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ryanphelan's review
5.0
Beautiful and highlights the feelings of growing up trans and gay from the beginning when you don’t see gender and innocent with naivety to a teenager with raging dysphoria and suicidal ideations. A book I could read over and over and adore. One I’ve read since 2021 and will continue to reread it as I get older and live my life as a gay trans man. Silas’s work is filled with feelings you didn’t think you had till you read it throughGrit and his other writing on his Tumblr. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone
godhateskeely's review
5.0
I've fallen hard for this poetry collection. Everything about it from the metaphors to the language is just so gorgeous and relatable and thought-provoking I adore Silas Denver Melvin for creating this. It's sharp and raw and feels like the written equivalent of getting a bloody nose.
Personal favourites from the collection include Seventeen, Neurosis, Pissing Contest, Eighteen, Homesick, Let Dead Dogs Lie, Getaway Car, Extinction, Hybristophilia, Hey Cowboy, and Outlaw Tradition <3
Personal favourites from the collection include Seventeen, Neurosis, Pissing Contest, Eighteen, Homesick, Let Dead Dogs Lie, Getaway Car, Extinction, Hybristophilia, Hey Cowboy, and Outlaw Tradition <3
oliver_ojos's review
5.0
Reading this book made me feel like I was gutted like a fish and then sewn back together. Nothing was taken from me, and nothing was put inside me but I feel fundamentally changed regardless.
Really, really incredible poetry and prose on the transgender experience. For so long I found it difficult to put into words what it feels like to be transgender, (specifically a gay trans ftm, a transsexual fag if you will), but now I feel like I can point to this book to give insight to what I’ve experienced. Yes being transgender is beautiful and amazing and the best thing in the world, yas slay etc. , but it also feels like there is a beast inside of you that is begging to be named.
I feel like the book is best described by what it says on the back, “Grit is a transgender coming of age story. There are no beautiful rainbows here, no whispers, but raw cries from somewhere painful”. So many stories about, by, and for queer people are about rising above the hate and the muck, and living your best fierce rainbow life. Those stories are great, but I felt refreshed and seen to read a story not about rising above the muck, but about playing in the muck, reveling in it at times, about getting your cowboy boots dirty, and letting that feeling wash out of you.
[TL;DR, I have so many feelings about this book, these poems at times will leave you feeling skinned and raw. But it’s a good feeling, a really good feeling. Whatever you do before you die, read this book. 10/5 stars
Really, really incredible poetry and prose on the transgender experience. For so long I found it difficult to put into words what it feels like to be transgender, (specifically a gay trans ftm, a transsexual fag if you will), but now I feel like I can point to this book to give insight to what I’ve experienced. Yes being transgender is beautiful and amazing and the best thing in the world, yas slay etc. , but it also feels like there is a beast inside of you that is begging to be named.
I feel like the book is best described by what it says on the back, “Grit is a transgender coming of age story. There are no beautiful rainbows here, no whispers, but raw cries from somewhere painful”. So many stories about, by, and for queer people are about rising above the hate and the muck, and living your best fierce rainbow life. Those stories are great, but I felt refreshed and seen to read a story not about rising above the muck, but about playing in the muck, reveling in it at times, about getting your cowboy boots dirty, and letting that feeling wash out of you.
[TL;DR, I have so many feelings about this book, these poems at times will leave you feeling skinned and raw. But it’s a good feeling, a really good feeling. Whatever you do before you die, read this book. 10/5 stars