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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
My goodness! What a breathtaking depiction
Of our discourses and loves, through humor and fiction:
If we are to lovingly understand ourselves,
We should yearn for more poets like these on our shelves.
Of our discourses and loves, through humor and fiction:
If we are to lovingly understand ourselves,
We should yearn for more poets like these on our shelves.
emotional
reflective
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:
Yes
""Um. I have a Nintendo Switch.
I just got Smash Bros." -- "Oh my god, you bitch
invite me over. I will totally whip you
If I play as Samus."
Just an amazing delight. While covering a lot of how it is to exist as a trans woman socially and intracommunal dynamics, its fictionalized enough to be enjoyable. While not taking itself too terribly seriously, it still engages with a lot of different ideas, and how people use certain scripts to justify actions, within a short number of pages. Funny, tightly written, and Cat herself is an absolute joy to have talk.
Even with books like Detransition, Baby, there's a lot of tendency to still show trans suffering, albeit in a more complex way than cis people show it. While about drama, call-outs, and dissatisfaction, I weirdly have to say this still felt like a breath of fresh air, maybe due to its format or use of characters that are a mix of archetype and reality.
The only reason this was four-and-a-quarter stars was because it still felt exhausting to read about this constant discourse a bit, though the structure and playfulness of the rhyme certainly mitigates that. Also, I'm waaay too generous with 5-star reviews.
I just got Smash Bros." -- "Oh my god, you bitch
invite me over. I will totally whip you
If I play as Samus."
Just an amazing delight. While covering a lot of how it is to exist as a trans woman socially and intracommunal dynamics, its fictionalized enough to be enjoyable. While not taking itself too terribly seriously, it still engages with a lot of different ideas, and how people use certain scripts to justify actions, within a short number of pages. Funny, tightly written, and Cat herself is an absolute joy to have talk.
Even with books like Detransition, Baby, there's a lot of tendency to still show trans suffering, albeit in a more complex way than cis people show it. While about drama, call-outs, and dissatisfaction, I weirdly have to say this still felt like a breath of fresh air, maybe due to its format or use of characters that are a mix of archetype and reality.
The only reason this was four-and-a-quarter stars was because it still felt exhausting to read about this constant discourse a bit, though the structure and playfulness of the rhyme certainly mitigates that. Also, I'm waaay too generous with 5-star reviews.
The first bit of this book seems aimed at an extremely specific audience: promiscuous, disaffected, young people in NYC. Like everyone else can read the words but won't get much of the context and references.
Fortunately, that doesn't last long. Soon you are following several very distinctive and interesting characters through their interactions and relationships, hook-ups, misinterpretations, regrets, so much to digest!
The tribulations are a lot like what every group of young people might go through, except that the author continually shows us how much harder it is to navigate your life when you are simultaneously having to deal with your most basic concept of your identity shifting around under you. And when most of society either hates you or just finds you inconvenient.
The one central controversy is very good indeed, and draws us in, making us feel just how small the community is, and thus how important it is that they navigate this without breaking into estranged cliques. When the showdown that interests everyone can be held in a single apartment living room, it is plain that nobody there has the luxury of choosing peer groups.
The story is so interesting that you soon forget it's being told in rhyme, except when an occasional unusual word or odd sentence order draws your attention to it.
Fortunately, that doesn't last long. Soon you are following several very distinctive and interesting characters through their interactions and relationships, hook-ups, misinterpretations, regrets, so much to digest!
The tribulations are a lot like what every group of young people might go through, except that the author continually shows us how much harder it is to navigate your life when you are simultaneously having to deal with your most basic concept of your identity shifting around under you. And when most of society either hates you or just finds you inconvenient.
The one central controversy is very good indeed, and draws us in, making us feel just how small the community is, and thus how important it is that they navigate this without breaking into estranged cliques. When the showdown that interests everyone can be held in a single apartment living room, it is plain that nobody there has the luxury of choosing peer groups.
The story is so interesting that you soon forget it's being told in rhyme, except when an occasional unusual word or odd sentence order draws your attention to it.
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Unfortunately the writing style just didn’t do it for me. Undoubtedly, the rhyming novel aspect is impressive, but it felt very clunky and forced at times
A novel in verse is a hard sell for most (including me). But this managed to keep me hooked and even enjoying the format. It's difficult to read at times, and all the protagonists are so achingly flawed, but it's also light and funny. What a feat Fitzpatrick has pulled off.
The book follows seven women, either trans or trans-adjacent, living in the Big Apple and figuring out their lives. It takes place as blog posts (something that only feels justified in the epilogue) written in rhyming scheme which mirrors that of Eugene Onegin, from here: Seattle Opera educational resources:
The verse is very easy to read and stops feeling like a gimmick quickly. It's most effective during transitions between one couple and another the narrative being swept along in the movement of the stanza.
The content itself was deeper than I expected from the rom-com cover and marketing. It's explores how understanding gender/race/relational identity is different to living it and applying it. It explores cancel culture. It explores stewardship and mentoring. It explores consent and morality and punishment.
I don't think it has many answers but it certainly raises a lot of questions and it would be incredible material for a book club - there are so many ideas to unpack here. What I really enjoy is how different the characters are and how none of them have figured out the right answer yet.
There are many points of view in this that I didn't share, but honestly that made it all the more interesting to read.
I kind of wish it was a full-blown novel because I really want to hear the characters expand on their views and tell me more about their internal journey.
Recommended.
On an unrelated note, this was my sixth bookbox from SF's Green Apple Books Apple-a-month bookclub. Check them out here.
The book follows seven women, either trans or trans-adjacent, living in the Big Apple and figuring out their lives. It takes place as blog posts (something that only feels justified in the epilogue) written in rhyming scheme which mirrors that of Eugene Onegin, from here: Seattle Opera educational resources:
Pushkin’s verse poem Eugene Onegin consist of
some 100 14-line sonnet-like stanzas written in iambic tetrameter, with a rhyme scheme of ABAB; CCDD; EFFEGG.
The verse is very easy to read and stops feeling like a gimmick quickly. It's most effective during transitions between one couple and another the narrative being swept along in the movement of the stanza.
The content itself was deeper than I expected from the rom-com cover and marketing. It's explores how understanding gender/race/relational identity is different to living it and applying it. It explores cancel culture. It explores stewardship and mentoring. It explores consent and morality and punishment.
I don't think it has many answers but it certainly raises a lot of questions and it would be incredible material for a book club - there are so many ideas to unpack here. What I really enjoy is how different the characters are and how none of them have figured out the right answer yet.
There are many points of view in this that I didn't share, but honestly that made it all the more interesting to read.
I kind of wish it was a full-blown novel because I really want to hear the characters expand on their views and tell me more about their internal journey.
Recommended.
On an unrelated note, this was my sixth bookbox from SF's Green Apple Books Apple-a-month bookclub. Check them out here.
challenging
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Super funny, though some of the rhymes were too forced and awkward. Regardless, I enjoyed the form and style, much to my surprise because I typically don’t like contemporary fiction, and I outgrew novels in verse in high school. I have a better opinion of them now.
emotional
funny
reflective
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
This was such a fun book! I picked it up after seeing it highly recommended in my favourite bookstore - Category Is Books - and after learning it was written in verse I was even more excited! This is a really fun slice of life following seven trans women living in New York and how their relationships to one another and themselves fluctuate over the course of a year! I think this book is best read all in one go as I did put it down for a couple of days in a row and found myself a tad confused when picking it up again! If you are a fan of retellings, though this is not exactly one, The Call-Out really did feel like I was reading a modern day retelling of a classic in how the characters related to one another. Overall a really fun read but the biggest question I was left with is why does every synopsis list Aashvi as being called Anvi??!