i'm re-writing this review so that i may add things to it, as i feel my previous review didn't encapsulate how much this book makes me feel.

oh, leslie feinberg. how i adore you. this book saved my life, truly. i mean it. for years and years i struggled with being a transgender lesbian. my gender was always hard to explain, and felt like too much. so much so, that i stopped talking about it altogether. i only felt represented, or truly seen—in history. by older butches.

this book helped me solidify my identity. i read it for the first time in 2020, and i don't think i finished it until early 2021. i remember having to put it down multiple times because i felt so much for jess. i wept for jess. i saw myself in jess. i cried, and cried, and remembered, and kept quotes, and cried, until i got to the last page, and then cried some more.

i love how this book deals with pain, and how leslie writes it. leslie feinberg makes me feel so seen and understood with hir work. this book taught me so much, and i left feeling more than i had before i read it. this book became a part of me. an integral part of my identity, and who i am today.

i hope to read more of leslie's works, again and again. thank you for helping me learn how to be myself. thank you for creating a story where i can feel seen, and learn to understand all at the same time.