Reviews with content warning for Violence - Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir by Kai Cheng Thom

52 reviews

siriface's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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jamieruwen's review

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adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was wonderful: fierce and gentle, prodding and sweet, dark and magical. A magical realism, surreal biomythography about a trans girl and the fierce femmes she finds at her new home on the Street of Miracles after fleeing her old one. Our unnamed protagonist learns to reconcile the aggression and trauma within her after she and her friends form a trans girl-gang and go on a self-defensive spree of violence. A great book that refuses to be for cis people.

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onewoman_bookclub's review

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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brogan7's review

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

I'm still deciding if this is a 5.
It's like nothing else I've ever read before and the first 80 pages are so brilliant and in tune and dazzlingly amazing. Who else writes about trauma this way, who can tell the story of leaving home like that, dying mermaids all over the beach, and you know, you just know, she is telling the story exactly as it was, it is, tonally, perfect.

And then there's an interlude of violent fantasy and I can almost go there but it feels like fiction, then, and it was the archival quality that I enjoyed.

A beautiful, beautiful book. Almost fell for easy tropes but luckily sidestepped that one.

What do you want to know about being human? Being human hurts. And is complicated and fearsome and fierce.

It's not like anything else. It's shatteringly on point. Alzena the Witch!!!! You can't make this stuff up. It's so good, it can't be made up.

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mirandyli's review

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adventurous emotional inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Spoiler

Fantastically written, anti-capitalist, anti-cop, anti-fascist, anti-classist memoir with magical elements. Really everything I could ask for in a book.

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abitbetterbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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bashsbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars is a magical "memoir" that uses poetry and allegory to show what being a trans femme is like - from running away from home, forming a found family, defending herself, and growing as a woman. Though it uses unreality to prove its points, there are no rose-colored glasses in this short book. Everything is brutal, as the lives of many trans women are. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I can't wait to read more by Thom.

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