Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Nevada

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Nevada by Imogen Binnie

44 reviews

krsegaloff's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

A groundbreaking novel in many aspects. It’s one of the first novels I’ve read where the main character is a trans person. Personally, I found the forward and afterword actually more enticing than the book but I respect how deeply important novels such as this are. For me- I was hoping to see more personal growth in the characters as the novel felt more like a person’s inner monologue than a novel with a plot. The plot is the person and so I felt a bit let down at the end with a lack of a cathartic resolution. However- life doesn’t always have that all nicely packaged ending us romantic readers are searching for. It’s fascinating, and the characters definitely leave you wondering what will happen next as you wish you could give them hope. It’s also a great in depth look at how the queer community itself treats (and isolates) trans people, and how people seem to lose interest in trans stories post transition. I’d recommend this read for anyone wanting to go down a rabbit hole of self reflection and discovery. I’d encourage them to go in with an open mind ready to just go on a self reflective journey that they must complete themselves. (Also- read the afterword. I felt much more satisfied with the ending as a reader after hearing from the author).

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courtneyfalling's review against another edition

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emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This isn't a perfect book but I absolutely love it in all its imperfections. Such a vivid character study of Maria across her life in NYC and toward James. The book spends much longer in NYC just in Maria's life for what I expected with the blurb, but I deeply enjoyed all of it and think about certain sections all the time.

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lamorna's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

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

2.0

Felt like a series of monologues and yet somehow I didn't feel like I understood the characters motivations, emotions and actions anymore for it.

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libbyluvr's review against another edition

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funny hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

these are maybe some of the most real characters I’ve ever read. definitely up in the top 10— all of them were so different, even when they were similar; that made it such a fun journey. not to mention, imogen binnie is great at making every bit of word salad into a beautifully plated meal. her stream-of-consciousness writing is one she dips in and out of so effortlessly, and I ate it up big time! when it’s done well, I love it, and this was done more than just well

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malebolge's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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imrereads's review against another edition

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emotional reflective

5.0

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caseythereader's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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aus10england's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.75

dang… this was messy, important, beautiful, but mostly messy! great trans literature

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james1star's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective fast-paced

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

3.75

For a quick plot summary, Nevada is split into two parts, the first focusing on the “post transition” life of Maria who has been experiencing years of personal and professional inadequacies in her life in New York so embarks on a trip. The second mainly follow the “pre transition” narrative of confused stoner James in Star City, Nevada and the chance meeting with Maria. Other then that there is rather minimal plot, it’s for sure more about the characters and discussions on gender identity, sexuality and the role of women (misogyny, patriarchy and the like). These parts were my favourite I’d say, Binnie clearly has a lot of knowledge surrounding these topics and put a lot of it into her debut work. There is a lot said and I thoroughly enjoyed being educated in the experience of two trans people, with it being personal to each of them and not a generalised representation of ‘the trans experience’ but from reviews and the acclaim the book’s gotten it’s clearly resonated with many people and this is amazing. Whilst I did like Maria’s monologuing at the start it definitely become quite repetitive and a little unrealistic as the book went on. This is the same for quite a lot of what’s rehashed multiple times and I did find myself losing interest. I think it would have been better if more of what Binnie wanted to put forward was via ‘showing’ and not ‘telling’ with a focus on plot and character advancement, not the monologues.

From the paragraph above, I used the terms “post” and “pre transition” in quotation marks because this is how Binnie herself chose to describe the experiences in the 2022 afterword in the copy I read. This inclusion was a very interesting read and she listed lots of authors who write about the queer experience I’d also like to check out. In it, she says how she chose to create these characters at these specific stages to show how a trans person is trans throughout their journey and to disregard the “in between” stage. Other parts are discussed surrounding the path to getting Nevada published and reasonings for certain plot points.

Something I particularly disliked about Nevada was the excessive and continuous depictions of drug taking and the central role weed has in James’s life. I really don’t like reading about drug use/abuse and for me it was far too often mentioned. It also became more prevalent as the book went along which together with the rather unrealistic monologuing and my last point made me lose interest. I’d also say there’s a lot of unnecessary swearing. This final thing was Binnie’s use of the term ‘like’ which I found different at first and quite informal which allowed me to get to know the characters better. It then became a little annoying and as the book went on it’s use became so excessive - I counted one relatively small paragraph using it nine times - and therefore very very jarring. I just feel about 80% of the times it was used could’ve been omitted as it broke up the reading experience too much for me and whilst it may seem like something small, it was enough for me to personally knock off a half star from my rating.

I would still definitely recommend this book and it’s impact in the literary scene has done as lot for trans literature which is great. There is a lot to learn from Binnie with relatability and the discourse on the lives of transgender people. Overall I did enjoy it but as stated I have my issues too, it started out amazingly but did dwindle as I carried on reading.

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alisonfaith426's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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