A review by bhrtng
Transitions: A Mother's Journey by Élodie Durand

2.0

This graphic novel follows a mother's journey to acceptance after her child comes out as a trans man. I picked this up because the cover grabbed my eye and I enjoy trans stories, but it was a bit of a disappointment. The mother spends about 90% of the book rejecting her son's identity, deadnaming and misgendering him constantly. She makes his transition entirely about herself and what it means to her as his mother and what it says about her. When she finally does accept his identity, she almost does it begrudgingly and it takes a long time for her to correctly name and gender him. At the end, it feels like she pats herself on the back for her allyship...there wasn't any time given to a heartfelt and thoughtful acknowledgement of wrongdoing. It's wild how her son is basically a background character to the mother's internal dialogue. Even her husband felt like a more significant character than her actual child. Like, she was just a bad mom. I know this is a story that might be impactful for parents of trans kids who have also struggled with their child's identity, but I don't know, it didn't sit right with me. The story is also interspersed with random facts about gender diversity in the animal kingdom and in other cultures but it just feels performative. It also feels sad that the mother seems to rely on these examples for why trans identities are normal rather than just trusting the lived experience of her child. I don't know who I would recommend this to honestly, if anyone. It doesn't feel like it serves the trans community at all. 
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