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ginnyandtonic's review
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Right off the bat, loved that the author acknowledged the mistakes she made in talking to her trans brother when starting this project. That drew me in from the beginning — this is going to be an honest memoir. And I adored the honesty across the board in this story. Jessi didn’t necessarily try to make herself likable, was honest about her mistakes throughout her relationships, and that was compelling. All her family members and their specific “coming out” stories were also deeply compelling. What keeps this from being five stars for me is the pacing, some unclear timelines, and also how I feel like the last several chapters of the book just kind of sloped down. But overall, I recommend this book, especially in understanding the nuances of queer families.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Outing, Mental illness, Grief, Homophobia, Death, and Pregnancy
Minor: Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, Dysphoria, Miscarriage, Self harm, Biphobia, Medical content, Rape, Terminal illness, Lesbophobia, and Transphobia
kharcourt's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia
Moderate: Medical trauma, Violence, and Terminal illness
spinesinaline's review
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
3.5
Thanks to HarperCollins Canada for an ARC to review. I appreciated the discussion of trauma here and that this family could find some individual healing but with the amount of traumatic content I really needed some content warnings. CWs for self-harm (described on page), serial murders, sexual assault, homophobia, transphobia, depression, infidelity, gun violence, cancer, miscarriage, discussion of deadnaming.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Transphobia, Homophobia, Cancer, Self harm, and Death
Moderate: Deadnaming, Infidelity, Death of parent, Sexual assault, and Infertility
Minor: Miscarriage and Gun violence
siobhanward's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
The premise was interesting and I enjoyed how Hempel spoke about her time writing this and working with her family to do so. I'm glad she spoke to her family directly and even discussed her learnings from those conversations (e.g. referring to her brother as Evan throughout the book, rather than deadnaming him). I wish more time had been devoted to Hempel's mother as her story was the most disconnected from the others and it felt like it had a short mention at the start and then basically nothing else that was really relevant.
Overall, this was a fun read, I enjoyed how reflective Hempel was, although sometimes it felt like she wasn't focused on the right things.
Overall, this was a fun read, I enjoyed how reflective Hempel was, although sometimes it felt like she wasn't focused on the right things.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm and Homophobia
Moderate: Kidnapping, Murder, and Death
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