A review by krgreen
I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World by Kai Cheng Thom

4.0

I found this book easy to get into, until the chapters focused on social justice warriors, which were new to me. Despite having a Master's degree and experience in both social care, restorative justice from a youth offending perspective, and as a trained practitioner of therapy, I found myself struggling to understand some parts of her work, and felt that in some places, definitions and simplifications of a few concepts would have made the whole book more accessible to people who wanted to get a broader understanding of the experiences of a trans author, but are not well-read in the topics of social and transformative justice.

I liked the realism of the essay's tone, and after a very verbose (wordy) set of introduction chapters, the author returned to the topic of love; of community, chosen family, and I found the anecdotes and experiences thought-provoking as a cis-gendered woman looking to support trans friend and family members.

I highlighted 44 passages, so would definitely recommend it as a book to question our beliefs around LGBTQIA+ issues and how we relate to each other as human beings, however there may be sections that require a dictionary to translate and further research to put into full context.