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A review by jnestwd
Pageboy by Elliot Page
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.75
"It was too much to play a role on-screen when the role I played in my personal life was suffocating me already."
Pageboy by Elliot Page sheds light on the cruel, messy, and often torturous experience of growing up transgender in the Hollywood spotlight.
As a life-long fan of Elliot's acting work, and as a fellow queer, I was excited to read this as part of a queer book club.
I devoured the pages, feeling mostly extraordinarily uncomfortable by the pain and shockingly relatable emotional abuse that Elliot endured as a child from those meant to love and support him, finding few moments of joy and laughter as I annotated my copy of the book.
Rating this book is tricky, as on one hand, I deeply related to, and understood much of Page's pain. But on the other, found, at many times, the prose to be overly self-indulgent and often lit with cliches. As with many of the other reviews, I agree that the writing could have been tightened up. Elliot's search for catharsis through the writing of this work bleeds through the page and whilst I applaud his openness and vulnerability from a lifetime of keeping his true thoughts and feelings bottled up inside, it has a tendency to read like a diary entry.
The timeline jumps back and forth without a common thread or obvious purpose, and in my view the book is best read as a collection of personal essays rather than a linear memoir.
THAT BEING SAID! I genuinely enjoyed this book and felt deeply moved by it. The anecdotes on the different healthy relationships Elliot has made throughout his life were beautiful and inspiring, and I enjoyed chuckling along with certain queer tendencies that exist no matter your gender (immediately falling in love. amirite.)
Honestly, go off Elliot. You deserve to have your voice heard, multiple references to shitting and all. Love you xoxoxo
Pageboy by Elliot Page sheds light on the cruel, messy, and often torturous experience of growing up transgender in the Hollywood spotlight.
As a life-long fan of Elliot's acting work, and as a fellow queer, I was excited to read this as part of a queer book club.
I devoured the pages, feeling mostly extraordinarily uncomfortable by the pain and shockingly relatable emotional abuse that Elliot endured as a child from those meant to love and support him, finding few moments of joy and laughter as I annotated my copy of the book.
Rating this book is tricky, as on one hand, I deeply related to, and understood much of Page's pain. But on the other, found, at many times, the prose to be overly self-indulgent and often lit with cliches. As with many of the other reviews, I agree that the writing could have been tightened up. Elliot's search for catharsis through the writing of this work bleeds through the page and whilst I applaud his openness and vulnerability from a lifetime of keeping his true thoughts and feelings bottled up inside, it has a tendency to read like a diary entry.
The timeline jumps back and forth without a common thread or obvious purpose, and in my view the book is best read as a collection of personal essays rather than a linear memoir.
THAT BEING SAID! I genuinely enjoyed this book and felt deeply moved by it. The anecdotes on the different healthy relationships Elliot has made throughout his life were beautiful and inspiring, and I enjoyed chuckling along with certain queer tendencies that exist no matter your gender (immediately falling in love. amirite.)
Honestly, go off Elliot. You deserve to have your voice heard, multiple references to shitting and all. Love you xoxoxo
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Gaslighting, Self harm, Transphobia, Bullying, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Panic attacks/disorders, Eating disorder, and Homophobia