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aliena_jackson's review
2.0
I was so excited to read this book when I picked it up at my local library! A book about a trans girl and her best friend going on a road trip to confront her transphobic dad? Sign me up! Unfortunately, the excitement quickly left me 50 pages in.
Jess is just.....well, she’s something. She’s judgmental and rude, and she’s never sorry for her actions. She’s EXACTLY like her mother, in that they’re both manipulative and needy. Her character just ruined it for me. All she could think about was being trans. Listen, as an LGBT person, I have some strong beliefs about LGBT literature. One of my biggest complaints in when a character’s entire personality is just them being LGBT. And being trans is Jess’s entire character.
“Did you grow up in Nebraska?” I ask as Chunk starts Betty and we pull away.
“Yup.”
“But you seem so...tolerant.”
Do you see my point. Do you see how sucky Jess is?
And let’s not even talk about how bad the title is. It’s so cringey I wanted to scream.
Jess is just.....well, she’s something. She’s judgmental and rude, and she’s never sorry for her actions. She’s EXACTLY like her mother, in that they’re both manipulative and needy. Her character just ruined it for me. All she could think about was being trans. Listen, as an LGBT person, I have some strong beliefs about LGBT literature. One of my biggest complaints in when a character’s entire personality is just them being LGBT. And being trans is Jess’s entire character.
“Did you grow up in Nebraska?” I ask as Chunk starts Betty and we pull away.
“Yup.”
“But you seem so...tolerant.”
Do you see my point. Do you see how sucky Jess is?
And let’s not even talk about how bad the title is. It’s so cringey I wanted to scream.
ctz's review
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The book sets up an interesting story, but doesn’t really follow through in a satisfying way. The main character is interested in art, and has applied to art schools but that storyline isn’t concluded and we never learn where she is going to go for college. The part that annoyed me the most was that the main character was incredibly irritating and self-centered. When she is confronted by the other character, there’s a half-assed apology with no real substance and then the book ends. Overall, I would have loved to see a more complete arc for this character, and for the love story to be set up more throughout the story in order for it to be more satisfying.
aus10england's review against another edition
emotional
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Deadnaming and Transphobia
Moderate: Toxic friendship
ansatecross's review
1.0
In truth, I found Jess wholly unlikable, with no lessons learned, just an epiphany on the last page meant to redeem her. Well, it was a lightning-fast read, anyway.
arrezinads's review
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ogreart's review
4.0
I received an electronic ARC of this book in return for an honest review.
I got quite caught up in this book. Almost read the whole thing in one sitting.
I have not read a book from the pov of someone transitioning from one gender to the other. I liked that, while that was a very important part of the book, it wasn't the entire focus of it.
Jess, the narrator, is transitioning from male to female. She has been taking hormones for the past 7 months, ever since she turned 18. Her estranged father had refused to give consent for her to do it before that. Now her father is getting married and she has decided, even after RSVPing no, that she was going to go. As herself. She had some vague plans to make him look at her and see her for who she really is.
The road trip was the idea of her best friend, Chunk. Not surprisingly, given the nickname, Chunk (real name Chuck) is overweight. There is never an explicit mention of how overweight he is, but it was enough to get him picked on all through school. He is also brilliant, like over genius level. When he proposes the trip, Jess decides that it might be a good idea. And it would allow her to really start living as a female. Up to this point she had only come out to her mother and Chunk.
There is a lot to this book. Some of the other reviews I read mentioned that they felt the author did a really poor job of representing fat people. I think that it could have been gone into more deeply, but that would have made this a different book. Jess has to confront her issues with physicality be it hers to other's. I believe that was what the author was aiming for. At least that's the way I saw it.
Bottom line, I would recommend the book.
I got quite caught up in this book. Almost read the whole thing in one sitting.
I have not read a book from the pov of someone transitioning from one gender to the other. I liked that, while that was a very important part of the book, it wasn't the entire focus of it.
Jess, the narrator, is transitioning from male to female. She has been taking hormones for the past 7 months, ever since she turned 18. Her estranged father had refused to give consent for her to do it before that. Now her father is getting married and she has decided, even after RSVPing no, that she was going to go. As herself. She had some vague plans to make him look at her and see her for who she really is.
The road trip was the idea of her best friend, Chunk. Not surprisingly, given the nickname, Chunk (real name Chuck) is overweight. There is never an explicit mention of how overweight he is, but it was enough to get him picked on all through school. He is also brilliant, like over genius level. When he proposes the trip, Jess decides that it might be a good idea. And it would allow her to really start living as a female. Up to this point she had only come out to her mother and Chunk.
There is a lot to this book. Some of the other reviews I read mentioned that they felt the author did a really poor job of representing fat people. I think that it could have been gone into more deeply, but that would have made this a different book. Jess has to confront her issues with physicality be it hers to other's. I believe that was what the author was aiming for. At least that's the way I saw it.
Bottom line, I would recommend the book.
paragraphsandpages's review
3.0
Stars (Out of 10): 5.5/10 Stars
Overall Thoughts: I have quite mixed thoughts about this book. It seemed to build up for one case, when suddenly not, with the narrator being an unreliable one. I also found myself liking the characters less and less as the book continued on, finding myself more annoyed with some of the things that made me like them at first. I did like the realisticness of the personalities at points though, and like where the book led to as it ended, although it did end very abruptly.
SPOILERS BEGIN HERE
The Good: The book was realistic in how all the characters had flaws. I also liked the overall message it sent out, about looking at the bigger picture, putting yourself in others shoes, and by showing that support can come from the strangest places in some cases. I also like how the book ended with the father redeeming himself in a way, with him making an effort to understand and support his daughter. I thought that ending ended up being a lot better than the angry confrontation I had been expecting! It was a good read, even if my main lingering thoughts are about its flaws.
The Bad: The ending was super abrupt, in a way that really annoyed me. It felt like Chuck showed up, apologies were somewhat exchanged, there was a kiss, no more conversation where Jess continues her apology, or continues the redemption for her character, and then suddenly it was over. I liked the redemption all the “hated” characters were getting, but was a bit upset with it being cut short. The suddenly unreliable narrator was also fairly confusing, as so much hate and wrongdoing was built up for so many characters, just for it to be almost completely wrong in most cases.
The Characters: I had a love/hate relationship with these characters. I liked the main characters less and less as the story went on, their best friend status seeming less and less realistic with each new “recurring” problem they had. They had reasons to be annoyed with each other very quickly into the trip, with these beginning problems seeming to be based on very little. These tensions then continuously grew, showing super huge cracks in the friendship, like Jess’s self-absorbtion. However, it comes as a complete surprise to Jess, and if she’s been so self-absorbed for so long, it doesn’t make as much sense for it to never have been brought up, since it’s been a problem since the beginning of middle school. It makes me wonder how true those problems were, and if their sudden appearance may have only be revealed to further the romantic tension.
The Plot: I liked where the book was going in the beginning, and then where it ended up. However, there was a lot of intense and confusing conflict in the middle, that didn’t necessarily fit into the background we learned of the characters. I did like Annabelle, and had hoped for her to have a larger effect on Jess and her mindset at that point, but we didn’t ever get to see that truly come about in her redemption moment.
The Favorite Character: I actually really liked the father near the end, and Chuck in the beginning (before he decided to try his hardest to kinda ignore and forget about his feelings for Jess.)
Buy it, Borrow it, or Bin it: Borrow it
This review can also be found on my blog: https://paragraphsandpages.wordpress.com/
Overall Thoughts: I have quite mixed thoughts about this book. It seemed to build up for one case, when suddenly not, with the narrator being an unreliable one. I also found myself liking the characters less and less as the book continued on, finding myself more annoyed with some of the things that made me like them at first. I did like the realisticness of the personalities at points though, and like where the book led to as it ended, although it did end very abruptly.
SPOILERS BEGIN HERE
The Good: The book was realistic in how all the characters had flaws. I also liked the overall message it sent out, about looking at the bigger picture, putting yourself in others shoes, and by showing that support can come from the strangest places in some cases. I also like how the book ended with the father redeeming himself in a way, with him making an effort to understand and support his daughter. I thought that ending ended up being a lot better than the angry confrontation I had been expecting! It was a good read, even if my main lingering thoughts are about its flaws.
The Bad: The ending was super abrupt, in a way that really annoyed me. It felt like Chuck showed up, apologies were somewhat exchanged, there was a kiss, no more conversation where Jess continues her apology, or continues the redemption for her character, and then suddenly it was over. I liked the redemption all the “hated” characters were getting, but was a bit upset with it being cut short. The suddenly unreliable narrator was also fairly confusing, as so much hate and wrongdoing was built up for so many characters, just for it to be almost completely wrong in most cases.
The Characters: I had a love/hate relationship with these characters. I liked the main characters less and less as the story went on, their best friend status seeming less and less realistic with each new “recurring” problem they had. They had reasons to be annoyed with each other very quickly into the trip, with these beginning problems seeming to be based on very little. These tensions then continuously grew, showing super huge cracks in the friendship, like Jess’s self-absorbtion. However, it comes as a complete surprise to Jess, and if she’s been so self-absorbed for so long, it doesn’t make as much sense for it to never have been brought up, since it’s been a problem since the beginning of middle school. It makes me wonder how true those problems were, and if their sudden appearance may have only be revealed to further the romantic tension.
The Plot: I liked where the book was going in the beginning, and then where it ended up. However, there was a lot of intense and confusing conflict in the middle, that didn’t necessarily fit into the background we learned of the characters. I did like Annabelle, and had hoped for her to have a larger effect on Jess and her mindset at that point, but we didn’t ever get to see that truly come about in her redemption moment.
The Favorite Character: I actually really liked the father near the end, and Chuck in the beginning (before he decided to try his hardest to kinda ignore and forget about his feelings for Jess.)
Buy it, Borrow it, or Bin it: Borrow it
This review can also be found on my blog: https://paragraphsandpages.wordpress.com/
goosemixtapes's review
3.0
well, it's a better trans road trip novel than And She Was, that's for fuckin' sure. (will i ever get over my grudge against that book? remains to be seen.)
i was both nervous and hopeful about the trans rep going in, both of which were feelings exacerbated by clark's author's note. as in her note to her other book, Freakboy, she mentions that her own daughter is trans and, while not the inspiration/basis for her writing, has had an influence on how and why she writes trans characters; she notes that she wants to help people understand what it's like to be trans. implicit there is that she wants to help CIS people--and i'm not saying that's a bad thing, because god knows cis people need to figure out how to empathize with trans people, but books about trans people that are clearly meant to educate the cis tend to leave a bad taste in my mouth.
luckily, this wasn't that at all! the trans rep here felt very genuine and easy, not like a story constructed to teach. i feel like a lot of the trans stuff i've read features characters who are either questioning or who have been out forever, and so i enjoyed seeing a portrayal of a trans girl in the first steps of transitioning--jess is on hormones, but she hasn't come out to everyone in her life yet; she still has to shave; she's going through second puberty and her emotions are all up in the air. she worries about her safety when trying to pass in red states and rural areas. she's caught between the thrill of finally being herself and the terror that other people won't see her. and i think it's great! especially for 2016; obviously there's been a spate of trans YA in recent years, but i think it's easy to take for granted how few books about trans teens don't end in tragedy or involve gratuitous violence. and this really isn't a tragic story, or even a particularly angsty one; jess's transness affects her, of course, but a lot of the emotional narrative is about her parents' separation and her relationship with chuck. (i also don't mind the use of jess's deadname in flashback sections; different trans people are gonna have different takes on that, but i kind of despise the way "sympathetic characters and/or the narrative deadnaming your MC is bad" has grown into "a deadname can never be used on page ever or it's bad trans rep" & i think this book does it tastefully.)
there are lots of people in the reviews knocking this book because jess is SOOOOO selfish. i think this is a poor critique, because that's the point. of course jess is selfish. she's just starting her transition; she's just starting the rest of her life as her proper self! her hormones and emotions and thoughts are all going haywire! of course she's a little bit self-absorbed! i love that she gets to be self-centered; i also love that chuck rightly calls her out on it. i think the major problem isn't jess's selfishness but the lack of buildup to the ending, and, relatedly, the. imo there's very little emotional buildup to the big ending confrontation, which means jess and chuck don't get to hash out stuff like jess's fatphobia in enough detail to make the conclusion feel earned.
i have less to say about the fat rep, because i know less about fat rep. i think the attempt at paralleling fatness and transness is interesting but misses the mark in a lot of ways (oof, that title). in a lot of places, it felt like this book WANTED to deal with fatphobia but was frightened to do so head-on--we get some discussion of chuck's discontent with his body, his attempts at crash dieting, his belief that no one could be attracted to him, etc, but it's all background noise, more so than i think works for the story. tbh this book honestly could have just used another 50-100 pages to flesh out the relationships more. 3.5 stars for good trans rep and for being fun to tear through, but it didn't leave much of an impact on me.
i was both nervous and hopeful about the trans rep going in, both of which were feelings exacerbated by clark's author's note. as in her note to her other book, Freakboy, she mentions that her own daughter is trans and, while not the inspiration/basis for her writing, has had an influence on how and why she writes trans characters; she notes that she wants to help people understand what it's like to be trans. implicit there is that she wants to help CIS people--and i'm not saying that's a bad thing, because god knows cis people need to figure out how to empathize with trans people, but books about trans people that are clearly meant to educate the cis tend to leave a bad taste in my mouth.
luckily, this wasn't that at all! the trans rep here felt very genuine and easy, not like a story constructed to teach. i feel like a lot of the trans stuff i've read features characters who are either questioning or who have been out forever, and so i enjoyed seeing a portrayal of a trans girl in the first steps of transitioning--jess is on hormones, but she hasn't come out to everyone in her life yet; she still has to shave; she's going through second puberty and her emotions are all up in the air. she worries about her safety when trying to pass in red states and rural areas. she's caught between the thrill of finally being herself and the terror that other people won't see her. and i think it's great! especially for 2016; obviously there's been a spate of trans YA in recent years, but i think it's easy to take for granted how few books about trans teens don't end in tragedy or involve gratuitous violence. and this really isn't a tragic story, or even a particularly angsty one; jess's transness affects her, of course, but a lot of the emotional narrative is about her parents' separation and her relationship with chuck. (i also don't mind the use of jess's deadname in flashback sections; different trans people are gonna have different takes on that, but i kind of despise the way "sympathetic characters and/or the narrative deadnaming your MC is bad" has grown into "a deadname can never be used on page ever or it's bad trans rep" & i think this book does it tastefully.)
there are lots of people in the reviews knocking this book because jess is SOOOOO selfish. i think this is a poor critique, because that's the point. of course jess is selfish. she's just starting her transition; she's just starting the rest of her life as her proper self! her hormones and emotions and thoughts are all going haywire! of course she's a little bit self-absorbed! i love that she gets to be self-centered; i also love that chuck rightly calls her out on it. i think the major problem isn't jess's selfishness but the lack of buildup to the ending, and, relatedly, the
Spoiler
total lack of romantic chemistry between jess and chuck. seriously, WHAT romantic chemistry did these two have? all we see is jess getting jealous whenever chunk talks to girls, but, girl, what do you LIKE about him? wax about his attractiveness a little bit or something!i have less to say about the fat rep, because i know less about fat rep. i think the attempt at paralleling fatness and transness is interesting but misses the mark in a lot of ways (oof, that title). in a lot of places, it felt like this book WANTED to deal with fatphobia but was frightened to do so head-on--we get some discussion of chuck's discontent with his body, his attempts at crash dieting, his belief that no one could be attracted to him, etc, but it's all background noise, more so than i think works for the story. tbh this book honestly could have just used another 50-100 pages to flesh out the relationships more. 3.5 stars for good trans rep and for being fun to tear through, but it didn't leave much of an impact on me.
tstreet's review
1.0
I honestly didn't really care for this book. It started out boring and took a lot of time to get used to. I feel bad for Jess, and I hate what her dad did to her. I like how Chunk goes with her, and how he is such a good friend. Overall rating - .5