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biblioberuthiel 's review for:
If I Was Your Girl
by Meredith Russo
I had a lot of problems while reading this. Though it does portray very difficult things that have happened to Amanda (the main character), her life is a bit more neatly tied up than seemed realistic. She was able to being hormone treatment before hitting puberty, she was able to get 'bottom' surgery while still in high school, her parents (who seem to be lower middle class) could afford all of this. She is able to 'go stealth' because of her appearance. In the SOUTH, she faces violence for who she is but is, in the end overwhelmingly accepted by her peers even after they know the truth - including a boy she was dating throughout the book, though it is uncertain if they will be able to continue their romantic involvement. Her parents are divorced and imperfect but neither has rejected her completely. I was all set to give this book 2 stars, until I got to the Author's Note. Meredith Russo admits to being TOTALLY aware of these things, but gives a long explanation about how she wanted a coming of age story for a trans person that had a happy ending. She also goes on to thank her cis readers and assure her trans and/or queer readers that just because they do not fit Amanda's particular story that they are all important and valid and it's kind of a really lovely bit in general. She also goes out of her way to provide information on suicide hotlines for LGBTQ+ individuals as well as straight cis-gendered individuals. The Author's Note won this book an extra star.
On a side note: this book was really heavy on the romance, which lowered my personal enjoyment of it simply because I don't like reading romance in general.
On a side note: this book was really heavy on the romance, which lowered my personal enjoyment of it simply because I don't like reading romance in general.