Scan barcode
A review by carolineinthelibrary
Obie Is Man Enough by Schuyler Bailar
4.0
I have so many feelings about this book. I think the ending is uplifting and the story is SO important. I love that Obie has such a supportive family and group of friends, as well as teachers and coaches.
I struggled with how graphic and difficult some of the homophobia and transphobia was. Obviously as a cisgender woman, I can’t truly know the experiences of trans folks, especially young trans people, but as a family member of two beautiful, wonderful trans folks, I don’t know that I’d recommend this to them without a major trigger/content warning. Trans people see so much real life hate and violence around them and this book isn’t an escape from that. Not that all books need to be an escape, but I don’t know if trans folks reading this book would feel more seen or more hurt by some of the things Obie has to endure.
As far as the writing, I’ll be excited to read other works by Schuyler Bailar because as a debut novel and one very personal to him, I thought at times the writing was a little disorganized. I think this is so close to Bailar’s heart and own experiences, we get a little lost sometimes. I also was surprised by how much cursing was in the book. I have the mouth of a trucker and have since I was in high school, and obviously I know middle schoolers can have foul mouths too, but this book falls in the middle grade/juvenile category and I worry some folks would get caught up on the language and not appreciate the message of the book.
Overall, a very important read, but one I’d be cautious to recommend, especially to young folks learning about their own identity.
I struggled with how graphic and difficult some of the homophobia and transphobia was. Obviously as a cisgender woman, I can’t truly know the experiences of trans folks, especially young trans people, but as a family member of two beautiful, wonderful trans folks, I don’t know that I’d recommend this to them without a major trigger/content warning. Trans people see so much real life hate and violence around them and this book isn’t an escape from that. Not that all books need to be an escape, but I don’t know if trans folks reading this book would feel more seen or more hurt by some of the things Obie has to endure.
As far as the writing, I’ll be excited to read other works by Schuyler Bailar because as a debut novel and one very personal to him, I thought at times the writing was a little disorganized. I think this is so close to Bailar’s heart and own experiences, we get a little lost sometimes. I also was surprised by how much cursing was in the book. I have the mouth of a trucker and have since I was in high school, and obviously I know middle schoolers can have foul mouths too, but this book falls in the middle grade/juvenile category and I worry some folks would get caught up on the language and not appreciate the message of the book.
Overall, a very important read, but one I’d be cautious to recommend, especially to young folks learning about their own identity.