Reviews with content warning for Transphobia - Pageboy

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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dafni's review against another edition

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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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aoife_mdc's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

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inkerly's review against another edition

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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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amylangdown_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Having followed Elliot’s transition over the last few years, this book gave me a real insight into his life. It manifests perfectly, in a way I’ve never seen before, gender dysphoria and the way transness, and queerness in general, shapes a life. I listened via audiobook and it was hard to listen to at times, but honest. And it’s so clear that he has done a lot of reflection to be able to discuss the past in such a way that is careful and analysed.

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vixenreader's review against another edition

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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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