Pluralities really blew my mind. It really captured things about my relationship with gender that I haven’t seen described. There are two threads that Pluralities really blew my mind. It really captured things about my relationship with gender that I haven’t seen described. There are two threads that alternate chapters. One thread is set in a world that’s much like our own, but every girl and woman has a stamp on their cheek says “she,” and they work in she-jobs and behave in she-ways. Men and boys aren’t stamped. That metaphor crystalizes so much of what annoys me about being a woman. When I related it to my cis male husband, he didn’t get it—which is kind of the point. The narrator becomes increasingly uncomfortable with having a stamp and eventually has a gender epiphany.
The other thread concerns a prince-turned-rogue called Cornelius. It’s not clear what his species is, but it’s clear he’s not human—he’s got eyes in his neck, for one thing. He travels between planets in a type of craft called a B.O.D.Y., so we’ve definitely got another metaphor going on here. I didn’t correct as strongly with Cornelius as with the unnamed narrator in the other thread, but I did follow his story with interest.
I read a friend’s copy, but I’ll definitely be buying my own copy so I can reread it and think about it. Is there any higher praise for a book?
I enjoyed this book. How could I not? Santa Claus's trans daughter fights traditionalists who want to enforce gender norms. If someone does a reasonabI enjoyed this book. How could I not? Santa Claus's trans daughter fights traditionalists who want to enforce gender norms. If someone does a reasonable job writing that, I'm going to enjoy it. And -- I feel like that's what happened. It's a reasonable job, not an amazing one. The prose felt clunky at times (not badly, just slightly irritating, not as smooth as I would have liked -- little things that turned on the blue-pencil editor in my head). The plot did, too. Kris (our heroine) sat on the kid's letter for too long, in a way that felt stagnant -- I didn't get to see details of her struggle with it that made sense of it for me. It was also hard to see Kris be a doormat for so long, and I guess that part of the point is that misogyny and transmisogyny can do that to people. It also felt like the procedural rules of the Council changed almost arbitrarily as needed to fit the plot (and not in accordance with Robert's Rules, says the little blue pencil lady). The characters felt thinly developed as well.
That's a long list of things that I didn't like or thought could have been better. But -- I'm not saying don't read this. If the premise appeals to you, and you think you can look past some imperfections, read it! I was engaged from the get-go and when Kris finally took action she very clearly articulated her feminist, trans-positive, and includive points. There were bits I flat-out loved, like Santa's story of his trip to Chicago and the last bit of the epilogue. Well worth a read if it's your kind of thing....more
I found this book deeply compassionate and it really broadened by thinking about gender. It helped me think about the many different roles, expressionI found this book deeply compassionate and it really broadened by thinking about gender. It helped me think about the many different roles, expressions, and identities I take on in different aspects of my life, in different places, and with different people. I read it on paper and have now started listening to it to stimulate further thought....more
I could not stop thinking about this book (and my friends will tell you I kind of had to talk about it a lot to). This is the story of Ewan Forbes, a I could not stop thinking about this book (and my friends will tell you I kind of had to talk about it a lot to). This is the story of Ewan Forbes, a trans man who received hormone treatments in the 1930s, got his birth certificate changed to reflect his male name and gender in the 1950s, and had to go to court in the 1960s when a cousin challenged his right to inherit his brother's baronetcy. (It's not clear that Ewan cared that much about being a baronet, but if the court ruled that he was male, his marriage would have been invalidated and he and his wife might have gone to prison.) (And if you're think that he sounds privileged af, he absolutely was, and Playdon in no way sugarcoats it.) It is also a history of the legal treatment of trans people in the UK from the early 20th century until 2020, with additional information on press coverage, medical advances, medical definitions, political theory, and some coverage of overseas nations as well.
That's a LOT. And it's all scrupulously researched and clearly communicated. In other hands, such a book could have been dense and dry, valuable but unpalatable, but Playdon has made it riveting. She has pieced together the story of Forbes's life -- he was a quite private person in some ways, so that is a non-trivial undertaking -- and used it as the living heart and soul of the book. His experience illuminates the broader trans history she is telling and vice-versa. I was not quite as entirely captivated after his case ended, but stayed engaged and interested through the very end.
I have a couple of quibbles with the book. I do not feel that Playdon has entirely supported her contention that (view spoiler)[the judge in Corbett vs. Corbett was acting primarily in response to Ewan's (suppressed) victory in his case and in defense of the institution of male primogeniture. (hide spoiler)] However, it is to her credit as a historian that she is sufficiently clear in laying out her evidence that I can judge her conclusion in this way.
Playdon was very persistent in labeling some medical thinking on trans people as "scientific medicine" and some other medical thinking as "pseudo-medicine". The two terms came up again and again, every time she mentioned any medical theories, papers, conferences, guidelines, etc. was repeated so many times that it started to feel like some kind of special pleading -- even though I don't think she's wrong, and I even think I understand the great importance of the distinction, given how medicine (pseudo-medicine, she would be quick to point out) is being used to fuel anti-trans legislation and other government action in both the US and the UK at our current political moment. Even with that, though, the incessant drumbeat got wearing.
So I don't agree with everything in the book, but it is a fascinating story, expertly told, and I learned a lot about the history of trans rights and trans medicine in the last hundred years. I cannot recommend this book too highly.
Viola Carroll, a veteran of Waterloo, has taken advantage of her presumed death in battle to begin publicly living her gender. She has given up a greaViola Carroll, a veteran of Waterloo, has taken advantage of her presumed death in battle to begin publicly living her gender. She has given up a great deal to do so -- no longer heir to a viscountcy, stripped of wealth and rights, she has resigned herself to life as a spinster companion to the woman who is in truth her sister-in-law. The greatest thing she has given up, though, is her deep and long-lasting friendship with the Duke of Gracewood. Thinking his friend dead, Gracewood is living in isolation, pain, and grief in Northumberland.
Then circumstances (and that sister-in-law, who is very determined in arranging other people's lives) force the two of them back into each other's company and emotions of many sorts come to the fore. The first section of the book is very much steeped in ghosts, memory, and phantasm, the past an eerie overlay on the present. The action eventually transfers to London, and the milieu becomes less gothic and more what we expect from a Regency romance: talk of the ton, gowns, balls, and the marriage mart.
But, depending on which Regency romances you have read, this may not be quite what you expect. This is a Regency England where there are Black people, where there are queer people, where sex toys exist and so do people of rich and varied sexual experience. Also, there are women who drop F-bombs. If you've been reading K.J Charles or Lex Croucher, this will be a Regency you recognize, but if you have other sources, it may seem unfamiliar. I encourage you to open yourself to its enchantments and to realize that it has more historical accuracy than a world of nothing but white noblemen and pretty, innocent white women with fans.
I love so many of the characters in this book. Viola is fierce and making her way against quite a few obstacles and treading carefully as she negotiates a new relationship with an old friend who does not recognize her. I don't have personal standing to comment on trans representation, but as far as I can see the text always treats her with respect. Gracewood is struggling to heal from, or at least live with, his loss, his grief, his stern upbringing, his memories of war, and his wounds. He means well but, like so many of us, sometimes manages poorly. Together they make a couple who face great challenges and for whom I was rooting all the way with bated breath.
And the side characters! Viola's younger brother, affectionately called Badger, has become the viscount and is adorably buffleheaded and devoted to his forthright, managing (one might even say interfering) wife. His son, Young Bartholomew, is seven years old, possibly precocious, and given to having oddly philosophical discussions with Viola that shine a different light on the twists, turns, and challenges of relationship and identity she's going through. And Lady Lillimere is bold, ribald, and unstoppable.
The writing is everything we have come to expect from Alexis Hall: erudite, playful, and deeply kind. Besides a compelling romance, the book has a complex, multilayered approach to gender, power, society, and identity that I am certain will repay rereading. And, of course, as it is a romance, there is a touching Happy Ever After. I recommend this book with all my heart, especially to those who want to see stories of a variety of people, who want a queer history where tragedy is not inevitable, and need to know that, then and now, queer joy is real....more
Definitely a mixed report here. This book is clearly straight from the heart and I had trouble putting it down -- read it cover to cover in an afternoDefinitely a mixed report here. This book is clearly straight from the heart and I had trouble putting it down -- read it cover to cover in an afternoon. There's one speech by Shonda that gave me actual goosebumps and that kind of thing hardly ever happens to me when I read.
But...
It's not actually very well written? The action is frequently interrupted by paragraphs and paragraphs of the narrator telling us about how he feels about his femininity, how he's been rejected for it, how he felt in his childhood or about his mother. There's a fair amount of repetition of theme between some of those passages. Sometimes it's a different character telling, telling, telling. I feel like with a solid editor it could have been half as long and had twice the impact. I also think it could have used a sensitivity reader for mental health and psychotherapy issues. (Seriously, no decent therapist will (view spoiler)[come out about their own abuse history in their first or second visit with a client. (hide spoiler)] There are also just inconsistencies that an editor could have caught; for example (view spoiler)[is Pickles from Bangladeshi or Sri Lankan roots? (hide spoiler)] It's also pretty blatantly self-insertion wish fulfilment, which really comes to a head when (view spoiler)[the protagonist's novel about being a femmy gay male hits number one on the Amazon lgbt list right after his triumphant drag debut. (hide spoiler)]
And yet, it did move me. If the premise grabs you, it may be worth your time....more
One of my kids has been seeing sex stuff on line occasionally and it's been freaking them out a bit, so I got this for them. I figured it would be gooOne of my kids has been seeing sex stuff on line occasionally and it's been freaking them out a bit, so I got this for them. I figured it would be good because I really like the authors' online sex ed comics, and I was right. It's inclusive and emphasizes communication, consent, self-knowledge, and acceptance of self and others. The people depicted are diverse: all races, a wide range of weights, different amounts of body hair, disabled people (amputees, including a person with only one hand who doesn't use a prosthesis, wheelchair users, a pair of people who communicate using ASL, people with top surgery scars), various gender presentations, etc. Special props to the authors for including both a list for how to spot when you're in an abusive situation and when you yourself might be abusive.
I may update my review after my kid reads the book, but for now I'm pretty impressed....more
Even a popular treatment of queer theory is necessarily dense and heady, and I'll have to look at this more times so I can absorb it further. At the mEven a popular treatment of queer theory is necessarily dense and heady, and I'll have to look at this more times so I can absorb it further. At the moment my mind is blown by the notion of homonormativity....more
This is a work of art. Felix is a trans teen of color struggling with questions of identity, love, and belonging. I was riveted and had to stay up latThis is a work of art. Felix is a trans teen of color struggling with questions of identity, love, and belonging. I was riveted and had to stay up late to finish it....more
It's a while since I've read a YA book that wasn't fantasy or comedic. In tone and structure, it reminds me of the YA books I remember from the 70s --It's a while since I've read a YA book that wasn't fantasy or comedic. In tone and structure, it reminds me of the YA books I remember from the 70s -- focused on an ordinary teen in school and their problems in life. In Ben's case, the trouble starts when he comes out to their religious Christian parents as non-binary.
There were points, especially in the coming-out scene, where I felt strongly that these people were like real people I've been or known, not just book-based people from a literary universe.
Pen (don't call her Penny or Penelope) is growing up in a small town in Canada, second child and only daughter of Portuguese immigrants. She's tough aPen (don't call her Penny or Penelope) is growing up in a small town in Canada, second child and only daughter of Portuguese immigrants. She's tough and a gamer and has no interest in femininity (though she definitely considers herself a girl). As the book starts, whe's in a stable ccircle of guys who hang out together and are kind of typically teenage -- the one who's the charismatic center of attention and sets their plans, the one who's kind of a jerk to everybody, the less macho one who does the ringleader's homework for him. And Pen. Over the course of the book, those connections start to fall apart and new ones form.
The two aspects I found most personally compelling were Pen's struggle to assert her identity within her family -- her parents want her compliance with their expectations in terms of respect and femininity, and she just wants to be left alone to be herself -- and her struggles to be able to be herself in terms of gender in the larger world. Like Pen, I'm female but have no patience with an awful lot of the things that seem to be expected of me because of that....more
A nice adventure tale, set in the sane universe as the Ancillary trilogy, but a very different bit of it. Lecke continues to create intriguing human aA nice adventure tale, set in the sane universe as the Ancillary trilogy, but a very different bit of it. Lecke continues to create intriguing human and non-human cultures, and in this work she meditates on themes of what authenticity is and what value it has. I feel like she left some loose ends she shouldn’t have, but I enjoyed the ride a great deal. ...more
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