excrement, Alcohol, Pedophilia, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Death, and Dysphoria

Minor: War

veelaughtland's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, Drug use, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Bullying, Eating disorder, Excrement, Hate crime, Infidelity, Cursing, Grief, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, and Self harm

larzhagen's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.5

Let me preface my review by saying that I am so incredibly happy for Elliot Page for finding joy in his authentic self.

As a long-time fan of Page, I was eager to read PageBoy (I pre-ordered a signed copy). We need more transmasculine stories! That's why it hurts to share that I didn't enjoy PageBoy very much.

Reason 1: Rather than following a linear narrative, Page recounts moments in his life seemingly at random. So, then, his timeline is incredibly challenging to piece together. It's difficult to keep track of his relationships, living situations, etc.

Reason 2: PageBoy is heavily solemn with no breaks (aside from maybe ch.Buckets). It reads like a catalog of Page's hardships, sometimes diving into graphic depictions of assault/violent situations. Page loves to write about shit and blood.

Reason 3: PageBoy centered predominantly around Page's romantic relationships and sexual experiences. I may be off base, but it seems Page is still attempting to unhealthily gauge/validate his masculinity by retelling these situations. 

Now the positive: I'd say PageBoy succeeds as an art piece. Elliot includes many excerpts from speeches, books, songs, movies throughout his nonlinear structure.  PageBoy is a wonderful collage-esque expression of self-healing and reflection.

Ultimately, PageBoy is a testament of trans courage. While it didn't align with my expectations, I still feel incredibly fortunate to have a signed copy, and I did resonate with it quite a bit. In the end though, I will be reserved when recommending it to others.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Blood, Stalking, Hate crime, Excrement, and Eating disorder

braveprincess11's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Blood, Eating disorder, Torture, Stalking, Body horror, Sexual assault, Cursing, Child abuse, Medical content, Excrement, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Rape, Panic attacks/disorders, Dysphoria, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, and Bullying

Minor: Self harm, Murder, Alcohol, and Suicidal thoughts

green_squids's review against another edition

reflective sad tense medium-paced

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Bullying, Blood, Deadnaming, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, Cursing, Dysphoria, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Grief, Hate crime, Outing, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Death of parent

scarylavender's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

2.5

bro needed an editor this was just half-baked thoughts from therapy 👍 I wish it was a collection of personal essays 👍 highly anticipated it but I think I'm done with celebrity memoirs and definitely done with going in blind 👍 kept committing time hoping it would get better but then it just abruptly ended. there's a goodreads review by someone named Nin who summarized most of my thoughts 👍 gonna spend money on zines from trans posts in my community instead now but I hope elliot is having a good day and that he does more stuff like Gaycation 👍

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Stalking

Moderate: Excrement and Hate crime