Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars

some texts i sent to warren while reading this book

“I don't believe in safe spaces. They don't exist. I do, however, believe in dangerous stories.”
ohhhh the romance in this book is t4t
“what do you think the difference is between hunger and love?”
“hunger is the story you get stuck in. love is the story that takes you somewhere new.”

This might have been more about what the author needed to write than what I needed to read as a trans sister. I get it, and yet I feel frustrated by the ending, as well as upset about the middle and every use of the word tr*nny. Every cis male side character sucks really badly and that's the world we live in, but I was just hoping to escape into a fantasy rather than be bummed about the reality of trans survival. It's beautiful, but I'm not sure if I'm the audience; it's not necessarily shock porn for cis audiences either, but I can just relate a little too hard?

This is a coming-of-age story about a community whose experiences and rites of passages are not at all typical in coming-of-age stories. It reads quick and is a wild ride. It is often violent. It can be brutal, but it's also fast-paced and fun.

Sometimes it's so realistic it feels like nonfiction. Other times it suddenly veers off into whimsy if not absurdity. It draws on tropes and stereotypes while shattering them. It startles laughs out of you. Chapters switch up on you. Some are poems from a notebook (CW: self-harm), some are letters to a family member, some are formatted like scripts. All of it works. It's just stunning, really. It is great. Please read it so we can talk about it.

ETA: Reread 5/24 and wow does it hold up. Such a beautifully written, unique story.