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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
I DNF'ed this book around the 50ish% point. I had a lot of issues with this book.
First, I want to ask you to please read other read other reviews on this book that also had similar concerns as me, because I feel like those voices speak on this better than me and with more authority to do so.
My first and main issue with this whole book was the fact that it was written by a cis author. I get that she was trying to bring inclusivity and whatever, but honestly, I don't think it is her place at all to try to speak on being trans and especially the trauma many trans teens go through when she has never experienced those situations. I also disliked how she handled Chris, the main character. She seemed to skip over a lot of the trauma he went through, and a lot of the conversation around him being trans, such as hormones and transitioning, as well as using a binder. (It seemed like he was using a binder while running as well as while sleeping, both of which can be very dangerous.)
In addition, I had issues with this book's pacing and with the characters themselves. Frankly, this book was boring to me. I am cool with character studies and books being character-based, but the characters had no growth, I thought Maia was mean most of the time and I hated the whole plot of her lying about who she really is, and I wasn't invested in the "young love" at all.
But I was done, when Maia starting taking pictures of Chris and he was outted by her. That's not only creepy and invasive, but I feel like its assault. She never ever got consent from him. And that is ABSOLUTELY NOT OKAY. So in light of all of that, I won't recommend this to anyone ever. Find a book written by own voices trans authors about their experiences instead.
First, I want to ask you to please read other read other reviews on this book that also had similar concerns as me, because I feel like those voices speak on this better than me and with more authority to do so.
My first and main issue with this whole book was the fact that it was written by a cis author. I get that she was trying to bring inclusivity and whatever, but honestly, I don't think it is her place at all to try to speak on being trans and especially the trauma many trans teens go through when she has never experienced those situations. I also disliked how she handled Chris, the main character. She seemed to skip over a lot of the trauma he went through, and a lot of the conversation around him being trans, such as hormones and transitioning, as well as using a binder. (It seemed like he was using a binder while running as well as while sleeping, both of which can be very dangerous.)
In addition, I had issues with this book's pacing and with the characters themselves. Frankly, this book was boring to me. I am cool with character studies and books being character-based, but the characters had no growth, I thought Maia was mean most of the time and I hated the whole plot of her lying about who she really is, and I wasn't invested in the "young love" at all.
But I was done, when Maia starting taking pictures of Chris and he was outted by her. That's not only creepy and invasive, but I feel like its assault. She never ever got consent from him. And that is ABSOLUTELY NOT OKAY. So in light of all of that, I won't recommend this to anyone ever. Find a book written by own voices trans authors about their experiences instead.
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
2.5 stars: I liked the story. Some flaws, but overall, I liked it. But the ending was just so sad that I couldn't give an entire three or even four stars. I know that's a terrible reason to rate it lower and the ending is actually "realistic," but I can't help what I feel.
Originally published on Cyn's Workshop
Something Like Gravity is a remarkable story that follows two characters trying to navigate their new lives in different ways. For Chris, he is a trans man who is trying to navigate his newfound acceptance of his identity the affect it has had on those around him. However, due to the hatred and bigotry that he has faced leading to an assault that landed him in the hospital, Chris has moved in with his aunt miles away from home. This is a genuine issue and the way the author does not shy away from the brutality of the scene while also not just giving it to the reader initially, allowing some build-up creates an impact on the reader. The scene inserts itself suddenly, and yet the flow to it, the buildup and the context connect with the reader. This is something that unfortunately happens every day, where brutality and assault like the one Chris endures makes the news, and the way Smith brings it to young readers allows the reader to understand and empathize with Chris while also bringing light to the issue. The way Chris operates the way he grows his sense of trust and identity; it is all done so well in the novel to the point that the reader can grasp who Chris is as a person.
For Maia, her world has turned upside down because her sister died suddenly of an undiagnosed health issue. Her life was always living in her sister’s shadow, and she was content with that until she was not. That is the part of the story that breaks her because she does not ‘know how to navigate this new world without her sister overshadowing. She does not know how to be Maia without her; she never had an identity of her own. Maia spends the earlier parts of the novel trying to connect with who her sister was. For Maia, her journey is all about navigating through her anger and her grief.
The story brings these two characters together so that together they find the acceptance, love, and inner peace they need. Through each other, they can look inside themselves and find the peace that they need. It is an empowering message to readers no matter what situation they are going through. That is why Something Like Gravity is such a compelling read, it resonates with the reader and makes for in a genuinely compelling read.
See more reviews at Cyn's Workshop and follow me on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Tumblr | | Goodreads+ | LinkedIn
Something Like Gravity is a remarkable story that follows two characters trying to navigate their new lives in different ways. For Chris, he is a trans man who is trying to navigate his newfound acceptance of his identity the affect it has had on those around him. However, due to the hatred and bigotry that he has faced leading to an assault that landed him in the hospital, Chris has moved in with his aunt miles away from home. This is a genuine issue and the way the author does not shy away from the brutality of the scene while also not just giving it to the reader initially, allowing some build-up creates an impact on the reader. The scene inserts itself suddenly, and yet the flow to it, the buildup and the context connect with the reader. This is something that unfortunately happens every day, where brutality and assault like the one Chris endures makes the news, and the way Smith brings it to young readers allows the reader to understand and empathize with Chris while also bringing light to the issue. The way Chris operates the way he grows his sense of trust and identity; it is all done so well in the novel to the point that the reader can grasp who Chris is as a person.
For Maia, her world has turned upside down because her sister died suddenly of an undiagnosed health issue. Her life was always living in her sister’s shadow, and she was content with that until she was not. That is the part of the story that breaks her because she does not ‘know how to navigate this new world without her sister overshadowing. She does not know how to be Maia without her; she never had an identity of her own. Maia spends the earlier parts of the novel trying to connect with who her sister was. For Maia, her journey is all about navigating through her anger and her grief.
The story brings these two characters together so that together they find the acceptance, love, and inner peace they need. Through each other, they can look inside themselves and find the peace that they need. It is an empowering message to readers no matter what situation they are going through. That is why Something Like Gravity is such a compelling read, it resonates with the reader and makes for in a genuinely compelling read.
See more reviews at Cyn's Workshop and follow me on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Tumblr | | Goodreads+ | LinkedIn
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Good book, well written, slightly problematic plot points, focuses on trans experience but not written by trans author
emotional
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It started off as a good book that was fun to read and was enjoyable but the ending was rushed and didn’t end well. It was unsatisfying and left a bad taste in my mouth.
Well that was fantastic and beautiful oh my goodness
TWs for assault, sexual assault, and nonconsensual outing of a trans character
Overall, I liked a lot about this book. I like books that explore sadness through anger, because when I'm sad I usually express it as anger myself. And these were some volatile, angry characters in a lot of ways.
But, going into this I was hesitant about a trans boy being written by a cis woman, and I think I was right to be. On the one hand, there were some terrible tropes: the fact that Chris was outed to Maia when she "accidentally" spied on him (her intention hadn't been to spy on him when she was outside his window, but she didn't leave when he came home) and she saw him take his binder off; and the fact that Chris's backstory includes sexual assault (he is beaten and his genitals are touched through his clothes without his consent, and it is later revealed his attacker had unzipped his pants with Chris beneath him on the ground) which is, unfortunately, a trope for a lot of LGBTQ+ characters.
This kind of history with traumas (esp. sexual traumas) is not uncommon for Amber Smith's books, and so I wasn't surprised, but I was disappointed by the seeming lack of sensitivity required to write these kinds of scenes and their effects on trans people specifically.
Additionally, overall Chris's dysphoria was kind of all over the place; the things he did made little sense. The show vs. tell of his dysphoria don't really match up. You could definitely feel that it was written by a person without gender dysphoria, because the explanations of how he felt were surface level and his actions didn't match up.
Also, as other reviewers have mentioned, the incorrect usage of his binder is dangerous and yet not touched on, and the effects he must have been going through while taking T were also breezed over in a way that seemed odd. Maybe Smith was trying not to step on the toes of trans writers by staying out of trans-specific narratives (such as the process and effects of transitioning) in favor of just *having* a trans character without it being A Whole Trans Thing™, but seeing as Chris's storyline is entirely reliant on his transness anyways, it would seem that she had already put herself in the position of writing a trans-specific narrative. So she should have at least done it justice by doing her research (or showing us that she did it) and having more sensitivity readers (which I didn't really see mention of in acknowledgements, which is something I always look for in non-own voices stories). Instead, these fleeting mentions of transitioning made it feel like Chris was very much the One-Dimensional Trans Character with the cookie-cutter surface-level One Size Fits All trans experience.
All in all, this book still resonated with me in some ways; I think grief and loss and family trouble were all well-written and emotionally impactful. But I wouldn't recommend it as good trans rep, and really wish I could, because I desperately want to see more trans people being loved in YA. Thankfully, more and more own voices novels are coming out, so we have that to look forward to.
Overall, I liked a lot about this book. I like books that explore sadness through anger, because when I'm sad I usually express it as anger myself. And these were some volatile, angry characters in a lot of ways.
But, going into this I was hesitant about a trans boy being written by a cis woman, and I think I was right to be. On the one hand, there were some terrible tropes: the fact that Chris was outed to Maia when she "accidentally" spied on him (her intention hadn't been to spy on him when she was outside his window, but she didn't leave when he came home) and she saw him take his binder off; and the fact that Chris's backstory includes sexual assault (he is beaten and his genitals are touched through his clothes without his consent, and it is later revealed his attacker had unzipped his pants with Chris beneath him on the ground) which is, unfortunately, a trope for a lot of LGBTQ+ characters.
This kind of history with traumas (esp. sexual traumas) is not uncommon for Amber Smith's books, and so I wasn't surprised, but I was disappointed by the seeming lack of sensitivity required to write these kinds of scenes and their effects on trans people specifically.
Additionally, overall Chris's dysphoria was kind of all over the place; the things he did made little sense. The show vs. tell of his dysphoria don't really match up. You could definitely feel that it was written by a person without gender dysphoria, because the explanations of how he felt were surface level and his actions didn't match up.
Also, as other reviewers have mentioned, the incorrect usage of his binder is dangerous and yet not touched on, and the effects he must have been going through while taking T were also breezed over in a way that seemed odd. Maybe Smith was trying not to step on the toes of trans writers by staying out of trans-specific narratives (such as the process and effects of transitioning) in favor of just *having* a trans character without it being A Whole Trans Thing™, but seeing as Chris's storyline is entirely reliant on his transness anyways, it would seem that she had already put herself in the position of writing a trans-specific narrative. So she should have at least done it justice by doing her research (or showing us that she did it) and having more sensitivity readers (which I didn't really see mention of in acknowledgements, which is something I always look for in non-own voices stories). Instead, these fleeting mentions of transitioning made it feel like Chris was very much the One-Dimensional Trans Character with the cookie-cutter surface-level One Size Fits All trans experience.
All in all, this book still resonated with me in some ways; I think grief and loss and family trouble were all well-written and emotionally impactful. But I wouldn't recommend it as good trans rep, and really wish I could, because I desperately want to see more trans people being loved in YA. Thankfully, more and more own voices novels are coming out, so we have that to look forward to.
medium-paced
Four stars because while this was overall a very good book, the author is not transgender and it showed in one major issue and one minor issue. But I'll start with what I enjoyed first!
Chris and Maia, the two main characters, had very different voices and were fully their own people. They were both dorky about their own individual thing, and while Maia's "thing" was really stolen from her sister, she didn't feel bland or boring even though she's a person who very much did not know what to do with her life and hadn't figured out her own dreams or goals. Meanwhile, Chris had interests outside of being transgender! Low bar, obv, but still. A bar many authors do their best to grab a shovel and dig themselves under. He's an astronomy geek, and this comes across as realistic (it's not just mentioned once or twice; it's a part of his inner thoughts and we see him actually DOING astronomy related things), plus there's a super cute scene where he shows Maia Jupiter and Saturn through his telescope and they both geek out over it. Very adorable!
The romance also had a nice, realistic, slow build. No insta-love or comp-het (compulsory heterosexuality; in literature, when an author takes "he was a boy, she was a girl, can I make it anymore obvious?" absolutely literally and that's all the reason needed for two characters to fall in love). The telescope scene I described was a super cute part of their romance, and Chris also had a great piece of dialogue talking about how 4/5 of stars are binary, meaning that they orbit a companion star, and sometimes are close enough to each other they can even share mass. Which I thought was super romantic until he continued, and then the bigger star begins feeding off the smaller one and eats its companion, and I was O.O and Maia also laughed at him and pointed out how weirdly dark that got ... it was cute. I thought so, lol
For the Big Themes stuff, as both a transgender man and someone who lost their more popular, more important to the family sister to suicide, I completely connected with both Chris and Maia's stories. (Note: Maia's sister dies of a heart defect, not suicide, but the died-suddenly-and-unexpectedly thing is the same.) I cried at one point over Chris, just because I connected so much with how he was feeling and who he is. Unfortunately, I do not pass as male in real life, so reading about his thoughts and realizations of what it means to pass completely as a boy (specifically about a teenage girl not having any reason to think he's ever experienced being harassed and put in danger by boys, and THEN realizing that she fully believes he is a boy and might obviously be nervous about being out late in an unknown place with him when no one knows who she's with) really hit me hard. Maia's feelings as The Other Sibling, and now, as someone who spent their whole life in (unflattering) comparison to someone else, and now that someone else is gone, what identity does she has left? I thought her attempts to reconnect or even outright mimic her sister's life was a good way of showing how she doesn't know how to live her own and the sort of craziness that comes with losing someone in that way.
OK, now onto the issues. I'll do the minor one first just to get it out of the way. Chris is taking testosterone, this is stated explicitly in the book, and it talks about how he and his dad had to almost force his mom to sign the paperwork for it. So it's an established fact. But we never, ever see him ... actually take testosterone. I know I complimented the fact that Chris's whole personality isn't about being trans, but that's a Really Big Thing. I'm not saying it needed its own scene or a whole big section, but it is important enough that it should have at least been mentioned. Like, I don't even know if he's taking testosterone shots (the most common method, once every 2 weeks usually) or on a patch, a cream or gel, pills aren't common now because of the potential for liver damage--but it feels very much like the cisgender author didn't think about it anymore than "he's on hormones" and didn't write this in because she doesn't actually know what "being on hormones" even means. So that was a tad bit frustrating and took me out of the realism of him being transgender.
Major issue / trigger warning / spoiler: Maia finds out Chris is trans by spying on him and seeing him mostly-naked. When writing a story about / with a transgender character, aside from the typical queer plea of "please don't kill, rape, or villainize us," the number one first thing to know is Don't out your transgender characters by having a cis character see them naked. That's right up there with "don't bury your gays" and "don't create a lesbian character just to sexually arouse your cishet male audience."
I will at least clarify that the spying was sooort of accidental. Maia did not go to Chris's house in order to spy on him, and staying once she realized he was getting naked was presented in the narrative as a Bad Thing she did, but that's almost irrelevant. The issue is that it happened at all. At some point, ignorance can't really be anything except malice because this shows the author either: 1) didn't research anything about being transgender at all, 2) only did very shallow research that didn't involve actually talking to or reading first-hand accounts of transgender people, or 3) did know it was wrong and thought she could do it anyway. Since everything else about Chris being trans was so well written, and I cannot believe she could have done any research into writing about a transgender character without learning this is one of the biggest problems in cis-wrote trans narratives, I have to conclude it was number 3.
And the thing is, even if she thought she was suuuuuuch a great author that she could write it well enough that it would be OK, it only takes the tiniest, TINIEST kernel of empathy to realize how fucked up this trope is. It is not asking too much to want characters who: don't have their privacy invaded by a straight person, that this also doesn't happen while they're naked re: please don't rape or assault us, aren't outed without their knowledge or permission, don't have their agency regarding their own identity taken away in this manner, and aren't subjected to the narrative that now this cis character has seen their "real" body and knows their "real" gender. 4/5 of those issues are ones every queer character faces, including lesbians, which the author is! I highly doubt she'd ever need anyone to remind her not to do those first 4 things to a lesbian character, yet when she writes a transgender one, somehow that basic sense of decency just went right out the window.
This is not to say the author is a horrible person. She is, unfortunately, just a person like everyone else. And it is amazing the capacity people have to be lazy and cruel just because they're not used to exercising empathy for a certain group of people, so even when they try, even when they succeed in every other aspect, something can still slip through the cracks. And this issue did, and it was unnecessary and hurtful.
Still, the rest of the book was very good, very well-written, and authentic for Chris overall. I would still recommend it, just with the caveat of a trigger warning and an explanation for this issue.
Chris and Maia, the two main characters, had very different voices and were fully their own people. They were both dorky about their own individual thing, and while Maia's "thing" was really stolen from her sister, she didn't feel bland or boring even though she's a person who very much did not know what to do with her life and hadn't figured out her own dreams or goals. Meanwhile, Chris had interests outside of being transgender! Low bar, obv, but still. A bar many authors do their best to grab a shovel and dig themselves under. He's an astronomy geek, and this comes across as realistic (it's not just mentioned once or twice; it's a part of his inner thoughts and we see him actually DOING astronomy related things), plus there's a super cute scene where he shows Maia Jupiter and Saturn through his telescope and they both geek out over it. Very adorable!
The romance also had a nice, realistic, slow build. No insta-love or comp-het (compulsory heterosexuality; in literature, when an author takes "he was a boy, she was a girl, can I make it anymore obvious?" absolutely literally and that's all the reason needed for two characters to fall in love). The telescope scene I described was a super cute part of their romance, and Chris also had a great piece of dialogue talking about how 4/5 of stars are binary, meaning that they orbit a companion star, and sometimes are close enough to each other they can even share mass. Which I thought was super romantic until he continued, and then the bigger star begins feeding off the smaller one and eats its companion, and I was O.O and Maia also laughed at him and pointed out how weirdly dark that got ... it was cute. I thought so, lol
For the Big Themes stuff, as both a transgender man and someone who lost their more popular, more important to the family sister to suicide, I completely connected with both Chris and Maia's stories. (Note: Maia's sister dies of a heart defect, not suicide, but the died-suddenly-and-unexpectedly thing is the same.) I cried at one point over Chris, just because I connected so much with how he was feeling and who he is. Unfortunately, I do not pass as male in real life, so reading about his thoughts and realizations of what it means to pass completely as a boy (specifically about a teenage girl not having any reason to think he's ever experienced being harassed and put in danger by boys, and THEN realizing that she fully believes he is a boy and might obviously be nervous about being out late in an unknown place with him when no one knows who she's with) really hit me hard. Maia's feelings as The Other Sibling, and now, as someone who spent their whole life in (unflattering) comparison to someone else, and now that someone else is gone, what identity does she has left? I thought her attempts to reconnect or even outright mimic her sister's life was a good way of showing how she doesn't know how to live her own and the sort of craziness that comes with losing someone in that way.
OK, now onto the issues. I'll do the minor one first just to get it out of the way. Chris is taking testosterone, this is stated explicitly in the book, and it talks about how he and his dad had to almost force his mom to sign the paperwork for it. So it's an established fact. But we never, ever see him ... actually take testosterone. I know I complimented the fact that Chris's whole personality isn't about being trans, but that's a Really Big Thing. I'm not saying it needed its own scene or a whole big section, but it is important enough that it should have at least been mentioned. Like, I don't even know if he's taking testosterone shots (the most common method, once every 2 weeks usually) or on a patch, a cream or gel, pills aren't common now because of the potential for liver damage--but it feels very much like the cisgender author didn't think about it anymore than "he's on hormones" and didn't write this in because she doesn't actually know what "being on hormones" even means. So that was a tad bit frustrating and took me out of the realism of him being transgender.
Major issue / trigger warning / spoiler: Maia finds out Chris is trans by spying on him and seeing him mostly-naked. When writing a story about / with a transgender character, aside from the typical queer plea of "please don't kill, rape, or villainize us," the number one first thing to know is Don't out your transgender characters by having a cis character see them naked. That's right up there with "don't bury your gays" and "don't create a lesbian character just to sexually arouse your cishet male audience."
I will at least clarify that the spying was sooort of accidental. Maia did not go to Chris's house in order to spy on him, and staying once she realized he was getting naked was presented in the narrative as a Bad Thing she did, but that's almost irrelevant. The issue is that it happened at all. At some point, ignorance can't really be anything except malice because this shows the author either: 1) didn't research anything about being transgender at all, 2) only did very shallow research that didn't involve actually talking to or reading first-hand accounts of transgender people, or 3) did know it was wrong and thought she could do it anyway. Since everything else about Chris being trans was so well written, and I cannot believe she could have done any research into writing about a transgender character without learning this is one of the biggest problems in cis-wrote trans narratives, I have to conclude it was number 3.
And the thing is, even if she thought she was suuuuuuch a great author that she could write it well enough that it would be OK, it only takes the tiniest, TINIEST kernel of empathy to realize how fucked up this trope is. It is not asking too much to want characters who: don't have their privacy invaded by a straight person, that this also doesn't happen while they're naked re: please don't rape or assault us, aren't outed without their knowledge or permission, don't have their agency regarding their own identity taken away in this manner, and aren't subjected to the narrative that now this cis character has seen their "real" body and knows their "real" gender. 4/5 of those issues are ones every queer character faces, including lesbians, which the author is! I highly doubt she'd ever need anyone to remind her not to do those first 4 things to a lesbian character, yet when she writes a transgender one, somehow that basic sense of decency just went right out the window.
This is not to say the author is a horrible person. She is, unfortunately, just a person like everyone else. And it is amazing the capacity people have to be lazy and cruel just because they're not used to exercising empathy for a certain group of people, so even when they try, even when they succeed in every other aspect, something can still slip through the cracks. And this issue did, and it was unnecessary and hurtful.
Still, the rest of the book was very good, very well-written, and authentic for Chris overall. I would still recommend it, just with the caveat of a trigger warning and an explanation for this issue.