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Couldn't get into the first few pages, and flipping through at random didn't yield anything I was sufficiently interested in to start reading. Oh well.
I read this book in one go - I could not stop until I knew what was going to happen with J. This is an interesting, well-written novel; it's all the more impressive since the author is not relating her own story. The story deals with an exceptionally large number of transgender experiences and issues, and provides a list of resources at the end of the book.
A very uplifting story about finding your true identity and fighting for it when the world tells you you're wrong. Very heartfelt and inspiring. An important work for a much-maligned group.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book single-handedly put me back in the closet for an extra two years back when I was a teenager, and the explicit (and dangerous) instructions on how to make a homemade binder broke my at-the-time boyfriend’s ribs and landed him in the hospital. The character is the most misogynistic and homophobic pos I’ve ever read, sexually assaults his supposed best friend in her sleep (and the best friend later on proceeds to self-harm on stage during a dance recital, and it’s treated like a good and healthy thing), and treats gay people like animals. He also starts dating a fourteen-year-old girl, even though he’s going on eighteen, and lies to her about every conceivable thing with no remorse or hesitation. This book is the absolute worst and caused me a great deal of harm as a trans, gay teenager. I’m twenty-seven now and it’s been well over a decade since I read I Am J, but it has stuck with me all these years—and not in a good way. Also, the white best friend has some fairly racist undertones (the way she can change her voice to “sound ghetto” at the drop of a hat) that bothered me as a kid and even more so bothers me now as an adult. I would not recommend I Am J to anyone.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Deadnaming, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria
Dropped at the halfway point because J was intolerable. The whole book read so masochistic I couldn't stand it.
I don’t know if I love or hate this book. I have very mixed feelings about it. This book was wrote in 2011 so I have tried to keep that in mind while reading but it made me so uncomfortable to see the d slur being used over and over in this book. If the main character would have been lesbian that would have been fine but the main character was a trans man so the fact that the author included a slur like that was so unbelievably uncomfy. Not to mention even though the main character is trans he still several times says some pretty fucked up shit about other identities in the LGBT community. And I get that this book was supposed to show the “ugly” side of transitioning and I get that learning about yourself and potential identities is a big part of that but like I said some of things he said was downright like lesbianphobic and homophobic. I think this is a very important story to have out there and in ways I’m glad it exists but I think the writing should have been different. I think the author could have kept this narrative without some of the rhetoric it was spewing. I will give it to them they didn’t stray away from the hard topics like it talked about self harm, body dysphoria, and other “negative” things that the trans community deals with. Like it also touched on how depression can strike even after taking T or having the surgery. I think this is all very important to talk about but it was heavy as fuck to read. At several points I was so like uncomfortable I thought I was going to have to stop reading. I thought about like what impact this had when it first came out in 2011 because the environment around gender and sexuality is drastically different to current times. And I wondered to myself if I read this when it came out would I feel differently about it. Maybe. Maybe I would love it and absolutely praise it, but reading it in current times it feels borderline offensive especially since the author wrote about being a trans POC and isn’t apart of either community.
So far enjoying this book. I like the way Beam connects J's feelings about hating his body with the way a typical young woman feels about hers.
This was quite good. A bit of a message book, so to some extent, the story is less important than saying what the author wants to say, but it's a really important message, and it is balanced well, so I didn't mind. I'm imagining young transguys handing this to their friends and families, saying "read this, this is about me"--that's got to be better than holding out a copy of the DSM-IV open to the "transexual" entry, right?!
This was quite good. A bit of a message book, so to some extent, the story is less important than saying what the author wants to say, but it's a really important message, and it is balanced well, so I didn't mind. I'm imagining young transguys handing this to their friends and families, saying "read this, this is about me"--that's got to be better than holding out a copy of the DSM-IV open to the "transexual" entry, right?!
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
I appreciated the ugly reality of this book. So many LGBTQ+ books have magically supportive parents who are either allies or come around after a five minute conversation and a google search. Unfortunately, some will just never come around and that’s what I like about J’s story. It just sucks.
4.25/5.0
4.25/5.0
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
this fucking sucked