I had mixed feelings about Nicola Dinan’s Bellies. On one hand, I loved the extremely messy queer and trans characters, the vulnerable conversations around transition and how deeply vulnerable that can be within the confines of a relationship, and the commitment to raw expressions of emotions and ideas. This is definitely a challenging novel in that it made me feel things and I think it will make a lot of other readers feel things too.

I struggled a lot with the pacing and plot - things just seemed to happen out of nowhere with very little lead up, and I never got a good sense of the passage of time. In addition, character motivation eluded me in this one. I was continually frustrated at how certain characters were painted in a sympathetic light while others were cast as the villain, though in retrospect, this also could be exactly what the author was trying to highlight and express, so take that with a grain of salt as a note on personal preference.

This book was a selection for my LGBTQIA+ book club and it definitely generated a lot of thought-provoking discussion. If the premise and genre combination sounds interesting to you, or if you are looking to expand your horizons into viewpoints not yet given a lot of space in traditional publishing, I’d recommend giving this book a shot.

Thank you to Hanover Square Press and Edelweiss for an advance review copy. All opinions are my own.