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lbarsk's review
2.0
To quote another review, by user Theo Adelberg, "I recognize that the author was trying to shed light on a lot of issues that transgender teens face, but unfortunately, this novel became a bombardment of triggering content, and of trans pain."
I wanted to like this novel, and I respect the author for TRYING to write a book that might be helpful for trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming teens, but... I wish there had been a sensitivity read? There was just SO much trans pain in this novel with very little resolution, or even addressing that said pain was deeply traumatic and FULLY would need a lot of hard work and therapy to heal.
Reminded me a lot of STAY GOLD by Tobly McSmith, except McSmith *is trans* so it felt slightly less like... WOW LET'S CAPITALIZE ON TRANS PAIN. Which, again, I DO NOT think was the Author's Intent, but it just felt really really pain-filled and hard to read. Actually the level of Trauma And Suffering here lowkey also reminds me of CAN'T TAKE THAT AWAY by Steven Salvatore, but again there you've got a genderqueer author writing a book narrated by a genderqueer main. So??? I DUNNO.
I hate leaving low-starred reviews on books, especially books by LGBTQIA authors -- I am friends with queer and trans authors, and I know how much it hurts them to see when people don't like their work. But I just wish this book hadn't been Every Chapter Includes Either Homophobia Or Transphobia Or Both, and then at the end uhhh I guess it's a somewhat happy ending? Like. Argh.
I wanted to like this novel, and I respect the author for TRYING to write a book that might be helpful for trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming teens, but... I wish there had been a sensitivity read? There was just SO much trans pain in this novel with very little resolution, or even addressing that said pain was deeply traumatic and FULLY would need a lot of hard work and therapy to heal.
Reminded me a lot of STAY GOLD by Tobly McSmith, except McSmith *is trans* so it felt slightly less like... WOW LET'S CAPITALIZE ON TRANS PAIN. Which, again, I DO NOT think was the Author's Intent, but it just felt really really pain-filled and hard to read. Actually the level of Trauma And Suffering here lowkey also reminds me of CAN'T TAKE THAT AWAY by Steven Salvatore, but again there you've got a genderqueer author writing a book narrated by a genderqueer main. So??? I DUNNO.
I hate leaving low-starred reviews on books, especially books by LGBTQIA authors -- I am friends with queer and trans authors, and I know how much it hurts them to see when people don't like their work. But I just wish this book hadn't been Every Chapter Includes Either Homophobia Or Transphobia Or Both, and then at the end uhhh I guess it's a somewhat happy ending? Like. Argh.
toonyballoony's review
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Homophobia, Transphobia, and Outing
Minor: Xenophobia, Deadnaming, Violence, Blood, Racism, Alcohol, and Panic attacks/disorders
timvindigni's review
4.0
I understand WHY we were given the tumblr posts, but I really didn’t like or need them. They are the main reason this book wasn’t a 5 ⭐️ for me.
But that last chapter??? POETRY!!
But that last chapter??? POETRY!!
xisamu's review
1.0
TW: slurs, transphobia, homophobia, racism, xenophobia, outing, deadnaming/misgendering
Context: I am Asian, trans masc, and bisexual. As a trans person, I know that the trans experience does involve pain and is not always happy but this book felt like nothing but constant trans pain and also a dangerous book to suggest to teens as an example of how to treat and understand trans people. (I tried to make this understandable but it’s still kind of messy and unorganized:,))
MC - main character
LI - love interest
For the tl,dr: This book feels like a caricature of the queer high school experience and involves a lot of racism and stereotyping of the non-white and trans/nonbinary characters from an author who is East Asian and not transgender himself. By chapter two, the main character’s best friend Gregg has already said a lot of racist things such as calling a South Asian character a “terrorist” without really any real criticism from the main character (which he continues to do throughout the book like 10 more times).
- Treatment of South Asian characters
- “What do you call them?” “Gulab jams but I just say Indian fried dough is easier lol” “You should call them Indian donut holes.”
- It should go without saying that this is a very standard example of bastardization and cultural appropriation. It’s a small moment but as an Asian reader, it’s hard to read a white main character (MC), Jules, rename a traditional dish to be more “eye-catching” especially when gulab jamun has existed longer than a lot of countries…
- Being Queer and South Asian… A missed opportunity
- The love interest (LI) is half white and half Indian and a huge part of his background is that his mother denies her Indian heritage due to a falling out with her parents. This isn’t a con or criticism of the book but more that I believe there was space for such a nuanced discussion on the intersectionality of queerness and being South Asian and yet this is not very touched on. The only time this is mentioned is when Jack (LI) thinks that his grandmother went back to India out of disappointment that he is transgender. South Asian trans characters are already very minimal currently and it’s a little disappointing that James Sie didn’t take this as an opportunity to add on for more representation.
- “Susie instead of Sudhi”
- It’s only mentioned a couple times but Jack’s sister insists on going by Susie instead of Sudhi (an Indian name). It’s kind of weird that this is more of a throwaway comment but I do wish this was either explored more or a detail gotten rid of entirely. Her character is that she’s embarrassed by her Indian heritage and yet it’s left at that without any other nuance. I understand that this is a very real thing that happens to especially young POC but it doesn’t feel right for a book that prides itself on diversity and inclusivity to include such a small throwaway detail. Let them have Indian names! Let Jack have an Indian name too! I think that would’ve been so much more impactful and fulfilling.
- “What do you call them?” “Gulab jams but I just say Indian fried dough is easier lol” “You should call them Indian donut holes.”
- Transphobia! And more transphobia! And even more transphobia! (no one gets punished)
- Infantilization of Trans characters
- Tumblr and internet stereotyping has led to this idea that all nonbinary and trans men are just “smol boys” who wear flower crowns and don’t know anything except how to say “uwu”. And this book perpetuates that awful stereotype.
The nonbinary character, Kacey, is infantilized throughout the entire book and treated like an unknowing preschooler rather than the highschooler that they are. When Kacey admits to outing Jack so that they can have a friend, you would read the scene thinking that Kacey is in 5th grade. - Also Lily Cho (another nonbinary character) keeps weirdly infantilizing Jack and saying things like “And he’s so cute- so cute! I just want to put Adam in my pocket and shake him. He's so cute.”
- Tumblr and internet stereotyping has led to this idea that all nonbinary and trans men are just “smol boys” who wear flower crowns and don’t know anything except how to say “uwu”. And this book perpetuates that awful stereotype.
- Jack’s mom aka worst parent of the year
- Immediately after Jack is outed, Jules tells his mom that Jack is trans. This can be read as weird that Jules immediately outs Jack to his mom but whatever, it’s his mom.
- Mom quotes says ““You don’t want to deal with any of that…Probably, that poor kid’s just confused, trying to find herself... You’ll find someone else, someone more appropriate”
- I think it’s worse that Jules doesn’t even stand up for Jack to his mom and instead lets her continue to say such horrible things about Jack and then says that this is her “motherly love”.
- Jules’s mom says “You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into…Isn’t being gay enough? Do you have to add on to that? I’m so scared for you.” This is all is discussion about Jules being friends with Jack and instead of sticking up for his FRIEND, Jules continues by saying “there’s so much wrong in what she’s saying, so much awfulness, and inside me, muffled, there are these flares of anger, and shock, and disgust, but in the end, it’s my mother, crying in front of me.”
- Jules’s friends
- Cecilia - “Jack should have told us on day one, It’s his own fault” and “I have no problem with trans people, believe me. I just have a problem with fakers”.
- Dhyllin - “Oh you mean the one starring our tiny terrorist [Jack]? Our tiny t****y terrorist.”
- Also these slurs aren’t starred out and instead written out which is definitely a choice!
- Infantilization of Trans characters
- GSA is cool. Having gay support systems is cool. Stop making it seem like its cringey.
- Lowell (the head of GSA) is the cringiest man I’ve ever seen and the worst person to be a GSA leader. He’s gossiping about Jack and also denies when Kacey brings up that GSA isn’t accepting of trans people. He also talks down to the other nonbinary/trans side characters and is just not a good person to have as a representation of what GSA is when GSA is already considered “cringe” in current times.
- Coming out… Not everyone wants to do it and that’s okay
- “I bet I could come out and it’d be fine, if I wanted to. But I don’t want to.”
- The book is a dual POV one and Jack’s entire first chapter can be summed up into “I don’t want to come out”. Which isn’t a hot take. Not every queer person WANTS to come out and not every queer person HAS to come out. I don’t think this book adds anything to help trans people besides feeling like the moral is that people “have to” come out? Jack’s entire character at the beginning is about craving normalcy and yet by the end of the book, he is outed to the entire school and people begin to misgender him when he fully passed as a cis man from the beginning.
- Trans people don’t owe anyone anything
Jules gets mad at Jack for not telling him that Jack is transgender and yet this plot point never gets heavily criticized. Jules says “Don’t you think it would have been kind of important for me to know?” and “Why didn’t you tell me?” and says that Jack fooled him. Is that not so harmful of an idea to perpetuate??
(Also Jules makes the entire outing situation about himself and how he feels betrayed and book focuses more on that aspect than the fact that Jack just got OUTED)
Why is the entire book about people getting mad that Jack was outed and instead of being mad FOR Jack they are mad AT Jack??
- “Don't out people” shouldn’t be a hot take…
- Outing someone could put them out of a home or lead to abuse and assault. Jack goes through horrible things when he’s outed but even that is just scraping the surface of how painful, both physically and emotionally, it can be. People die from being outed, they commit suicide, they are left on the streets to rot.
- “I bet I could come out and it’d be fine, if I wanted to. But I don’t want to.”
- Nobody gets punished
The entire scene where it is revealed that Jack was outed by Kacey is over in 3 pages. Kacey gets nothing more than a small talking to by Jack and a punishment at the level of a slap on the wrist. - All the transphobia and racism are only ever addressed for a sentence and then the entire book just moves on. WHAT?
- Jack never gets true “justice” for everything that is said against him. Everyone gets away scot free while being racist and transphobic constantly. That’s not good????? WHAT!!
- The one thing I did like! There is a pro!
- Jake’s entire character
- His POV is the only thing that is keeping this book together. Honestly every time I was reading Jules’s POV it was really irritating and so constantly out of touch and just constant transphobia. Jack’s POV felt like an actual good depiction of what being transgender is like which I did enjoy and is the only reason why this book isn’t given 0 out of 5 stars.
- Jake’s entire character
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Outing, Bullying, Transphobia, Racism, Homophobia, and Hate crime
Moderate: Alcoholism
pantsreads's review
4.0
3.5/5
Sweet book with great characters ... and terrible parents. (But in a sadly accurate way.)
Full review to come, but you can check out a mini-review at the Forever Young Adult Instagram.
Sweet book with great characters ... and terrible parents. (But in a sadly accurate way.)
Full review to come, but you can check out a mini-review at the Forever Young Adult Instagram.
briaraq's review
2.0
I’ve said this before about white people writing about black trauma and knowing they’ve typed the n-word and I’m saying it about this book. I feel sooooo uncomfortable reading the bullying that Jack went through when it was written by a cis-man. The slurs, the hateful language… I get that it’s a part of the story, but it’s not Sie’s story to tell.
miloblue's review
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
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? No
4.5
Oh teh dramas! this is actually very engaging, and it really is a growth journey for Jack and Jules (the MCs.) Without spoilers, can we just say that straight adults are the worst in most queer YA and should mostly be put out of our misery?
adenise47's review against another edition
5.0
This was a really cute book. I would definitely recommend this book. It was well written about the lives of these teens.
karalee's review
4.0
Listened to this on audiobook and while it felt unnecessarily long at times and repetitive (like when switching POV and re-explaining the experience from another POV), I felt the main characters were interesting and strong enough to keep me reading.
theoreticallyteddy's review
1.0
So I was excited for this book. I'm a trans author and reader and I am desperate for more stories about trans kids. Unfortunately, this book let me down in a lot of ways. I'm not a reviewer, generally, so this isn't going to be formatted or expressed well, but here goes.
Let's talk about All Kinds of Other, or as I'm calling it...
TW for All Kinds of Transphobia
The fact that this book was written by a cis gay man, about the trans experience, is in itself, problematic. He discovered that trans teens go through a lot of hardship and decided that he, a cis man, was the person to write a book about those hardships. There's a reason trans people continue to ask that publishing let us write these kinds of books and I think AKoO is a perfect example of why. Reading this book I was constantly bombarded with transphobia that the 16yo trans boy was experiencing. Constantly. All 401 pages of this felt like I was seeing trans pain over and over and over again without anything correct it or counter act it. And I get that in the real world, there isn't always someone who can educate the bigots, that we're not protected from outright transphobia and hate crimes, but to read a book for teens, about trans teens, where the only experience is trans pain, never trans joy, that just hurts.
To break it down for you. This book, written by a cis gay man, contains:
1) a trans girl getting hate crimed at her school and then also abused by her parents. This is then pretty much glossed over and only talked about as a way for the trans MC to experience and reflect on trans pain.
2) the trans MC/LI dealing with constant transphobia from students, parents, his sister, the school, etc.
3) the trans MC gets outed to the whole school fairly early on BY ANOTHER TRANS STUDENT and it's explained that it's a really not okay thing to do and then it's just glossed over again.
4) people talking to the gay MC/LI about how he's lucky he found out that LI was trans bc, you know, "she's a girl and you're gay sooooo" which is never actually really addressed beyond the gay MC correcting the pronouns???? No other part of that was given a response, no one is ever truly corrected, and no one ever really tries to make amends for this. It's basically forgotten about or left for the reader and the trans MC to be reminded about over and over and over again.
5) super "supportive" parents who sit idly by while the trans MC gets shat on constantly
6) people constantly going "oh being gay is fine but being trans is a choice or being trans is too much or too complicated or etc"
7) the trans MC getting literally assaulted by a school bully and then going into a restorative justice meeting where nothing happens and the school doesn't really do anything at all. Both students get 2 days of suspension, they have the meeting, and then that's that.
8) I've already said it, but again, there is just constant transphobia on every page??? And the author said he didn't want to depict the trans teen experience through "rose-colored glasses" but please stop. Not once in this book is there any kind of trans joy. Not once is any of the transphobia or its effect on the trans MC ever addressed or corrected. Not once. This isn't okay.
I recognize that the author was trying to shed light on a lot of issues that transgender teens face, but unfortunately, this novel became a bombardment of triggering content, and of trans pain. A story of a trans teenager is not a story that a cis author should've written because the above happens. All readers get is pain, and transphobia, over and over, with no real resolution, correction, or anything to balance it. He says he talked to a lot of trans teens and members of the transgender community while writing this novel, but the way the trans experience was treated in this novel was heartbreaking to me.
Let's talk about All Kinds of Other, or as I'm calling it...
TW for All Kinds of Transphobia
The fact that this book was written by a cis gay man, about the trans experience, is in itself, problematic. He discovered that trans teens go through a lot of hardship and decided that he, a cis man, was the person to write a book about those hardships. There's a reason trans people continue to ask that publishing let us write these kinds of books and I think AKoO is a perfect example of why. Reading this book I was constantly bombarded with transphobia that the 16yo trans boy was experiencing. Constantly. All 401 pages of this felt like I was seeing trans pain over and over and over again without anything correct it or counter act it. And I get that in the real world, there isn't always someone who can educate the bigots, that we're not protected from outright transphobia and hate crimes, but to read a book for teens, about trans teens, where the only experience is trans pain, never trans joy, that just hurts.
To break it down for you. This book, written by a cis gay man, contains:
1) a trans girl getting hate crimed at her school and then also abused by her parents. This is then pretty much glossed over and only talked about as a way for the trans MC to experience and reflect on trans pain.
2) the trans MC/LI dealing with constant transphobia from students, parents, his sister, the school, etc.
3) the trans MC gets outed to the whole school fairly early on BY ANOTHER TRANS STUDENT and it's explained that it's a really not okay thing to do and then it's just glossed over again.
4) people talking to the gay MC/LI about how he's lucky he found out that LI was trans bc, you know, "she's a girl and you're gay sooooo" which is never actually really addressed beyond the gay MC correcting the pronouns???? No other part of that was given a response, no one is ever truly corrected, and no one ever really tries to make amends for this. It's basically forgotten about or left for the reader and the trans MC to be reminded about over and over and over again.
5) super "supportive" parents who sit idly by while the trans MC gets shat on constantly
6) people constantly going "oh being gay is fine but being trans is a choice or being trans is too much or too complicated or etc"
7) the trans MC getting literally assaulted by a school bully and then going into a restorative justice meeting where nothing happens and the school doesn't really do anything at all. Both students get 2 days of suspension, they have the meeting, and then that's that.
8) I've already said it, but again, there is just constant transphobia on every page??? And the author said he didn't want to depict the trans teen experience through "rose-colored glasses" but please stop. Not once in this book is there any kind of trans joy. Not once is any of the transphobia or its effect on the trans MC ever addressed or corrected. Not once. This isn't okay.
I recognize that the author was trying to shed light on a lot of issues that transgender teens face, but unfortunately, this novel became a bombardment of triggering content, and of trans pain. A story of a trans teenager is not a story that a cis author should've written because the above happens. All readers get is pain, and transphobia, over and over, with no real resolution, correction, or anything to balance it. He says he talked to a lot of trans teens and members of the transgender community while writing this novel, but the way the trans experience was treated in this novel was heartbreaking to me.