A must-read! A raw story about confronting your identity including the not-so-pretty parts. Binnie shows us a beautiful point of view of the internal struggles of finding one's true gender and identity. Although not every trans person has the same experiences I still felt very seen by this book. ( )

This book is really sad not in like the crying your eyes out sense or at least not for me but just like the deep feeling of alienation and distance and what can you do really.

The ending kind of turned this for me from 4 to 5 stars. Like how nothing really happened from this chance meeting - maybe they'll both come away with a greater understanding of things, maybe nothing will change. Who knows. But this big thing Maria was building up in her head didn't happen. It's hard to break patterns and stuff

It feels very "internet" like there are a lot of references to livejournal and myspace (wow haha) and just in general sentiment and it's very like relatable in that sense for me. Sometimes it feels annoyingly self aware sometimes it's like... self aware about it being like that and it works out. Also there's a lot about drugs and it's wild. And in general I dunno if people actually live like the people do in this book but I think that's probably because I'm an ignorant child.

I dunno. I'm having trouble talking about how I feel about it. I didn't have the same like trans feelings I know a lot of people did but the emotional stuff and the trouble with relationships and alienation all felt pretty close to home and really well described and powerful. I dunno. I completely understand how the style of this book could put people off too it's definitely v personal and conversational and coming from a v particular place but it worked for me. Anyway yeah sorry this is so incoherent ( )

deeply related to the main character with her thoughts, ideologies, and gender relations. i felt like the author was ahead of her time with how she displayed trans characters. ended up crying a few times throughout the book. ( )

5 stars to count the amount of crying that happened to me while reading this.

More later! I'm torn between 4 and 5 stars. I usually don't enjoy this kind of plot (lots of people being dumb about their emotions and having messed up relationships), but it worked for me. Also smart and interesting. ( )