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A review by crookedtreehouse
The Pervert by Remy Boydell, Michelle Perez
2.0
I went back and forth on whether this was a two or three star book.
It's really cool that this book exists. Not just that it's a graphic novel with a trans point of view, but it's focus on sex work is also much needed in comics. The art, while not a style I particularly enjoy (think the furry comic "Genus"), was well-done. It just never fell into a narrative structure I could care about. It's not quite a series of interconnected stories, and it's not a singular story about one character. I think it needed another set of editing eyes to help nudge it in one of those directions.
It felt like most of the really important parts of the story were missing. That if the author wanted me to care about the characters, particularly the protagonist, I needed to see the moments omitted from the book, the relationship with the girlfriend before the transition, the decision to transition. It's weird that a comic this personal, and this direct feels so...guarded. It showed all of the sex, and the high drama consequences but didn't show the human moments that would have made the characters more sympathetic. This might have been totally intentional, it just didn't work for me.
I'm still going to pick up whatever Boydell's next project is, as this really seems like, with the right editor, this could have been an amazing book.
I would recommend it for people looking for graphic novels featuring sex workers, those who enjoy reading books from unfamiliar perspectives, fans of Genus, and those who like films and literature that plays around with narrative in a way that some people don't find satisying.
It's really cool that this book exists. Not just that it's a graphic novel with a trans point of view, but it's focus on sex work is also much needed in comics. The art, while not a style I particularly enjoy (think the furry comic "Genus"), was well-done. It just never fell into a narrative structure I could care about. It's not quite a series of interconnected stories, and it's not a singular story about one character. I think it needed another set of editing eyes to help nudge it in one of those directions.
It felt like most of the really important parts of the story were missing. That if the author wanted me to care about the characters, particularly the protagonist, I needed to see the moments omitted from the book, the relationship with the girlfriend before the transition, the decision to transition. It's weird that a comic this personal, and this direct feels so...guarded. It showed all of the sex, and the high drama consequences but didn't show the human moments that would have made the characters more sympathetic. This might have been totally intentional, it just didn't work for me.
I'm still going to pick up whatever Boydell's next project is, as this really seems like, with the right editor, this could have been an amazing book.
I would recommend it for people looking for graphic novels featuring sex workers, those who enjoy reading books from unfamiliar perspectives, fans of Genus, and those who like films and literature that plays around with narrative in a way that some people don't find satisying.