Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - Nevada

Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Nevada by Imogen Binnie

20 reviews

lisamcq22's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

As a straight cis gender female I found this book really interesting. A lot of books about the trans community focus on tragedy, which is important too, but this book focuses more on the experience of being trans. She has a lot of insightful commentary on gender woven through the novel as well. I didn’t love her writing style, as it’s more a flow of thoughts rather than a structured narrative, but it kind of adds to the charm.

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angryglitterwitch's review against another edition

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funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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libby_l96's review against another edition

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dark funny informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Unpopular opinion: I love the way Binnie writes dialogue without speech marks. The prose flows like a train of thought, and it's just so PUNK.
Maria is a bit unlikeable at first, but I really warmed to her. I think that's because she acknowledges her demons so candidly towards the end that it kind of made me feel sad, but also hopeful for her.
It was also super interesting to see the interaction between Maria and James. It's almost like Maria was visiting her younger self as a ghost of trans-ness future, and then you realise that in reality every person can only learn from their own journey.
Overall I enjoyed the book, and I didn't find it too challenging to pick up and put down every now and again. Having read Torrey Peters' De transition, Baby last year, I can see how influential this book has been. It just didn't completely blow me away enough for a higher rating.

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o3tri's review against another edition

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adventurous informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

A charming novel. The book really shines when the MC is talking about the neuances and complexities of being a trans woman and the trans feminine experience, but it also all falls flat when Maria talks about trans men and transmasculine experiences, sometimes just plain shitting on them, sometimes just stating things that are simply factually incorrect. Now I read books where main characters have questionable views all the time, that's not my issue, but here at least to me it seems like these aren't just presented as the character's biased opinions, but as objective truth and Maria and some other characters are used as vessels for the author to lay down her own views on the page. I felt the need to point this out and critisize it especially because I've seen this book recommended a few times over the years, none of those times was this even mentioned or acknowledged in any way. I went into this book thinking I was going to read a literary novel about a trans woman and a commentary on the neuances and complexities of gender and transitioning in American society and I did get that out of it but I also got to read a book that too often shits on transmasculine people and gives matter of fact statements that are objectively and factually wrong. Only in some reviews here and on goodreads I saw these problems with the book acknowledged.

Some stuff that irked me but not too much:
-the overuse of the word bohemian or rather describing random stuff as bohemian even if it was ironic, it was done kinda sloppily
-with this type of character and novel there needs to be a certain degree of irony and self awareness that I felt weren't present enough

other than that the book was a mostly pleasant experience to go through

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chronicloser's review against another edition

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funny hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

these are maybe some of the most real characters I’ve ever read. definitely up in the top 10— all of them were so different, even when they were similar; that made it such a fun journey. not to mention, imogen binnie is great at making every bit of word salad into a beautifully plated meal. her stream-of-consciousness writing is one she dips in and out of so effortlessly, and I ate it up big time! when it’s done well, I love it, and this was done more than just well

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adragoninspace's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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laurataylor's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

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camill3's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

so weird, but so interesting. made me realize some personal stuff, so that's great. lots of drug stuff tho.

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caseythereader's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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james1star's review

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emotional informative reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

For a quick plot summary, Nevada is split into two parts, the first focusing on the “post transition” life of Maria who has been experiencing years of personal and professional inadequacies in her life in New York so embarks on a trip. The second mainly follow the “pre transition” narrative of confused stoner James in Star City, Nevada and the chance meeting with Maria. Other then that there is rather minimal plot, it’s for sure more about the characters and discussions on gender identity, sexuality and the role of women (misogyny, patriarchy and the like). These parts were my favourite I’d say, Binnie clearly has a lot of knowledge surrounding these topics and put a lot of it into her debut work. There is a lot said and I thoroughly enjoyed being educated in the experience of two trans people, with it being personal to each of them and not a generalised representation of ‘the trans experience’ but from reviews and the acclaim the book’s gotten it’s clearly resonated with many people and this is amazing. Whilst I did like Maria’s monologuing at the start it definitely become quite repetitive and a little unrealistic as the book went on. This is the same for quite a lot of what’s rehashed multiple times and I did find myself losing interest. I think it would have been better if more of what Binnie wanted to put forward was via ‘showing’ and not ‘telling’ with a focus on plot and character advancement, not the monologues.

From the paragraph above, I used the terms “post” and “pre transition” in quotation marks because this is how Binnie herself chose to describe the experiences in the 2022 afterword in the copy I read. This inclusion was a very interesting read and she listed lots of authors who write about the queer experience I’d also like to check out. In it, she says how she chose to create these characters at these specific stages to show how a trans person is trans throughout their journey and to disregard the “in between” stage. Other parts are discussed surrounding the path to getting Nevada published and reasonings for certain plot points.

Something I particularly disliked about Nevada was the excessive and continuous depictions of drug taking and the central role weed has in James’s life. I really don’t like reading about drug use/abuse and for me it was far too often mentioned. It also became more prevalent as the book went along which together with the rather unrealistic monologuing and my last point made me lose interest. I’d also say there’s a lot of unnecessary swearing. This final thing was Binnie’s use of the term ‘like’ which I found different at first and quite informal which allowed me to get to know the characters better. It then became a little annoying and as the book went on it’s use became so excessive - I counted one relatively small paragraph using it nine times - and therefore very very jarring. I just feel about 80% of the times it was used could’ve been omitted as it broke up the reading experience too much for me and whilst it may seem like something small, it was enough for me to personally knock off a half star from my rating.

I would still definitely recommend this book and it’s impact in the literary scene has done as lot for trans literature which is great. There is a lot to learn from Binnie with relatability and the discourse on the lives of transgender people. Overall I did enjoy it but as stated I have my issues too, it started out amazingly but did dwindle as I carried on reading.

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