I enjoyed the introspective and sometimes poetic personal insight into Elliot's emotions during their life, but the non-chronological format kept me disconnected and sometimes confused. I understand from an emotional and even artistic reason why this was told non-chronologically, but I just feel like it doesn't work as presented. Pageboy feels like a sit down conversation with a friend, constantly stopping for a side tangent that doesn't exactly happen in order.

I was honestly really enjoying the book, even with its weird disjointed chapters. Until I got close to the end. And Page made some kind of defensive passive aggressive comment about how he can't be judged for having easy access to healthcare (when most trans people don't) because he needed it. This one moment in the book came off as incredibly privileged. It colored the whole book in a different light to me, a negative one. There is a point early on in the book where Page talks about never having a sense of community with other LGBT persons. I think that's what really is the problem for me with this book: it comes off as a wildly privileged introverted rich guy whining for 8 hours. I don't wanna call it selfish because transition and identity are just naturally selfish things to explore. But there is just this completely disconnect from other people in this book, including the reader. I feel like Page is keeping me at arms length, not because they don't want to tell the reader their story, but because they just don't like other people.

At the end of the day, the book is just fine. 2-3 stars. You aren't missing much.