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geokl7's review
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
montanackman's review
4.0
Sweet, painful, heartfelt, and brutally honest. My Brother's Name is Jessica is a story about a younger brother processing the what it means to have a transgender sister, grieve the loss of his brother, and learn to love the person that his sister is becoming.
This book ripped my heart out of my chest, stomped on it a few times, and then gave it back to me with a reason to beat.
Be prepared to cry SO MANY TEARS!
This book ripped my heart out of my chest, stomped on it a few times, and then gave it back to me with a reason to beat.
Be prepared to cry SO MANY TEARS!
phantomx's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
caitrionas77's review
If I could give this a negative amount of stars then I would, instead I will give it no rating at all.
gmca91's review
1.0
I have mixed feelings about this book.
I think I see what the author was trying to achieve, but the constant misgendering and transphobic views throughout were hard for me (a cis person) so would worry they could be detrimental to someone who is transgender. I’m not sure if we’re supposed to dislike Sam, but I couldn’t stand him from very early on so the story wasn’t enjoyable.
Persevered hoping it would get better…
I think I see what the author was trying to achieve, but the constant misgendering and transphobic views throughout were hard for me (a cis person) so would worry they could be detrimental to someone who is transgender. I’m not sure if we’re supposed to dislike Sam, but I couldn’t stand him from very early on so the story wasn’t enjoyable.
Persevered hoping it would get better…
kiwiwonder's review
3.0
My Brother's Name is Jessica tells the story from the point of view of Sam, the younger brother of Jason, who (as the title foretells) becomes Jessica. At the start of the story, Sam is 13 and Jason is 17. Their parents are heavily involved with politics, to the point of focusing nearly 100% of their time on politics and being largely absentee parents, and the backstory we're given suggests that it has more or less always been this way for them. Not very long into the book, surprise surprise, Jason announces that he's actually always felt like he's a girl, and doesn't want to keep on living the lie of trying to fit in as a boy, and the story unfolds from there.
I love the premise of this book. I'm unsure of the execution.
Admittedly, the only other Boyne book I've read is "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas", which was legitimately better than this one, although they have many similarities.
In the "Boy in Striped PJs.." the narrator of the story has a *very* young voice, though from memory he's meant to be about 8 years old. However, it seems justifiable, because throughout the story plenty of evidence is given to show that he's had a priviledged, and somewhat naive, upbringing, so a younger-than-expected voice, even for an 8 year old, is understandable.
In this book, the narrator is 13 at the beginning, but it reads much closer to 7 or 8. I'm not entirely sure WHY in this case. Given the nature of the parent's jobs (Mum is a Cabinet minister and Dad, the private secretary to her) and the upbringing that's been described by the narrator, he should certainly sound older than 8 years old, but he just doesn't. We know that he's at least a little sheltered, with evidence of parental controls on YouTube and the like, but it's still not realistic. This is a boy who's afraid of the f-bomb. I teach teenagers every day, and have yet to meet a teen that will beat around the bush about the f-bomb. Plenty that know it's rude and decline to state it, but none that treat it quite like Sam, the narrator.
Other aspects started to rile me as well. The parents are painfully disconnected from their children (which is part of the point I think) which made them, in my opinion, quite unlikeable, but even that seems a bit over-the-top in how it's carried out. Ultimately, the anaphoras within the book - "my brother Jason", and "climbing the greasy pole" became trite and meaningless. The English teacher in me understands that they're there to make a point, and to add emphasis, and also to show us exactly how the character thinks about these things in his own thoughts - but, like, we get it already. Nearly every time Sam refers to his brother, it's "my brother Jason", and never just "Jason". It would have seemed more effective, or even more deliberate,
My confusion over how to catergorise this book led me to do some additional digging to see if there were official guidelines for the difference between middle-grade books and young-adult - and unsurprisingly, there are. I picked up the book expecting it to be YA - possibly on the young side of YA, but YA nonetheless. And I've finished this book thinking that it *should* be YA, but that actually it's an MG book that sells itself short for both catergories. Officially speaking, this ticks the boxes of an MG book - there's no profanity (the inclusion-yet-avoidance of it, as noted above, borders on ridiculous) and the 13 year old character has his first kiss in the book (which is a very minor subplot that I wouldn't even deem as a proper romance) and it's light and very readable. However, making Sam 13 is where I think this book comes unstuck. Because he never reads like a 13 year old - or 14 by the end - it would make so much more sense to have made Sam age eight, or nine, or maybe even 10, and had this book stay comfortably in the middle-grade range in all aspects. I don't mind reading middle-grade books occasionally and I've read some really good examples of them.... but this one just annoys me because I don't think it 'should' have been written as a MG book. Instead, I constantly felt like I was reading a 'YA for dummies' book that wasn't YA at all and therefore somewhat insulting the readers by dumbing everything down and being super duper obvious on everything. Possibly Boyne was afraid that this isn't a subject well-tackled before very upper MGs, and I'd vehmently disagree - but it would have been better to tackle either by writing *up*, and making it a proper YA book (with the dumbing down removed and treating Sam like a proper teenager) or by making it a proper MG book and changing Sam to a nine-year-old as his mentality suggests. Instead I was left frustrated on both counts.
Overall - it was a quick read, and probably not a complete waste of my time. However, I feel like ultimately it could have been much more with some tweaking here and there and handled a very valid and complex topic better, particularly if things weren't so annoying overdone throughout.
I love the premise of this book. I'm unsure of the execution.
Admittedly, the only other Boyne book I've read is "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas", which was legitimately better than this one, although they have many similarities.
In the "Boy in Striped PJs.." the narrator of the story has a *very* young voice, though from memory he's meant to be about 8 years old. However, it seems justifiable, because throughout the story plenty of evidence is given to show that he's had a priviledged, and somewhat naive, upbringing, so a younger-than-expected voice, even for an 8 year old, is understandable.
In this book, the narrator is 13 at the beginning, but it reads much closer to 7 or 8. I'm not entirely sure WHY in this case. Given the nature of the parent's jobs (Mum is a Cabinet minister and Dad, the private secretary to her) and the upbringing that's been described by the narrator, he should certainly sound older than 8 years old, but he just doesn't. We know that he's at least a little sheltered, with evidence of parental controls on YouTube and the like, but it's still not realistic. This is a boy who's afraid of the f-bomb. I teach teenagers every day, and have yet to meet a teen that will beat around the bush about the f-bomb. Plenty that know it's rude and decline to state it, but none that treat it quite like Sam, the narrator.
Other aspects started to rile me as well. The parents are painfully disconnected from their children (which is part of the point I think) which made them, in my opinion, quite unlikeable, but even that seems a bit over-the-top in how it's carried out. Ultimately, the anaphoras within the book - "my brother Jason", and "climbing the greasy pole" became trite and meaningless. The English teacher in me understands that they're there to make a point, and to add emphasis, and also to show us exactly how the character thinks about these things in his own thoughts - but, like, we get it already. Nearly every time Sam refers to his brother, it's "my brother Jason", and never just "Jason". It would have seemed more effective, or even more deliberate,
Spoiler
if at the end it was repeated with the same emphasis... a la "My sister Jessica..." in the same ad-nauseum way, but although obviously Sam comes to accept that his brother is now his sister, we largely miss out on that repetition. Surely this could have been used better by the author, particularly while Sam is still coming to terms with Jessica's gender, as a way of repeating it to himself *during* that phase. But that's not what seems to happen, at least from what insight we as the readers are given.My confusion over how to catergorise this book led me to do some additional digging to see if there were official guidelines for the difference between middle-grade books and young-adult - and unsurprisingly, there are. I picked up the book expecting it to be YA - possibly on the young side of YA, but YA nonetheless. And I've finished this book thinking that it *should* be YA, but that actually it's an MG book that sells itself short for both catergories. Officially speaking, this ticks the boxes of an MG book - there's no profanity (the inclusion-yet-avoidance of it, as noted above, borders on ridiculous) and the 13 year old character has his first kiss in the book (which is a very minor subplot that I wouldn't even deem as a proper romance) and it's light and very readable. However, making Sam 13 is where I think this book comes unstuck. Because he never reads like a 13 year old - or 14 by the end - it would make so much more sense to have made Sam age eight, or nine, or maybe even 10, and had this book stay comfortably in the middle-grade range in all aspects. I don't mind reading middle-grade books occasionally and I've read some really good examples of them.... but this one just annoys me because I don't think it 'should' have been written as a MG book. Instead, I constantly felt like I was reading a 'YA for dummies' book that wasn't YA at all and therefore somewhat insulting the readers by dumbing everything down and being super duper obvious on everything. Possibly Boyne was afraid that this isn't a subject well-tackled before very upper MGs, and I'd vehmently disagree - but it would have been better to tackle either by writing *up*, and making it a proper YA book (with the dumbing down removed and treating Sam like a proper teenager) or by making it a proper MG book and changing Sam to a nine-year-old as his mentality suggests. Instead I was left frustrated on both counts.
Overall - it was a quick read, and probably not a complete waste of my time. However, I feel like ultimately it could have been much more with some tweaking here and there and handled a very valid and complex topic better, particularly if things weren't so annoying overdone throughout.
brittys_books's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
teyn's review
1.0
Bleurgh... No. Vomit worthy.
The first two chapters were so cute, and I expected the deadnaming to end as soon as Jessica came out. I wanted this to be a book about redefining a sibling relationship on new terms with growth and mutual support. I'm genderfluid myself and am still referred to by a gendered sibling title that has always been a part of my identity, and so I was hoping for at least a semblance of representation.
Instead, it was the clumsy imitation of some perverse transphobic narrative. The few characters I actually liked, including Jessica herself, were barely in the book. So, this ended up just being a bunch of cis people whining about a trans teenager's struggle's effects on their lives (with a nonsensical heteronormative romance subplot, because why not mess this up even more?). Not to mention the cringeworthy afterword where the author tries to convince us he's qualified to write about these topics because he "always felt different" as a cisgender, gay man. F that. F this book. I really did try to give it a shot, but no.
Thank goodness I got this for free through the library or I would be so mad to have given any money for this crap.
The first two chapters were so cute, and I expected the deadnaming to end as soon as Jessica came out. I wanted this to be a book about redefining a sibling relationship on new terms with growth and mutual support. I'm genderfluid myself and am still referred to by a gendered sibling title that has always been a part of my identity, and so I was hoping for at least a semblance of representation.
Instead, it was the clumsy imitation of some perverse transphobic narrative. The few characters I actually liked, including Jessica herself, were barely in the book. So, this ended up just being a bunch of cis people whining about a trans teenager's struggle's effects on their lives (with a nonsensical heteronormative romance subplot, because why not mess this up even more?). Not to mention the cringeworthy afterword where the author tries to convince us he's qualified to write about these topics because he "always felt different" as a cisgender, gay man. F that. F this book. I really did try to give it a shot, but no.
Thank goodness I got this for free through the library or I would be so mad to have given any money for this crap.
3lf0nth3sh3lf's review
1.0
terrible awful bad book. i dont have the energy to write a fully formatted scathing review so I'll leave it at that. glad it only wasted about an hour of my time.