Scan barcode
koala_reader's review
1.5
There's a lot to unpack with this book. First of all, I can't say that I loved the book, that's why I gave it a bad rating. There were a lot of problematic things going on in this book but I also have to say that I understand the message that the author was trying to give out by writing it.
Let's start with the first thing that comes to mind, the main character, Sam. He is a thirteen year old boy living in London. He lives with his mom and dad who are politicians and also with his sister Jessica who at the beginning of the book comes out to her family as transgender (MTF). As a thirteen year old most people would think that you have a pretty good understanding of the world around you and the people living in it. By this I mean that usually you would be educated enough to know about the LGBTQ+ community or at least have heard of it. Even if that isn't the case, a thirteen year old definitely should have enough compassion to support a family member in whatever they are going through. But Sam is unfortunately nothing of the sort. As soon as Jessica comes out to her family he is extremely unsupportive, uncompassionate and in general just unthoughtful and begins to think that everything is about himself. He becomes mad and disappointed in his sister (which he has no right to be) and does nothing to support her or help her out in understanding her gender. Throughout the whole book Sam said that Jessica had in the past been a great brother to him and his role model and yet Sam couldn't just stop being selfish for once and be there for her. After Jessica comes out to him, Sam misgenders her constantly, not once calling her by her new name or even considering that she now is a girl. Both Jessica and aunt Rose corrected him multiple times saying that Jessica was now a girl and was to be referred to as "she/her" and should be called Jessica but even then, Sam didn't care. He thought that the whole world revolved around him and made everything about himself not once caring about how all this affected his sister. Instead he would blame her for the bullying he received and would constantly make her feel guilty of ruining his life.
Apart from Sam all of the other characters in this book misgendered Jessica all the time, except for Sam's wonderful aunt Rose. The parents are a whole other story. They are both extremely "busy" with their work and pay zero attention to their children. They failed at having children completely. Not only that but both of them were the most unsupportive parents I have ever encountered. They wanted to send Jessica to a psychiatrist but not for Jessica's sake, they just wanted to "fix" her. Both of the parents only ever cared about their jobs and the risk of losing them which was the only reason that they wanted to fix Jessica in the first place, otherwise they simply wouldn't have cared.
The characters in this book were extremely unlikeable and didn't change. You would think that there would be at least some type of character development throughout the book but that only happened at the very end. And the only "character development" that occured was the parents and Sam just pretending like nothing had happened and everything was ok.
Now like I said I understand the message in the book and what the author was trying to do but I think that there are so many other ways to teach children about transgender people or just people in the LBGTQ+ community in general. Even the title is misgendering Jessica. The point of view in this book is mostly of the family and how this "affects" them. And whilst, sure, it might be important, I don't think that this should be the main focus in the book. This shouldn't be about the family at all, it's not them going through it, it's Jessica. They should simply just have to be supportive whilst she figures herself out. There are other ways of going about writing a book like this.
This book really wasn't that great.
quinndm's review against another edition
3.0
This is an essential book for young readers, for the younger generation that will become our future leaders and heroes. It is an excellent introduction to the dynamics, concerns, and fears of dealing with a transgender child, sibling, and friend.
And this book came so close to perfection... were it not for the one-dimensional characters that, at times, only existed — and only said things — to blatantly express a theme; those moments lacked the substance that the book was continuously building towards.
And this book came so close to perfection... were it not for the one-dimensional characters that, at times, only existed — and only said things — to blatantly express a theme; those moments lacked the substance that the book was continuously building towards.
caught_between_pages's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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
3.5
wren_a's review
1.0
In the author’s note at the end, John Boyne says that a writer should not be limited to writing only what they know. I agree, but I also think a writer has a responsibility to think carefully about whether they are the best person to write a particular story.
John Boyne is not the best person to write this book and he makes many worrisome errors. What’s more worrying is that because he is a well-known writer, this book is held up as a shining example of transgender-related fiction, which is most definitely is not.
(Mild spoilers below)
Some of the problems include:
- the transgender character is dead named and misgendered by pretty much every other character for the majority of the book, and this is never addressed.
- Jessica is hardly in the book at all. We get little of her story or how her family’s ridiculous response is impacting her.
- the mother is portrayed as an uncaring, career-obsessed, bad mother, presumably because no woman can possibly have a high powered job AND be a good parent?
John Boyne is not the best person to write this book and he makes many worrisome errors. What’s more worrying is that because he is a well-known writer, this book is held up as a shining example of transgender-related fiction, which is most definitely is not.
(Mild spoilers below)
Some of the problems include:
- the transgender character is dead named and misgendered by pretty much every other character for the majority of the book, and this is never addressed.
- Jessica is hardly in the book at all. We get little of her story or how her family’s ridiculous response is impacting her.
- the mother is portrayed as an uncaring, career-obsessed, bad mother, presumably because no woman can possibly have a high powered job AND be a good parent?
kunny's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
For starters, I am a cis female.
A very close relative of mine is a transman and my focus is to learn more about transpeople in general.
So, I bought this book, because I found the description interesting.
Yes, the main character, Sam, deadnames his sister, Jessica, throughout the book until it changed at the almost-ending.
While I see the point in the constant deadnaming unnecessary, you also have to add the fact that Sam is a very young boy (13 years old) that never was in contact with lgbtq+ themes and grew up in a cis, white politics family.
His "brother" was always the one Person he trusted the most and growing up in a binary world, her saying that she is not his brother, but his sister, would be confusing for any 13 years old under those conditions, especially because he had his brain wired on the way the binary world is.
"Men don't wear long hair, it makes them look like a girl (degrading, of course.")
"boys play with cars, girls with dolls."
"Boys like girls, girls like boys."
"Men don't wear makeup" etc.
He didn't grow up with tolerance taught to him, seeing how his parents remark that "they didn't want the neighbourhood to change" after a (white) neighbour died, and we all know what that means if we are honest.
And, the way they tried to understand Jessica went horribly awful, but they are conservative People so expecting something else would be, usually, unfortunately extremely out of place.
Also, both his parents were most of the time absent, obsessed with their work, so his "brother" was the only one actually there for him.
Seeing how his "brother" was a girl shattered his whole worldview.
I know, queer people like I and maybe even you, reader of my review, think that adjusting shouldn't be so hard and that Jessica sufferred unnecessary (which she did).
The thing is, the book wasn't about Jessica.
It was about the people around and close to her, how they adjusted to it (or even not-adjusted to it) , the many, many different viewpoints and opinions and ways transpeople get treated.
I talked with my (ftm) friend about it and while it may not be for everyone, he could relate in a lot of points with Jessica and her family situation.
Maybe it is not really my say, as I am not a trans person, but I think the whole situation was well represented.
I don't know anything about the author, so this review is based solely on the book.
A very close relative of mine is a transman and my focus is to learn more about transpeople in general.
So, I bought this book, because I found the description interesting.
Yes, the main character, Sam, deadnames his sister, Jessica, throughout the book until it changed at the almost-ending.
While I see the point in the constant deadnaming unnecessary, you also have to add the fact that Sam is a very young boy (13 years old) that never was in contact with lgbtq+ themes and grew up in a cis, white politics family.
His "brother" was always the one Person he trusted the most and growing up in a binary world, her saying that she is not his brother, but his sister, would be confusing for any 13 years old under those conditions, especially because he had his brain wired on the way the binary world is.
"Men don't wear long hair, it makes them look like a girl (degrading, of course.")
"boys play with cars, girls with dolls."
"Boys like girls, girls like boys."
"Men don't wear makeup" etc.
He didn't grow up with tolerance taught to him, seeing how his parents remark that "they didn't want the neighbourhood to change" after a (white) neighbour died, and we all know what that means if we are honest.
And, the way they tried to understand Jessica went horribly awful, but they are conservative People so expecting something else would be, usually, unfortunately extremely out of place.
Also, both his parents were most of the time absent, obsessed with their work, so his "brother" was the only one actually there for him.
Seeing how his "brother" was a girl shattered his whole worldview.
I know, queer people like I and maybe even you, reader of my review, think that adjusting shouldn't be so hard and that Jessica sufferred unnecessary (which she did).
The thing is, the book wasn't about Jessica.
It was about the people around and close to her, how they adjusted to it (or even not-adjusted to it) , the many, many different viewpoints and opinions and ways transpeople get treated.
I talked with my (ftm) friend about it and while it may not be for everyone, he could relate in a lot of points with Jessica and her family situation.
Maybe it is not really my say, as I am not a trans person, but I think the whole situation was well represented.
I don't know anything about the author, so this review is based solely on the book.
lea_is_readingg's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.5
i’ve read it entirely and the whole time I was hoping that it would get better and the transphobic shit would stop. i was WRONG.
yes, in the end, the family accepted Jessica, but that was just only spread about ca. 20 pages and felt wrong. It seemed that we either just didn’t get the part where everything changed, that he was in a rush to finish it or that he tried to make his transphobic bullshit legit w making the end acceptable. don’t read it, neither plot or the way it is written are good enough to balance out the transphobia.
I’m never gonna read it again. We don’t need cis authors writing about how much the cis siblings life changes and his problems. We need trans* ppl talking about their experience.
You can’t missgender a trans person for the whole book (minus the last few pages) and call it educational
yes, in the end, the family accepted Jessica, but that was just only spread about ca. 20 pages and felt wrong. It seemed that we either just didn’t get the part where everything changed, that he was in a rush to finish it or that he tried to make his transphobic bullshit legit w making the end acceptable. don’t read it, neither plot or the way it is written are good enough to balance out the transphobia.
I’m never gonna read it again. We don’t need cis authors writing about how much the cis siblings life changes and his problems. We need trans* ppl talking about their experience.
You can’t missgender a trans person for the whole book (minus the last few pages) and call it educational
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Deadnaming, and Transphobia
kleinerdiktator's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
ecster's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The characters felt cartoonish at times but it is of course a YA book so i'm not the target age group. I loved the story and the positivity it exudes and while I'm always a bit wary of cis people writing trans characters, I couldn't find flaws with how Jessica was depicted.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia
maart_je's review against another edition
3.0
2020 Popsugar Ultimate Reading Challenge:
26 - A book with a pun in the title
26 - A book with a pun in the title