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A review by literarycrushes
Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly
2.0
Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly is an intimate character study of Dawn, a genderqueer bookbinder living in Brooklyn in 2003. While searching for inspiration (she uses she/her pronouns), she discovers a sapphic love letter hidden in the back pages of a book she is working on. Feeling unstable in her own identity and relationship, she becomes somewhat obsessed with finding out what became of Gertrude (the author of the letter who hints at being genderqueer or trans themselves) and Marta (did she ever receive the letter? Did she love her back?).
I liked many things about this book, like the honest portrayal of having a complicated relationship with your identity and sexuality and how you present yourself to society. It’s a reminder of how much the world has changed in such a short period of time but also puts into perspective how much farther it needs to come and how much more work we have. I loved the nostalgic New York setting of the early 2000s, a time and place in fiction most often clouded by the shadow of 9/11. I liked reading about bookbinding, a slightly obscure topic I didn’t know much about. I was unsurprised to find that the author is also a professional bookbinder, given Dawn’s passion for the medium, which really shines through the pages.
That being said, I found this debut to be a little uneven as a whole. I kept waiting for the story to go deeper, to lean more into the vast topics it covers, yet I felt that in many places, it merely skimmed the surface of these ideas and moved on. But I still enjoyed it, and have a soft spot in my heart for Dawn!
I liked many things about this book, like the honest portrayal of having a complicated relationship with your identity and sexuality and how you present yourself to society. It’s a reminder of how much the world has changed in such a short period of time but also puts into perspective how much farther it needs to come and how much more work we have. I loved the nostalgic New York setting of the early 2000s, a time and place in fiction most often clouded by the shadow of 9/11. I liked reading about bookbinding, a slightly obscure topic I didn’t know much about. I was unsurprised to find that the author is also a professional bookbinder, given Dawn’s passion for the medium, which really shines through the pages.
That being said, I found this debut to be a little uneven as a whole. I kept waiting for the story to go deeper, to lean more into the vast topics it covers, yet I felt that in many places, it merely skimmed the surface of these ideas and moved on. But I still enjoyed it, and have a soft spot in my heart for Dawn!