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anthonyb2396's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
4.0
rowanreadstoomuchmaybe's review against another edition
5.0
This is exactly what I needed... thank you.
laceygage's review against another edition
2.0
This is a critique of the book, not the person, whom I really like. This book was all over the place. Without warning, he would jump years, sometimes more than a decade in either direction, with no indication that he’d done so. You just had to figure it out or give up trying to. It was needlessly confusing, if you were trying to follow the story, which of course any reader is trying to do.
dorin_love's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.5
britamac's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
I hate judging personal memoirs like this. But, I will do my best. Especially on Pageboy. I really like Elliot Page as he is Canadian, and as a Canadian, I tend to look at Canadians a little differently than do others. (No offence, Americans, you're the same looking at us Canadians.) I did like this memoir. I was worried having read other reviews, and a lot of them were negative, so having read this book, I was happy that I liked this book more than I thought I would.
I rather enjoyed reading his reflections about his life. His family dynamics and his trans identity were both interesting to me, and though his uses a nonlinear time frame, you can still feel invested. Mainly, this is because each scene is written with detail that you can visualize, and you feel like you are living the experience yourself and you feel like his emotions are your own.
You do need to know that Pageboy deals with a lot, and I mean a lot of trauma and life stuff. This includes parent stuff, coming out first as lesbian and then trans, sexual trauma, messy relationships, connecting with nature, and so much more than that. You get a little bit of his life at a time rather then everything dumped on you all at once, which can make it a bit easier at times, especially when dealing with a lot of trauma, when you have your own trauma that is similar. I can only imagine that if you were to get everything in a linear time frame and if you were to get absolutely everything, you would probably be looking at a memoir of over 700 pages rather than 265.
I loved seeing Elliot Page's growth and genuine healing. I loved how he is trying to set healthy boundaries and how he is working on his attachment issues. He also admitted to going to therapy. It was also good to read that he was able to admit to his privilege in regards to his wealth and he does in such a way that it isn't thrown in your face, it's just slipped in naturally.
I was able to understand and connect with his family estrangement and the separation from his father and stepmother. Bio family can be toxic, and you need to cut them off when there is no change and the relationship is not healthy for you.
I will agree that this isn't the perfect memoir. It could have been edited one or two more times before going to print. I think that some of the negativity is coming from the transphobia that is rampart all over North America right now. But, I personally enjoyed this one, and I think that if given the change, people went in with an open mind, and you took your own prejudice out of it, you would learn a lot.
bsmith27's review against another edition
3.0
In good book about a complicated situation for Elliot. I had trouble following the narrative question Elliot just seen them much more about his life than I did. He jumps back and forth in time and between relationships with us confusing me. However the necessary book about how people feel when they are transgendered.