Scan barcode
alyssamakesart's review against another edition
challenging
funny
hopeful
informative
fast-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Medical content
Minor: Blood, Grief, and Medical trauma
lspbooks's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma
Moderate: Body horror, Sexual content, Transphobia, Blood, Medical trauma, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Dysphoria
monstrouscosmos's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
4.25
big note off the top: I appreciate the writing style of this memoir, and that the audiobook was narrated by the author! it's always a treat when an author reads their own work.
I struggled with some of the terminology (specifically aroundkink ) and concepts (specifically around topics like fanfiction). mostly due to it being substantially more graphic than I was anticipating, especially when it came to sexual exploration as a youth and adult and descriptions of medical experiences . all in all I think I would have benefitted from content warnings, or otherwise some more heads up in chapter names.
all that said I found myself often resonating the experiences explored, and appreciated learning more about the ones I didn't have first hand knowledge of!
I struggled with some of the terminology (specifically around
all that said I found myself often resonating the experiences explored, and appreciated learning more about the ones I didn't have first hand knowledge of!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Transphobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Dysphoria
Moderate: Biphobia, Bullying, Misogyny, Sexism, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Cancer and Toxic relationship
kimberlynpeterson50's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This book is likely a lifeline for gender queer and trans kids (and adults!). To my knowledge, there has never before been such an honest, frank account of the experience of questioning one’s gender and figuring out sexual and gender identity.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
kai_okay's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Medical content, and Dysphoria
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Transphobia
grace_b_3's review against another edition
informative
fast-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Transphobia
ashley_mrose530's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.25
I really enjoyed the art style of this one. It was simple and concise even though the content was deep, emotional, and sometimes difficult to read. I applaud the author for writing about eir experiences of being nonbinary in a forced binary world. It couldn't have been easy to relive some of these things while writing and drawing them.
I really appreciated the look into an experience much different from my own to see how much nonbinary people have to go through and try to see my own misgivings and ways I could try to help make things easier.
The main criticism I have is that this jumped around quite a bit and some of the things I didn't think were entirely necessary. I know memoirs are difficult and sometimes don't work chronologically but I do prefer them to be as chronological as possible and I think this one was better than some others I've read but it still felt a little choppy to me and unorganized. I also felt like some things were brought up but didn't really have anything to do with the overall story. Like the snakes thing was brought up but then never mentioned again. I don't know if it was included just to give personality and show how "tomboy"-ish the author was or what. If that was the case, I feel like it could have been incorporated a little bit better rather than just randomly inserting it in the beginning with no connection to anything else.
Besides that, this was a really good graphic novel and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to be a better ally to the trans and nonbinary community.
I really appreciated the look into an experience much different from my own to see how much nonbinary people have to go through and try to see my own misgivings and ways I could try to help make things easier.
The main criticism I have is that this jumped around quite a bit and some of the things I didn't think were entirely necessary. I know memoirs are difficult and sometimes don't work chronologically but I do prefer them to be as chronological as possible and I think this one was better than some others I've read but it still felt a little choppy to me and unorganized. I also felt like some things were brought up but didn't really have anything to do with the overall story. Like the snakes thing was brought up but then never mentioned again. I don't know if it was included just to give personality and show how "tomboy"-ish the author was or what. If that was the case, I feel like it could have been incorporated a little bit better rather than just randomly inserting it in the beginning with no connection to anything else.
Besides that, this was a really good graphic novel and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to be a better ally to the trans and nonbinary community.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Blood, Medical trauma, and Dysphoria
maryellen's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Dysphoria
Minor: Pregnancy
knkoch's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
I was blown away by how beautiful and heartfelt this memoir is. Unfortunately, it has become a cultural flashpoint in the current conservative book-banning backlash. I didn't go into this with any expectation of disapproval, but I was curious to understand the controversy. All that was washed away in the joy of Kobabe's beautiful drawings and deep honesty. Eir gradual journey to understanding eir needs and wants coupled with advocating for and explaining emself amongst family and community was beautifully rendered in thoughtful, at times quite conceptual art. This is one of the frankest explorations of the experience of being assigned female at birth I've ever seen in writing and illustration. Even though this is just one nonbinary person's account, I learned a lot and I hope more stories like this get published going forward, and I'm committed to continue seeking out the ones that already exist. It's sad that such an empathetic and hopeful story spurred such reactionary suppression. It's the kind of story I hope anyone ignorant to gender identity discussions could read and then get, and thus empathize with someone whose life they don't understand. But to do that, one has to be willing to actually read the text and open themselves to other perspectives. Finally reading this, and seeing how many people missed the point of it, makes me a bit less hopeful right now of people's willingness to be open like that.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content and Blood
jenny_d's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content, Transphobia, and Blood