Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Pageboy by Elliot Page

4 reviews

rionstorm's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

I love reading about other transmascs :) This is definitely self indulgent, but then it is a memoir so no better place i guess. 
In between the long list of his ex-partners there's some really honest and vulnerable stuff about being trans that i resonated with a lot, and that I'm glad that other people, cis and trans, will get to read. I also really liked how he explained why he was using his previous name at times, and clearly laid out that he wasn't comfortable with others doing that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Child abuse, Transphobia, Homophobia, Sexual content, Lesbophobia, Stalking, Sexual assault, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Gaslighting, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Alcohol, Body shaming, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Vomit, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, and Self harm

Minor: Pregnancy, Racism, Medical content, Drug use, and Pandemic/Epidemic

thriftstoreclown's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Murder, Alcohol, Eating disorder, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Transphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Rape, Self harm, Stalking, and Torture

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic, Deadnaming, Pregnancy, Vomit, and Excrement

Some of these subjects are kind of par for the course when contextualized with what we know about Elliot publicly already (as a public figure who came out as a lesbian in 2014 before eventually coming out as trans) such as lesbophobia, transphobia, religious bigotry, mentions of (potential) hate crimes. But Elliot’s story is also full of history not only around the Canadian landscape of his youth, but also of characters that he has played, and he does not shy away from sharing all of the gory details of

a local explosion that devastated Nova Scotia, or even the way that one of his film characters was murdered.

, which are mentioned in great detail. There are also several instances mentioned in detail where Elliot describes being

sexually assaulted

, and he also describes other instances of verbal abuse, often closely linked.

tigger89's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

Elliot Page's memoir, told in nonlinear format, covers topics ranging all the way from his emotionally-exhausting childhood in Nova Scotia to the fallout of his coming out publicly as trans at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. A unique blend of queer and celebrity memoir, we follow Page as he explains how his identities as both a queer person and as a boy(later a man) being forced into a straight, feminine role both on- and off-screen put him in a position of constant crisis. Something had to give, and it did, first in 2014 when he came out as queer and again in 2020 when he came out as trans.

As far as the queer memoir side of things go, this was a satisfying, illuminating read. Obviously Page's experience isn't everybody's experience. He admits that he's privileged in many ways, but he isn't ashamed — nor should he be — in recounting his lived experiences. I was particularly interested in his depiction of life as a closeted queer person, secretly dating women while working in the film industry, as well as how his childhood experiences shaped how he interacted with the world as an adult. I would caution readers that there are many passages — particular pertaining to sexual assault and gender dysphoria — that read as incompletely-processed trauma. There's not a lot of shielding on the emotions. Page provides content warnings at the front of the book, so please, take them seriously.

For the celebrity side of things, I don't really feel qualified to judge. I primarily know Page from his activism, and also I watched Juno. So mostly I was interested in how the celebrity stuff interacted with the queer stuff, and all the names just washed over me. The experience worked for me, but I can also understand someone who might want more anchoring being frustrated at the lack of explanation of who most of these people were. And of course there was the obligatory discretion, where "a member of crew" or "an acquaintance" did horrible things. I have no idea who those people were. In a way, the facelessness works. They could be anybody and we wouldn't know, which is the reality, since we know the list of people who have faced consequences for their behavior is woefully limited.

I personally loved the nonlinear format. The chapters are each gathered around a theme, concept, or state of mind, though it's not always obvious when you start off. Sometimes I had to flip back through, looking at the chapter title, before I spotted the connection and understood why the things were arranged the way they were. Another thing that will bother some people is Page's writing style. He frequently emphasizes or describes by stringing together several short sentence fragments. Distinct, painting a picture, individually striking. While Page is guilty of blatant comma abuse, I actually liked it. But I completely understand why it made some readers' skin crawl.

Important question time: do the dogs die?

Page owns two dogs over the course of the book. The first is alluded to as passing offscreen, and the second is still alive and well as if the end of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Stalking, Child abuse, Homophobia, Eating disorder, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Self harm, and Transphobia

Moderate: Car accident, Alcohol, Cancer, and Outing

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, and Animal death

julesadventurezone's review against another edition

challenging emotional medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Self harm, Sexual content, Bullying, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Religious bigotry, Violence, Vomit, Dysphoria, Hate crime, Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Deadnaming, Excrement, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Child abuse, Drug use, and Mental illness

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Pedophilia, Bullying, Misogyny, and Sexism

Minor: Car accident, Lesbophobia, Murder, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Classism, Torture, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Confinement, Toxic friendship, Cancer, Child death, Drug abuse, War, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis