Review by rats_on_mars - Bellies

rats_on_mars 's review for:

Bellies by Nicola Dinan

3.75

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The book spends around the first third building up the, on the surface, homosexual relationship between the protagonists Tom and Ming, dropping only a few hints that Ming struggles with gender dysphoria. The rest is spent on how their relationship, after Ming starts to transition, slowly breaks apart and crashes dramatically. A lot of things are said about this relationship throughout, there's questions of supporting your trans partner, dealing with fading attraction, going through gender affirming care. There's a contemplative sadness to all of it which I quite enjoyed. I was however a little put off by a lot of the descriptions of sex scenes, though that's entirely a personal thing for me. Same goes for the very frequent mentions of drug use. Sadly, parties and sex and drugs often are part of vital story beats which I then was just a little tuned out from.

Ultimately, it's a very good read though I'd be cautious with recommending it to people due to a lot of the subject matter. I'd also want to talk the trans-content over with any cis person I'd recommend this to.

Content Warnings