The story takes places over two time period. One period encapsulates Reese and Amy’s relationship: how they got together and how they were as a trans couple. The other period focuses on their lives after their breakup, and notably after Ames has decided to transition back to being a man. Whilst living his life as a man in a corporate job, Ames develops a relationship with his female boss who falls pregnant. Not knowing whether he is able to fulfil the ultimate masculine role and be a father, Ames looks to develop a queer family which includes Reese.

Over the past year I’ve really tried to diversify my reading more; thanks to #bookstagram, and I love that I’m learning more about others points of view. I ordered this book from @blackwellbooks after seeing @livs_little_library review it.

I must say I didn’t love this book. I thought the premise of it was really good and it covered so many diverse topics; gender, sexuality, pregnancy, racism, harassment, abuse and domestic violence. But I didn’t relate to it for a number or reasons.

1. The vocabulary. I’m not talking about the jargon which represents the community these individuals are from, but overall I found the vocabulary complex and unnecessary. It basically made me feel unintelligent which made the flow feel stilted to me. I also didn’t find it matching the characters.
2. The two main characters weren’t very likeable at all. Especially Reese she was a total b****
3. It played up to all of the negative stereotypes which I accept might well be a realistic overview of life as a transgender woman and who am I to challenge that; especially if maybe the purpose isn’t to educate those of us on the outside but allow those within the community to have a fictional book they can relate to? BUT it made me fear anybody who is maybe on the fence about their support of the trans and queer community may be pushed to a more negative space.

I would definitely love to read some more trans fiction in the future, but this one just wasn’t for me. Maybe in the future I will pick it up again and appreciate it in a different light.

If you’ve read it, what did you think?