An engaging debut novel overall. The writing is strong, even though I’m not sure how to feel about the story.  Kim Fu is the first agender author I’ve read (that I know of, at least), and I look forward to reading more of their work.

I was frustrated at a few points when reading this - there were several moments when I felt transness was reduced to being born in the wrong body.

This dissipated towards the end of the book.

With an unapologetically forthright portrayal of this aggressively queer-unfriendly world and xenophobia's generational echoes in North America, Kim Fu stuns with her debut novel.

If one is (very fairly and understandably) looking for a more joyful story (along the lines of If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo), that is not this book

(though the ending is happy)

. If one can contend with the emotional challenges and portrayals of queerphobia, I highly recommend this novel. To me, it read as a trans, bildungsroman story prioritizing elucidation and a cogent appeal to compassion of cis readers. This entails certain pros and cons, of course, but I think it feels appropriate considering the author's individual standpoint.

Support a queer author and their incredible debut novel!

Incredible writing! I enjoy a good coming-of-age story and this one was compelling, heartbreaking, and fresh. Hard to believe this was a debut novel! I look forward to reading more from Fu, especially her short story collection, from which she read at the Sask Festival of Words in Moose Jaw. I loved those stories too and am already a big fan of this new-to-me author!

Randomly picked this one out at the library and I am beyond grateful I did. Really good pacing and prose, it was really hard not to underline so many lines (because it was a library book after all) but this book broke my heart in a million pieces and I wouldn't have it any other way.