Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man by Thomas Page McBee

14 reviews

ninetyninecats's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Violence, Grief, Death of parent

Minor: Transphobia

inthemoonlight's review against another edition

4.0

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexism, Violence, Grief, Death of parent

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Transphobia

Minor: Sexual harassment

mxawprince's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Death of parent

phvntomstvrs's review against another edition

5.0

challenging reflective medium-paced

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I loved this book. Thomas uses his personal experiences of preparing for his participation in a charity boxing match to work through his journey dissecting toxic masculinity, patriarchy, and what it means to be a man. I appreciate that he refrains from making generalized or vilified conversation, empathizing with the men around him while also taking care to check his harmful behaviours for the people around him and try better. I don't id as a trans man in a binary sense, but in my own transition these same questions have weighed heavy on my mind and this book feels like a balm for my overwhelm. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Death of parent

Moderate: Child abuse, Misogyny, Sexism

Minor: Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia

the_reading_wren's review

4.5

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

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Really important read for anyone scared of their own masculinity. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Infertility, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Outing, Alcohol, Colonisation, Classism

barefootsierra's review

5.0

emotional fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Outing, Dysphoria

saskiahill's review against another edition

5.0

hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Outing, Injury/Injury detail

beanaroni's review against another edition

3.0

reflective medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Death of parent

moonyreadsbystarlight's review against another edition

4.25

challenging reflective medium-paced

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This is a memoir of a trans man who decides to enter into amateur boxing for more perspective into traditional masculinity and to understand parts of himself. Boxing is pretty far outside of my typical wheelhouse, even if queer books and gender studies is right in the middle of it. So this was quite an interesting look into the inside of that as someone with very little knowledge of that component going in. 

There is a lot in here obviously about masculinity at large but even more compelling to me was how it all (masculinity as well as the experience of boxing) tied into the author's life. As McBee is unpacking masculinity and his relationship to it, he's also analyzing relationships past and present, working though grief, and processing his childhood abuse. This was really well put together and had a lot of great insight. 

This book does focus on a limited scope of masculinity, but the author clearly states his position socially (as white and cis-passing) and acknowledges how it's a different experience from others. He doesn't go far into detail on a lot of these points nor does he dig far into the class differences that he describes in the boxing gyms. This is a memoir - it makes sense that the scope would be limited, but it would have been interesting to see a bit more about this especially since he did pull from academic sources at other points in the book (and I enjoyed the discussion that he had in those sections).

Overall, I had a good time with this. It was well-written, interesting, and insightful. It grapples with a lot of big questions about masculinity, identity, and personal history in a really compelling way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Violence, Death of parent

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault

sunshinemoth's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexism, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Sexual harassment

Minor: Pedophilia