A review by obsidian_blue
Woodworking by Emily St. James

5.0

Wow what a great book. I loved it from the beginning to the end. No notes.

“Woodworking” follows Abigail, a 17 year old teen trans girl living in Mitchell, South Dakota. She keeps focusing on when she becomes 18 she can get away from her family and do what she considers “woodworking” meaning she will be able to do what she needs to for her to be fully Abigail and be like every other girl out there. Her plans are thrown into the trash though due to her falling in love as well as dealing with her unlikely friendship with her school teacher, Erica Skyberg, a trans woman who is struggling with still being in love with her ex-wife as well as fully being herself and going through the steps necessary to transition. Abigail does not want to become Erica’s “mom” and yet, she ends up doing that. She’s not afraid to fully be herself and though their friendship (and hiding of it) is an issue, they both can’t let the other one go. And I get why they did it. I have friends who are gay and trans. And as one put it, you want to be around others like you, because it’s safe.

The book takes place during 2016 and a local race as well as the looming Presidential race between Trump and Hillary Clinton going on. We all know how that ended up. And yet, St. James shows the hope that tons of people had for Hillary and the fear that many had rightfully so of Donald Trump and what it would mean to not be Christian and white.

Abigail was fierce. I felt like each chapter with her POV was the clearest part of the book for me. I felt at times she was sitting right there talking to me and the way it is written it shows that St. James was evoking that. It felt a bit like sitting down with a friend who is telling you all of the ugly, the great, the in between of their lives. I was worried throughout that something was going to happen to her. She’s dealing with a boy she loves being ashamed of her. Her parents, some siblings refusing to call her by her name and wanting her to go back to being something she is not.

Erica was a mess. You will want to shake her. But I get it. The book shows the scariness of what she is about to do and wants to do. To fully admit who she was all this time and the mask she had on by trying to be something she was not. I loved that St. James I think never showed what Erica’s prior name was. Instead you get the text redacted when someone calls her by it. I hated though there is a dead naming plot point with Abigail and I get why she reacted the way she did.

The other characters in this book are fantastic. There’s a huge spoiler about something, I won’t reveal, I want you to get to it and just scream like I did. I found it telling that person’s POV was in the second person, but I get why after you get through the book.

But the other characters like Caleb, Constance, Megan, and Abigail’s sister and her boyfriend, and the trans support group leader felt real to me throughout the book.

The plot and flow of the book worked great throughout even with the addition of the other person I am not going to spoil.

And then the ending. Ah the ending.