A review by jayisreading
Us by Sara Soler

informative fast-paced

3.5

Us is a graphic memoir that focuses on Sara Soler’s relationship with her partner, Diana, who is a trans woman, and how they navigated the reactions that people had about Diana’s transitioning. While Soler herself isn’t trans, she takes care to focus on her partner’s experiences, and the good and bad of how people reacted. Relatedly, I appreciated that Soler disclosed her initial reactions to Diana being trans, which weren’t especially negative per se, but they weren’t necessarily the greatest either. I do think it takes some courage to be that honest, and I like that she took time to reflect on this and understand how she needs to improve.

That being said, Us really read more like a guide for cisgender people on how not to react to people coming out as transgender. While Soler did place focus on Diana’s experiences (and, of course, their relationship), the whole graphic memoir still read very much like it was coming from a cisgender person and how they’re understanding the trans identity. It didn’t quite rub me the wrong way, but I felt like it would have been better to have gotten Diana’s actual perspective.

It’s clear that a lot of love went into this graphic memoir, and I’m certainly glad that Soler was and continues to be an incredibly supportive partner for Diana. I just think I wasn’t the target audience, especially because this graphic novel definitely had more of an educational slant to it than I expected.
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