Take a photo of a barcode or cover
2.82 AVERAGE
2.82 AVERAGE
medium-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
REVIEWED ON BOOKLIKES
What We Left Behind is the story of girlfriends, Toni and Gretchen, who need to deal with a long distance relationship when they both go away to separate colleges after high-school graduation. Starting with keeping the fact that she is going to a separate college then Toni, Gretchen puts the first physical tear in there relationship. From there on, it only gets harder- now Toni is keeping a big secret from Gretchen. Toni's gender identity comes to question and Toni is not quite sure what to think anymore... When Toni neglects to share this with Gretchen, will this couple that was once thick as thieves call it quits?
After reading Robin Talley's [b:Lies We Tell Ourselves|20579291|Lies We Tell Ourselves|Robin Talley|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1396886699s/20579291.jpg|21561215], I was really excited to read her next. I loved her first book a lot, it's one of my favorite recent reads. But this one was a let down...
Since this book is about a transgender/gender non-binary person, I thought it held even more potential for awesomeness. But the story to me was not more then the very technical transition that Toni goes through. Just a jumbled chaos. Just a skeleton of a story because of how little it focused even on Toni and Gretchen's actual relationship. Or on emotions. Seemed to be a lack of those. All the thoughts the characters had were not really expressed.
I thought Toni was more than a little bit selfish, seeing how kind Gretchen was kind to Toni no matter what, and Toni still shoves her away with claims of- "But you don't understand me"! C'mon, she just said she loves and supports you no matter what! Give her a break!
Also, Gretchen sadly had very little to her plotline, because she kind of just waited around for Toni constantly while Toni was busy having a life.
Though I know very little about what it means to be transgender personally, I saw numerous reviews saying that this book did no justice to the topic or to describing what it means to be genderqueer accurately.
It seemed the author was so focused on trying to pin that anyways that she left a lot of frayed edges to the story... What happened to the friends Gretchen made? It didn't even seem that Toni came to any feeling of identity, so the topic stayed confusing to me in regard to Toni's character. They both do some pretty shitty things that don't really have any resolution. Or even lack thereof- they kind of just get overlooked. They don't really talk about ANYTHING with each other. So much is left unsaid.
Felt like a lot at once, and like the book left me with nothing at the same time.
I don't particularly recommend this book. (But do yourselves a favor and read [b:Lies We Tell Ourselves|20579291|Lies We Tell Ourselves|Robin Talley|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1396886699s/20579291.jpg|21561215]. You won't regret it.)
What We Left Behind is the story of girlfriends, Toni and Gretchen, who need to deal with a long distance relationship when they both go away to separate colleges after high-school graduation. Starting with keeping the fact that she is going to a separate college then Toni, Gretchen puts the first physical tear in there relationship. From there on, it only gets harder- now Toni is keeping a big secret from Gretchen. Toni's gender identity comes to question and Toni is not quite sure what to think anymore... When Toni neglects to share this with Gretchen, will this couple that was once thick as thieves call it quits?
After reading Robin Talley's [b:Lies We Tell Ourselves|20579291|Lies We Tell Ourselves|Robin Talley|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1396886699s/20579291.jpg|21561215], I was really excited to read her next. I loved her first book a lot, it's one of my favorite recent reads. But this one was a let down...
Since this book is about a transgender/gender non-binary person, I thought it held even more potential for awesomeness. But the story to me was not more then the very technical transition that Toni goes through. Just a jumbled chaos. Just a skeleton of a story because of how little it focused even on Toni and Gretchen's actual relationship. Or on emotions. Seemed to be a lack of those. All the thoughts the characters had were not really expressed.
I thought Toni was more than a little bit selfish, seeing how kind Gretchen was kind to Toni no matter what, and Toni still shoves her away with claims of- "But you don't understand me"! C'mon, she just said she loves and supports you no matter what! Give her a break!
Also, Gretchen sadly had very little to her plotline, because she kind of just waited around for Toni constantly while Toni was busy having a life.
Though I know very little about what it means to be transgender personally, I saw numerous reviews saying that this book did no justice to the topic or to describing what it means to be genderqueer accurately.
It seemed the author was so focused on trying to pin that anyways that she left a lot of frayed edges to the story... What happened to the friends Gretchen made? It didn't even seem that Toni came to any feeling of identity, so the topic stayed confusing to me in regard to Toni's character. They both do some pretty shitty things that don't really have any resolution. Or even lack thereof- they kind of just get overlooked. They don't really talk about ANYTHING with each other. So much is left unsaid.
Felt like a lot at once, and like the book left me with nothing at the same time.
I don't particularly recommend this book. (But do yourselves a favor and read [b:Lies We Tell Ourselves|20579291|Lies We Tell Ourselves|Robin Talley|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1396886699s/20579291.jpg|21561215]. You won't regret it.)
I received this free from the publishers via Netgalley
All quotes are from my arc edition and may be subject to change
Toni and Gretchen are the perfect couple. They never fight and are expected to be together forever. But then college comes along, Gretchen to NYU and Toni to Harvard and they are sure they'll be ok. However, the distance does put a toll on their relationship. Toni is genderqueer and when T finds a sense of belonging with a group transgender upperclassman, Gretchen struggles to find out who she is outside of their relationship.
I adored Robin Talley's other novel Lies We Tell Ourselves, so What We Left Behind was high on my anticipated reads for this year. However, I was left extremely disappointed with this novel.
I'm not massively educated on things like transgender or genderqueer. What We Left Behind suggests that those who identify as genderqueer are just confused about their gender identity, where as my impression was that those who are genderqueer identifies with neither, both, or a combination of male and female genders. However, What We Left Behind seems to insinuate that it is a transitional period for people to decide which gender they belong to. When talking about a transgender meeting, this is said:
The plot was also incredibly weak. It actually read like a textbook on gender identity and sexual orientation, and the only noticeable plot was the relationship between Toni and Gretchen, which in itself was weak.
Toni actually has quite a large disdain for straight and cis-gendered, and outright feminine girls, and T won't give them the time of day for that exact reason.
I personally didn't know that not being feminine was a requirement of being a feminist.
While some of the girls aren't nice people in general, I think this is the wrong message to send to young people. All girls don't have to dress the same. Some are 'girly' and some are not. People dress and look differently. Toni is really adverse to gender specific pronouns and gender specific labels and things in general. Which is fine, but T seems to want to force T's views on everyone else, and tries to force labels on others and everyone T meets T tries to put them in a box and to see which box they fit into, such as being transgender and cis etc, and then T decides whether T wants to like them.
When Toni doesn't use pronouns for T's transgender friends, and T gets called out on it as to why it is problematic and why it is important for them, T still won't use pronouns for them for the sole reason as T doesn't like them.
Toni also seems happy that T brings some LGBT diversity to T's roommates, as if race and sexuality is some fashion label.
Also, Gretchen's new friend is transphobic and it is never really addressed and Gretchen still continues to befriend him without addressing the issue.
Overall, I wasn't particular impressed with most of this novel and it is a huge disappointment. Perhaps, i'm wrong with what i'm talking about, so please do correct me and call me out if i've said something wrong/offensive.
All quotes are from my arc edition and may be subject to change
Toni and Gretchen are the perfect couple. They never fight and are expected to be together forever. But then college comes along, Gretchen to NYU and Toni to Harvard and they are sure they'll be ok. However, the distance does put a toll on their relationship. Toni is genderqueer and when T finds a sense of belonging with a group transgender upperclassman, Gretchen struggles to find out who she is outside of their relationship.
I adored Robin Talley's other novel Lies We Tell Ourselves, so What We Left Behind was high on my anticipated reads for this year. However, I was left extremely disappointed with this novel.
I'm not massively educated on things like transgender or genderqueer. What We Left Behind suggests that those who identify as genderqueer are just confused about their gender identity, where as my impression was that those who are genderqueer identifies with neither, both, or a combination of male and female genders. However, What We Left Behind seems to insinuate that it is a transitional period for people to decide which gender they belong to. When talking about a transgender meeting, this is said:
"Come hang out with us, T!" Pete calls. "We're having a support group meeting for the formerly genderqueer!"
The plot was also incredibly weak. It actually read like a textbook on gender identity and sexual orientation, and the only noticeable plot was the relationship between Toni and Gretchen, which in itself was weak.
Toni actually has quite a large disdain for straight and cis-gendered, and outright feminine girls, and T won't give them the time of day for that exact reason.
'Besides, who the hell are they to talk? Joanna gets up at six in the morning to start a ninety-minute hair care regimen, and Felicia wears designer high heels every day even though they always get caught in the sidewalks. Joanna and Felicia are the ultimate gender conformists. Neither of them has the right to talk about feminism until they stop posting pictures of themselves in bikinis'
I personally didn't know that not being feminine was a requirement of being a feminist.
Why do they always have to dress that way? Gretchen doesn't. Neither does Ebony. It's like Joanna and Felicia are trying to be as girly as humanly possible
While some of the girls aren't nice people in general, I think this is the wrong message to send to young people. All girls don't have to dress the same. Some are 'girly' and some are not. People dress and look differently. Toni is really adverse to gender specific pronouns and gender specific labels and things in general. Which is fine, but T seems to want to force T's views on everyone else, and tries to force labels on others and everyone T meets T tries to put them in a box and to see which box they fit into, such as being transgender and cis etc, and then T decides whether T wants to like them.
"You couldn't tell about Eli, so you were checking him out hard-core for, like, ten minutes."
When Toni doesn't use pronouns for T's transgender friends, and T gets called out on it as to why it is problematic and why it is important for them, T still won't use pronouns for them for the sole reason as T doesn't like them.
Toni also seems happy that T brings some LGBT diversity to T's roommates, as if race and sexuality is some fashion label.
I'm the only one of my roommates who's white. Ebony and Felicia are both black, and Joanna is Vietnamese. I felt a little weird at first, like I was boring next to them. Then I remembered that I bring in the LGBTQIA diversity angle, so I was still contributing
Also, Gretchen's new friend is transphobic and it is never really addressed and Gretchen still continues to befriend him without addressing the issue.
Overall, I wasn't particular impressed with most of this novel and it is a huge disappointment. Perhaps, i'm wrong with what i'm talking about, so please do correct me and call me out if i've said something wrong/offensive.
First of all, the rating isn't 1 star because I have managed to finish it up without skipping anything. I deserve an extra star for it.
I don't know if trans experience is represented in a correct way or not, because for me as cis gendered person, this is completely unknown territory. That's why I can only make my judgements about What We Left Behind as a literary work.
The plot was basically non-existent and the whole thing revolved around Toni ( I had a feeling our planets and sun revolved around Toni for how important Toni's issues were presented). I wouldn't have quite so much problems with it if we didn't have the second pov in the book. I liked Gretchen a lot and I think she deserved better than being reduced to simple representation of what it is like to date a trans person. All Gretchen chapters were of her obsessing over Toni and only in her last chapter she showed the strength to pull out from this toxic to her person, but then the book is just hey, time jump and here's Toni final chapter with Toni obsessing over Toni again. Ugh.
Obviously plot composition is up to author to decide (as the whole book, because it's their)but I do believe it would've been better to change pace and show more of how Gratchen doing her figuring things out.
I was suffocated with Toni bring all up their precious ass all the godsdamned time.
Secondary characters were more interesting than Toni. I liked Harvard squad and they did give great advice to Toni, if only Toni listened. What really bothers me that this advice wasn't really acknowledged in the story. Toni listened to some at some extent but she remained the selfish and stuck-up person till the end of the book. Should it be like that? Why do we have to swallow being disrespectful and narrow-minded to people all the time and in the end it is all the same. Character development, what character development?
Also I liked NYU girls, even though we had just a glimpse of them, because Gretchen was obsessing over Toni.
Spoiler.
I was so relieved when Gretchen broke things up with Toni, but then the author insisted on giving us an open ending and I choose to believe that they stayed broken up and Gretchen finds a nice girl in NY and she's happy. I don't care nor worry about Toni, because Toni does it for himself/themself enough already.
End of spoiler.
The story didn't provide us with the resolution/working things out part. There's obsession, series of sudden realizations and then break up and the epilogue type of thing. As I view Gretchen/Toni relationship extremely unhealthy I think it's vital to show the working things up and being better part. And not just vaguely name it or time jump it. Call our abusivd unhealthy relationships and give us the better example. I have read several extremely well-written book with great representation of healthy relations even when one or both partners had issues of their own. Just stop being a dick ffs.
The book did give the reader some enlightening material and there's several situations played out which I think were important to tell about student life, the book isn't an educational pamphlet, it is piece of fiction and as things the way they are I was annoyed and disappointed at the book.
I'm going to browse through reviews on goodreads because I need to know the accuracy of trans representation for I hope that at least this part was good, because the whole book is yikes for me.
I don't know if trans experience is represented in a correct way or not, because for me as cis gendered person, this is completely unknown territory. That's why I can only make my judgements about What We Left Behind as a literary work.
The plot was basically non-existent and the whole thing revolved around Toni ( I had a feeling our planets and sun revolved around Toni for how important Toni's issues were presented). I wouldn't have quite so much problems with it if we didn't have the second pov in the book. I liked Gretchen a lot and I think she deserved better than being reduced to simple representation of what it is like to date a trans person. All Gretchen chapters were of her obsessing over Toni and only in her last chapter she showed the strength to pull out from this toxic to her person, but then the book is just hey, time jump and here's Toni final chapter with Toni obsessing over Toni again. Ugh.
Obviously plot composition is up to author to decide (as the whole book, because it's their)but I do believe it would've been better to change pace and show more of how Gratchen doing her figuring things out.
I was suffocated with Toni bring all up their precious ass all the godsdamned time.
Secondary characters were more interesting than Toni. I liked Harvard squad and they did give great advice to Toni, if only Toni listened. What really bothers me that this advice wasn't really acknowledged in the story. Toni listened to some at some extent but she remained the selfish and stuck-up person till the end of the book. Should it be like that? Why do we have to swallow being disrespectful and narrow-minded to people all the time and in the end it is all the same. Character development, what character development?
Also I liked NYU girls, even though we had just a glimpse of them, because Gretchen was obsessing over Toni.
Spoiler.
I was so relieved when Gretchen broke things up with Toni, but then the author insisted on giving us an open ending and I choose to believe that they stayed broken up and Gretchen finds a nice girl in NY and she's happy. I don't care nor worry about Toni, because Toni does it for himself/themself enough already.
End of spoiler.
The story didn't provide us with the resolution/working things out part. There's obsession, series of sudden realizations and then break up and the epilogue type of thing. As I view Gretchen/Toni relationship extremely unhealthy I think it's vital to show the working things up and being better part. And not just vaguely name it or time jump it. Call our abusivd unhealthy relationships and give us the better example. I have read several extremely well-written book with great representation of healthy relations even when one or both partners had issues of their own. Just stop being a dick ffs.
The book did give the reader some enlightening material and there's several situations played out which I think were important to tell about student life, the book isn't an educational pamphlet, it is piece of fiction and as things the way they are I was annoyed and disappointed at the book.
I'm going to browse through reviews on goodreads because I need to know the accuracy of trans representation for I hope that at least this part was good, because the whole book is yikes for me.
Review to come
Okay. I've been looking forward to this review, mainly because I have a lot to say. So lately I've been reading a lot of LGBTQ to broaden my horizons. Unfortunately, I haven't liked many of the books in that genre. This book was one of those books.
Plot: So this book was about a lesbian couple who basically have their entire lives planned out: together. The two girls names are Gretchen and Toni. Toni is struggling to find out who she is, and identifying as genderqueer, because she doesn't feel male or female. Toni is going to be attending Harvard, while Gretchen is going to Tufts, near by. Although, when Gretchen unexpectedly gets taken off the wait list for NYU, she decides she wants to go there. But she doesn't tell Toni until the night before they leave for college. Naturally, Toni is pissed but doesn't show it. Apparently this couple never fight. Never. Is that even possible? They've been dating two years and haven't had an argument.
Okay, so now all the problems I had with this book:
1. They most be all super smart. Like, the only colleges mentioned were Harvard, BU, NYU, Tufts, and Yale; which I know are all extremely hard schools to get into. Also, they were like the only colleges I knew when I was little, meaning they're very well-known had seemed to be picked just because they're well-known.
2. Toni goes to Harvard but never goes to class?? They complain about homework and studying...but that's it. Like, not a single class or teacher was mentioned. I feel like in these books there's always a supportive teacher to guide the students way through life and accepting who you are.
3. Again, the fact they never fight?
My last complaint is how confusing it was. There are so many characters and they were all introduced at once. Most of the characters were LGBTQ, but it was hard to figure out if they were trans, or bi, or gay or lesbian, or genderqueer, like Toni. It was never clearly specified what the multiple characters identify as, and I kind of had to figure it out myself. Also, Toni and Gretchen both had close guy friends at their separate school, but for some reason I kept getting them confused.
Overall, I really liked the idea of this book but I was just very confused and felt like there were a lot of loose ends like:
Does Gretchen ever rekindle her friendship with her best friend at NYU? (sorry, I forgot his name)
What happens with Tony and his mom?
Does Tony get the surgery?
Are Tony and Gretchen back together?
Who really cares about Chris's relationship with Steve?
Would Gretchen still be lesbian if she's dating a trans woman? (or man, whatever Tony identifies as)
What happens to Tony's sister Audrey?
Okay. I've been looking forward to this review, mainly because I have a lot to say. So lately I've been reading a lot of LGBTQ to broaden my horizons. Unfortunately, I haven't liked many of the books in that genre. This book was one of those books.
Plot: So this book was about a lesbian couple who basically have their entire lives planned out: together. The two girls names are Gretchen and Toni. Toni is struggling to find out who she is, and identifying as genderqueer, because she doesn't feel male or female. Toni is going to be attending Harvard, while Gretchen is going to Tufts, near by. Although, when Gretchen unexpectedly gets taken off the wait list for NYU, she decides she wants to go there. But she doesn't tell Toni until the night before they leave for college. Naturally, Toni is pissed but doesn't show it. Apparently this couple never fight. Never. Is that even possible? They've been dating two years and haven't had an argument.
Okay, so now all the problems I had with this book:
1. They most be all super smart. Like, the only colleges mentioned were Harvard, BU, NYU, Tufts, and Yale; which I know are all extremely hard schools to get into. Also, they were like the only colleges I knew when I was little, meaning they're very well-known had seemed to be picked just because they're well-known.
2. Toni goes to Harvard but never goes to class?? They complain about homework and studying...but that's it. Like, not a single class or teacher was mentioned. I feel like in these books there's always a supportive teacher to guide the students way through life and accepting who you are.
3. Again, the fact they never fight?
My last complaint is how confusing it was. There are so many characters and they were all introduced at once. Most of the characters were LGBTQ, but it was hard to figure out if they were trans, or bi, or gay or lesbian, or genderqueer, like Toni. It was never clearly specified what the multiple characters identify as, and I kind of had to figure it out myself. Also, Toni and Gretchen both had close guy friends at their separate school, but for some reason I kept getting them confused.
Overall, I really liked the idea of this book but I was just very confused and felt like there were a lot of loose ends like:
Does Gretchen ever rekindle her friendship with her best friend at NYU? (sorry, I forgot his name)
What happens with Tony and his mom?
Does Tony get the surgery?
Are Tony and Gretchen back together?
Who really cares about Chris's relationship with Steve?
Would Gretchen still be lesbian if she's dating a trans woman? (or man, whatever Tony identifies as)
What happens to Tony's sister Audrey?
I wanted to like this so badly, but the device of the one character referring to everyone around them by their own preferred pronouns (and in the process degendering/misgendering their binary trans friends as well as cis people) was incredibly painful/irritating.
I was sent this book by the publisher and at their request my full review won't be on my blog until next month.
All I will say though, is that this is a really complex, accurate and wonderful book.
All I will say though, is that this is a really complex, accurate and wonderful book.
I agree with this review in every respect. Still, I will try to elaborate on my thoughts.
This book is problematic in more ways than I can describe. Do NOT look to this book to educate you on the trans spectrum or the queer community in general. This is not good queer representation, even worse genderqueer "representation" (if it can even rightfully be called that), and I would encourage you to avoid it at all costs. This is Glee in novel form; it wants to be a catchall for ALL THE CHARACTERS, all the identities, all the ethnicities, but it ends up having an overflowing cast of underdeveloped, poorly-represented characters who lack depth and complexity.
Again, this book will NOT educate you on the trans spectrum and what it means to identify as genderqueer. Genderqueer is NOT a pit-stop between binary identities. Please don't pick up this book just because it's about an identity other than "gay." You will learn nothing about any identity mentioned in this book.
This book fails to acknowledge the complexity of identity and labels, despite the fact that it's basically 400+ pages of pure queer angst at its most dramatic. One can be trans and genderqueer. One can present as either masculine or feminine (or mostly masculine/feminine) and still be genderqueer. People who identify as genderqueer can feel like they fit both parts of the binary, or neither. Furthermore, those of us in the queer community who choose to use labels use the best labels that we know how at any given time; it's not abnormal for someone to go through many labels in their lifetime. Identity and sexuality is fluid; people can spend their whole lives figuring it out. Does this book acknowledge any of that? NO. This book fails to represent those who identify as genderqueer in a true and nuanced way, and if you know nothing about the identity, you will walk away from this book more confused than ever.
This narrative tries to merge prose and queer theory under one cover, but unfortunately every time any of the characters start thinking or talking about identity/sexuality/labels, the narrative becomes derailed and reads like a textbook or an academic article. The theory feels forced and inorganic--like it doesn't naturally fit in the story at all. This story and this premise were basically created to serve as a soap box, and honestly I feel like the author just used this book as opportunity to rant about queer theory. Subject should not overpower character, yet in this case it does. Significantly.
What's more, I could practically see Robin Talley checking off the diversity checklist before my eyes. Tell me why both MCs in this book are rich white members of society who are basically gathering friends from every background imaginable, just so they can step back and be like, "Ah yes, now my collection is complete." Like I said, a literary incarnation of Glee. That's the most scathing remark I can manage to convey my disgust.
On top of ALL OF THAT, the characters are horrendous. I appreciate how awful and unlikeable the two main characters are, because it shows that members of the queer community are not infallible; we don't know everything, we're just as confused about labels and theory as anyone else, we make tons of mistakes. Bearing that in mind, the characters were still terrible and what's more, they were terribly written. Cheesy and dramatic to a fault, one-dimensional, self-involved, incapable of communicating, participants in instalove, I couldn't take either one of the main characters seriously. Their problems were transparent and predictable from the very beginning, and I didn't sense that they had changed much by the end of the story, even though they finally had one [real] confrontation.
There are so many little details that this book got absolutely wrong. I could probably write a 20-page, single-spaced, 0.5 margin essay describing exactly where this story went wrong, but honestly I'm exhausted and angry. There are as many different experiences as there are people in the queer community, and this book fails to do justice to any of them. Because there are so few mainstream YA novels about genderqueer and trans characters, the fact that this book fails to accurately represent either is that much more upsetting. I've said it multiple times already, but please do not go into this book hoping to become further educated on the trans spectrum. This is not good representation.
Biggest disappointment of the year by far.
This book is problematic in more ways than I can describe. Do NOT look to this book to educate you on the trans spectrum or the queer community in general. This is not good queer representation, even worse genderqueer "representation" (if it can even rightfully be called that), and I would encourage you to avoid it at all costs. This is Glee in novel form; it wants to be a catchall for ALL THE CHARACTERS, all the identities, all the ethnicities, but it ends up having an overflowing cast of underdeveloped, poorly-represented characters who lack depth and complexity.
Again, this book will NOT educate you on the trans spectrum and what it means to identify as genderqueer. Genderqueer is NOT a pit-stop between binary identities. Please don't pick up this book just because it's about an identity other than "gay." You will learn nothing about any identity mentioned in this book.
This book fails to acknowledge the complexity of identity and labels, despite the fact that it's basically 400+ pages of pure queer angst at its most dramatic. One can be trans and genderqueer. One can present as either masculine or feminine (or mostly masculine/feminine) and still be genderqueer. People who identify as genderqueer can feel like they fit both parts of the binary, or neither. Furthermore, those of us in the queer community who choose to use labels use the best labels that we know how at any given time; it's not abnormal for someone to go through many labels in their lifetime. Identity and sexuality is fluid; people can spend their whole lives figuring it out. Does this book acknowledge any of that? NO. This book fails to represent those who identify as genderqueer in a true and nuanced way, and if you know nothing about the identity, you will walk away from this book more confused than ever.
This narrative tries to merge prose and queer theory under one cover, but unfortunately every time any of the characters start thinking or talking about identity/sexuality/labels, the narrative becomes derailed and reads like a textbook or an academic article. The theory feels forced and inorganic--like it doesn't naturally fit in the story at all. This story and this premise were basically created to serve as a soap box, and honestly I feel like the author just used this book as opportunity to rant about queer theory. Subject should not overpower character, yet in this case it does. Significantly.
What's more, I could practically see Robin Talley checking off the diversity checklist before my eyes. Tell me why both MCs in this book are rich white members of society who are basically gathering friends from every background imaginable, just so they can step back and be like, "Ah yes, now my collection is complete." Like I said, a literary incarnation of Glee. That's the most scathing remark I can manage to convey my disgust.
On top of ALL OF THAT, the characters are horrendous. I appreciate how awful and unlikeable the two main characters are, because it shows that members of the queer community are not infallible; we don't know everything, we're just as confused about labels and theory as anyone else, we make tons of mistakes. Bearing that in mind, the characters were still terrible and what's more, they were terribly written. Cheesy and dramatic to a fault, one-dimensional, self-involved, incapable of communicating, participants in instalove, I couldn't take either one of the main characters seriously. Their problems were transparent and predictable from the very beginning, and I didn't sense that they had changed much by the end of the story, even though they finally had one [real] confrontation.
There are so many little details that this book got absolutely wrong. I could probably write a 20-page, single-spaced, 0.5 margin essay describing exactly where this story went wrong, but honestly I'm exhausted and angry. There are as many different experiences as there are people in the queer community, and this book fails to do justice to any of them. Because there are so few mainstream YA novels about genderqueer and trans characters, the fact that this book fails to accurately represent either is that much more upsetting. I've said it multiple times already, but please do not go into this book hoping to become further educated on the trans spectrum. This is not good representation.
Biggest disappointment of the year by far.
I was so excited for this book but I have to say that after reading it I'm a little disappointed, especially about how non-binary genders are portrayed. See, by the end of the book, there are no non-binary people. Non-binary genders are portrayed as a stepping stone to a binary one. There are some people who do that, but it's disappointing to see this portrayed as the main story, with no other non-binary characters - only binary trans people. For context, I'm a non-binary person who most of the time, feels closer to agender than female or male. Sometimes I feel like a girl. Rarely I feel like a boy. Gender can be fluid.
Also, I didn't like Tony. He was sort of Problematic. There's one part where he points out that girlie things mean cisgender, which ... uh ... trans boys can wear dresses. Agender people can wear makeup. Trans girls can wear jeans. And I didn't like how he refused to use gendered pronouns for most of the book. It felt disrespectful to the binary trans characters who wanted "he" pronouns.
The characters and story wasn't anything special. I didn't like the Instalove. I mean, I'm thrilled about trans representation but this only represented trans men, and we need more than that.
Also, I didn't like Tony. He was sort of Problematic. There's one part where he points out that girlie things mean cisgender, which ... uh ... trans boys can wear dresses. Agender people can wear makeup. Trans girls can wear jeans. And I didn't like how he refused to use gendered pronouns for most of the book. It felt disrespectful to the binary trans characters who wanted "he" pronouns.
The characters and story wasn't anything special. I didn't like the Instalove. I mean, I'm thrilled about trans representation but this only represented trans men, and we need more than that.