The premise of this book was everything I wanted to read, especially going into Pride Month. Figures right through history who changed/manipulated/hid their gender for reasons to be explained were on the menu, starting with King/Queen Hatshepsut (Egyptian Pharaoh). The book went awry immediately for me but I tried so hard to persevere. I skimmed, I eye-rolled and I felt so disappointed.

What was so wrong with it you ask? The writing style was a disaster from the word go, sentence-by-sentence. I have never read such an annoying writing style in my life. The book seemed as though it was written by an over-enthusiastic twelve year old using every buzz word or phase-trend imaginable. There wasn't one sentence that wasn't subject to this. Brackets were used constantly to giggle-chat annoyingly in your ear.

Example:
(and here comes to the whole having to dress as a man to get stuff done bit)

For Mulan, life was pretty snore at first.

She was a proper model monk...

Joanna showed mad skills as a military leader.

I rest my case. It was impossible to read this without feeling constantly irritated. I would love to read a version of this book, just written with sense.