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A review by james1star
Paul Takes the Form of A Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor
emotional
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
3.25
I find this book quite a hard one to cement my thoughts on…. overall I think it was a decent read but also had quite a few issues too. In it we’re following Paul (/Polly), a twenty two year old old queer person in the early nighties. But he (the character is very likely what we’d call non-binary with they/them pronouns now but Lawlor decides to only use ‘he’ so I will too) is also a shapeshifter, able to change his body and parts and flips between male and female biologically. It’s set first in Iowa city with a more emerging queer scene, but moves to Provincetown and San Francisco where the queer history of these places are more established but obviously different given the New England coastal town and thriving city locations. In these spaces, Paul explores his sexuality and gender identity in a rather eye-opening way trying to categorise himself but ‘failing’ to do so given he really doesn’t know. There’s also little folk-like tales interspersed throughout which I came to read as alternative origin stories of how Paul got his shape shifting powers from and whilst they didn’t really add anything to the story, they were good.
Whilst above is the main plot, it’s in many ways a love letter to the nighties. Lawlor infuses many references to the music, tv and film, books, art and other parts of the culture with a strong focus on queer creators which I revelled in. They at times list these mentions and I had to do so too because the decade was a time of great change with many facets to discover. What’s also great is the inclusion of time-specific mentions as we’re following queer characters and their lives in a time of queer-phobia and the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the eighties following into the early nighties. The best part for me was from the pages 273-278 where Paul is thinking back to his time spent in New York with an old partner as they worked with AIDS organisations and it was just exceptional: the topic, what happened and in a sense the anger and injustice present in that little passage was so hard hitting and despite the theme I loved it.
The book definitely had things to say and messages to put across but they’re cheapened by what I found to be my main criticism of the book. And that’s the hyper fixation on sex. I liked how sex positive and freeing I guess it was to start but when the same things are basically rehashed multiple times it gets boring and rather crude too. Paul’s sexual encounters and ‘victories’ were focused on far too much and it took me out of the story. It’s also clear Lawlor put more detail and emphasis on this then the other passages and descriptions which aren’t bad but I could tell a divide.
Overall, I would recommend this and it’s rather unique but the real meaning and crux of what the author was trying to portray and say was definitely cheapened by what happens for most of the book. It got better as it went along but what had already happened was too much to not allow any higher rating then I’ve given it. It’s possible on a re-read I might get more but unlikely.
Whilst above is the main plot, it’s in many ways a love letter to the nighties. Lawlor infuses many references to the music, tv and film, books, art and other parts of the culture with a strong focus on queer creators which I revelled in. They at times list these mentions and I had to do so too because the decade was a time of great change with many facets to discover. What’s also great is the inclusion of time-specific mentions as we’re following queer characters and their lives in a time of queer-phobia and the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the eighties following into the early nighties. The best part for me was from the pages 273-278 where Paul is thinking back to his time spent in New York with an old partner as they worked with AIDS organisations and it was just exceptional: the topic, what happened and in a sense the anger and injustice present in that little passage was so hard hitting and despite the theme I loved it.
The book definitely had things to say and messages to put across but they’re cheapened by what I found to be my main criticism of the book. And that’s the hyper fixation on sex. I liked how sex positive and freeing I guess it was to start but when the same things are basically rehashed multiple times it gets boring and rather crude too. Paul’s sexual encounters and ‘victories’ were focused on far too much and it took me out of the story. It’s also clear Lawlor put more detail and emphasis on this then the other passages and descriptions which aren’t bad but I could tell a divide.
Overall, I would recommend this and it’s rather unique but the real meaning and crux of what the author was trying to portray and say was definitely cheapened by what happens for most of the book. It got better as it went along but what had already happened was too much to not allow any higher rating then I’ve given it. It’s possible on a re-read I might get more but unlikely.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Grief, and Lesbophobia