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Cactus Country: A Boyhood Memoir
A striking literary memoir of genderfluidity, class, masculinity, and the American Southwest that captures the author’s experience coming of age in a Tucson, Arizona, trailer park.
Newly arrived in the Sonoran Desert, eleven-year-old Zoë’s world is one of giant beetles, thundering javelinas, and gnarled paloverde trees. With the family’s move to Cactus Country RV Park, Zoë has been given a fresh start and a new, shorter haircut.
Although Zoë doesn’t have the words to express it, he experiences life as a trans boy—and in Cactus Country, others begin to see him as a boy, too. Here, Zoë spends hot days chasing shade and freight trains with an ever-rotating pack of sunburned desert kids, and nights fending off his own questions about the body underneath his baggy clothes.
As Zoë enters adolescence, he must reckon with the sexism, racism, substance abuse, and violence endemic to the working class Cactus Country men he’s grown close to, whose hard masculinity seems as embedded in the desert landscape as the cacti sprouting from parched earth. In response, Zoë adopts an androgynous style and new pronouns, but still cannot escape what it means to live in a gendered body, particularly when a fraught first love destabilizes their sense of self.
But beauty flowers in this desert, too. Zoë persists in searching for answers that can’t be found in Cactus Country, dreaming of a day they might leave the park behind to embrace whatever awaits beyond.
Equal parts harsh and tender, Cactus Country is an invitation for readers to consider how we find our place in a world that insists on stark binaries, and a precisely rendered journey of self-determination that will resonate with anyone who’s ever had to fight to be themself.
Newly arrived in the Sonoran Desert, eleven-year-old Zoë’s world is one of giant beetles, thundering javelinas, and gnarled paloverde trees. With the family’s move to Cactus Country RV Park, Zoë has been given a fresh start and a new, shorter haircut.
Although Zoë doesn’t have the words to express it, he experiences life as a trans boy—and in Cactus Country, others begin to see him as a boy, too. Here, Zoë spends hot days chasing shade and freight trains with an ever-rotating pack of sunburned desert kids, and nights fending off his own questions about the body underneath his baggy clothes.
As Zoë enters adolescence, he must reckon with the sexism, racism, substance abuse, and violence endemic to the working class Cactus Country men he’s grown close to, whose hard masculinity seems as embedded in the desert landscape as the cacti sprouting from parched earth. In response, Zoë adopts an androgynous style and new pronouns, but still cannot escape what it means to live in a gendered body, particularly when a fraught first love destabilizes their sense of self.
But beauty flowers in this desert, too. Zoë persists in searching for answers that can’t be found in Cactus Country, dreaming of a day they might leave the park behind to embrace whatever awaits beyond.
Equal parts harsh and tender, Cactus Country is an invitation for readers to consider how we find our place in a world that insists on stark binaries, and a precisely rendered journey of self-determination that will resonate with anyone who’s ever had to fight to be themself.
270 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 21, 2024
65 people are currently reading
4936 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 158 reviews
April 4, 2025
I’ve never read a childhood memoir that I’ve particular cared for, until now. This was spectacular
October 4, 2024
Absolutely loved this memoir, there are hardly words to describe how wonderful it was. If you pick this up, you won't regret it, trust me. Especially if you're a part of the lgbtqia+ community, and, hell, even if you're not, this might show you a different kind of worldview. I also recommend the audiobook for maximum enjoyment.
Highkey one of the best memoirs ever, I'm not kidding.
Highkey one of the best memoirs ever, I'm not kidding.
June 7, 2024
Content Warnings: Transphobia, Suicide, Animal Cruelty, Intimate partner violence / abuse
Cactus Country is a rich, powerful memoir that I could not stop reading. Bossiere's work is moving not just due to their impeccable writing skills, but also due to their sincerity and empathy. They do not sugarcoat their darker experiences, but they evoke compassion for their earlier selves and the companions at different stages of life. The moment that I remember most was the descriptions of boys killing beetles (and how it was one of the only 'allowed' outlets for their anger, frustration, and powerlessness). The action is not presented as good or justified, but merely as a fact of life; the why behind it matters more than the actions alone. Triumphs, like their learning to love writing, are cathartic, but likewise tempered with reflection.
I particularly admired Bossiere's ability to share with others what it was like as a trans, nonbinary person at various stages of their life and their gender fluidity. They carefully lay out how actions, words, and appearance -- even the same ones -- are "different" to people depending on how they view your gender identity/expression. In showing not just how they moved between the worlds of masculine, androgynous, and feminine, but why they did so, I think they offer powerful insights and a means of understanding their lived experiences.
Cactus Country is a rich, powerful memoir that I could not stop reading. Bossiere's work is moving not just due to their impeccable writing skills, but also due to their sincerity and empathy. They do not sugarcoat their darker experiences, but they evoke compassion for their earlier selves and the companions at different stages of life. The moment that I remember most was the descriptions of boys killing beetles (and how it was one of the only 'allowed' outlets for their anger, frustration, and powerlessness). The action is not presented as good or justified, but merely as a fact of life; the why behind it matters more than the actions alone. Triumphs, like their learning to love writing, are cathartic, but likewise tempered with reflection.
I particularly admired Bossiere's ability to share with others what it was like as a trans, nonbinary person at various stages of their life and their gender fluidity. They carefully lay out how actions, words, and appearance -- even the same ones -- are "different" to people depending on how they view your gender identity/expression. In showing not just how they moved between the worlds of masculine, androgynous, and feminine, but why they did so, I think they offer powerful insights and a means of understanding their lived experiences.
June 18, 2024
Most compelling memoir I’ve ever read
June 25, 2024
Really really Un-Put-Down-Able.
February 6, 2024
can't even talk about it!
June 23, 2025
I listened to this unique coming of age story of gender fluidity, read by the author. At times heartbreaking and other times hopeful, I was mesmerized by the story.
September 4, 2024
WHAT A BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL MEMOIR. moved up to my top (non-fiction) read of 2024.
listened. read by the author.
finished it tonight, driving down with freeway, with tears streaming down my face.
listened. read by the author.
finished it tonight, driving down with freeway, with tears streaming down my face.
June 10, 2024
Cactus Country is easily one of the best memoirs I've read in years.
Zoë is a kid who's newly arrived to the Cactus Country trailer park outside of Tucson, Arizona. Outside of school, they spend their days running around the desert with the other boys, causing mayhem, and learning the rules of boyhood. Zoë is also a boy, though their body doesn't match that label. This memoir takes us through over a decade of growing up trans/genderfluid (even though the author didn't have that language to describe themselves at the time): simultaneously romanticizing and yearning for boyhood/manhood, while also living through the less-than-glamorous parts of anger, violence, bullying, and emotional repression.
The Sonoran Desert is its own character, richly rendered in that same paradoxical way that masculinity is. The desert is beautiful, but also harsh. The prose is beautiful in describing the otherworldly sunsets, the crunch of gravel and sand underfoot, the vibrant flora and fauna of the desert Southwest. It also captures the searing, melt-your-flip-flops heat, the dangerous javelina, and the prickly cactus that thrive in such a hostile place.
Like any good creative nonfiction, the landscape, characters, and inner thoughts are allowed to be as complex as they are in real life. In each chapter, Bossiere recalls vignettes that often feature boys and men in Cactus Country, at school, and at UofA. Each one has multiple facets, good and bad, and you can envision young Zoë holding each one up to the light and questioning, “Is this the masculinity I want to emulate?” The answer, as it is for anyone grappling with their gender identity, is complicated.
I know I'll be coming back to this book multiple times. Highly recommend.
Zoë is a kid who's newly arrived to the Cactus Country trailer park outside of Tucson, Arizona. Outside of school, they spend their days running around the desert with the other boys, causing mayhem, and learning the rules of boyhood. Zoë is also a boy, though their body doesn't match that label. This memoir takes us through over a decade of growing up trans/genderfluid (even though the author didn't have that language to describe themselves at the time): simultaneously romanticizing and yearning for boyhood/manhood, while also living through the less-than-glamorous parts of anger, violence, bullying, and emotional repression.
The Sonoran Desert is its own character, richly rendered in that same paradoxical way that masculinity is. The desert is beautiful, but also harsh. The prose is beautiful in describing the otherworldly sunsets, the crunch of gravel and sand underfoot, the vibrant flora and fauna of the desert Southwest. It also captures the searing, melt-your-flip-flops heat, the dangerous javelina, and the prickly cactus that thrive in such a hostile place.
Like any good creative nonfiction, the landscape, characters, and inner thoughts are allowed to be as complex as they are in real life. In each chapter, Bossiere recalls vignettes that often feature boys and men in Cactus Country, at school, and at UofA. Each one has multiple facets, good and bad, and you can envision young Zoë holding each one up to the light and questioning, “Is this the masculinity I want to emulate?” The answer, as it is for anyone grappling with their gender identity, is complicated.
I know I'll be coming back to this book multiple times. Highly recommend.
October 4, 2024
i didn't always LIKE this book but i thought it was very well done, really thoughtful and interesting. i like how much it refused simplification and demanded to let everyone, from zoe to their family to the manager of cactus country, be fully human.
April 22, 2024
absolute gem. tender yet spiky, lot of love for this one.
September 9, 2024
really beautifully written memoir. i absolutely loved the first half of this novel about life at the trailer park. it kind of fell apart for me in the last quarter or so of the book, when the chapters started to feel like they were trying to shock the reader with X or Y event that happened in the authors life, which felt like a turn away from how the book starts off. also really odd way to end the book with that final chapter, trying to wrap everything up in a bow — very weird! despite my frustrations at the end, i still really liked this book and would recommend to anyone looking for a story teasing through the complexities of gender and growing up.
July 5, 2025
Genuinely some of the beautiful and affecting writing I’ve read, on a startling topic (Bossiere’s particular experience of gender nonconformity), told from the unique perspective of their experience of boyhood and non-boyhood. I tore through this book and then loaned it to my nonbinary young adult child — loaned because I want to keep it to reread .
May 14, 2025
This is a beautiful story of a child who grew up outside of Tucson experiencing gender dysphoria while figuring out how to survive. Their attention to detail and the way they absorbed the world as a child was fascinating. It was captivating and well written.
October 9, 2024
cannot tell how much my experience of transness being so different from the authors “i always knew i was different” story of boyhood shaped my reading but also…. it was just kind of achingly mid and i dnf🫣
November 25, 2025
This book was very well written. I picked it up because this year I wanted to read more queer stories and also get brought back into the familiar place that is Tucson, even if it was only through the pages. So much perspective gained at gender/sexual identity and a part of Tucson I never knew before.
Though Tucson was home for only a little while, the book made me homesick of the simplicity and gorgeous sunsets that comes with living in that desert.
Though Tucson was home for only a little while, the book made me homesick of the simplicity and gorgeous sunsets that comes with living in that desert.
July 23, 2024
✨ Review ✨ Cactus Country: A Boyhood Memoir by Zoë Bossiere
Thanks to Abrams Press and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!
This memoir zooms in on Zoë's childhood, teenage years, and early 20s in Cactus Country, a trailer park in Tucson, Arizona. Before arriving to Arizona, Zoë cut their hair short and passed for a boy in a lot of spaces, and the early chapters of the book talk about this kind of rough boyhood and the feelings of not quite fitting in. As they got older, passing became harder, and they experimented with different ways of dressing and acting in public spaces. This book was really powerful in conveying these feelings of what it means if you don't quite fit in, if you have shifting feelings about gender, and if you can't find the resources and people you need to quite figure that out.
I'm not sure this review is really doing this memoir justice, but I really appreciated how it pushed back against binaries, and pushed my ways of thinking and empathizing.
The pace of this is pretty fast and I loved reading it - often I couldn't put it down. There are parts that are sad and frustrating but wow was it engaging! Memoirs aren't always my favorite to read in print or as ebooks, but this one really kept me in the moment. Highly recommend!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: memoir, queer representation
Setting: Tucson, Arizona
Pub Date: May 2024
Read this if you like:
⭕️ trans, genderqueer, non-binary perspectives
⭕️ reflections on manhood and gender
⭕️ coming of age memoirs
Thanks to Abrams Press and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!
This memoir zooms in on Zoë's childhood, teenage years, and early 20s in Cactus Country, a trailer park in Tucson, Arizona. Before arriving to Arizona, Zoë cut their hair short and passed for a boy in a lot of spaces, and the early chapters of the book talk about this kind of rough boyhood and the feelings of not quite fitting in. As they got older, passing became harder, and they experimented with different ways of dressing and acting in public spaces. This book was really powerful in conveying these feelings of what it means if you don't quite fit in, if you have shifting feelings about gender, and if you can't find the resources and people you need to quite figure that out.
I'm not sure this review is really doing this memoir justice, but I really appreciated how it pushed back against binaries, and pushed my ways of thinking and empathizing.
The pace of this is pretty fast and I loved reading it - often I couldn't put it down. There are parts that are sad and frustrating but wow was it engaging! Memoirs aren't always my favorite to read in print or as ebooks, but this one really kept me in the moment. Highly recommend!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: memoir, queer representation
Setting: Tucson, Arizona
Pub Date: May 2024
Read this if you like:
⭕️ trans, genderqueer, non-binary perspectives
⭕️ reflections on manhood and gender
⭕️ coming of age memoirs
July 5, 2025
Stylistically this memoir is outstanding. A glittering yet verbose paragraph on mundane parts of Tucson life might be followed by a short, shocking, and devastating sentence that reveals a trauma of the author’s. I almost gave up on this book about 1/3 through, and that would’ve been utterly foolish.
Read this.
Read this.
February 11, 2025
All that I can say is wow!!! What a win for the Zoës of the world!!
November 24, 2025
It describes perfectly what it’s like living in Tucson. Mix of hating the desert’s harshness and loving how special it is
July 21, 2024
I loved this! The easy storytelling and and gentle lilt of the phrasing was so easy to listen to, even while Zoe's coming of age was prickly. I picked this book up because I wanted to hear about Tucson.
The last time I visited Tucson, I was shocked by all the changes. High rise condos, shiny new university buildings, yuppie restaurants downtown. I'm glad the economy was picking up and the city visibly had more activity but I also wondered about that grittier, rougher time from a decade before.
Zoe's Tucson is the dusty, hard scrabble Tucson. A magnet for all sorts of quirky folks who take an unconventional path in life, who are always on the path and never quite feel settled down. Zoe's unusual upbringing didn't surprise me; it felt familiar, actually. I could recognize the houses, the eerie fear of unexpectedly crossing paths with a javelina, the melting asphalt sticking to the sole of your sandal, and the people, even if I hadn't met the same ones Zoe writes about, are still characters I had met before.
Where have the rock hunting hippies gone to, and how are they earning cash now? What about the guy with all the doll heads glued to his car, where is he living? Or the kids trying to make a punk scene happen on sleepy 4th Avenue? Does the tamale lady still wait in the Bookman's parking lot on Friday afternoons? I hope they are doing well.
The last time I visited Tucson, I was shocked by all the changes. High rise condos, shiny new university buildings, yuppie restaurants downtown. I'm glad the economy was picking up and the city visibly had more activity but I also wondered about that grittier, rougher time from a decade before.
Zoe's Tucson is the dusty, hard scrabble Tucson. A magnet for all sorts of quirky folks who take an unconventional path in life, who are always on the path and never quite feel settled down. Zoe's unusual upbringing didn't surprise me; it felt familiar, actually. I could recognize the houses, the eerie fear of unexpectedly crossing paths with a javelina, the melting asphalt sticking to the sole of your sandal, and the people, even if I hadn't met the same ones Zoe writes about, are still characters I had met before.
Where have the rock hunting hippies gone to, and how are they earning cash now? What about the guy with all the doll heads glued to his car, where is he living? Or the kids trying to make a punk scene happen on sleepy 4th Avenue? Does the tamale lady still wait in the Bookman's parking lot on Friday afternoons? I hope they are doing well.
November 21, 2024
Oh my god. This book is such a prime example of why I love memoirs so much. No matter whose memoir you read, it is always possible to not only (a) learn something new or see life from a different perspective, and (b) find a little bit of yourself in their story.
I grew up with a relatively nonchalant attitude about gender and the way I express it, shaped mostly by growing up around a lot of boys and wanting to play like they do and be accepted into their groups. As i’ve grown up, i’ve always been unsure if my desire to be accepted into a male friend group stemmed from internalized misogyny or just the fact that I just felt more comfortable being a “boy.” While I do not identify as trans, Zoë’s stories of childhood resonated so strongly with me.
Please read this book! You will not regret it & it saddens me that we live in a time where we try to censor and silence stories like these! Trans people have always been around and will always exist, even when they don’t have the words or knowledge to describe what they are feeling!
I grew up with a relatively nonchalant attitude about gender and the way I express it, shaped mostly by growing up around a lot of boys and wanting to play like they do and be accepted into their groups. As i’ve grown up, i’ve always been unsure if my desire to be accepted into a male friend group stemmed from internalized misogyny or just the fact that I just felt more comfortable being a “boy.” While I do not identify as trans, Zoë’s stories of childhood resonated so strongly with me.
Please read this book! You will not regret it & it saddens me that we live in a time where we try to censor and silence stories like these! Trans people have always been around and will always exist, even when they don’t have the words or knowledge to describe what they are feeling!
June 4, 2024
I love this book so much. A memoir about gender and Tucson, two things I think about often. I spent nearly half my life in Tucson (not by choice lol..) and the language the author uses to describe the city rings so true. I often call Tucson a 'black hole' because when you try to leave the city it somehow pulls you back in. They describe similar feelings and the whole time I'm like omg YES.
One of my favorite lines about Tucson is, "I can't stay in Tucson another year, no matter what it takes. This place is like death."
Like, yeah, Tucson can be beautiful blah blah blah but it is also is unbearably hot most of the year and is just kinda soul sucking.
Beyond Tucson this is a memoir about growing up in a body that does not feel like your own. It is about the gender euphoria the author experienced as a child that came with hanging out with the other boys at the RV park and being referred to with male pronouns. It is also about the gender dysphoria that came with puberty and the overwhelming search for a gender that felt right.
One of my favorite lines about Tucson is, "I can't stay in Tucson another year, no matter what it takes. This place is like death."
Like, yeah, Tucson can be beautiful blah blah blah but it is also is unbearably hot most of the year and is just kinda soul sucking.
Beyond Tucson this is a memoir about growing up in a body that does not feel like your own. It is about the gender euphoria the author experienced as a child that came with hanging out with the other boys at the RV park and being referred to with male pronouns. It is also about the gender dysphoria that came with puberty and the overwhelming search for a gender that felt right.
September 24, 2024
This book reminded me why I love memoir so much. Zoë's story is set in a Tucson, Arizona trailer park with an ever changing cast of characters and recounts their desert upbringing alongside a deep grappling with gender and identity. I was engrossed in the details of desert life - the palo verde trees, packs of wild javelinas, spiky chollas and equally Zoë's reflections on genderfluidity. Zoë's journey is tenderly and artfully told, even when the story recounts the pains of sexism, abuse, and violence they experienced growing up different in a difficult place. The pacing of the last 3/4 of the book was a bit slow for me compared to the earlier chapters from childhood. By the end though, I was rooting for Zoë, the writer, and their journey toward sharing this important story.
December 6, 2024
I don’t read a lot of memoirs, but a poet I love posted about the release of Bossiere's book and I was immediately intrigued by the perfect cover.
Picking up the book, I had no idea what it was about, but I was immediately drawn in to Bossiere’s narrative. They speak of boyhood, adolescence, identity, and trauma in such powerful ways, forcing the reader to engage with the text. Their stories of youth are doubly unique and relatable; while I may not understand how it feels to be questioning one’s gender or identity, I can feel the heat of the Southwest desert and picture myself running around with my brothers in a campground, covered in dirt and sweat.
Bossiere’s writing is beautiful and raw and passionate, and they add an important voice to literature.
Picking up the book, I had no idea what it was about, but I was immediately drawn in to Bossiere’s narrative. They speak of boyhood, adolescence, identity, and trauma in such powerful ways, forcing the reader to engage with the text. Their stories of youth are doubly unique and relatable; while I may not understand how it feels to be questioning one’s gender or identity, I can feel the heat of the Southwest desert and picture myself running around with my brothers in a campground, covered in dirt and sweat.
Bossiere’s writing is beautiful and raw and passionate, and they add an important voice to literature.
December 31, 2024
I just saw this book on a list of best non fiction of 2024, and I can see why. It is very well written and it seems like the author is honest about when they caused issues, when others did, or when it was a mix of both.
The author grew up poor in a trailer park in rural Tucson. The author not only had to deal with growing up poor, but they also had complicated parents and they were trying to understand the difficulties they were having in regard to their gender presentation/identity. They also had a lonely childhood as kids came and went with regularity from the trailer park. The author seems to have found a much better situation as an adult.
The author grew up poor in a trailer park in rural Tucson. The author not only had to deal with growing up poor, but they also had complicated parents and they were trying to understand the difficulties they were having in regard to their gender presentation/identity. They also had a lonely childhood as kids came and went with regularity from the trailer park. The author seems to have found a much better situation as an adult.
January 17, 2025
Cactus Country: A Boyhood Memoir by Zoë Bossiere is a memoir about the author's experiences growing up as a genderfluid boy in an RV Park just outside of Tucson/Rita Ranch, AZ.
To me, the earlier chapters felt like they captured the nostalgia of childhood. A lot of the imagery and plots in the book were very evocative of Tucson, involving trains, palo verde trees and beetles, and javelina. I also recognised a lot of the places referenced in the book!
The later chapters grappled with gender identity, dysphoria, consent, and others' perceptions of one's gender. This book had an interesting perspective on all of those topics.
To me, the earlier chapters felt like they captured the nostalgia of childhood. A lot of the imagery and plots in the book were very evocative of Tucson, involving trains, palo verde trees and beetles, and javelina. I also recognised a lot of the places referenced in the book!
The later chapters grappled with gender identity, dysphoria, consent, and others' perceptions of one's gender. This book had an interesting perspective on all of those topics.
July 18, 2024
It was fine? The first parts following Bossiere's childhood in the desert and their struggles with their gender identity were compelling, but it kind of fell apart pacing-wise toward the end. The final epilogue chapter was kind of baffling and I think the book would've been better without it. The writing style is kind of bland in my opinion as well. Still, an interesting narrative!
December 17, 2024
Recommended by a friend, and I listened to it. I found it to fall into a very specific genre of writing that does everything at the bare minimum. Sure it's well structured and is about interesting topics, but it failed to capture me. I wasn't invested in what she had to say or what was going to happen next.
December 1, 2024
This is an autobiographical account of a transgendered child who grows up in a humble trailer park in Arizona identifying as a boy in his youth. Later. Biology takes over and Zoe reluctantly starts to embrace her feminine attributes. Growing up is confusing to Zoe and the people in her life. At school, there is guessing among her peers as to her gender. She has been able to cobble together an inspirational life and is an excellent author that draws you into her life that was interesting to a hetero man.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 158 reviews