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A review by emmaemmaemmaemma
Beyond Magenta: Transgender and Nonbinary Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin
3.0
As a cis person, I am entirely unqualified to speak on how accurately this book portrayed the experiences of the 6 people it documented. (But I’m going to anyway, so take what I say with a grain of salt) So my initial response to the book was “okay, well, it was good to get some more insight into lives I haven’t lived” but something still felt missing.
It wasn’t until I finished the book that I realized it was by a cis author. Her voice is very predominant in the book, and while she does a great job threading together the narratives, for reasons other reviewers have said far more eloquently than I can, it can’t help but take on a more gender normative lens than it would have in the hands of a trans author.
The stories themselves of the teenagers are so extremely compelling, and heartbreaking. As others have said though, it could have benefitted from less of her voice, and more voices of trans activists, trans adults, anyone that could continue to broaden the perspective.
If the book is setting out to share a few compelling stories, I think it accomplishes that, and I did genuinely enjoy reading it, but this book could have been so much more.
It wasn’t until I finished the book that I realized it was by a cis author. Her voice is very predominant in the book, and while she does a great job threading together the narratives, for reasons other reviewers have said far more eloquently than I can, it can’t help but take on a more gender normative lens than it would have in the hands of a trans author.
The stories themselves of the teenagers are so extremely compelling, and heartbreaking. As others have said though, it could have benefitted from less of her voice, and more voices of trans activists, trans adults, anyone that could continue to broaden the perspective.
If the book is setting out to share a few compelling stories, I think it accomplishes that, and I did genuinely enjoy reading it, but this book could have been so much more.