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mitchosaur's review against another edition
5.0
This book was such an impactful read and I loved hearing about the authors experience coming into his identity. The entire book from start to finish had me thinking the entire time I was reading. I would highly recommend this book!
em_harring's review against another edition
I don't know how to rate this right now, so I'm not going to.
On one hand, the conversation around gender dysphoria and identity felt deeply relatable to me, and it was so wonderfully, horrifyingly well written.
On the other hand, the way that it's written feels, at time, a bit too try-hard. I don't believe every memoir or book needs to feel "authentic" because what is authenticity in 2021? However, the tone throughout the piece was dissonant and didn't quite work for me in some areas.
I also felt deeply uncomfortable with how needy and self reliant Cyrus depicted themselves as, but that's purely because that would make me deeply uncomfortable irl.
And there were some conversations around gender that felt incredibly reductive to me, but again that's incredibly subjective to my own experiences.
On one hand, the conversation around gender dysphoria and identity felt deeply relatable to me, and it was so wonderfully, horrifyingly well written.
On the other hand, the way that it's written feels, at time, a bit too try-hard. I don't believe every memoir or book needs to feel "authentic" because what is authenticity in 2021? However, the tone throughout the piece was dissonant and didn't quite work for me in some areas.
I also felt deeply uncomfortable with how needy and self reliant Cyrus depicted themselves as, but that's purely because that would make me deeply uncomfortable irl.
And there were some conversations around gender that felt incredibly reductive to me, but again that's incredibly subjective to my own experiences.
lucas_madden's review against another edition
2.0
I appreciated Dunham's poetic language and the way they analyzed their transition through their relationships with others, but their explicitness was off-putting at times and would take me out of the narrative. I also would've liked to see a little more analysis of the privilege associated with being an upper-middle-class, White person from New York, other than the disdain that they seem to have toward their sister's fame (or fame in general.)
loganslovelylibrary's review against another edition
3.0
It was really lovely to read about a nonbinary experience and I identified with a lot of the emotions Cyrus has felt around their identity. I lost a lot of interest in this book though because they had a lot of other mental health experiences that they wrote about that I didn't identify with when I went into this wanting to read about their experiences being nonbinary. Was a nice, short read though, but was a bit of a letdown.
lenka_juchelkova's review against another edition
3.0
I would rate this 3.5 if it was possible.
Somehow the preface and epilog was much better than the rest of the book.
Somehow the preface and epilog was much better than the rest of the book.
parksystems's review against another edition
4.0
deeply personal and insightfully concise narration of thoughts that i found really relatable. made me feel less alone in a lot of my self doubts, shame, complex circular logics... that ive experienced going thru top surgery and name change. thanks for writing and sharing this with us all, cyrus. appreciate you.
bidoofaloof's review against another edition
4.0
Received a copy thru a Goodreads giveaway. A striking memoir about Dunham's struggle with both understanding their gender identity and figuring out how to affirm that identity. The writing here is immediate but never overbearingly so—Dunham is an excellent sentence writer. Structurally this book feels disjointed at times, especially in the first three chapters, but I find it difficult to imagine how else this book could be coherent given the story that Dunham is telling. I admired how Dunham navigated within and around larger narratives of gender identity and memoir.
kxiong5's review against another edition
4.0
to reread in one sitting, but very suggestive of a lot of big questions about narrative/narrativizing self