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2.82 AVERAGE
2.82 AVERAGE
4.5*
I LOVED THE DIVERSITY. This book is so incredibly diverse, I absolutely loved it, and I loved the way it dealt with sexuality and gender identities. I loved that Robin Talley always used the according pronouns that the current narrator uses, and I imagine that wasn't very easy to keep track off when writing the book. The only reason I'm not giving this five stars is that I wasn't super invested in the romance and honestly got a bit annoyed with it at parts, but I loved it all the more for the diversity.
I LOVED THE DIVERSITY. This book is so incredibly diverse, I absolutely loved it, and I loved the way it dealt with sexuality and gender identities. I loved that Robin Talley always used the according pronouns that the current narrator uses, and I imagine that wasn't very easy to keep track off when writing the book. The only reason I'm not giving this five stars is that I wasn't super invested in the romance and honestly got a bit annoyed with it at parts, but I loved it all the more for the diversity.
Once again, Robin Talley KILLS IT! I hope this is a book that helps teens find themselves. I received an ARC of What We Left Behind and it took me a couple days to read but nevertheless I was glad I read it. I thought about leaving it unfinished a couple times because "oh that drama" but really, there's always been drama regarding anything. This book deals with a topic that's kind of controversial at the moment, but that being said, the LGBQT+ community has always been a controversial topic. After reading this, I'd like to hope that it helps change the world in some way.
Diversity in books. This is something I never really thought about until I became a book blogger. I just read whatever looked pretty. Then I read my first LBGQTIA not very long ago. However, it didn't really click with me that it was my first.
I have never tried to not read books that are classified as LBGQTIA in genre, I just some how have never really read them. It was all purely accidental.
Thankfully, I was able to participate in this blog tour hosted by The Irish Banana for What We Left Behind by Robin Talley. I am going to be perfectly honest here. I had no idea what this book was about when I signed up for the tour. I signed up because the cover is pretty (just look at it!).
I am glad that this cover pulled me in. I am glad that I got to read this book. It has helped to broaden my reading horizons and for that I am extremely thankful.
What We Left Behind is a book about love, friendship, and most importantly self discovery. Our main characters are Toni and Gretchen. They are two humans in love ready to go off to college. They are supposed to be going to different colleges but in the same city, Boston. However, the day before they are both supposed to leave Gretchen drops a big bomb on Toni. Gretchen tells Toni that she will not be following "their" plan and that she will actually be going to NYU instead. They decide to not break up and deal with a long distance relationship. They have been together for 2 years and they love each other more than anything. Now they have to discover who they are as individuals and not as a couple.
This next bit may be a bit spoilerish - but I really need to express my thoughts on this - so just warning you. It really probably isn't, but just in case.
This book has made me think a lot and it has taught me a lot. Before reading this one, I never once really gave a though to the use of gender pronouns. I knew that I would always use whatever gender pronoun someone asked me to use for them, out of respect, but I never thought much further beyond that. I never thought or realized how hard it can be for someone to decide what gender pronoun is the best for them to use for themselves.
This goes the same for what sexuality category you fall under. I never gave much thought on how hard it can be for someone to come up. I just never realized.
And that is just it, until I read this book - I JUST NEVER REALIZED. So thank you, Robin Talley, for writing about it.
By the way, I don't think a reader can avoid thinking and contemplating these very thoughts when they read this book. These two parts are very much a large part of this story.
Ok - the spoilerish part is over.
I could get into the characters and my thoughts on them, but that would give away some key parts of the story. I will say this though. I liked one of the main characters more than the other. I also liked quite a few of the side characters - especially the ones that would speak their minds and tell the main characters whats what - because I couldn't yell at them or tell them myself.
Overall, I felt that the story was a good one, but it was pretty heavy certain topics - gender pronoun use, gender identity, and chest binding to name a couple. There were also some words that I had to go look up to ensure I was understanding what they meant correctly. Not that that is a bad thing, but I would have liked some of them to have been explained a little bit better.
But all that being said, I find myself having a some what better understanding of all of these topics now. I think this is one that people should read to help them find a stronger understanding and/or to see that there are others out there with the same questions that they have. The lessons really make it worth the read.
My Rating
3.5 stars
This review is based on an ARC provided by The Irish Banana Tours in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Find more of my reviews here:
http://readingwithcupcakes.blogspot.com/
I have never tried to not read books that are classified as LBGQTIA in genre, I just some how have never really read them. It was all purely accidental.
Thankfully, I was able to participate in this blog tour hosted by The Irish Banana for What We Left Behind by Robin Talley. I am going to be perfectly honest here. I had no idea what this book was about when I signed up for the tour. I signed up because the cover is pretty (just look at it!).
I am glad that this cover pulled me in. I am glad that I got to read this book. It has helped to broaden my reading horizons and for that I am extremely thankful.
What We Left Behind is a book about love, friendship, and most importantly self discovery. Our main characters are Toni and Gretchen. They are two humans in love ready to go off to college. They are supposed to be going to different colleges but in the same city, Boston. However, the day before they are both supposed to leave Gretchen drops a big bomb on Toni. Gretchen tells Toni that she will not be following "their" plan and that she will actually be going to NYU instead. They decide to not break up and deal with a long distance relationship. They have been together for 2 years and they love each other more than anything. Now they have to discover who they are as individuals and not as a couple.
This next bit may be a bit spoilerish - but I really need to express my thoughts on this - so just warning you. It really probably isn't, but just in case.
This book has made me think a lot and it has taught me a lot. Before reading this one, I never once really gave a though to the use of gender pronouns. I knew that I would always use whatever gender pronoun someone asked me to use for them, out of respect, but I never thought much further beyond that. I never thought or realized how hard it can be for someone to decide what gender pronoun is the best for them to use for themselves.
This goes the same for what sexuality category you fall under. I never gave much thought on how hard it can be for someone to come up. I just never realized.
And that is just it, until I read this book - I JUST NEVER REALIZED. So thank you, Robin Talley, for writing about it.
By the way, I don't think a reader can avoid thinking and contemplating these very thoughts when they read this book. These two parts are very much a large part of this story.
Ok - the spoilerish part is over.
I could get into the characters and my thoughts on them, but that would give away some key parts of the story. I will say this though. I liked one of the main characters more than the other. I also liked quite a few of the side characters - especially the ones that would speak their minds and tell the main characters whats what - because I couldn't yell at them or tell them myself.
Overall, I felt that the story was a good one, but it was pretty heavy certain topics - gender pronoun use, gender identity, and chest binding to name a couple. There were also some words that I had to go look up to ensure I was understanding what they meant correctly. Not that that is a bad thing, but I would have liked some of them to have been explained a little bit better.
But all that being said, I find myself having a some what better understanding of all of these topics now. I think this is one that people should read to help them find a stronger understanding and/or to see that there are others out there with the same questions that they have. The lessons really make it worth the read.
My Rating
3.5 stars
This review is based on an ARC provided by The Irish Banana Tours in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Find more of my reviews here:
http://readingwithcupcakes.blogspot.com/
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-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
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-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
Woah, okay this book totally did my head in for several different reasons.
1) My opinions would clash with Toni's
2) Omg so much new information and new terms and labels that I hadn't heard of
3) FRUSTRATION
It was still a great story about love and figuring out who you are and a bunch of stuff like that and I felt myself relating to Gretchen a little more than Toni - I kinda thought Toni was a little self-centred (YES I understand that Toni was going through a LOT, but that was no reason for them to push it onto everyone else and expect the world to agree with their decisions and do it their way) (Like being annoyed with other people who liked conforming to gender, like SOORRRYY if you want everyone else in the world being like you with the same opinions as you but that's not how it works) Idk I just didn't like how Toni would be annoyed with others using her/him pronouns even when they weren't involving Toni at all in whatever they were talking about. THIS FRUSTRATED ME A LITTLE.
1) My opinions would clash with Toni's
2) Omg so much new information and new terms and labels that I hadn't heard of
3) FRUSTRATION
It was still a great story about love and figuring out who you are and a bunch of stuff like that and I felt myself relating to Gretchen a little more than Toni - I kinda thought Toni was a little self-centred (YES I understand that Toni was going through a LOT, but that was no reason for them to push it onto everyone else and expect the world to agree with their decisions and do it their way) (Like being annoyed with other people who liked conforming to gender, like SOORRRYY if you want everyone else in the world being like you with the same opinions as you but that's not how it works) Idk I just didn't like how Toni would be annoyed with others using her/him pronouns even when they weren't involving Toni at all in whatever they were talking about. THIS FRUSTRATED ME A LITTLE.
I read this again because I remembered that the use of pronouns in this book was somewhat off. I like the book because it is set in college and I haven't read many of those. I also like that when a person doesn't know that much about different gender identities they suggest the other person to look it up. I think this is good because it encourages people to do their own research but at the same time it also showed me that that can also lead to misinformation and stereotypes if the research is done on the wrong websites.
For a book that might be the first introduction for some to non-binary gender identities it is definitely flawed. One of the main characters doesn't use pronouns for anyone at the beginning. After friends suggest trying other pronouns like "they" or "hir" the character continues to use these pronouns for every single person. It is also explained that this is done because the character doesn't believe in the gender binary and decides not to gender other people as well. Showing that there are other pronouns besides "he" and "she" is great but as far as I am aware using the same pronouns for everyone isn't how pronouns work. The story is told from the perspective of two people and I would say that both are good at using the right pronouns even in their thoughts or at least correct themselves. However, when others don't use the right pronouns it's not always corrected.
One character is really fixated on the gender identities of other people and almost puts them into categories as well but another person calls this out which I thought was nice that a character in the book noticed the same things I did.
For a book that might be the first introduction for some to non-binary gender identities it is definitely flawed. One of the main characters doesn't use pronouns for anyone at the beginning. After friends suggest trying other pronouns like "they" or "hir" the character continues to use these pronouns for every single person. It is also explained that this is done because the character doesn't believe in the gender binary and decides not to gender other people as well. Showing that there are other pronouns besides "he" and "she" is great but as far as I am aware using the same pronouns for everyone isn't how pronouns work. The story is told from the perspective of two people and I would say that both are good at using the right pronouns even in their thoughts or at least correct themselves. However, when others don't use the right pronouns it's not always corrected.
One character is really fixated on the gender identities of other people and almost puts them into categories as well but another person calls this out which I thought was nice that a character in the book noticed the same things I did.
Toni and Gretchen have been girlfriends for almost two years. They never fight, they love each other, and now they both going to attend different colleges in Boston. Everything is working out. Except the weekend before they are due to leave, Gretchen tells Toni that she has been accepted as a late entry into NYU...
I shouldn't have been so surprised at how readable this book is. I was ready for exposition and preaching. But while there is plenty of information about transitioning, it's actually firstly a really well written novel.
The rest of my review is at Children's Book Daily
I shouldn't have been so surprised at how readable this book is. I was ready for exposition and preaching. But while there is plenty of information about transitioning, it's actually firstly a really well written novel.
The rest of my review is at Children's Book Daily
Is a bad book with representation better than a good book without representation? What about if the representation is less than wonderful?
The writing was poor, there wasn't really a plot (other than Toni/Tony's transition), the characters were flat. And there were a lot of stereotypes. And considering I want to be happy to have some nonbinary representation, there wasn't actually anyone who was comfortably nonbinary in the book, rather than nonbinary on the way to transitioning to a different binary gender.
I had high hopes, and they were all dashed.
The writing was poor, there wasn't really a plot (other than Toni/Tony's transition), the characters were flat. And there were a lot of stereotypes. And considering I want to be happy to have some nonbinary representation, there wasn't actually anyone who was comfortably nonbinary in the book, rather than nonbinary on the way to transitioning to a different binary gender.
I had high hopes, and they were all dashed.