Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'

Pageboy by Elliot Page

451 reviews

ashleighaddams's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

To receive a story so honest, so beautifully narrated was honestly a surprise to me.
This memoir illustrates a life time of struggle, inauthentic and genuine connectivity with others, a journey of self discovery and coming into their identity. 
Elliot Page manages to create a memoir that can connect to the hearts of many, particularly trans people who need to know their own identity doesn’t necessarily come to overnight. 
He manages to articulate the struggle inside a brain that so many of us grapple with. 
I will be forever grateful and truly honoured that we were privileged to be told about his life.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Eating disorder and Self harm

Minor: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Hate crime

lzimmeade's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Sexual assault, Bullying, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Self harm, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and Eating disorder

kaylanoellesims's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Blood and Deadnaming

csoyars's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Stalking, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Child abuse, Medical content, Sexism, Bullying, Dysphoria, and Transphobia

Moderate: Self harm and Suicidal thoughts

dodgethepurple's review against another edition

3.5

I really wanted to like this book but it fell flat. Maybe because I know a lot about trans issues and experiences it didn't feel as eye-opening as I'd hoped. Most of the book seems to be about sexual experiences rather than exploration of gender.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence and Sexual assault

Moderate: Transphobia, Deadnaming, and Eating disorder

dafni's review against another edition

inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

2.75

I hold a lot of admiration for Elliot Page and I was really looking forward to reading this book. Maybe my expectations were surprisingly high, but I thought this would be a brilliant book. Until it wasn’t. 

Elliot has shared in his interview that transness is not linear, and this conceptualisation formed the basis for presenting his story in a non-chronological order. I respect that, but it did not work for me at all. I found the writing to be all over the place, jumping around and going back and forth to the point that was extremely confusing and unpleasant. Elliot was not just jumping between past and present, but even between past and past or present and present, so there was absolutely no coherence in the writing. He did not contextualise the lived experience at the beginning of each chapter and as a reader I found myself often halfway through a chapter to understand we are back at his teenage years or a different point in time. 

I appreciate the pain of identity concealment, parental rejection, homophobia and transphobia. This memoir acts as an account of Elliot’s pain and struggles, but only scratched the surface. I felt Elliot did not dive deep into the felt experience and lacked reflections of his own privileges in this battle. 

The narration of the audio book was colourless and with no expression in his voice, which made the experience of listening difficult and disengaging. 

Should you read the book? Unsure.
Would I recommend it? Unsure too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia and Homophobia

Moderate: Eating disorder and Dysphoria

Minor: Drug abuse

inkerly's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

4.0

3.9 ish stars

The memoir broke me. Literally. My heart would break in every chapter or my jaw would drop . Im not an Elliot Page fan but I enjoy movies he’s been in (Juno, Inception), and I like that he is one of the more relatable celebrities. Elliot has been through a lot in his 37 years of living and he was failed multiple times by the adults around him. I thought I would be reading a book about the inspiring journey of a transman  coming into his identity but what I’m left with is the story of a man who is still trying to pick up the pieces of his life and resolve undue childhood trauma while breaking barriers and staying true to himself. I think the fact that Elliot’s journey is still  “to be continued” makes this book raw and real, but at the same time reading it also felt like reading a sequence of disjointed events (all sad) that didn’t provide complete closure. Based on recent articles and photos of him I sense that his journey with his body dysmorphia is not completely over.  I support Elliot and hope that this new chapter of his life makes him stronger and better than he can ever imagine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Homophobia, Transphobia, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Dysphoria, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, and Body shaming

Minor: Death of parent

vixenreader's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.25

A structure based on the journey towards self-love, this memoir is deeply poignant, unflinching, and vulnerable, and a honest experience about how wilful ignorance and prejudice ultimately perpetrates the bigotry experienced by the trans community. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Bullying, Toxic friendship, Lesbophobia, Dysphoria, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Deadnaming, and Sexism

Moderate: Death, Medical content, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Cancer, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, and Pregnancy

Minor: Self harm, Drug use, Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic, Biphobia, Alcoholism, Violence, Blood, Classism, and Drug abuse

Be aware that there are themes of parental neglect, rejecting a trans child, bi-erasure, putting actors in harm’s way, the influence of the internet, tension within unhealthy relationships, unhealthy polyamory, heartbreak, threats towards trans and queer folks, nudity in film, erasure of queer identity, and being forced back into the closet.

melist6's review against another edition

emotional informative sad medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Dysphoria, Deadnaming, Homophobia, and Transphobia

Moderate: Biphobia, Sexual content, Eating disorder, Drug use, and Self harm

barefootbetsy's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

4.0

This was a difficult read. What other reviews have mentioned is true, there's not a really clear linear structure. But there is a structure, it's just more circular or spiral-y in nature. The structure seems a little fuzzier than what most of us are used to, which is one reason why this is a memoir, not an autobiography.

There was also more explicit material than I'd been expecting, but it was all relevant, not gratuitous. 

All things considered, I'm glad I read it. If you're interested in Elliot's story then I'd recommend you read it, if you aren't interested in his story then you probably won't enjoy the book very much. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Rape, Bullying, Grief, Transphobia, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual assault, Blood, Body shaming, Drug use, Eating disorder, and Self harm