readingpicnic's reviews
471 reviews

This was a very brief book, but I liked the idea of taking the introductions of people from this book and pursuing more in depth biographies and writing on your own time, which the author suggested. I didn’t love the poems at the beginnings of the chapters, but I’m just not a big poetry person in general. I will have to find a physical copy so I can see the pictures!

First of all, there are some really good definitions in this book of “neurodivergent,” “neurodiversity,” “neurodiverse,” “neurotypical,” and more that I will definitely make use of for papers and presentations. I realized I’ve been referring to myself as neurodiverse when I really meant neurodivergent, which I’m glad to know, but the author made me feel so ashamed and uneducated for doing so. That’s how I felt reading a lot of this book, which reads as incredibly academic in the most pompous way. Me and my friends call each other and ourselves neurodiverse, which I don’t think is that big of a mix-up, but the author implies that it makes us sound uneducated in disability studies and that others who are more educated will judge us, which I took issue with. I also took issue with the chapter on person-first vs identity-first labeling, as it is a disabled person’s personal choice for which they use!!! There is not a right answer!!! The author took the stance that identity-first language is the only right answer and that otherwise you are ableist and autistophobic, which I disagree with. Even though I use identity-first language for myself and see validity in the arguments against person-first language, some disabled people are just going to prefer person-first language for themselves and we should respect that. I found some value in this book, but I wouldn’t recommend it to other neurodivergent people.

I loved this personal history and reckoning with trans*, gender nonconforming, and trans imaginary representation in media. The watching guide at the beginning/end of each chapter is also incredibly helpful, so I’ll have to find a physical copy and write those down ✍️ 
PHENOMENAL audiobook narration from Tre’vell!!!

This graphic novel is so cool!! I love this reimagining of Alice as an Indigenous nonbinary child. The art style and story were incredible, and I'm obsessed with the lines: 
"Who are you? A little boy? A girl?" 
"A gamer." 

An excellent little book that’s very intersectional in terms of race and class in its history of trans-femininity. I thought the distinction the author makes between today’s definition of transgender and how it’s anachronistic to apply it to historical figures who called themselves street queens, drag queens, transvestites, feminine gay men, and more was well done, providing definitions and giving examples of the blurriness of gender and labels. There obviously isn’t really a clear answer to this since these people can’t speak for themselves, but the author does a good way of challenging how people assign labels to groups of people in order to paint them as martyrs or victims, such as referring to the street queens from Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, Cooper’s Donuts, and Stonewall broadly in terms like “trans women of color” to make these people’s gender expression more palatable or understandable to today’s audience, regardless of how they would have realistically identified themselves. Language is a tricky business for historical LGBTQIA+ people, and this book really highlights that. I think it’s really interesting how trans feminine people in history referred to themselves in multiple and sometimes contradictory ways, and how class and race inform that! Additionally, the author makes clear that not everyone from non-western cultures is “trans” just because western audiences view them that way or see similarities in gender expression, such as hijras and travestis, which is definitely something I saw come up when Monkeyman came out and people referred to the hijras in the film as transgender. Also makes me think of Joshua Whitehead having to turn down an award for transgender literature because he is 2 Spirit and does not identify as trans, and there was some confusion on that by the people who gave him the award.
The way this book delves into how people who don’t identify as trans can still experience trans misogyny if they’re perceived as trans feminine was also super interesting. I had no idea that bell hooks and Judith butler wrote those pieces on Venus Xtravanga after Paris is Burning came out, deep-diving into the few clips of her from the documentary and trying to problematize her dreams of domesticity?? And right after she was murdered too?? Like have some fucking respect and leave her alone.
Overall this was an excellent refresher of my trans studies class. Loved the Tourmaline shout-out also!

The narrative style was so weird and raunchy to me, and I haven't read an epistolary novel quite like this before. There are a lot of horrible prejudiced and outdated terms and statements made in this book, but it's written so well...UGH. That page that's a love letter to J. since Danny thinks he's going to die is one of the most beautiful love confessions I've ever read...I don't know what the fuck happened in this book, but it hit me hard. And that ending, damn. 

Such messy and unlikeable—but still loveable—MCs in this book. I loved the drama of it all, but I went against my rule of not reading books where sapphic couples fall out of love and cheat on each other, as it makes me feel great despair. The plot felt very original and interesting to me, but gender theory and gender roles are really talked to death by Reese et al.

I cringed quite a bit listening to this, ESPECIALLY at the end.

Like getting married again, buying a house, getting a dog named Pistachio? C’mon. And the name of their duo being Sea Glass doesn’t even sound good! UGH! And Brighton’s a better person than me I guess; I would have sued the Caties and caused a huge scandal for them.

Also this is my first time listening to an audiobook where the narrator really voice acts the spicy scenes and I was not prepared 😭 I felt quite uncomfortable listening to it in public.
I feel like they really tried to paint Charlotte to be just as much at fault for what Brighton did and I just don’t buy that…like from a certain point on Charlotte could not think of the alter leaving fiasco without also thinking to herself but it’s also my fault DX. You’re telling me they’re not going to have an argument sometime in the future where Charlotte pulls out her ultimate trump card: “you left me at the alter?” 
Also Charlotte treated Sloane so badly and it made me sad. 
High school romances lasting that long or being rekindled is also something I’m averse to for personal reasons so I guess this was never going to do it for me.

also the fact that Charlotte never slept with anyone after Brighton???

My Libby loan is about to expire, and this is honestly not the book to listen to while eating my lunch at work, as it really ruined my appetite. I don’t think I’m enjoying myself reading this, and I keep mixing up Beth and Fran in the audiobook, so I’m calling it quits. There were also too many POVs for me personally to keep track of.

Overall a sweet story with some good humor. I do have critiques though. Firstly, the rivalry felt a little half-baked and didn’t make much sense (honestly seemed like it was just there so this could be labeled a rivals to lovers story). There was also such little time spent on describing the food and drinks they were making! Give me the descriptions that I was expecting from a book about food please! It does feel like some parts of the book that would have benefitted from more description were kind of just fast-forwarded through like this, such as the dancing and soccer scenes. The ending was also too neat, and a little unbelievable to me.

And what if they break up! Then their families are all tied up with each other and they still have to work together…

Mellie was also pretty awful and didn’t face any consequences whatsoever for that. One scene that I thought was really well done was when Gabi came to Theo’s place to apologize for his gay comment and Theo immediately understood that his parents were homophobic and asked for them to take a walk together. It was so sweet :’)