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bw23's review
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
3.5
Gossipy well written celeb-memoir vibes
bootrat's review against another edition
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, and Transphobia
Moderate: Death of parent, Homophobia, Bullying, Deadnaming, Death, Terminal illness, and Violence
brnineworms's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
4.0
“Would ya rather have loadsa people hate ya an’ loadsa people love ya, or not be hated by many people but also not be loved by that many people?”
Fucked up but presented in a “c’est la vie” kind of way. The memoir follows Lees throughout her adolescence, with higher highs and lower lows than most. She’s so naive to begin with. I suppose that only makes it all the more gratifying to watch her mature and figure herself out.
Charismatic. Sympathetic. I’d love to read a follow-up.
CONTENT WARNINGS: homophobia, transphobia, racism, child abuse, adult/minor sex, grooming, violence, drug use, psychosis, suicidality, death, imprisonment
annaonthepage's review against another edition
Narration was very monotonous and had huge gaps between sentences. Couldn't listen for very long.
friesianfresco's review
4.0
A wonderful regular at work gave this to me - reckon her next coffee’ll have to be on me.
Lees’ writing is compelling and immersive - the use of dialect never feels hackneyed and fills the pages with (often funny, often touching) life. Gloriously honest, What It Feels Like For a Girl is a refreshing read for a trans person in that its protagonist is no saint, and no pariah. God I’d love to have a pint with Paris Lees.
Lees’ writing is compelling and immersive - the use of dialect never feels hackneyed and fills the pages with (often funny, often touching) life. Gloriously honest, What It Feels Like For a Girl is a refreshing read for a trans person in that its protagonist is no saint, and no pariah. God I’d love to have a pint with Paris Lees.
_jenwilbur's review
emotional
funny
medium-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Alcohol, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Adult/minor relationship, and Drug use
Moderate: Addiction, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gun violence, Transphobia, Terminal illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Homophobia, Hate crime, Grief, Sexual content, Racial slurs, and Mental illness
kaceychilvers's review
4.0
This is an amazing book - an honest exploration of what it was like for Paris Lees growing up as a trans girl in a place that didn't accept her.
I'm always hesitant about books that could be considered misery memoirs because I don't need reminding how terrible the world can be. And while Lees' life has been full of hardships, challenges and genuinely terrible moments, she never dwells on it in a self-indulgent way. She tells you how it is or how it was and as a result, her book feels more like having a chat with a friend than anything else.
Something rarely discussed is that the life of a minority individual means that your life gets hijacked from time to time. You are no longer an individual acting with individual interests, experiences and motivations, you are a representative forced to portray an entire community for the ulterior motives of others. Currently, trans people are being used by numerous groups to scaremonger voters. Trans people are being dehumanized to serve the selfish desires of people in power.
That is why it is so refreshing to read a book like this. Lees isn't speaking on behalf of trans women everywhere. She isn't the monster TERFs make trans women out to be. And she isn't a saint who has lived a flawless life so that she can be used as a poster child. She is a person. She is a woman who has lived a life of mistakes, setbacks, achievements, relatable and surreal moments and we need more books like this.
My one and only real complaint is the way it is written. Not the structure or style. Being a writer for many years, she knows what she is doing. It is more that she writes in a dialect and as someone who can barely read proper English, it was a struggle at times. It wasn't a deal breaker but dyslexics should maybe prepare themselves before reading. I'm sure a lot of people from the area will get a real kick out of it.
So overall, I'd recommend it to any and everyone.
I'm always hesitant about books that could be considered misery memoirs because I don't need reminding how terrible the world can be. And while Lees' life has been full of hardships, challenges and genuinely terrible moments, she never dwells on it in a self-indulgent way. She tells you how it is or how it was and as a result, her book feels more like having a chat with a friend than anything else.
Something rarely discussed is that the life of a minority individual means that your life gets hijacked from time to time. You are no longer an individual acting with individual interests, experiences and motivations, you are a representative forced to portray an entire community for the ulterior motives of others. Currently, trans people are being used by numerous groups to scaremonger voters. Trans people are being dehumanized to serve the selfish desires of people in power.
That is why it is so refreshing to read a book like this. Lees isn't speaking on behalf of trans women everywhere. She isn't the monster TERFs make trans women out to be. And she isn't a saint who has lived a flawless life so that she can be used as a poster child. She is a person. She is a woman who has lived a life of mistakes, setbacks, achievements, relatable and surreal moments and we need more books like this.
My one and only real complaint is the way it is written. Not the structure or style. Being a writer for many years, she knows what she is doing. It is more that she writes in a dialect and as someone who can barely read proper English, it was a struggle at times. It wasn't a deal breaker but dyslexics should maybe prepare themselves before reading. I'm sure a lot of people from the area will get a real kick out of it.
So overall, I'd recommend it to any and everyone.
wendoxford's review
1.0
I hate a book in dialect. I found it unnecessarily hard work and would have stopped reading after the first pages except it was a book group read.
The USP of this memoir is the drilling down into the situation of Byron becoming Paris, a young trans story. For me, this really didn't hugely differ (in content) from Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez and Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart. Poverty, abuse, addiction and being your own person. That said, I really disliked both of those books as well. However this has the added extra of Nottinghamshire patois.
There is nothing in this book that gave me any understanding of the trans experience. It somehow seems to dodge the danger elements of prostitution and was all presented as a bit of a lark. The implicit narrative was the blatant grooming to which Lees was subjected to by older men but this is given as much attention as a bus journey. Her part in a crime, conviction and prison sentence are so light touch that they could have been excluded. Surely this is an open door to explain how it feels being a woman in a man's body.
If (and that's a big if, from me) this seemed at some stage, to be a publishable memoir, surely an editor should have suggested some reflection on these endlessly damaging experiences and dysfunctional parenting. Instead we are bombarded with it being the froth of youth and not as bad as the murkier depths of the story indicate.
Truly dreadful
The USP of this memoir is the drilling down into the situation of Byron becoming Paris, a young trans story. For me, this really didn't hugely differ (in content) from Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez and Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart. Poverty, abuse, addiction and being your own person. That said, I really disliked both of those books as well. However this has the added extra of Nottinghamshire patois.
There is nothing in this book that gave me any understanding of the trans experience. It somehow seems to dodge the danger elements of prostitution and was all presented as a bit of a lark. The implicit narrative was the blatant grooming to which Lees was subjected to by older men but this is given as much attention as a bus journey. Her part in a crime, conviction and prison sentence are so light touch that they could have been excluded. Surely this is an open door to explain how it feels being a woman in a man's body.
If (and that's a big if, from me) this seemed at some stage, to be a publishable memoir, surely an editor should have suggested some reflection on these endlessly damaging experiences and dysfunctional parenting. Instead we are bombarded with it being the froth of youth and not as bad as the murkier depths of the story indicate.
Truly dreadful