Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Pageboy by Elliot Page

183 reviews

mychemegan's review

sad slow-paced

2.5

It's hard to rate memoirs and I think Elliot has the right to share his story however he feels best represents what he has to say. But in my opinion this book fell really flat. I felt that it would have benefited from a linear storyline and found jumping from one age to another without any indication of doing so really confusing and disjointed. I also just felt that it lacked introspection. We heard incredibly graphic depictions of homophobia, abuse, and his sexual exploits, but it felt like we got the pain without the resolution or growth from it. And hey, maybe that is where he's at in his life! Maybe he is still processing all this pain and still has growing and reflection to do. I guess I just struggled with /why/ he wrote the book. I can see how it would be cathartic for him to let all this out, but I'm not sure what the reader has to gain from it. Overall, I appreciate that he shared his story and I'm glad I read it, it just really left me wanting more in the bad way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Stalking, Bullying, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

catsbreadbikes's review

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Transphobia, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Dysphoria, Body shaming, Bullying, Deadnaming, Violence, Stalking, Sexual assault, Eating disorder, and Sexual content

samondemand's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Bullying

Minor: Alcoholism

moonyreadsbystarlight's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective

5.0

I really loved this! It seems like the nonlinear story telling is something that folks seem really divided on, but I thought he did it really well. I enjoyed the way he wrote generally speaking, but also specifically the nonlinear narrative. 

I really resonated with the way he described some more internal experiences - as a fellow pisces, that internal escapism is unfortunately quite a mood (especially re: the closet and gender dysphoria). I really enjoyed the different aspects of relationships he discussed in here and the discussion of boundaries and autonomy. There were definitely some hard parts to read emotionally, but it was all really well done and I really liked this book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Dysphoria, Excrement, Bullying, Outing, Sexual assault, and Transphobia

Moderate: Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Minor: Colonisation

composed's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

4.0

This is one excellent depiction of an autistic trans experience (while obviously not representing everyone by any means). I've never been so certain in my life that a famous person was autistic who isn't out. There were so many common elements of a monotropic experience. 

That said, this book was extremely triggering so I wouldn't recommend it without talking about the graphic and repeated sexual assault, self-harm, disordered eating, and queer-and-transphobia. The childhood trauma is clearly still in process, and hearing about trauma someone's still working through (especially when it mirrors elements of my own) is rough. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Sexual assault, Self harm, Homophobia, Eating disorder, Bullying, and Child abuse

Moderate: Stalking

jnestwd's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

"It was too much to play a role on-screen when the role I played in my personal life was suffocating me already."

Pageboy by Elliot Page sheds light on the cruel, messy, and often torturous experience of growing up transgender in the Hollywood spotlight.

As a life-long fan of Elliot's acting work, and as a fellow queer, I was excited to read this as part of a queer book club. 

I devoured the pages, feeling mostly extraordinarily uncomfortable by the pain and shockingly relatable emotional abuse that Elliot endured as a child from those meant to love and support him, finding few moments of joy and laughter as I annotated my copy of the book.

Rating this book is tricky, as on one hand, I deeply related to, and understood much of Page's pain. But on the other, found, at many times, the prose to be overly self-indulgent and often lit with cliches. As with many of the other reviews, I agree that the writing could have been tightened up. Elliot's search for catharsis through the writing of this work bleeds through the page and whilst I applaud his openness and vulnerability from a lifetime of keeping his true thoughts and feelings bottled up inside, it has a tendency to read like a diary entry.

The timeline jumps back and forth without a common thread or obvious purpose, and in my view the book is best read as a collection of personal essays rather than a linear memoir. 

THAT BEING SAID! I genuinely enjoyed this book and felt deeply moved by it. The anecdotes on the different healthy relationships Elliot has made throughout his life were beautiful and inspiring, and I enjoyed chuckling along with certain queer tendencies that exist no matter your gender (immediately falling in love. amirite.)

Honestly, go off Elliot. You deserve to have your voice heard, multiple references to shitting and all. Love you xoxoxo

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Gaslighting, Self harm, Transphobia, Bullying, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Panic attacks/disorders, Eating disorder, and Homophobia

rizzykaye's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Self harm, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Homophobia, Mental illness, Deadnaming, Lesbophobia, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Transphobia, and Suicidal thoughts

rsagarin's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Drug use, Dysphoria, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Self harm, Transphobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Alcohol, Outing, Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Medical content, Cursing, Eating disorder, Deadnaming, Vomit, Homophobia, and Sexual content

hazelwood's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.5

This was a very interesting and reflective read for me, I was surprised how open and honest Elliot was able to be with his audience, especially about very sensitive and personal moments in his life. It really felt like a friend who was telling you about his life. And I related to a lot of what he went through in regards to being transgender. 

That said, I haven't read many memoirs in my life, so take this with a grain of salt: I didn't really like the way the book is written with the events all out of order. It was confusing and tended to give me metaphorical whiplash. But maybe that's just the way memoirs are. I also wish that Elliot had gone into more about his transition and his feelings about it. The whole thing felt rushed into at the end of the book, with only a few sentences about taking hormones. I get it if he wants privacy about his current life, but considering how depressing the rest of the book's events are, I feel like readers could benefit from seeing more of the light at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps the memoir could have been left to simmer for a few years while Elliot got used to his "new" life, giving him more moments of trans joy to write about?  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Sexual violence, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, Excrement, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Dysphoria, Medical content, Sexual assault, Stalking, Rape, Drug use, Hate crime, Deadnaming, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Outing, Self harm, Sexual harassment, and Suicidal thoughts

just_curious34's review against another edition

hopeful reflective fast-paced

4.0

A queer coming-of-self story, an autobiography of a 35 year old. 

It was a quick read, alternating between seemingly universal queer stories and Elliot inadvertently name dropping stars that played an important role in his life. 

I enjoyed this book. It was a very fast read for me, perhaps because I really enjoyed reading the representation I felt he gave to different parts of my queer life.   

But at the same time, in many ways, many of the stories feel very surface level. It felt like when there was something that was difficult, such as when he was to blame for a failed relationship, Page would often lose the words or change the subject (most commonly in the middle of the book). While this is his right as the author, this book feels like it was written to help Elliot process his pain that’s still very fresh, rather than impart his wisdom after the fact. I’d be curious what this book would look like if he wrote it in 10+ years.

Content warning: Page talks pretty openly and graphically about his sex life over the years. It is part of what makes this book very queer, but may affect who you recommend the book to. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder and Sexual content

Moderate: Gaslighting, Stalking, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Transphobia, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Pandemic/Epidemic, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, and Mental illness