It was... Fine! ( )

Such a powerful last few chapters. ( )

This is a book I'm looking forward to sharing with family and friends. The author conducted interviews with a wide variety of people about topics of gender, presentation, healthcare, housing, bathrooms, community, etc. As someone who sometimes has trouble distinguishing different characters in graphic novels, I appreciated the author's artistic skill in making different people look different, and true to themselves. This book is well collected, well crafted, and overall can open up a lot of topics related to gender that someone might not have thought about before, or might have questions about. ( )

I'll admit that I'm still playing catch-up when it comes to understanding the dynamic world of gender identity that exists outside my little heteronormative and cisgender shell, so I welcome the insights and experiences offered up by the author and the dozens of people they interviewed for this very personal look at issues faced by the LGBTQIA+ community. It took me longer to get through than the average graphic novel, but I always found myself reluctant to stop and eager to return.

So many problems stem from the constructions of masculinity and femininity we've built as a society over time and the use of a language where the desire to ignore and hurt that which is outside the binary is inherent and only just starting to change.

It's a shame that in addition to all the outside pressures faced, there is internecine strife that can also be damaging, especially since the search for a community where one feels accepted and safe is a recurring theme, one that is pretty universal to humanity regardless of gender.

A picayune observation: In a book where every panel seems to be an original illustration, I noticed that the same drawing of the high-heeled shoe of ultimate femininity repeats on pages 76, 243, and 293. I point this out merely to justify the amount of time I spent compulsively combing the book for its previous appearances to verify I wasn't imagining things once it struck me as familiar on its third showing. ( )

I really enjoyed this compilation of thoughts on the subject of gender -- not only is it powerful as a documentation of interviews and experience, but it covers a vast array of topics that are both adjacent to and integral to expressing gender identity in the US. There is just so much to think about here -- from personal stories to big topics of privilege and race and housing and poverty to unexpected biases and acceptances that all combine to make gender a complicated topic. I loved that Rhea felt comfortable sharing their own story -- it pulls the book together beautifully. They have a compassionate and inclusive heart and it shows in what they choose to share and how they look for hope in the future. I think this is a strong and thought-provoking work. It's also a very well done graphic novel.

Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss. ( )