Reviews tagging 'Outing'

Pageboy: A Memoir by Elliot Page

34 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.

fluffyfox's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Lesbophobia, Body shaming, Sexism, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Biphobia, Bullying, Homophobia, Outing, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Drug use, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Rape

bashsbooks's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.75

A difficult read, but an important one. Elliot Page is such a phenomenal actor and iconic celebrity, but the man can write, too. He shares his story - which is fraught with neglect, queerphobia, and sexual violence, among other traumas - with such precise descriptions, tongue-in-cheek humor, and frank honesty. I listened to the audiobook version of Pageboy, and I got the extra treat of hearing it all in his own voice. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Transphobia, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Outing, Self harm, Sexism, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Vomit, Pandemic/Epidemic, Bullying, and Toxic friendship

-Deadnaming isn't really, like traditional deadnaming -Elliot chooses to use his former first name at some points and comments on it specifically in his initial author's note. I only note it so you're not surprised to see/hear it. -Child abuse is neglect and verbal.

kate_ka's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

Sehr intimes Buch. 
Der Schreibstil ist ziemlich nah am der Art, wie er spricht. Das find ich schön. Macht das Lesen zu einem persönlichen Gespräch. An einigen Stellen musste ich das Buch weglegen, weil seine Erlebnisse so schmerzhaft sind. 
Man merkt auch, dass er sich mit queerer Theorie und Aktivismus beschäftigt hat.

Die Zeitsprünge sind tatsächlich verwirrend. Dazu die ganzen Namen. Im Interview hatte er gesagt, er wollte seine Geschichte nicht chronologisch erzählen, sondern entlang der Reise, des sich selbst Näherkommens und Entfernen. Ich finde das ist gelungen. Die letzten Seiten habe ich mit einem Lächeln gelesen.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing, Self harm, Rape, Torture, Transphobia, Homophobia, Chronic illness, Body shaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Child abuse, Eating disorder, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Deadnaming and Stalking

emmajh91's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Outing, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Cursing, Transphobia, Drug use, Eating disorder, Lesbophobia, Blood, Child abuse, Hate crime, and Homophobia

kaitlinwarwick's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Homophobia, Self harm, Eating disorder, Dysphoria, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Cursing, Sexual violence, Sexism, Sexual assault, Deadnaming, Mental illness, Drug use, Outing, Lesbophobia, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Alcohol, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

cghegan's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

3.25

In this incredibly thoughtful and well-written memoir, Elliot Page deliberately meditates and threads together a narrative of pain and the most intense self-discovery. It was a good memoir, a beautifully crafted book, but extremely difficult to read. Page has rendered his agony and self-loathing so well that it’s difficult to sit with and parse with him as he cycles through nonchronological threads, looping over and over through small moments in time to piece together meaning. It is well crafted, a quilt in twenty nine shades of blues, but it is wave after wave of agony and sadness, and moments that linger on joy or relief or self discovery have less focus and the same breath of life that Page can write into his moments of darkness and loss. All this to say: I’m beyond grateful this narrative exists. It is going to save someone’s life. But I advise exercising care when reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Sexual assault, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Physical abuse, Body shaming, Outing, Stalking, Blood, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, and Transphobia

Minor: Bullying

tiudragonfly's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Bullying, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Gaslighting, Rape, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Body shaming, Stalking, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Mental illness

marijne's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual content, Self harm, Sexual assault, Pandemic/Epidemic, Homophobia, Stalking, and Transphobia

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?

Spoiler

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

Moderate: Car accident, Alcohol, Cancer, and Outing

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, and Animal death