A review by thiscubed
Between Perfect and Real by Ray Stoeve

I had to take a few days to piece together my thoughts or this review would've been something like "THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD" and, well, it is really good but I want to express how seen I felt by this book. Whether it was from the main character or side characters I just really felt represented by this book. For context, I'm a transmasculine enby who was a "tomboy" most of their life and had a mother who wasn't the fondest of that. Definitely not to the extreme that the mother in this book was, but I kinda always felt like I was disappointing her. Then I realized I was nonbinary and everything made more sense, but it was also harder because I felt more and more alienated to my body. No one really talks about how dysphoria usually gets WORSE after you figure out that you're trans and I appreciated that this book sort of touched on that. I also loved the euphoric moments, though. The feeling of seeing my chest flat for the first time was very similar to Dean's along with some other details.

In other words, this book really spoke to me and the casual inclusion of a nonbinary character who didn't feel ready for testosterone gave me life. I really hope this book helps the trans kids who deserve it.