leonalikesliterature's reviews
354 reviews

Though nothing much happened, the social drama and storytelling was very compelling. It was beautiful and real. Left me feeling both a sense of love and sadness. 

A beautiful memoir about of gender identity and exploration. 

This memoir had such a strong start, but unfortunately it was a huge let down. 

Although the first section about the author’s childhood was incredibly compelling, the narrative was lost as it continued. The personal stories became very repetitive towards the end and even felt self-indulgent. I love reading memoirs for their honesty, but this memoir just felt disingenuous and was oftentimes hard to believe. 

Most of the novel disappointingly focused on the author’s relationship with her husband David, which was written in the most cliche way and even made me physically cringe while I was listening. Their romance lacked realism and felt like it was written like a bad romance novel. Their relationship teetered from hopelessly in love to incredibly toxic and it was frustrating to listen to. (Not to mention, I was disturbed that they began dating when he was 18 and done with high school and she was 14 and finishing middle school.) 

I was also confused by the author’s lack of explanations of her mental state and feelings or lack thereof. The author effortlessly falls in love with her husband and doesn’t explain how that’s possible and it’s rather confusing as a reader. It more just seems like the trope where a psychopath or sociopath’s lack of feeling is cured by love. She began to lose her credibility to me when she repeated the same talking points continuously throughout the book and refused to  provide any new information, research or reflection on her own mental health issues. 

I was hoping for a book that was a mixture of research, science and a personal account, but it was lacking in all science and too heavy on the personal. 

This story is charming and sweet, but the representation of depression and suicide is very over simplified and the messages are very preachy. I’m not sure if the author has struggled with mental illness, but there was a lack of nuance and depth. As if depression can be solely solved by having friends and a loving partner, which could help, but isn’t the solution. The message boiled down to “you should live because you can find happiness,” which is a stupid thing to hear when you’re actually depressed.