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210 reviews
Home Body by Rupi Kaur
kaur started singing, and if it has allowed her live, that might be good enough.
Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in March 2025
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
3.75
This is the second poetry collection by rupi kaur, and overall it was better than the first anthology. I would say the biggest strength of kaur's poems is their readability. The language is straightforward, and it flows well. You don't have to repeat certain lines to understand what it means or try to restructure lines because they are disjointed.
The likability of her poems would vary a lot by readers' preferences. I would say I'm in the middle ground. I prefer accessible writing style, but kaur's poems come off too simplistic. They often talk about pain, but it stops there. It is hard to see the contemplation she must have gone through in order to get to this stage of bearing vulnerability. The story often feels repeated.
I'd offer a token of appreciation for her work with a quote from Mark Nepo's The Book of Awakening (p.103).
The likability of her poems would vary a lot by readers' preferences. I would say I'm in the middle ground. I prefer accessible writing style, but kaur's poems come off too simplistic. They often talk about pain, but it stops there. It is hard to see the contemplation she must have gone through in order to get to this stage of bearing vulnerability. The story often feels repeated.
I'd offer a token of appreciation for her work with a quote from Mark Nepo's The Book of Awakening (p.103).
By letting things out, we also let things in. So if you're cut off, in pain, estranged, numb--sing, give voice to anything. It needn't sound pretty. Simply, bravely, open despite the difficulty, and let what is in out, and what is out in. Sing, and your life will continue.
kaur started singing, and if it has allowed her live, that might be good enough.
Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in March 2025
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual violence, Violence
The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar
inspiring
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Wow. It was a hard read. There were a few reasons that I found the book difficult to read.
1. The sentences felt like they were translated from another language. I teach English to immigrant students, and reading this book reminded me of the extra mental effort needed when I am reading my students’ writing. I don't mean that Joukhadar’s writing is inadequate to be published as a book. The sentences were clear but somehow felt awkward to me. (I’m not judging the writing based on native-speaker supremacy. I am a non-native English speaker.) I also do not mean Joukhadar would have used Google Translate to write the book. I wonder how much they were thinking of the story in Arabic or another language in their head and wrote it in English. At the same time, I know for sure Arabic was involved in writing the book because Joukhadar is multilingual and that is how multilingual brains work.
2. There were too many mysteries. First of all, I did not realize it was a mystery story until well into the book. Two obvious ones from the beginning were the name of Nadir (revealed later) because it was crossed out for a while and the rare bird that he was in search of following his mother’s footsteps. Then it turned out the gender identities of many supporting characters were hidden. Then many relationships between them turned out to be hidden. Nadir’s house and the community building were full of mysteries. It also showed that many things went unspoken in Nadir's family and culture, adding to his sense of suffocation.
3. The book tried to cover too many themes. The main ones are coming-out/coming-of-age of a young trans person and grief (not just one but many different kinds). Geronticus Simurghus the rare bird seemed to represent multiple things: the center of the story’s mystery, Nadir’s mother, Nadir’s true self, the lost habitat of Syrian immigrants, etc. I remember two parts in the story that particularly drew me in: Nadir’s struggle to come out to his gender-binary Syrian community and his grief over his mother's death. I wish that Joukhadar had focused more on certain themes and dug deeper into those areas. The book covers a large patch of time and space from Syria in the 1920s to NYC in the present. I felt like opportunities to get deeper into certain themes and develop supporting characters were lost in the author’s attempt to stretch thin.
Although I have listed some challenges that the book posed to me, there is one thing I deeply appreciate. The book forced me to face my Islamophobia. I already had an aversion to Muslim culture and people due to the thick-laden Islamaphobic propaganda of the US government; in addition, my ill-rooted hatred of Islam religion and culture grew bigger while teaching ESL students from Arab nations. AFAB/women students always wore a hijab, and when they entered Zoom, the first thing they did was tuck in every corner to make sure none of their hair was seen on the screen. It reminded me of the patriarchal nature of their culture that heavily limits their freedom. Often they were taking the Zoom class from home because they had to take care of young children during the class. It was common to have students who were pregnant and dropped the class in the middle of the semester for delivery. The pressure to make babies was high, and the more children these students had, the less energy and time they had left to pursue education and careers.
One of my book club members shared a perspective that helped me. She pointed out the ways the characters in The Thirty Name of Night sought their own life path in the society and community they lived in. Of course, some characters conformed without fail, but some made cracks at the rigid heteronomy and gender roles and showed different ways of living to people around them. Khalto Tala, Laila’s aunt, stayed single after her husband died and led a life of entrepreneurship and independence. Ilyas, Laila’s husband, started his new life as a man in the US after leaving his disapproving parents behind in Syria. My group member's comment made me realize that it is not just my Muslim AFAB/women students who live under restrictions, but we all do. No matter where we are born, we live under pressure to conform to multiple norms and standards that are either universal or unique to our culture and family. We all go through the process of learning how to conform or building muscles to push against such pressure. That is an inevitable part of living, and in that process, we get to experience hardship that connects us with others.
After finishing the book, I listened to an interview with Zeyn Joukhadar on The afikra Podcast. I learned that Joukhadar wrote this novel while moving around Brooklyn and Queens due to an unstable housing situation. Perhaps his real-time moving and consequential sense of floating gave inspiration to the story of migrating birds and gentrified Syrian immigrants. At the end of the interview, Joukhadar expressed their wish for readers to accept his book with a mind open to multiplicity. He didn’t want his book to be about one thing/theme/topic that is clean and easy to market. He wanted his readers to see that the world we live in is layer over layer of various ideas and lives, like how every part of NYC contains the multiple histories of different communities that existed previously.
I confess I expected an easy read, an escape from the ever-so-stressful reality that I am living in the United States in 2025. Well, The Thirty Names of Night was a good reminder that there is no true escape in a book. It showed me that I can not hyper-focus on one issue, let it be LGBTQ+ rights, body autonomy, or immigration policy because they all overlap. We are pushed to think of them as separate issues; we are made to believe that we exist in different groups of people, but that is not true. My rights to live as who I am, make decisions about my body, and live safely in this (or any) country all reside in one body. It is the same for all members of our community. I take a deep breath and remind myself that we live in multiplicity, and that makes us One.
Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in March 2025
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
1. The sentences felt like they were translated from another language. I teach English to immigrant students, and reading this book reminded me of the extra mental effort needed when I am reading my students’ writing. I don't mean that Joukhadar’s writing is inadequate to be published as a book. The sentences were clear but somehow felt awkward to me. (I’m not judging the writing based on native-speaker supremacy. I am a non-native English speaker.) I also do not mean Joukhadar would have used Google Translate to write the book. I wonder how much they were thinking of the story in Arabic or another language in their head and wrote it in English. At the same time, I know for sure Arabic was involved in writing the book because Joukhadar is multilingual and that is how multilingual brains work.
2. There were too many mysteries. First of all, I did not realize it was a mystery story until well into the book. Two obvious ones from the beginning were the name of Nadir (revealed later) because it was crossed out for a while and the rare bird that he was in search of following his mother’s footsteps. Then it turned out the gender identities of many supporting characters were hidden. Then many relationships between them turned out to be hidden. Nadir’s house and the community building were full of mysteries. It also showed that many things went unspoken in Nadir's family and culture, adding to his sense of suffocation.
3. The book tried to cover too many themes. The main ones are coming-out/coming-of-age of a young trans person and grief (not just one but many different kinds). Geronticus Simurghus the rare bird seemed to represent multiple things: the center of the story’s mystery, Nadir’s mother, Nadir’s true self, the lost habitat of Syrian immigrants, etc. I remember two parts in the story that particularly drew me in: Nadir’s struggle to come out to his gender-binary Syrian community and his grief over his mother's death. I wish that Joukhadar had focused more on certain themes and dug deeper into those areas. The book covers a large patch of time and space from Syria in the 1920s to NYC in the present. I felt like opportunities to get deeper into certain themes and develop supporting characters were lost in the author’s attempt to stretch thin.
Although I have listed some challenges that the book posed to me, there is one thing I deeply appreciate. The book forced me to face my Islamophobia. I already had an aversion to Muslim culture and people due to the thick-laden Islamaphobic propaganda of the US government; in addition, my ill-rooted hatred of Islam religion and culture grew bigger while teaching ESL students from Arab nations. AFAB/women students always wore a hijab, and when they entered Zoom, the first thing they did was tuck in every corner to make sure none of their hair was seen on the screen. It reminded me of the patriarchal nature of their culture that heavily limits their freedom. Often they were taking the Zoom class from home because they had to take care of young children during the class. It was common to have students who were pregnant and dropped the class in the middle of the semester for delivery. The pressure to make babies was high, and the more children these students had, the less energy and time they had left to pursue education and careers.
One of my book club members shared a perspective that helped me. She pointed out the ways the characters in The Thirty Name of Night sought their own life path in the society and community they lived in. Of course, some characters conformed without fail, but some made cracks at the rigid heteronomy and gender roles and showed different ways of living to people around them. Khalto Tala, Laila’s aunt, stayed single after her husband died and led a life of entrepreneurship and independence.
After finishing the book, I listened to an interview with Zeyn Joukhadar on The afikra Podcast. I learned that Joukhadar wrote this novel while moving around Brooklyn and Queens due to an unstable housing situation. Perhaps his real-time moving and consequential sense of floating gave inspiration to the story of migrating birds and gentrified Syrian immigrants. At the end of the interview, Joukhadar expressed their wish for readers to accept his book with a mind open to multiplicity. He didn’t want his book to be about one thing/theme/topic that is clean and easy to market. He wanted his readers to see that the world we live in is layer over layer of various ideas and lives, like how every part of NYC contains the multiple histories of different communities that existed previously.
I confess I expected an easy read, an escape from the ever-so-stressful reality that I am living in the United States in 2025. Well, The Thirty Names of Night was a good reminder that there is no true escape in a book. It showed me that I can not hyper-focus on one issue, let it be LGBTQ+ rights, body autonomy, or immigration policy because they all overlap. We are pushed to think of them as separate issues; we are made to believe that we exist in different groups of people, but that is not true. My rights to live as who I am, make decisions about my body, and live safely in this (or any) country all reside in one body. It is the same for all members of our community. I take a deep breath and remind myself that we live in multiplicity, and that makes us One.
Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in March 2025
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Classism
Keeping Two by Jordan Crane
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I have listed a whole bunch of content warnings for violence, but it can feel like not much because all the scenes look very surreal. The whole book is drawn in various shades of green, which adds to its dreamy state.
The artwork is beautiful, and the story is refreshing. It looks like many parallel universes collapsing on top of each other, which seems to describe paranoia. It reminded me of the movie Everything Everywhere All at once.
What I didn't like about the book was the lack of substantial story and character development. The book is more focused on conveying emotions than the plot or characters. In that sense, it's more like an art book than a storybook. I can imagine myself sobbing if I read the book at a different time. After all, loss and grief is my softest spot. I can also see it having more dramatic effect if it were made into a short animation. Right, it felt like an animation drawn on paper.
Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in March 2025
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
The artwork is beautiful, and the story is refreshing. It looks like many parallel universes collapsing on top of each other, which seems to describe paranoia. It reminded me of the movie Everything Everywhere All at once.
What I didn't like about the book was the lack of substantial story and character development. The book is more focused on conveying emotions than the plot or characters. In that sense, it's more like an art book than a storybook. I can imagine myself sobbing if I read the book at a different time. After all, loss and grief is my softest spot. I can also see it having more dramatic effect if it were made into a short animation. Right, it felt like an animation drawn on paper.
Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in March 2025
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Car accident, Murder
Permission to Come Home: Reclaiming Mental Health as Asian Americans by Jenny T. Wang
informative
reflective
slow-paced
2.5
I picked up this book with high hopes because it is rare to see books about Asian Americans' mental health. Sadly, the book was utterly disappointing.
1. The book was not what it appeared to be. I expected to see research findings about Asian Americans' mental health. It was more like a self-help book. Each chapter teaches you what to do and gives you exercises to reflect and write.
2. I am definitely not the target audience. It would be helpful for readers in their teen years or early 20s. As a 43-year-old, all the teachings in the books were trite and unhelpful to me.
3. The book has little sharing of case studies or statistics to back its claims. Most examples come from the author's personal experiences, which felt extremely limiting for a psychology book. It also made the book strictly centered on 1.5/2nd generation immigrants from East Asia.
4. I have no intention or credential to critique Jenny T. Wang's work in Asian American community. In fact, I believe testimonies by others on her contribution. However, based on this book alone, she didn't come off as a skilled writer. It was not engaging enough for me.
I end the review with my wish for more research on Asian Americans' mental health and more publication of books on that topic.
Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in March 2025
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
1. The book was not what it appeared to be. I expected to see research findings about Asian Americans' mental health. It was more like a self-help book. Each chapter teaches you what to do and gives you exercises to reflect and write.
2. I am definitely not the target audience. It would be helpful for readers in their teen years or early 20s. As a 43-year-old, all the teachings in the books were trite and unhelpful to me.
3. The book has little sharing of case studies or statistics to back its claims. Most examples come from the author's personal experiences, which felt extremely limiting for a psychology book. It also made the book strictly centered on 1.5/2nd generation immigrants from East Asia.
4. I have no intention or credential to critique Jenny T. Wang's work in Asian American community. In fact, I believe testimonies by others on her contribution. However, based on this book alone, she didn't come off as a skilled writer. It was not engaging enough for me.
I end the review with my wish for more research on Asian Americans' mental health and more publication of books on that topic.
Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in March 2025
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse
Mimosa by Archie Bongiovanni
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I flew through the pages. The story is lighthearted and moves fast. It is a story of a group of queer friends, and it is fun to look into their dramas. I enjoyed reading it, but it didn't feel substantial to me. It lightly touches upon various hardships queer folks in the 30s-40s experience, but that investigation was too shallow to my taste. Also, the characters come off as quite annoying and selfish, which hindered my attempt to relate to any of them.
Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in March 2025
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in March 2025
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Transphobia
Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Damian Duffy, Octavia E. Butler
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This is my second time reading this book, and I felt only more disturbed by it than the first time around because now it is 2025. The world in Lauren's life seems more dystopian than the US at the moment, but not much different. The dystopian world, imagined and written in 1993, has now become a reality. The corporate greed and violence, climate disasters (massive fire in California), human trafficking, and refugees moving north especially felt very real, too real.
If you read this book in the '90s, it would have served as a good warning for how things can go wrong in the future. But what can you do if you are living it now? (The story is set in 2024-2027.) Well, it could get worse. It is easy for us to deny that possibility because we don't want it to get worse, but that does not stop it from happening. Would you build a community like Lauren or just sit and watch?
Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in February 2025
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
If you read this book in the '90s, it would have served as a good warning for how things can go wrong in the future. But what can you do if you are living it now? (The story is set in 2024-2027.) Well, it could get worse. It is easy for us to deny that possibility because we don't want it to get worse, but that does not stop it from happening. Would you build a community like Lauren or just sit and watch?
Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in February 2025
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence
Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.25
I am an addict. I am mostly addicted to mobile games, social media, and videos. I also have a mild binge-eating disorder.
I loved and hated reading this book. I loved it for Caroline Knapp's writing style. It flowed so well that my eyes just slid across the page. At the same time, I hated reading it because I was angry toward Knapp and myself. Reading her story reminded me of my own failure in "controlling" my behavior. My habit of blaming myself for my addiction and deeming myself a failure showed up through my attitude toward Knapp. For most of the book, I silently yelled at her over and over, "You are a stupid idiot. You deserve all the suffering you have." Such blame made me deeply sad because Knapp is not an idiot. Neither am I. She doesn't deserve any pain. Neither do I.
My self-loathing takes root in my childhood experience of repeatedly being beaten. I was scolded, yelled at, and punished with hands or weapons. Such experience planted the idea that I am eternally inadequate and deserving of punishment.
I am thankful to Knapp for writing this book. I learned a lot about alcoholism. Overall it seems much more painful than screen addiction. Screen addiction messes up your brain, but alcohol messes up your whole body.
Knapp talks about how our society is inundated with alcohol. It could be true, if not more, with screens, too. Everyone carries one or more devices. I use devices for work and personal tasks. I can't imagine living without a device. I wish there were better regulations on addictive content online. I also wish there was better awareness and education on screen addiction.
Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in February 2025
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
I loved and hated reading this book. I loved it for Caroline Knapp's writing style. It flowed so well that my eyes just slid across the page. At the same time, I hated reading it because I was angry toward Knapp and myself. Reading her story reminded me of my own failure in "controlling" my behavior. My habit of blaming myself for my addiction and deeming myself a failure showed up through my attitude toward Knapp. For most of the book, I silently yelled at her over and over, "You are a stupid idiot. You deserve all the suffering you have." Such blame made me deeply sad because Knapp is not an idiot. Neither am I. She doesn't deserve any pain. Neither do I.
My self-loathing takes root in my childhood experience of repeatedly being beaten. I was scolded, yelled at, and punished with hands or weapons. Such experience planted the idea that I am eternally inadequate and deserving of punishment.
I am thankful to Knapp for writing this book. I learned a lot about alcoholism. Overall it seems much more painful than screen addiction. Screen addiction messes up your brain, but alcohol messes up your whole body.
Knapp talks about how our society is inundated with alcohol. It could be true, if not more, with screens, too. Everyone carries one or more devices. I use devices for work and personal tasks. I can't imagine living without a device. I wish there were better regulations on addictive content online. I also wish there was better awareness and education on screen addiction.
Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in February 2025
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Vomit, Alcohol
Moderate: Misogyny
Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence
Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by John E. Sarno
Don’ts
Although the book is not based on pseudo-science, it heavily relies on the author's clinical experiences and anecdotal evidence. As the author advises, you should check out any structural issues that might be causing you back pain first before questioning whether it is caused by a psychological reason.
For me, the book gave me an opportunity to reflect on my chronic neck and shoulder pain. (There are all sorts of chronic illnesses you can get from repressed emotions, not just back pain, according to the book.) I think the book has merit in emphasizing our brain's ability to influence all parts of our body.
Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in February 2025
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
This book was published in 1991, and the whole book gives you the feel of the 90s. It is relatively short just above 200 pages because the main idea is quite simple: Your back pain is probably caused by a psychological reason. A succinct summary is on the first page of the book, copied below, and the rest of the book is all the details to make you believe its message.
Do’s
- Resume physical activity. It won’t hurt you.
- Talk to your brain: tell it you won’t take it anymore.
- Stop all physical treatments for your back--they may be blocking your recovery.
Don’ts
- Repress your anger or emotions--they can give you pain in the back.
- Think of yourself as being injured. Psychological conditioning contributes to ongoing back pain.
- Be intimidated by back pain. You have the power to overcome it.
Although the book is not based on pseudo-science, it heavily relies on the author's clinical experiences and anecdotal evidence. As the author advises, you should check out any structural issues that might be causing you back pain first before questioning whether it is caused by a psychological reason.
For me, the book gave me an opportunity to reflect on my chronic neck and shoulder pain. (There are all sorts of chronic illnesses you can get from repressed emotions, not just back pain, according to the book.) I think the book has merit in emphasizing our brain's ability to influence all parts of our body.
Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in February 2025
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Let me start on a positive note. It was a fascinating story. I set myself daily quotas to finish it by my LGBTQ+ book club meeting, but I finished it early because I could not put down the book. The suspense was pretty authentic and effective.
As far as my memory serves, this was my first novel of trans stories, and it taught me a lot about trans experiences in the US. It made me wonder whether the author wrote it for a cis/non-trans audience; however, a trans reader at the book club thought it didn't come off as too informative or didactic.
The story evolves around three main characters: Reese, Ames/Amy, and Katrina although there is more weight placed on Reese's story. Yes, the "baby" (fetus) is there, too. In fact, they play the biggest role in propelling the story forward. Its existence forces the three characters to reflect on their identities, desires, and the lives that they want to live.
<spoiler begins>
As a non-trans Asian American woman, I related most to Katrina, and her stories were the part of the book that slightly broke the spell for me. Her decision to co-parent with Ames and Reese didn't feel reasonable. Being a single mother is difficult, yet it is a decision many mothers make in our society. For a woman with an established career, financial stability, a network of close friends, and a supportive mother, the option of raising the child alone was too quickly dismissed by Katrina for me to believe, let alone choosing to co-parent it with a stranger and a dishonest boyfriend.
What made me more doubtful about Katrina's character was how her Chinese mother welcomed this idea of co-parenting with two trans people. As I lived and spent significant time in Far East Asian societies, I know that transphobia is strong there, much stronger than the average US if I have to compare. There is little awareness of LGBTQ+ rights and issues, so Katrina's mother's openness made her extremely exceptional.
<spoiler ends>
Another criticism that surrounds this book is the supple presence of sexual content with graphic details. One member of the book club thought Peters chose to make the book edgy and sassy on purpose for better sales. Well, it worked? Detransition, Baby, published by One World in 2021, is one of the first novels written by a trans woman to be published by a "Big Five" publishing house. This piece of information demonstrates the underrepresentation of trans authors and trans stories in the US publishing scene. So due to such a lack of representation, some trans readers were worried that the book portrays trans lives in an overly sexualized way. In my opinion, that is the problem with the publishing industry, not with the book. We just gotta put out more trans books on the book stands!
I am glad I got to read this book thanks to my book club. Overall, I would recommend it for the virtue of learning about trans experiences in the US in our time. In addition, the book throws many questions about gender performances, pregnancy, and motherhood to the readers. I strongly support that readers take time with those questions to reflect on their own lives, especially if they have a child in their vision for the future.
Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in February 2025
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
As far as my memory serves, this was my first novel of trans stories, and it taught me a lot about trans experiences in the US. It made me wonder whether the author wrote it for a cis/non-trans audience; however, a trans reader at the book club thought it didn't come off as too informative or didactic.
The story evolves around three main characters: Reese, Ames/Amy, and Katrina although there is more weight placed on Reese's story. Yes, the "baby" (fetus) is there, too. In fact, they play the biggest role in propelling the story forward. Its existence forces the three characters to reflect on their identities, desires, and the lives that they want to live.
<spoiler begins>
As a non-trans Asian American woman, I related most to Katrina, and her stories were the part of the book that slightly broke the spell for me. Her decision to co-parent with Ames and Reese didn't feel reasonable. Being a single mother is difficult, yet it is a decision many mothers make in our society. For a woman with an established career, financial stability, a network of close friends, and a supportive mother, the option of raising the child alone was too quickly dismissed by Katrina for me to believe, let alone choosing to co-parent it with a stranger and a dishonest boyfriend.
What made me more doubtful about Katrina's character was how her Chinese mother welcomed this idea of co-parenting with two trans people. As I lived and spent significant time in Far East Asian societies, I know that transphobia is strong there, much stronger than the average US if I have to compare. There is little awareness of LGBTQ+ rights and issues, so Katrina's mother's openness made her extremely exceptional.
<spoiler ends>
Another criticism that surrounds this book is the supple presence of sexual content with graphic details. One member of the book club thought Peters chose to make the book edgy and sassy on purpose for better sales. Well, it worked? Detransition, Baby, published by One World in 2021, is one of the first novels written by a trans woman to be published by a "Big Five" publishing house. This piece of information demonstrates the underrepresentation of trans authors and trans stories in the US publishing scene. So due to such a lack of representation, some trans readers were worried that the book portrays trans lives in an overly sexualized way. In my opinion, that is the problem with the publishing industry, not with the book. We just gotta put out more trans books on the book stands!
I am glad I got to read this book thanks to my book club. Overall, I would recommend it for the virtue of learning about trans experiences in the US in our time. In addition, the book throws many questions about gender performances, pregnancy, and motherhood to the readers. I strongly support that readers take time with those questions to reflect on their own lives, especially if they have a child in their vision for the future.
Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in February 2025
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Transphobia, Alcohol
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Abortion
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was my first James Baldwin book, and I don't think I can pick up another for a while. It was utterly sad. Very sad.
The tragedy is mainly two-fold, or rather double-sided. First, there is the tragedy of the narrator David trying to fit into a box that is not him. That effort hurts him and others around him. Second, because everyone is trying to fit into a box that they believe to be expected of them (maybe except Giovanni), they fail to see one another for their true selves. Everyone fails to see others for who they are; therefore, they aren't seen for who they are, either.
There are multiple layers in this failure of genuine understanding among people such as sexual orientations, gender roles, and national identities. I read that Baldwin made almost all the characters white to focus on sexual identities without mixing in racial dynamics. Understandably this book is full of questions and provocations.
Perhaps that is the beauty of Baldwin's work. There is a lot to think about during and after the reading. All the thoughts and questions will follow you around for a while.
Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in January 2025
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
The tragedy is mainly two-fold, or rather double-sided. First, there is the tragedy of the narrator David trying to fit into a box that is not him. That effort hurts him and others around him. Second, because everyone is trying to fit into a box that they believe to be expected of them (maybe except Giovanni), they fail to see one another for their true selves. Everyone fails to see others for who they are; therefore, they aren't seen for who they are, either.
There are multiple layers in this failure of genuine understanding among people such as sexual orientations, gender roles, and national identities. I read that Baldwin made almost all the characters white to focus on sexual identities without mixing in racial dynamics. Understandably this book is full of questions and provocations.
Perhaps that is the beauty of Baldwin's work. There is a lot to think about during and after the reading. All the thoughts and questions will follow you around for a while.
Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in January 2025
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia