This is not a book about trans joy.

This book made me both like and dislike it at the same time. It was very easy to read, I appreciated the short chapters propelling me through but also as a trans person who is a number of years into their "transition", I found that this book stayed stuck in the trials of being trans. For our MC here to have been living as trans for 10 years, I'd expect that their day to day would consist less of the ruminations of what living as trans are and more of just... living. My life now is must less absorbed by gender related emotions and I guess I expected that to be mirrored in this seasoned trans character.

However having now finished this book and having read the afterword by Imogen Binnie, I feel like my perspective on the narrative has altered and I encourage you to continue on and read the afterword as well.

I didn't like the characters in this novel, but I don't think that liking them was at all the point so this is not to say that this is a bad book -- it isn't. This book was good at being what it is and it does broach some important subjects and often speaks the truth about what living as a trans person can be like... But I did expect a road trip of trans joy and discovery and that's not what this was.

I'm not awake or smart enough to write the review this book deserves. 
Let's just say it blew me away. 
I usually don't read/enjoy these kinds of books where there is hardly any plot, just a lot of inner (or even outer) monologue. But this one surprised me. 
Written by a trans woman about a trans woman and her experiences after transitioning, it's full of messed up characters and thought-provoking topics. And I loved this. I'm not trans, I never questioned my gender, but Maria was still highly relatable. And I actually enjoyed her never ending raging about gender, feminism, misogyny, etc. 
Definitely not a feel good book, rather painful and depressing and eye-opening. But I did laugh out loud several times. 
Just a warning, there is a lot of sexual content and drug use in the book, which I usually don't like reading about but it fit the atmosphere here. And although I appreciated the writing style by the end, it took me a while to get into (especially since English isn't my first language and there were lots of specific references I didn't have the energy to research). 

I hated this book. The characters are intensely unlikeable, every single one of them. I was hoping that the second half would bring some kind of redemption but the ending makes no sense. I don't get it. 2 stars for being kind of on the nose with some trans stuff. I think a lot of trans girls might find parts of this book really relatable. Other than that, I wouldn't recommend it. 

Kinda plotless yet weirdly eventful coming-of-age-at-29 novel where the main character is allowed to deeply dwell in her transness and how it impacts her life. Half of me wishes that this would replace the cultural touchstone that Catcher in the Rye is, because this time around, the characters' disillusionment has more motivation behind it than like, being fifteen and wanting to be disillusioned. The other half of me thinks that cis people shouldn't really read this, because it's very much written for trans people. I feel like a lot of the weight of the sentiments expressed in this book that may be easily misinterpreted by people who have never had the experience of questioning their gender. It's not happy, but it also doesn't bask in superfluous queer pain. I didn't give it 5 stars because the ending of it is a pretty abrupt and I wish more had been done with the character introduced in Part ii. But yeah. Loved this book, wish it were longer, I wanna hang out with Maria in Reno.