I initially found this book a bit of a trudge, but I kept going, and I'm glad I did. The narrative, particularly in the first half, lingers on the mundane details of everyday life a little too much for me. But I understand the intention behind this, to offer a representation of a life that is ordinary in so many ways, as lives of trans people are so often sensationalised, weaponised, and even their right to exist called into question.

It is no real surprise that it is at the point in the book when Juliet starts to live as a woman in all spheres of her life that the prose really starts to come alive, despite all of the difficulties associated with coming out. The veil is lifted.

The tension between private and public, and the personal and political is palpable throughout. The book is essentially a bildungsroman, charting Jacques' gradual personal revolution, but it is impossible for her to escape the social, political and historical context of her transition. Her decision to write about her personal experience and put it in the public sphere is political in itself, and is laudable.

Despite my misgivings about the prose style, this book is important. As a cis reader, who aspires to be a fully inclusive and intersectional feminist, it lead me to a better understanding of the trans experience (if there is such a thing), and gave me more ammunition for pushing back against that vile strand of feminism that excludes trans people.

Please read it.