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A review by donasbooks
Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly
5.0
Thank you to the author Jennifer Savran Kelly, publishers Algonquin Books and Workman Publishing Co., and as always NetGalley, for an advance digital copy of ENDPAPERS.
Dawn has commitment issues. She isn't sure how she feels about almost ever major factor in her life, and each of them, one by one, suddenly require her attention and focus. Dawn is genderqueer and, perhaps central to the rest of her commitment issues, she's struggling with the question of how to express her gender to herself, and consequently, the world. She doesn't know how she feels about her boyfriend, Lukas, but knows for them both something has to change. She doesn't know if she likes her work anymore, and agonizes about gender conforming when she's there. She doesn't know how to continue with her art, how to express herself there when she has closed down so many other channels inside her. She knows only that she loves her friends, Jae and Gertrude, and they center Dawn, and this book. Through the growth of those relationships, Dawn faces her inability to commit and all the pain it caused in her life.
As you might be able to tell from my description of this book above, the form of this novel is pretty brilliant. Like a hurricane of indecision with the three main relationships being the eye of calm through the middle. The pacing is fantastic. The tension builds steadily toward the major plot points. The ending feels predictable, but in a way that's intended. As if to say, after everything Dawn has been through, she's earned a little predictability.
This is my trigger warning for terrible violence against queer people, hospitalization for violence, post violence injuries, and ptsd descriptions.
Rating:
Dawn has commitment issues. She isn't sure how she feels about almost ever major factor in her life, and each of them, one by one, suddenly require her attention and focus. Dawn is genderqueer and, perhaps central to the rest of her commitment issues, she's struggling with the question of how to express her gender to herself, and consequently, the world. She doesn't know how she feels about her boyfriend, Lukas, but knows for them both something has to change. She doesn't know if she likes her work anymore, and agonizes about gender conforming when she's there. She doesn't know how to continue with her art, how to express herself there when she has closed down so many other channels inside her. She knows only that she loves her friends, Jae and Gertrude, and they center Dawn, and this book. Through the growth of those relationships, Dawn faces her inability to commit and all the pain it caused in her life.
As you might be able to tell from my description of this book above, the form of this novel is pretty brilliant. Like a hurricane of indecision with the three main relationships being the eye of calm through the middle. The pacing is fantastic. The tension builds steadily toward the major plot points. The ending feels predictable, but in a way that's intended. As if to say, after everything Dawn has been through, she's earned a little predictability.
This is my trigger warning for terrible violence against queer people, hospitalization for violence, post violence injuries, and ptsd descriptions.
Rating: