Reviews with content warning for Drug use - Nevada

Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Nevada by Imogen Binnie

71 reviews

malebolge's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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lhodgson26's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I'm really not sure about this book and think I need further time to process it. The first half of the book was solely based on Maria's story and then the second half we are introduced to James' character who Marie then sets out to try and help by embarking on a road trip. Whilst this book at the heart was based on what it felt like to be a trans women in today's society I felt like I wanted more story to it. I get the abrupt ending as it felt as though James was still not ready to come to turns with who he really is. It felt like a lot of the story was based around drugs and sex which detracted from the main conversation of the book.

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nica_chan's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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pobi's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The kind of book you'd study at school, except not highschool cause they don't let u read this much about drugs and sex etc usually. I can see why it's a cult classic.

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imrereads's review against another edition

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emotional reflective

5.0

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camill3's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

so weird, but so interesting. made me realize some personal stuff, so that's great. lots of drug stuff tho.

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finesilkflower's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

An unusually structured two-part book. In the first part, a trans woman named Maria wanders around New York City on her bicycle, gradually accepting that her relationship, job, and time in New York are coming to a close, and musing about the condition of being trans in a way that is relatable/entertaining/validating for a trans reader (and probably educational for a cis reader, though that hardly seems to be the point; this is not a book that hand-holds, it's a book that expects you to keep up). This first section is a bit slow, although it contains some of the best imagery and philosophizing. In the second part, which takes place in Nevada, Maria meets an aimless cashier named James who reminds her of her younger self. I found the Nevada section more interesting and thought-provoking; it speaks to the trans desire to "go back in time" and convince our younger selves to realize we're trans sooner, but it also goes about as well as that probably would.

Reading this ten years after it was written, I was surprised by how modern and up-to-date it felt - trans women truly are on the vanguard of culture - and also how timeless. Although I no longer enjoy Catcher in the Rye, this book reminded me of what I loved about that book the first time I read it at age 16: it's written in a casual, chatty style, it's packed with highly specific detail, it is mostly about someone wandering around in New York, it is messy and angsty and difficult to pin down. But it's more deserving of being taught in schools.

Random Observations:

- One thing I loved but didn't note until Binnie noted it in the afterword of the 10th anniversary edition: this book is pointedly NOT about transition. It sketches, compares, and contrasts the condition of being post-transition vs pre-transition, but it doesn't cover the transition period itself. I love that because it resists cis expectations and demands, and in so doing gets to much more interesting truths than cis people can dream of.

- Also noted by Binnie, apologetically, in the afterword: the book contains some unkind swipes at trans men.

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caseythereader's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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aus10england's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

dang… this was messy, important, beautiful, but mostly messy! great trans literature

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james1star's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

For a quick plot summary, Nevada is split into two parts, the first focusing on the “post transition” life of Maria who has been experiencing years of personal and professional inadequacies in her life in New York so embarks on a trip. The second mainly follow the “pre transition” narrative of confused stoner James in Star City, Nevada and the chance meeting with Maria. Other then that there is rather minimal plot, it’s for sure more about the characters and discussions on gender identity, sexuality and the role of women (misogyny, patriarchy and the like). These parts were my favourite I’d say, Binnie clearly has a lot of knowledge surrounding these topics and put a lot of it into her debut work. There is a lot said and I thoroughly enjoyed being educated in the experience of two trans people, with it being personal to each of them and not a generalised representation of ‘the trans experience’ but from reviews and the acclaim the book’s gotten it’s clearly resonated with many people and this is amazing. Whilst I did like Maria’s monologuing at the start it definitely become quite repetitive and a little unrealistic as the book went on. This is the same for quite a lot of what’s rehashed multiple times and I did find myself losing interest. I think it would have been better if more of what Binnie wanted to put forward was via ‘showing’ and not ‘telling’ with a focus on plot and character advancement, not the monologues.

From the paragraph above, I used the terms “post” and “pre transition” in quotation marks because this is how Binnie herself chose to describe the experiences in the 2022 afterword in the copy I read. This inclusion was a very interesting read and she listed lots of authors who write about the queer experience I’d also like to check out. In it, she says how she chose to create these characters at these specific stages to show how a trans person is trans throughout their journey and to disregard the “in between” stage. Other parts are discussed surrounding the path to getting Nevada published and reasonings for certain plot points.

Something I particularly disliked about Nevada was the excessive and continuous depictions of drug taking and the central role weed has in James’s life. I really don’t like reading about drug use/abuse and for me it was far too often mentioned. It also became more prevalent as the book went along which together with the rather unrealistic monologuing and my last point made me lose interest. I’d also say there’s a lot of unnecessary swearing. This final thing was Binnie’s use of the term ‘like’ which I found different at first and quite informal which allowed me to get to know the characters better. It then became a little annoying and as the book went on it’s use became so excessive - I counted one relatively small paragraph using it nine times - and therefore very very jarring. I just feel about 80% of the times it was used could’ve been omitted as it broke up the reading experience too much for me and whilst it may seem like something small, it was enough for me to personally knock off a half star from my rating.

I would still definitely recommend this book and it’s impact in the literary scene has done as lot for trans literature which is great. There is a lot to learn from Binnie with relatability and the discourse on the lives of transgender people. Overall I did enjoy it but as stated I have my issues too, it started out amazingly but did dwindle as I carried on reading.

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