Scan barcode
A review by kierscrivener
Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin
5.0
I am a rare 4 Star giver and my 5 Stars award is very odd occurrence. But as I read to this book in two sittings one of which was because I needed to sleep after staying up to 5.
I feel in many ways that I don't have the correct words to explain this book actually as someone who is not gender fluid or gone through the atrocities that Riley went through. But I will remark that I believe it was handled and explained very well and informative in a way that made one think.
The characters were amazing. My personal favourite was Solo who I really want as a good friend and Beck and Riley were both funny and compelling.
Riley also wins the award as the most likable narrator of 2017. I am not often fond of narrators as their irrational actions and annoying thoughts really bother me. But Riley was a lot more interesting and we share a sense of humour and emotions were realistic.
Spoilers:
The only confusion I had was everyone was aware that he/she was apart of the LGBTQ+ or queer community (referred to throughout) but Riley didn't want to identify. I don't know but as ace I often got assumed to be gay because I didn't have a huge interest in guys. But I personally didn't like to be misidentified as I am attracted to guys just not sexually. If people are going to judge me for being different I would prefer them to judge me for what I actually am.
Also a final note I was very surprised Riley's anatomical sex was never given. It was a writer's choice of course but as his/her parents treated her like the assigned sex I found it hard to interrupt those scenes. I was fairly sure Riley was assigned female and I thought of dresses when they were talking about charities and stuff. But that was just me.
I feel in many ways that I don't have the correct words to explain this book actually as someone who is not gender fluid or gone through the atrocities that Riley went through. But I will remark that I believe it was handled and explained very well and informative in a way that made one think.
The characters were amazing. My personal favourite was Solo who I really want as a good friend and Beck and Riley were both funny and compelling.
Riley also wins the award as the most likable narrator of 2017. I am not often fond of narrators as their irrational actions and annoying thoughts really bother me. But Riley was a lot more interesting and we share a sense of humour and emotions were realistic.
Spoilers:
The only confusion I had was everyone was aware that he/she was apart of the LGBTQ+ or queer community (referred to throughout) but Riley didn't want to identify. I don't know but as ace I often got assumed to be gay because I didn't have a huge interest in guys. But I personally didn't like to be misidentified as I am attracted to guys just not sexually. If people are going to judge me for being different I would prefer them to judge me for what I actually am.
Also a final note I was very surprised Riley's anatomical sex was never given. It was a writer's choice of course but as his/her parents treated her like the assigned sex I found it hard to interrupt those scenes. I was fairly sure Riley was assigned female and I thought of dresses when they were talking about charities and stuff. But that was just me.