You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by corsetedfeminist
Boys Weekend by Mattie Lubchansky
dark
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
This graphic novel understands that the true horrors are dealing with cis people and generally dealing with tech bros.
Our story starts with Sammie, a trans woman who is sacrificing for her friendship with Adam. She’s Adam’s best man for his upcoming wedding, with currently includes going out with him and all of his guy friends for the bachelor weekend at an artificial island resort that is set up as a guy’s paradise.
Adam is “trying”- a state of friendship that all queer people are familiar with- he probably means well, but he doesn’t understand how important it is to Sammie to be properly treated as a woman and he definitely doesn’t correct the other guys in the group when they’re transphobic or just obnoxious. The rest of the guys in the group are everything that is worse about tech bros- incapable of having a conversation in normal English, deeply misogynistic, quite transphobic, and generally acting like they are superior beings.
But don’t worry, they’re not all tech bros! One of them is… a cop. Well. Um.
But don’t worry! There’s also another woman on the trip! And she is… afflicted with endless internalized misogyny and transphobia and really wants to be a tech bro. So. That’s nice.
Poor Sammie.
The plot continues on with the group enjoying various “bro” activities, while the guys continue to just be horrid to Sammie. So many casual transphobic comments. The brilliance of this story is that these comments are far too realistic, set in a context that is a bit sci-fi. They’re all comments that my friends who are trans women have dealt with, and some of them are comments that I myself have dealt with. And some of them are very subtle but real- like the guys using they/them pronouns for Sammie instead of just using she/her pronouns, just to be obnoxious and be fancy transphobic.
There’s a tentacle monster, and a tech bro cult, all of which is quite fun just on a horror level, and Sammie finally escapes on a jetski.
The humor of this story is spot on, and turns it from just a sad story about trying to handle your cis friends as a trans person into a cathartic romp where you too can imagine a tentacle monster eating your transphobic friends.
Our story starts with Sammie, a trans woman who is sacrificing for her friendship with Adam. She’s Adam’s best man for his upcoming wedding, with currently includes going out with him and all of his guy friends for the bachelor weekend at an artificial island resort that is set up as a guy’s paradise.
Adam is “trying”- a state of friendship that all queer people are familiar with- he probably means well, but he doesn’t understand how important it is to Sammie to be properly treated as a woman and he definitely doesn’t correct the other guys in the group when they’re transphobic or just obnoxious. The rest of the guys in the group are everything that is worse about tech bros- incapable of having a conversation in normal English, deeply misogynistic, quite transphobic, and generally acting like they are superior beings.
But don’t worry, they’re not all tech bros! One of them is… a cop. Well. Um.
But don’t worry! There’s also another woman on the trip! And she is… afflicted with endless internalized misogyny and transphobia and really wants to be a tech bro. So. That’s nice.
Poor Sammie.
The plot continues on with the group enjoying various “bro” activities, while the guys continue to just be horrid to Sammie. So many casual transphobic comments. The brilliance of this story is that these comments are far too realistic, set in a context that is a bit sci-fi. They’re all comments that my friends who are trans women have dealt with, and some of them are comments that I myself have dealt with. And some of them are very subtle but real- like the guys using they/them pronouns for Sammie instead of just using she/her pronouns, just to be obnoxious and be fancy transphobic.
There’s a tentacle monster, and a tech bro cult, all of which is quite fun just on a horror level, and Sammie finally escapes on a jetski.
The humor of this story is spot on, and turns it from just a sad story about trying to handle your cis friends as a trans person into a cathartic romp where you too can imagine a tentacle monster eating your transphobic friends.