Reviews tagging 'Deadnaming'

Pageboy by Elliot Page

146 reviews

kelisabeth's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.25


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stellahadz's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0


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jnestwd's review against another edition

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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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rizzykaye's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.5


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rsagarin's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.25


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hazelwood's review against another edition

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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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vagaybond's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense

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keziahgoodman's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0


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callidoralblack's review against another edition

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emotional

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sierrabowers's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I feel like it’s almost impossible not to give a memoir 5 stars, simply because it is someone else’s life experience, and how am I to judge that? But this one was very good. It highlights the importance of being kind to everyone, especially those in the LGBT+ community. I enjoyed hearing Elliot narrate his own audiobook because I could hear the emotions in his voice throughout the book. 

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