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krys_kilz's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-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
5.0
This book is truly a queer and trans treasure. The genre bending twists and turns echo the gender bending/queering of many of the characters and the multiple narration styles mirror the concept of multiple selves.
I absolutely loved the final section, the letter to Carrie. It felt almost like a collection of notes app rambles transformed into musing vignettes. My mind works in a very similar way when I am connecting observations and working through theory. It was drastically different from the rest of the novel, but I loved that sense of jolting. It felt refreshing.
I saw so much of myself in this book and I am incredibly grateful to Milks for creating this fantastical mirror that my young genderqueer self never had.
tw: eating disorders, body shaming, fatphobia
I absolutely loved the final section, the letter to Carrie. It felt almost like a collection of notes app rambles transformed into musing vignettes. My mind works in a very similar way when I am connecting observations and working through theory. It was drastically different from the rest of the novel, but I loved that sense of jolting. It felt refreshing.
I saw so much of myself in this book and I am incredibly grateful to Milks for creating this fantastical mirror that my young genderqueer self never had.
tw: eating disorders, body shaming, fatphobia
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia, Body shaming, and Eating disorder
Moderate: Car accident, Dysphoria, and Sexual assault
Minor: Body horror and Bullying
demo's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This book is like if Chuck Palahniuk's Damned and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit had a trans baby. Palpable resonances with many different texts, some which Milks lists as direct influences in the back matter (e.g. Goosebumps books, Nancy Drew, Matilda, the documentary Thin, Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted, and Judith Butler's work), and others unmentioned (like Ghost World and Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak).
"If adolescence is a passageway, a twilight zone or liminal space, it's also the time when, like thick blobs of gummy dough, we get poured into shape and rise. It's a plastic time, a time of self-discovery and growth, and in some cases tremendous creativity. Teenagehood is that stage when you get to become who you are, or who you can be. Ah, there's the rub: How can you be who you are when—Margaret doesn't know how to finish this question." (p. 99)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, and Mental illness
Moderate: Body horror, Car accident, Death, Dysphoria, Excrement, Homophobia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Bullying, Confinement, Grief, Medical content, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts
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