A review by sokkelestn
The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson

Part of me loved this story and I cried a lot towards the end. However, it felt pretty transphobic and full of stereotypes, which I somehow didn't fully realise until I got towards the end (did I wish too much for a nice rep and purposefully ignored all the signs for a while? Probably yes). I just really don't understand why Kate wouldn't have given the reader her chosen name from the beginning. Sure, she's not out yet, but the way she was constantly referred to by everyone, including herself, with her deadname and wrong pronouns just makes it somewhat harder for the reader to remember she's actually a girl? And why didn't Leo switch which pronouns he used for her once he learned that she's a girl? Also her friends deadnaming even when they're alone (do they even know her name?)?? As someone else pointed out, people only referred to her as a girl when she dressed up "girly". Also,
why the fuck did she react to Leo coming out as trans with "so you're a girl"?! It just seems weird, he's trans - the whole point is that he's not a girl, and another trans person not getting that seems very odd, although perhaps you could argue she's brought up in a transphobic world and not learnt everything yet, but still. Considering all of her research and videos she's watched, that doesn't make sense. Also the way Leo's deadname is thrown around everywhere is so weird, though I suppose there are some trans people who don't mind as much as most.
It's a nice story, and I liked both characters - they were imperfect teenagers figuring out themselves and dealing with some pretty heavy stuff. There were just a lot of weird details that felt icky, and I feel like the story would've been told very differently was it written by a trans person. 
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