Just Girls

Just Girls #1

by Rachel Gold

Jess Tucker sticks her neck out for a stranger—the buzz is someone in the dorm is a trans girl. So Tucker says it’s her, even though it’s not, to stop the finger pointing. She was an out lesbian in high school, and she figures she can stare down whatever gets thrown her way in college. It can’t be that bad.
Ella Ramsey is making new friends at Freytag University, playing with on-campus gamers and enjoying her first year, but she’s rocked by the sight of a slur painted on someone else’s door. A slur clearly meant for her, if they’d only known.

New rules, old prejudices, personal courage, private fear. In this stunning follow-up to the groundbreaking Being Emily , Rachel Gold explores the brave, changing landscape where young women try to be Just Girls .

Genres: LGBT, Young Adult, Transgender, Queer, Lesbian, Fiction, Romance

264 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2014

About the author

Rachel Gold has spent seven years as a reporter, ten years in marketing, and holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing degree. She worked as the senior reporter for a weekly newspaper with a readership of up to 100,000. She also served as a PR manager for an international technology company whose reach extended to Europe, Asia, and Australia. She has appeared at the Minnesota Library Association Round Table speaking on young adult literature and lives in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota.

Reviews

[Eliot · Rating 1 out of 5]

There were many times, when reading this, that I wanted to give up, but inspired by Tucker's martyrdom, I continued, that I might detail to you all the many, many reasons you should not read this book. This review contains what some people may consider spoilers, but I'll try to keep it vague. This review also contains swearwords. I am an angry queer about this.

1. The basic premise of this book, about a cis person pretending to be transgender to "protect" a trans person, is garbage. You do not need to assume the identity of a minority to call out bigotry. There is no positive reason to do this. I can't stress that enough. This is so fucking wrong. Please do not ever do it.

2. Having the trans person come out as "repayment" for this cis person's martyrdom to help the cis person overcome a different trial in their life is just un-fucking-real. I'm really fucking glad for Ella that coming out had apparently not a single negative repercussion for her, even though the cis-person-pretending-to-be-trans got the shit beaten out of her (Consistency???). The lesson from that is appalling. Don't ask me about what happened the last time I came out to a large group of people. It wasn't pretty--like, I'm sure, a lot of trans people's actual lives are.

3. Tucker is, for some reason (other than Rachel Gold trying to trick people into reading her other book which I somehow expect to be similarly problematic), really good friends with this lesbian couple that are at least fifteen years older than she is, because one of the women in the couple is trans, and the other wrote a book about her wife coming out (.... sensing a trend here). Why a trans woman would adopt some cis kid who's "life was changed" by reading about them SECOND-HAND is just fucking bizarre to me. I'm happy to mentor young queer kids in finding their identity. I have no fucking interest in being idol-worshipped by some cis kid who thinks it's appropriate to pretend to be trans and "protect me".

4. This entire book is written like a fictionalized version of Gender 2000. All of the angry feminist characters are incredible two-dimensional and seem to only exist as mouth-pieces for stereotypical TERF views. Which, like, is probably good as a way of educating cis people, I GUESS, but really just makes for a terribly written novel.

5. For Halloween, Ella dresses up, and I quote, as "white Nicki Minaj." And Tucker dresses up as a woman! Because, apparently, lesbians aren't women to begin with? I guess?

6. "I went to high school with a lot of delicate, artsy kids and I knew a panic attack when I saw one." Fuck you very much, my anxiety does not make me "delicate."

I could go on. And on. And on. But really, all you need to know is that cis people have no fucking business writing a book about what it is like to be trans. It's inauthentic, offensive garbage, and it fills my heart with hurt and rage that this book has won so many awards--the irony is so fucking sharp. Trans people can't write books about their lives that are published--but a cis-straight lady comes along and writes a book that wins three international literature awards and is short-listed for a fourth. Was it scary to write a book about trans kids, Rachel Gold? Did you feel like your literary reputation was on the line? God, that must have been so hard for you.

Maybe like half as hard as my life as a non-binary trans person actually is.

Please don't read this book.

[Dahlia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't even remember the last time I had such strong feelings about a book that were so positive and so negative simultaneously.

I completely cop to the fact that I might've felt differently if the page explaining terms had been at the end of the book instead of the beginning, but when the book opens with explaining the A in LGBTQIA as standing for both Asexuals and Allies (SPOILER: IT IS NOT ONE OF THOSE THINGS), I'm gonna have pretty instant Feelings.

And those Feelings weren't invalidated by the book's premise, or the execution of that premise: Tucker is painted as a Cis Savior, tremendously brave to call herself trans to protect a trans woman, knowing the entire time that she could just reveal that she isn't and be fine. In the end, I'm not even sure what it does for Ella; mostly it just gets Tucker painted as a hero.

On the flip side, obvious bonus points for positive trans representation (and bi representation), although it would've been nice to A) have it be a little clearer why transsexual kept being used instead of transgender, since the former is often misused and this book made it seem to me like the norm, while it certainly didn't mind being "Trans 101" in other areas, and B) have trans representation that wasn't "A hot girl no one in a billion years could ever imagine had ever had a boy's body." Not to invalidate that, of course, but it made everything about Ella's experience at college seem so easy, which contributed to the feeling of Tucker taking the heat just to be a savior. Like, when there's an issue of a policy being created at the university requiring students to use the bathrooms for the sexes listed on their birth certificates, there is so little focus on Ella's concerns and fears about that and so much more on Tucker's rage. And over and over again through this book, it's about Tucker's feelings on transgender life over Ella's.

BUT, two things in this book I thought were huge by virtue of being storylines: 1) transwoman-exclusionary feminism, and 2) same-sex date rape. I'm pretty sure I've never seen either of those mentioned in a book, ever, and they are such incredibly important issues to discuss in the LGBTQIA community. I thought Gold did a really nice job presenting a lot of sides to the former while never condoning it, and a lot of support and validation for the victim regarding the latter, and I admire the hell out of that.

And can we talk about the portrayal of genderqueerness in this book? My God. I mean, great that Nico is a cool character and a lot of fun and a good friend and kind of a love interest (though if we did really see Nico interact with Tucker, I definitely missed it)and all that, and props for the self-affirming statements, but the idea that every single time Nico's aesthetic was described, it was about how X was compensating for Y because in order to be genderqueer you MUST be repping equal amounts male and female to your look at all times. Despite how lovely and likeable Nico obviously is as a person, Nico exists to be an object of scrutiny, to be asked constantly what gender Nico is, even by queer people who should know better. And I'm not saying that's not realistic, because sadly I'm sure it is, but it'd be hard for me to recommend this to someone genderqueer, because if I were, I think this would be triggery as hell.

Finally, the relationship between Tucker and Ella... I mean, maybe it's realistic to lose your virginity to someone you live with, pretty much never talk about it again, stay best friends with them, and have both of you date other people while being relatively cool with it, but...man do I not buy that. Personal read, personal feelings, all of that, but to me that was written as a billion percent neater and easier than it would've been in real life. And of course, for every me there's someone who's lived it and feels the exact opposite, so, subjectivity FTW.

Part of me thinks this is still a worthwhile read for people interested in matters of gender and sexuality, so despite my negative feelings about it, I also kind of want to recommend it. But mostly, I hope more works come along in this vein I feel more comfortable putting in the hands of any reader.

[Carleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been hoping for the release of this book for over two years.  I read and reviewed Rachel Gold's debut novel,  Being Emily , in June 2012.  Ever since then, I've wanted to read "the next book" - whether it be a direct sequel or not.  I wanted more.

Thankfully, my wait is over.  Just Girls (Bella Books) by Rachel Gold is here!  And, in my opinion, it was worth the wait.  Once again, Gold has given us a novel that is full of wonderful, engaging characters; is very nicely written and draws the reader into the story with intelligence and heart; and it is a very timely story with a very important message.

There are a lot of folks roaming through the pages of Just Girls.  Gold does a very nice job of making each character distinct and not overusing them.  Tucker and Ella are the main characters in the story.  Right from our first introduction of each young woman, the reader gets a sense of who these people are and what they are about.  We learn a lot about them at the beginning.  But what I really like is that we keep learning a lot about them throughout the novel.  And we learn right along with Tucker and Ella as they, in turn, learn more about themselves.  We get to experience their first year of college and their struggles right along with them.  And with each struggle, with each situation, I found myself thinking, "what would I have done?"  My response is made manifest in the actions and reactions of the secondary characters in Just Girls.  Nico, Summer, Tesh, Cal, Shen, Johnny - often asked the questions I was asking myself.  These were people I was able to relate to.  I connected with them in ways that made me stop and think - often making me re-evaluate my own perspectives.  Even the portrayals of Lindy and Vivien gave me pause and had me wondering if I'd ever said or done anything similar.  (And if I ever did, I'd like to apologize to the universe now.) Gold has a knack for creating characters who are unique, well-developed, and real. Even if I didn't like the character, I still liked what Gold did with the character.

I really like Gold's writing style.  It's clear, it's precise, and it's creative.  As with Being Emily, Gold weaves complex gender and feminist theory into Just Girls.  But she does so in a way that my eyes didn't gloss over from intense academic vocabulary (which I'm very familiar with - Hello, Judith Butler).  At the same time, it wasn't so watered-down that it felt condescending ("I'll use small words so you'll understand.")  Gold strikes just the right balance and makes theoretical arguments accessible to the readers, regardless of the readers' individual experiences with those theories.  As the characters discuss and argue the issues, each does so from her own perspective and level of knowledge.  So, each reader will find at least one voice that makes it all click.  But even with the multitude of "voices" throughout Just Girls, Gold makes it very clear that Ella and Tucker are the main characters.  Each chapter is titled either "Ella" or "Tucker".  So we know precisely from what perspective  each part of the story is being told.  The point of view flips between first-person for Ella and third-person for Tucker.  While I often find this shift in point of view to be distracting, it works beautifully in Just Girls.

There has been quite a bit of forward movement in the struggle for equality over recent years.  DADT and DOMA were defeated.  Same-sex marriage bans are being struck down as unconstitutional.  Anti-discrimination laws are being put into effect.  But "equality" is still pretty elusive.  It's even more elusive for those who are transgender.  Bisexuals are often seen as people who "just can't make up their minds."  And Heaven help you if you identify as genderqueer.  Gold deftly highlights that there are more "letters" involved in our struggle for equality.  "LGBT" just doesn't really cover it anymore.  And the "us vs. them" arguments aren't quite so black and white. Even within our own communities, there is prejudice, bigotry and violence.  The transgendered are still widely ostracized by "real" gay men and lesbians. Bisexuals aren't always accepted because they may have had intimate relationships with people of the opposite sex....and liked it.  The straight community does not have a market on domestic violence.  And yet....and yet.  Gold gives us hope.  Within these communities there is also inclusivity and understanding; there is a broadening of perspectives.  Yes, there is struggle, but there is hope.  For that hope to have a chance, bridges must be built and crossed.

Callander put her hand on Vivien’s shoulder. “Not everyone has seen the world you’ve seen,” she said. “And not everyone sees the world the way you do.”

“But there’s so much to do,” Vivien protested.

“That’s why we need everyone,” Alisa told her. “And to not fight each other.”

Once again, Gold has offered her readers and rich, thought-provoking novel.  I firmly believe that Being Emily and Just Girls should be required reading in Gender, Women's Studies, and Queer Studies programs.  (Probably in quite a few other programs, as well.)  Can you imagine the discussions?  I'd love to be a fly on the wall.

 
Related reading
There have been some great blog posts published recently in response to the "us vs. them" division within the LGBTQIA community.  I highly recommend taking the time to read them.

Nikki Smalls - "Oh I am RILED"
Rachel Spangler - "The Big Tent...(Or F*ck Biphobia)"
T.T. Thomas - "Lesbian Fiction for Dummies Who Need to Know Who is a Real Lesbian! Volume 1"

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

"A" does not, and never will stand for allies. Period.

JUST GIRLS suffers from being absolutely out of touch with reality. The writing is awkward and unpolished, the characters are one dimensional, and read like they were pulled from someone's college orientation tolerance skit script rather than reality.

Tucker is absolutely insufferable. She appropriates the experience of a trans woman by pretending to be one because she's pig-headed and thinks everything revolves around her and her personal ideals of what should be going on. Her character only gets worse in time.

There are seriously racist bits strewn throughout the book.

I was really disappointed to see how heavy-handed this was.

[Patty · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really tried to like this book but I just couldn’t get into it. I bought this book because I read some of the reviews and decided that I should give it a try. Unfortunately, it was too slow and I had to push myself to continue reading. The issues that this book addresses are important, but the emotional roller coaster was at a snail's pace.

[Samu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't really know how I feel about an ally pretending to be trans to protect another trans student. That brings up so many feelings and issues. Is it solidarity or making someone else's life into your own pet project? Fortunately, I didn't have to decide that in order to enjoy the book. It challenged my own prejudiced ideas about cis-people, which is good. Perhaps I needed that.

I do think this is an important book, especially for the ya-target group. At first glance a fairly simple cut story that ends up dealing with way more complex issues than I thought it could. Transrights and issues, dating, hate crimes, rape and domestic violence, but also family, friendship, community, how to stand up for yourself and for the people and things you believe in.

Recommend. 3,5 stars. And an extra plus for Asian characters that weren't potrayed as transphobic.

[Danika at The Lesbrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

TL;DR version: I'd give this 4 1/2 stars if Goodreads would let me. I had some issues with it, but overall I thought this was a fascinating book that would spark a ton of discussion. Definitely recommended if you're at all interested.

This review was originally posted at the Lesbrary (http://lesbrary.com)

Just Girls is one of the new releases that I was most excited about reading, because I found the premise very interesting. It tells the story of two women in college: Tucker, an out cis lesbian, and Ella, a bisexual trans woman. The book cycles between their perspectives. When Tucker finds out that people are speculating about who the trans woman is in the dorms and being generally hateful, she angrily defends the anonymous student and spontaneously "outs" herself as trans in order to take the brunt of the hate herself. The idea of a cis person pretending to be trans for any reason could go very badly, no matter how noble the intentions (not to mention that the author is also cis), but I still wanted to see where the story would go--not to mention that lesbian fiction is severely lacking in trans women characters.

Surprisingly, though the premise should have been much more of a minefield than Gold's previous book, Being Emily, I ended up really loving this one. Emily and Claire (her girlfriend) do make appearances in this one, but they are minor characters, and you don't have to read the two together or in order. The two things that really struck me in this narrative were the realism and the scope of the novel. While Being Emily is narrowly focused on the experience of being trans, its successor weaves this in with other issues of sexism and being queer. It also shows a different reality than the previous book: while Emily experienced a lot of push back from her coming out, Ella had a supportive family and community. She was able to access the hormones and surgery that she needed, and she had a strong support system. That isn't to say that it was easy for her, but it was definitely different from Emily's experience, and I appreciated the acknowledgment that there isn't just one trans experience.

Again, I can't speak to how accurate the portrayal of being a trans woman is, but the depiction of the LGBTQ crowd on campus definitely rang true. The drama, the friendship, and yes, even the abuse seemed to mirror the community that I participated in during university. I had to laugh at the paragraph

Tucker pulled a piece of paper out of her notebook and scrawled on it: Are Vivien and Summer still together? Yes. No. Cal was sitting next to her and she put it in front of him. He looked at it for a minute, then picked up his pen and circled both Yes and No.

Ella also has to deal with sexism on a daily basis, especially as a woman in science. She has several great moments where she reacts against these microaggressions, including when she's questioned on her gaming prowess and says

"All my high scores are in Pretty Princess Magical Rescue Adventure," I deadpanned back.

"Me, too," Shen said in mock surprise.

"I bet my unicorn would own yours," I told him.

There is also quite an array of diversity in Just Girls; I was especially glad to see that Ella is bisexual (although she doesn't necessarily identify as such yet, the word "bisexual" is actually used in text, which shouldn't be worth nothing but still is), and there are PoC characters, though both Ella and Tucker are white. Nico, Ella's friend/ex is genderqueer and Ella describes per/yo (Nico changes pronouns fairly regularly) as looking, in one outfit, like an "Afro-Asian god/dess". One of Ella love interests is Shen, who is Chinese, and his cousin Johnny, who is Chinese-American, also a significant side character. Shen is quiet and subtle, and may have come off as stereotypical if he was the only Asian character in the novel, but Johnny's boisterous personality balances them out.

As for my original concerns with the premise, like If You Could Be Mine, I thought that it managed to navigate that minefield pretty well, but I recognize that other people might disagree. (Hang on, why do this book, If You Could Be Mine, and  Adam  all feature cis characters pretending to be trans? And written by cis women? That's an alarming trend. Though this book also features a trans woman main character, of course.) I was worried about it: there is a moment where Tucker attempts to look more masculine to fit the trans persona, and at some point Ella looks at her with tears in her eyes and says she's "so heroic", which screams "cis saviour" to me (like "white saviour"). Another character also says that Tucker is being brave for pretending to be trans, and Tucker says that more people should do so.

At the same time, it made me think about the various protests where straight people have "played gay" as protest to anti-gay demonstrations, and this generally viewed positively. Is "playing trans" to protest anti-trans sentiment a similar action? What really changed my mind, though, is that Tucker faces consequences for this action. (More on this in the spoiler section.) And Ella acknowledges the difference between Tucker saying she's trans and the reality for trans people, when she thinks that sure, if a cis woman tried to use the men's room as protest they'd just be told to stop, "but what if she'd been a trans student?" As a cis person, Tucker can step away from this, at least to some degree, if she chooses to.

I really think this book has so much packed into it. As I started to write this review, I realized how much I want to say about it. If you're curious about Just Girls and wanted to remain unspoiled, I definitely recommend giving it a try. The characters are complex, the story is compelling, and it's packed with things to think about. Highly recommended, though I would definitely put some trigger warnings on that recommendation (transphobia, violence, rape).



One of the things that I really loved about this book was how the idea of community was handled. There is an LGBTQ community, but that community isn't necessarily safe. Ella (and Tucker, when she is "playing" trans)  is rejected by both feminist and queer community members (though they are accepted by others in that community). Nico has yos gender interrogated by LGBTQ community members. The TA in Tucker's Gender Studies class is openly transphobic. In contrast, when she outs herself to Shen, he is completely supportive. That isn't to say that there isn't positive queer communities, only that Ella is able to find community in a range of places: through select queer people, cis/straight people, and even supportive strangers.

Shortly after Tucker "comes out" as trans, she is attacked because of it. It's an odd mix, because Tucker faces the physical effects of this, but Ella deals with the personal effects of knowing that she was the person who that attack was meant for. Later, Tucker is raped by her ex-girlfriend, a woman well-respected in the Gender Studies field and part of the school's LGBTQ community. Ella tells Tucker that since she protected Ella earlier in the semester, she would protect Tucker now.  When she goes to the administration, she doesn't get a lot of support. Ella realizes "So she could end up having to walk to class every day on the same campus as her rapist"--which instantly reminded me of the Columbus student who is protesting her rapist's continued presence on campus by carrying her mattress as a visual sign of the weight of her trauma.

Ella rallies support around Tucker, partly by rallying a crowd through Johnny and Shen's gamification of a protest, and partly by coming out to said crowd and indicating that Tucker had put herself on the line in order to protect Ella. This protest as game is ingenious as a strategy, and it also is heartwarming. I found myself tearing up as I read about this group of people willing to protect victims and protest the school board's lukewarm attention to this. Again, I was reminded of the follow-up protests in Columbia, in which other students helped to carry the mattress in solidarity. In this community, Tucker is able to feel safe as she is escorted to classes. When she finds out that Lindy's previous girlfriend was also abused, she is able to access that rage and act on it, not to protect herself, but to protect others. Both Tucker and Ella grow a lot throughout the book, and are able to support each other to get through it. I think that is what saves it from being a "cis saviour" narrative: first, Ella is just as big a part (if not bigger) of this story than Tucker is, and second because the support is mutual, and they end up on even ground.

I do have some complaints. There are some remarks through the book that I disagree with, but I acknowledge that Ella and Tucker are not perfect, and that doesn't mean the book supports their views. (For example, Tucker pities the plight of women in far off countries who are being oppressed, and wishes she could take them to the US to be saved. Ella, when being concerned about having sex, thinks that some people fetishize the "hermaphrodite" look.) One point that I couldn't dismiss, though, was the ableism: Lindy's abusive actions are chalked up to some indeterminate mental illness, as if neurotypical people cannot be abusive, or people with mental illness are more dangerous (instead of the reality, which that they're more likely to be victims of violence and abuse). Also, when Ella meets Lindy she muses that maybe she has "high-functioning, undiagnosed Asperger's" (which doesn't even make any sense: how would you know whether she'd been diagnosed?) Also, as a small complaint, I'd rather that Lindy hadn't been a plagiarist. The truth is that there are people who are well-respected in their field and who are also abusive. It seems too simple to say "Well, she was a terrible person, therefore that paper than was so acclaimed must not have actually been written by her".

Another minor point, but I also thought the depiction of the Gender Studies class was pretty unrealistic. In one, the teacher asks how many people think sexism is over and feminism is no longer needed, and half the class raises their hands? Maybe it was the hippie left coast university I went to, but in my experience, almost no one takes Women's Studies or Gender Studies who isn't already feminist-leaning. People who disagree with feminism tend to have very little interest in those classes. Also, the teacher (who is supposedly trans positive) takes on an openly transphobic TA, and then doesn't correct her while she is spouting off transphobic, ridiculous arguments to a student? And then says "I want you to learn to stand up to an opposing viewpoint on your own," though she acknowledges that she wouldn't expect that if it was anti-feminist criticism? Again, maybe it was just my hippie university, but I have never seen a Women's Studies teacher do that, at least not one who's well respected.

I do have some complaints, and I definitely think that other people could get completely different things out this book (I would love to read some reviews by trans women in comparison), but I would definitely recommend this book, if just for the sheer amount of discussions it raises. As a beginner to trans issues, I'd recommend this over Being Emily, and I think it would be a less triggering read for trans readers as well (though it does deal with transphobia, violence, and rape), because the main characters begin the novel already trans positive. I'm really glad this book is out there, and I hope it gets a lot more attention.

[Blink51n · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of soapbox standing usually puts me off a book, and there are many, many arguments made in this novel where I felt like I was doing the reader's version of watching a game of tennis. However! The issues raised deserve their arguments to be heard and fiction is a great format.
Outside of the politically savvy college students, there are a few storylines going on here. This is not a light read, parts are certainly trigger points for some. It is a very confronting book that doesn't pull punches and shows the shameful way trans-women can be treated by different groups. It also highlights the burden to prove abuse/assault with a heavy dose of victim blaming.
While Tucker is very quickly painted as a hero, her heroics negatively impact her life in a lot of ways. Tucker is alone when she stands up for what she believes in, and is punished for it several times over. Only when a group is organised to stand up together is she proclaimed safe. This is a frightening, yet valid issue.
I wasn't satisfied with Lindy's abrupt departure, yet can appreciate the sense of injustice this inspired being so true with too many cases. My reaction is most probably the intended effect.
I don't hugely relate to ya/na characters, however the social commentary of this story is important, engaging, confronting and relevant.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like others have said, I wanted to like this book, because there aren't many like it (and I loved Being Emily when I read it) but I just... couldn't. I kept rolling my eyes. It felt like one long, giant tumblr debate post about queer people, especially from Tucker's end, and every dialogue bit in the book discussing it. Thoughts from Ella's side felt like an information pamphlet.

Although Tucker and Lindy's relationship was obviously unhealthy, in general I was really annoyed at the fact that almost every character in the book didn't take their relationships seriously. There's nothing wrong with people casually dating, but I'm so bothered that every single character was like that. Maybe I'm biased; I feel like it perpetuates the idea/stereotype that LGBTQ people can't be in loving, happy, monogamous relationships, because so often in reality they are portrayed as not getting enough out of just one person. There was no variety in any characters in this book, relationship wise; they were all hookups, for the most part. Ella's unsure for a lot of the time about entering a relationship, Tucker and Lindy are unhealthy and cheat on eachother, and I think the only person that wanted an actual relationship was Cal, who was single.

I would say my actual rating is 2.5, and the only reasoning for that is because I was a lot more invested in the story of Tucker and Lindy's drama within the last hundred pages or so, and that was probably the only reason I ended up finishing. I think I would have liked the book a lot more if it was just about that. LGBTQ abuse happens, lesbian rape happens, there are mentally ill queer people. I was in a similar boat at one point, though not nearly as harsh and traumatic, and seeing this kind of exposure to these issues was nice.

Other things that bugged me: I get that the author wanted to show she was including diverse characters, but she went about it in the wrong way, and as another reviewer mentioned, some of her writing/comments about Shen could come off as racist, and it had me slightly ticked. Another thing that bugged me and almost kind of confused me, is that Ella's chapters are written in first person, but all of Tucker's are written in third person. I don't know if it was intentional or not. The two characters also had way too much unneeded thought process on many things that weren't important to the story.

As I mentioned before, a mass portion of this book just felt like a tumblr argument, and I almost feel like she based a lot of it off of those. Not that her information wasn't correct; a lot of it was, and these are issues that still happen, but it was just exhausting to read and felt like a giant internet debate that I wanted to skip, except you can't, because there's just so much of it. I suppose if that's something you enjoy reading, then this might be the book for you. Personally, I see too much of the same thing over and over already.

[Rana · Rating 2 out of 5]

i feel bad giving this too low a rating cuz it has good intentions ig and these books are rare but this writing....i try not to complain about writing style in general but there was so much useless detail in this i wanted to take my pencil out and edit it down im sorry. i dont care what this girl ate for lunch or where she got it. i am SORRY.....
also the book was super preachy and i never understand why LGBT+ books are so preachy because the info gets outdated so fast... just be specific & stick to ur point & characters imo.
my fav moments were when nicki minaj was referred to as a "hip-hop star" and when the one girl asked her girlfriend if she wanted to watch a "Japanese anime series" ..this was released in 2014?

[Alealea · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read Being Emily, I was looking for information as a relative came out and I wanted to understand and react as I should and not as I had been taught. I was not reading the fiction but looking for answers. So I felt unable to review that in a fictionnal point of view.

Here, I just pick a book that was on my to read list without looking at the author's name (yeah, I do that)

And I liked it. I would have rated the story 3 stars, but I rounded it up to 4 because it's so sensible in how it treats it's subject.

Both main characters are facing difficult situations and while they seem unable to confront their own, they don't hesitate to protect each other.

Though, beware there is a lot of violence in this book, and one scene in particular that can be off putting the rape of one of the MC, which is just awful

[RJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sometimes felt a little like "wow, a really good wobbly toddler step towards better trans fic for young people" but I think for some folks (cis and trans) this book might be a total revelation. I am thinking about reading Adam next for comparison, which has some similar but also completely dissimilar plot points, after which I may look back at this one like it was a friggin' sacred tome of perfection.

More collected thoughts later, probably.

[Johanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[James Femmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an electronic review copy of this book from Novel Publicity.

I want to marry this book. And I don’t say that about just any book.

Having recently made it most of the way through the audiobook version of a certain ‘award winning’ Young Adult novel with a transgender character which was quite possibly the most offensive thing I’ve seen the genre offer so far, it took me a while to work up the courage to start reading Just Girls, by Rachel Gold. But I had made the commitment before picking up the Awful Book Which Must Not Be Named, and it’s a good thing I had because I may have passed up on a wonderful book.

Just Girls is gorgeous. It did everything right that the other book did wrong.

The story follows Ella and Tucker, two girls just starting college. One day, Tucker overhears some girls talking shit about a new transgender student. Apparently, one of these girls saw some paperwork while working at the admissions office that stated a new student was a trans girl. Basically all the horrible misconceptions about transgender people come out of these girls’ mouths. Incensed, Tucker turns around and shouts “You have anything to say to my face?” before even realizing that she has effectively come out as a trans woman. Tucker is not transgender, but she keeps up the pretense, deciding that she can take whatever abuse comes her way. She was an out lesbian in high school, how much worse can it be?

Tucker learns that it can indeed be worse, but instead of crumbling under the abuse, she sticks to her guns.

When Ella meets Tucker, and realizes what she’s doing to unwittingly protect her, she is in awe that anybody would do what Tucker did, risk their own safety for someone she doesn’t even know. The two girls become friends, learning about each other and protecting each other from haters, angry TERFs, and shitty relationships.

Rachel Gold does a wonderful job of giving life to every character in Just Girls. Ella began transition early in life, taking hormone blockers to prevent male characteristics from developing in puberty. She has a supportive family, which is a refreshing change. While a lot of trans and queer kids face rejection from their families, and that is a serious problem, not all of them do, thankfully. Ella is petite where Tucker is tall and strong. It’s easy for people to believe Tucker’s claims, and easy for tiny Ella to avoid any suspicion about her history.

I fell a little bit in love with Tucker. Her strength, selflessness, and courage felt real. The story switches point of view between the two girls, with Ella’s chapters narrated in first person and Tucker’s in third. It took me a little while to even realize this was happening, because it just works.

Surrounding Ella and Tucker is a motley group of college students from all walks of life. Notable among them is Nico, a genderqueer long-time friend of Ella’s. Nico’s pronouns keep changing from one chapter to the next as yo tries out different things to see what feels right, and this is handled seamlessly in the narrative. Nico’s assigned-at-birth gender is never revealed, and while one of the friends keeps trying to find out, this serves more to point out how Nico has no need to reveal this.

I think everyone would be entertained by this book, and may also learn things they didn’t know about gender politics without being lectured about it. Gold does a FANTASTIC job weaving the debate between the radical feminists and the transgender community into the narrative.

Most importantly, perhaps, the book is fun. Yes, bad things happen, but good things too. It’s life, with all its bumps and twists. And as in real life, friendship and love trump fear.

[Danii Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read as part of the Around the Year in 52 Books Reading Challenge 2019, to fill 33) A book you have owned for at least a year, but have not read yet.

Ohh, I wanted so much to like this book. It wasn't bad, just boring. I'd put it down for days at a time and completely forget about it, whereas I'll usually devour a good book in a couple of days. I just wasn't feeling this at all.

My primary issue with the book at first was the tense-switching. Ella's chapters are written in first person, Tucker's are in third. I understand the intention; this book is Ella's story, so it's only told from her perspective, sure. But if that's the message you want to put across, don't give half the chapters to Tucker. I liked the perspective switch, and I generally love reading books told from multiple perspectives, I just think this one was done badly. (Something I have to mention, too, is that during one of Tucker's third person chapters, it briefly switches to second person and addresses you, which made the issue a hundred times worse.)

But ignoring that, here comes the main issue; it's boring. I love the update progress function on Goodreads, and I often use it to make little comments as I'm reading. On page 46 I updated with There's a lot of over-explaining. I'm bored. Then eleven days and 150 pages later, I updated This book is fine. And I agree with the points it's putting across. But I'm just. Bored. I'm bored. So clearly it was thrilling.

The characterisation didn't work for me either. Everyone is perfect, and it's so wrong. Ella is trans, but transitioned before puberty and also has a perfect gene pool, so no one even considers it a possibility. This is fine, I know that trans folks can and do pass all the time (I also know that 'pass' is kind of out-of-favour language nowadays, but I'm working with what the book presented to me). But Ella is not the only perfect character. Her best friend Nico is genderqueer. And always described as a perfect blend of male and female to the point where even though other characters continually guess at their sex, no one ever can. And then Tucker is a perfect butch lesbian stereotype. And the rest of the characters are either dramatically gung-ho in their support of trans people, or dramatically anti-trans. No one feels like a real human, and it's ultimately disappointing.

Maybe read this if you don't know much about trans issues and you want to learn about them in the fictional sense. I wouldn't recommend this, really... to anyone else.

[Melissa Storm · Rating 5 out of 5]

What does it mean to be a young adult in today’s world? What does it mean to be a feminist? To be a girl?

Rachel Gold’s fantastic Just Girls asks all these questions and more, and the answers are bound to surprise you while also resonating deeply with anyone who has ever felt insecurity, fear, or love.

I went into this reading experience unsure of what to expect. I mean, just look at the synopsis and how heavily this book focuses on trans issues. Well, my largest exposure to trans issues, until now, came via Isis on Season 11 of America’s Next Top Model, and that provided a shallow representation at best.

Still, I was intrigued enough by the concept and the characters to dig right in. And, boy, did I grind my heels in, staying up late to read this in just a few short days! Not only is Just Girls an incredibly important book, but it’s also a fun one. I related to Ella’s insecurity and worry that others wouldn’t accept her–even though I am not trans, I easily found myself relating to and rooting for her. And I LOVED Tucker, the out lesbian who also outs herself as trans, even though she’s actually not. What a great character set!

This novel forced me to confront biases I didn’t even know I possessed by raising questions in both engaging, emotional ways and in didactic ways. How does one define a woman–must she be born with the anatomy or simply the soul? Are feminists always the good guys? What does gender mean anyway, and is it possible to live life without ever picking one over the other? How are lesbian relationships different from straight ones?

I couldn’t stop reading, and even though I finished over a month ago, I can’t stop thinking about Just Girls. My closest reading experience came via Nabokov’s Lolita–that book also forced me to confront biases and root for characters I may not naturally gravitate toward. That, too, was a book I can’t stop thinking about and can’t stop recommending to whomever will listen.

As the mother of a beautiful one-year old daughter, I was so happy to be able to expand my definition of “girlhood”, and I can’t wait to share Just Girls with her once she is about a decade older. Tolerance is so important, and there’s no better way to teach it than by putting yourself in the “other”s shoes and walking around for a few-hundred pages.

I highly recommend this book, especially to those who don’t think they need–or want–to read it.

[Janine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was very excited for this however the book just wasn't stylistically good. It glossed over the only good parts and hyperfocused on the lesser sections. The protagonist, Ella, had little to do in the story. Despite being the secondary protagonist, Tucker had a much more interesting path.
Then, regarding the topics the author tried to cover, it was shameful. It was extremely cissexist and essentializing. Any time Ella came out the author made her divulge her medical history, which was more than frustrating. Plus, the author totally underplayed what it was like to be closeted. She acts as if trans women have some great amount of privilege before coming out and only know oppression or the experience of womanhood until then. This delegitamizes trans women and makes it seem that as women they don't internalize transphobia or misogyny. In a way, the book seemed a poor attempt at validating trans women but really it invalidated many aspects of their experience. She fell into the trope of making Ella hyperfeminine, never mind the fact that trans women often can't get medically approved without having to over-perform. She also made it out as if feminism is for "femininity" and reduced womanhood to gender performance, never mind the countless gnc women who defy that definition but still are women completely. It was such a messy, liberal understanding of gender and transmisogyny that was trying to be radical that it was exhausting to read at some points. There were some good arguments, mostly brought forth by Ella, but otherwise it was so lacking. The way Gold excused Viviens transmisogyny with "she'll learn" and "it's politics" was so frustrating. Women like Vivien have actually been the greatest bar for trans women accessing healthcare, bathrooms, and jobs. She ignored the real world effects and reduced these opinions to a vacuum. Well it's definitely one of the better trans YA novels I've read, it seemed almost out of date and it tried much to hard to be something it's not. It got caught up in theory when it could've been story, which made it difficult to read.

[Nora · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used to be a really strong believer in Toni Morrison’s quotation, “If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.” Then by coincidence in 2014, both Rachel Gold and I happened to write YA/New Adult novels with a transgender main character and a lesbian romance that is also about same-gender dating violence. You know, that tired old thing again. Now I’m a believer in a new quotation, “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, sit back and put up your feet and eat some pistachio nuts and let Rachel Gold write it because she’ll do a better job.”

My favorite thing about this YA/New Adult novel is how meta it is. An I-think-cisgender-but-I-can’t-remember-why-I-think-so-or-did-I-just-assume-this? author writing about a transgender character and a cisgender character who is telling people she is transgender. I loved Gold’s previous novel Being Emily, and the main characters Emily and Claire appear in this book... and they have written a memoir called Being Emily. It’s Emily-ception, my head is exploding!

So this story takes place at a college in Ohio and has two main characters: Ella, a geeky, femme, rich gamer/science girl who is transgender and bi/questioning, and Tucker, a feisty, lefty, working-class butch Humanities girl who is cisgender and an out lesbian. Because she has kind of a hero complex, Tucker decides to defend/protect the unknown trans girl in her dorm by saying she Tucker is that girl, and then she becomes the target of a lot of transphobic abuse on campus. In this way the author sidesteps the seemingly-obligatory violence-against-trans-teen scene by making it happen to someone else. (I say seemingly-obligatory because it’s very very common in YA with transgender characters, and I get why that is, but it harshes my mellow, and any change is as good as a holiday.) It’s certainly a way out I would never have thought of in a hundred years. However, the burden has just shifted over to poor Tucker. TW for violence, dating violence and sexual assault.

Anyway, Tucker and Ella become friends, then roommates, then closer friends, and then some sparks fly between them... but the romantic element of this book is a lot more complicated and realistic than this partial synopsis suggests, which is part of the awesomeness. Actually the romance/love triangle element reminded me of Adaptation by Malinda Lo. And there’s a part where Ella and Tucker and their friends use gaming for activism, which reminded me of Cory Doctorow. Since I love Malinda Lo and Cory Doctorow, this is some pretty high praise. But speaking of the romantic element, it gets pretty spicy, in a good way, but that plus the college milieu makes it more NA than YA, and not something that most people would feel comfortable having their grandmother read over their shoulder.

I’m going to get a bit more spoiler-y here. There are a lot of things in this book that were potential hazards but were very delicately and tastefully handled. And then a few other places in the book where I could pick it apart and complain about why did the author use this word or that word. But you know what, that’s the easiest kind of book review to write, and kind of boring, and I’m sure someone else out there has got it covered. The one thing that I did want to mention that seemed a little facile to me was that after one of the characters is raped, everyone universally urges her to report it to the campus authorities, and I definitely see two points of view about that. Then there’s a pretty swift and fair process of justice and the rapist ends up being expelled. That is so not how things happened in sexual assault cases at my university in the late nineties, and I’d like to think things have changed so much, but it’s kind of hard to believe. But I’m the one who doesn’t want uber-depressing books for QUILTBAG youth so why am I complaining?

Overall, despite the slew of bad things that happen in this book, there’s a real sense that everyone is basically “good people” and this is shown in a lot of ways. There are a lot of people who don’t know anything about transgender issues, and then they are educated, and then they are allies, as simple as that. Or there are a couple characters who are in conflict with our main characters, but then they realize they have common interests or it was all kind of a miscommunication. Two people who have both been abused by the same person have been pitted against each other in the past, but once they realize, they immediately help each other. Everyone is so nice except for a few baddies who are cartoonishly evil. (Honestly, I love characters like that; I know it’s not supposed to be good writing but I think that’s just a fad and evil characters are my favorite.) This “niceness” also manifests in a couple ways which seem more negative to me. There’s a neat character Nico who is genderqueer who is Ella’s friend, and when Ella’s new friends at the university meet Nico, they will not stop trying to find out what gender Nico was originally assigned. This is never revealed, which I thought was great. But, to me, the friends’ nonstop questioning was pretty horrible. But Nico doesn’t care. Actually all the characters are ready to educate anyone at any moment and they don’t mind being questioned. Then for the whole book I was waiting for someone to say to Tucker something like, I understand you mean well and you were trying to be noble, but it’s not cool to appropriate an identity that is not your own. This never ever happened. It was all, Thank you, Tucker, you’re so great. In general, I really really like it when my expectations for a novel are thwarted and the plot does not go the way I expected, and this happened bigtime here, so I take my hat off to Rachel Gold for all this. Finally I decided that this weird quality I couldn’t understand where everyone is so nice and eager to educate each other is because... they are from Ohio. People do NOT behave like this in downstate New York, no way no how. But maybe people are really like that in the Midwest?

I am putting my old reviews from Booklikes on Goodreads because the devil makes work for idle hands.

[Heather Anastasiu · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you read the synopsis for Just Girls, you might think the hook of this story is that it’s about a transgender character. But what you’re getting into when you open this story is really so much more than that—it’s not a book hammering home anything about gender or transgender politics, it’s about these characters who just draw you in. That’s what I felt consistently throughout as I was reading the story – that I was just reading about a really interesting group of college kids, their relationships, hardships, triumphs, and all around ups and downs. And I couldn’t put the dang book down. Then after I finished it, I couldn’t stop thinking about the characters. For me, that’s what counts as an amazing read.

[Ari · Rating 2 out of 5]

More informational pamphlet than novel. "Just Girls" seems far too concerned with ticking the boxes of LGBTQ+ representation than actually exploring queerness' potential to break categories.

Its characters (with the possible exception of Shen) are written with a clinical coldness and scarcely any life to them other than which letter/s of the LGBTQ+ spectrum they represent.

Absent in both the characters and the prose is any sense of euphoria or invigoration that I would expect of something that clearly wants to celebrate queerness and all its diversity.

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, this one was a lot more crammed with theory and politics than "Being Emily", and it didn't always entertain, but I'm glad this book is out there and want to see more like it. Also, based on a lot of the in-book discussions, Gold has clearly been reading up on Julia Serrano. So that's good.

[Wolgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I happened on this book practically by accident, but I'm so glad I did. It was everything I was hoping it would be. The characters felt real, acted realistically, and had human flaws. Even the "villain(s)" felt like real people with real problems.

[Haywood · Rating 2 out of 5]

I quit after chapter 12, I really wanted to like this book as I absolutely adored Being emily but the whole plot about pretending to be trans was just stupid in my opinion. I tried finishing it but I can't bear to.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5? Review on my blog!

[Isaiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

To see more reviews check out MI Book Reviews.

I found this book, but didn’t really expect it to be much. I only grabbed it because I had also grabbed another book by this author. I knew nothing about it. This was by far the more interesting book.

This book tackles the idea of TERFs and all I can say is YES. This book did such a good job of showing that there are issues within the feminism world. Trans people are not accepted and trans women are not allowed at some events because of the “women born women” policy. This is such a hot button issue with me. The moment I find out someone is TERF I lose so much respect for them. I have had friendships start over being upset at people like Gloria Steinem for attacking trans people. So the fact that a YA/NA book actually covered this super complex issue and did it so well was beyond impressive. I was finding myself getting heated while reading it. It was so well done!

My main issue in this book was the way that the cis character got all the attention for doing all of these “good” things. The term “white savior” comes to mind. Of course it would be the cis person that a trans book focuses on, because trans people can’t speak for themselves. Have you ever rolled your eyes so hard you gave yourself a headache? Yeah, I did that a few times through this book. If there wasn’t the TERF plot to keep me going, I would have stopped.

Ignoring the cis interpretation of a trans experience, the book covered a lot of great details. It covered the issues with bathroom policies, it covered the issues with (queer) sexual assault on campus, it covered the issues with dorm/privacy issues. The whole plot of the book would have been avoided if the main character wasn’t outed through the administration. There was no need to put the note that she was trans on her paperwork in the first place. Just assigned her a single dorm or gender neutral housing or a million other solutions that doesn’t out the student. The queer abusive relationship plot was so well done. The administration had no idea how to handle women on women sexual assault. That is sadly the truth in most institutions. Sexual assault and abusive relationships exist in the queer world, but they are like a dirty secret. No one wants to admit to them or really do anything about them.

This book had a lot of YES moments. If the plot didn’t involve a cis savior who then has sex with the main character (don’t even get me started on the savior always expecting sex or that cheating was ok with both the characters, though the actual sex scene was nice because the main character was allowed to experience her body as fully female and there were no shitty comments after), but then pretty much ditches her for the best friend of the main character which has to sting to no end and the fact the best friend is clearly going for it despite saying they are just friends. It is a tangle of messed up and didn’t sit well with me.

[Hillary · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ridiculous and dramatic premise here is that a college freshman overhears some other students complaining that there is a trans student living in the female dorms, and rather than ignoring them or simply arguing with their prejudices, she comes out to them as transgender. Part of the purpose of this setup, I assume, is to show just how dangerous such a thing can be, because it really doesn't matter whether or not you are part of a minority group in reality, if enough bigots believe you are. On the other hand, it comes off as foolish, naive, and arguably disrespectful to assume that because you know some trans folks and you've read a memoir or two, you can essentially be one. For the sake of making a case against TERFs and other bigots, you've put yourself at a disadvantage by declaring you're trans. When Tucker was a white, cis woman, she had more privilege, and could argue as her authentic self that transphobia is wrong at its core. For these reasons, the primary plot of the novel made me skeptical of its quality, but it was interesting enough to start and finish within a couple of days.

The chapters alternate between the points of view of Tucker (the cisgender lesbian who "comes out" as trans) and Ella (the actual trans character), and though the former's chapters are written in third person and the latter's in first person, the book really seems to revolve around Tucker. That is super problematic if the story is supposed to be concerned with transgender issues. Tucker becomes Ella's "cis savior," and winds up martyring herself (however unintentionally) on a number of occasions, shifting the focus of the narrative and leaving the *actual trans person* behind. Yes, Ella gets to make her statements about women in STEM careers and date a guy for the first time, but the bulk of the action that drives this story features Tucker at the center. In a roundabout way, it somehow manages to marginalize the very group for which it sought to advocate.

The text also has a smattering of sometimes puzzling, often offensive lines. At one point, Ella declares that she can spot a panic attack a mile away because she attended high school with "delicate, artsy" types. What? So...creative, artistic people are innately overly sensitive....and only overly sensitive types are prone to having panic attacks? Oh, and for Halloween, Tucker dresses up as a woman. What? What do we take from that? Lesbians aren't actually women. I know that isn't what the author intended to convey, but it's befuddling, to say the least. I'm also not sure why the word "transsexual" is used instead of "transgender." When the writing isn't making me scratch my head, it reads like a news article. Most of the descriptive details you get are the kind that would aid you in identifying a criminal, and this isn't too shocking, because Rachel Gold is a reporter. I understand she also has an MFA, but I think her writing, at this point, still reads more like news reporting than it should for a novel. This was truer of her novel Being Emily, which was published earlier, so I take it to mean she's becoming a better novelist.

OK, so what's good about it? Well, even when the conversations feel contrived, this book forces a plethora of debates about feminist issues. There's discussion of what it means to be gender neutral, there are a few TERF characters who present the "women-born-women are the only real women" argument (which is well-refuted), questions of safety and safe spaces are handled well, the psychology behind transphobia is touched on, there are some clear and thought-provoking explanations of the experience of being transgender for those of us who don't have a visceral understanding of it, and there's a date-rape scene involving two women that is handled with care. And that list is condensed, because there is so much this book tries to educate the reader on. Overall, Gold's handling of most of the issues, as far as I can tell, is erudite and admirable. If I'd read this one as a teenager, I would have learned a lot. That said, I'm not sure if I would have finished the book, because it is so issue-driven, and I would've preferred just a good story that wasn't heavy-handed at that point in my life. And many other teens might feel the same way.

[Marina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sequência de Being Emily. Tem muitas coisas que esse livro faz melhor que o anterior — entreter como ficção em vez de documentário, por exemplo. Mas eu tenho váaaaarias ressalvas.

Primeiro de tudo, a parte sociopolítica: a premissa é interessante, e embora pudesse cair nas entranhas do problema de que uma pessoa cis pode "provar" seu status como cis enquanto uma pessoa trans não consegue fazer o mesmo, esse mesmo ponto é levantado em algumas instâncias na história. O jeito que personagens não-bináries são tratados é meio duvidosa, mas visto que a autora também é NB e o livro foi publicado em 2014, prefiro deixar isso passar.

Minha principal reclamação é que a nossa principal representação, por meio da co-protagonista Ella, é de uma menina trans que passa perfeitamente e é descrita repetidamente como extremamente atraente, muito mais do que qualquer outra personagem do livro. Considerando o contexto do contraste levantado entre uma mulher cis butch que é lida como trans e uma mulher trans passável, eu imaginaria que a história lidaria com as percepções de gênero societais e como que elas que causam a existência de transmisoginia no primeiro lugar. Embora a história toque nesse tema, são só menções rápidas e sem muita exploração do mesmo. E assim que a Ella se assume como trans, nenhuma repercussão negativa é vista, sendo que a narrativa foca nisso extensivamente no caso da Tucker, que é cis mas tem aparência butch. Não fico muito confortável com a implicação de que uma mulher trans assumida, mesmo que passável, não sofra com os mesmos problemas que uma mulher cis butch na mesma posição. Transmisoginia nasce de bem mais do que aparências.

Meu segundo ponto é o romance, então spoilers. Não senti química nenhuma entre a Ella e o Shen. Eu entendo ela e a Tucker não ficando juntas no final, mas acho que é um erro passar o livro todo levantando as duas como uma dupla com química interessante pra enfim parear a Ella com um personagem que, embora bem escrito, não tem a presença que a evolução romântica demanda.

[Emy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tucker comes out as transgender to shut up some transphobic girls in the cafeteria line, even though she is not. Ella, meanwhile, is shocked to find a transphobic slur painted on someone else's door - a slur obviously meant for her.

That's the basic premise of this book, but it covers a lot more issues than just that. It covers same-sex woman-on-woman date rape, trans-exclusionary feminism, biphobia, and genderqueerness. In some ways, it misses the mark on some of these points, but hits it on others.

As far as the main plot goes, I enjoyed it. I'm not sure that Tucker did the right thing in coming out as trans when she isn't, mainly because I don't think that she actually accomplished anything by doing so. Ella never seemed in any danger of being 'read' as a trans woman, so instead of Tucker deflecting the ire of the other students, she just ended up seeming a bit of a martyr. Let's not get into the complicated moral implications of pretending to be part of a minority you aren't part of, even if your intentions are good. However, I genuinely believe Tucker was trying to do the right thing, and even if she didn't go about it the right way, I commend her for it.

So, this book was written in third person when it dealt with Tucker, and first person from Ella's point of view. However, I feel that the book is much more about Tucker than it is Ella. Ella's main conflicts revolve around her relationships with Tucker and Shen (though, to be honest, there is not much conflict there at all, aside from a rather lacklustre love triangle), and worrying if Tucker is okay as she takes all the flack for coming out as trans. Tucker's main conflicts revolve around her relationship with Lindy (and then surviving a same-sex rape from the same), and dealing with transphobia from a variety of different sources. Tucker and Lindy's relationship has a lot more drama and conflict than Ella's, even with Ella having the worry about coming out to her love interest.

I am glad that Tucker and Ella didn't get together. I think that would have been the obvious choice.

Going through the other issues the novel dealt with, I think that it handled same-sex rape extremely well. It wasn't treated with any less severity just because the characters were both women. I don't think I've ever read a book where woman-on-woman rape was dealt with before, so good on Rachel Gold for a) dealing with it, and b) showing that it's just as traumatic and that there are consequences. The scene actually quite shook me, so I'd like to flag a definitely trigger warning here.

I also feel that trans-exclusionary feminism was dealt with quite well. Gold managed to present the points for that side of the argument without ever condoning it. I feel as though in a lot of books the characters debating this would have been weird, but considering the main times the debates come up is when Tucker is talking to a) her women's studies TA, or b) Lindy, who is a women's studies grad student, and with Tucker being interested in majoring in gender/woman's studies herself, I never found it preachy or out of context. Feminism doesn't get brought up in books enough, especially showing that there are different viewpoints within feminism and not everyone agrees with each other.

I also felt that it was good to have some portrayal of biphobia in the book, even though it was not explicitly addressed. The other characters speculate on Ella's orientation, and at least one of them is very dismissive when when she says she is bisexual or bi-curious, stating that she is probably straight and will run away when a girl hits on her. I wish this had been further addressed, though, or challenged.

And then there's the portrayal of the genderqueer Nico. Nico switches pronouns during the story, going from 'ze/zir', to 'per', to 'yo'. I did like how the prounouns were used in the narration without question, validating Nico's gender intentity. I didn't like the fact that whenever Nico was in the story, the other characters spent a lot of time trying to guess Nico's biological sex, which, although probably accurate, just turned yo into a guessing game. I think most readers would expect to find out by the end, and I'm glad it wasn't revealed, but it was definitely set us as a mystery rather than just being. Also, Nico is quite flamboyant and mixes fashion, like make up with masculine clothes, or a skirt with an otherwise masculine outfit. This is not wrong, as it's how Nico presents, but Nico did feel like a stereotype of a genderqueer person at times. You don't have to dress flamboyantly to be genderqueer. I did like that Nico ended up a love interest for Tucker, though.

There didn't seem to be one clear plot in this book, but that was all right. Sometimes I thought it was about the bathroom issue (which I know is a big deal in the US right now), and other times I thought it was about Lindy and Tucker, and other times about Ella trying to navigate college as a young, post-op trans woman. It's probably all of these things. It didn't feel jumbled whilst reading it, but reflecting back on it it's very hard to pinpoint what this book is about. Despite this, however, I was never bored and I always wanted to know what was coming next.

I also think that Ella is the first post-op trans main character I've come across so far in my PhD, which is interesting. The majority of YA novels with trans main characters are coming out/discovering the transgender community novels, so it was a breath of fresh air that this one wasn't about that. I mean, it still dealt with coming out, but Ella was in a much better place than most of the protagonists. She's already gone through everything these novels normally deal with, especially in regards to her parents/siblings. Whilst her experience is probably not typical of most trans young adults, it's nice that this is represented, especially with the amount of recent awareness of the existence of trans children. When these kids grow up, the ones whose parents helped them start the transition young, they'll need to see themselves in literature too.

Also, cameos! Not only are Claire and Emily from Being Emily in this book, but so are Gabe and Paige from Kirstin Cronn-Mills's Beautiful Music for Ugly Children. It made me grin when I recognised them. Very cool. I love when authors do that.

All in all, I did really enjoy this book. There are issues, and I'm still not one hundred percent sure if I'm comfortable with the premise, but I enjoyed reading it a lot. :)

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A necessary experience of walking in the somebody else's shoes

📍 “Lindy didn’t get it. She didn’t seem to understand that transsexual women were women and so asking to have what any other woman had wasn’t an unreasonable request.”

“ ʼAnd that’s why we still need feminism,ʼ Selima said. ʼBecause too many people believe they can have access to women’s bodies wherever and whenever they want, politically or personally. All too often, no matter what women do to prepare themselves, they’re not ready for the violence that comes at them from our culture and sometimes from their loved ones. We need to change our culture so that it doesn’t teach men that it’s an option to attack women.ʼ ”

“It didn’t occur to them that “want” wasn’t the issue. But even if it was, why should that be so hard to accept?”

“She’d now done one thing completely right. It was noble to protect a stranger, but it felt incomparably fulfilling to protect a friend. This is why soldiers go into battle.”
“All this time you’ve been making my first year at university safe for me,” Ella said.

“Isn’t that the basis of feminism anyway? Not just making the world safe for women but for femininity so it’s seen as something powerful and not artificial.”

“It’s not brave to be who you are. … It’s necessary.”
+ • + • + • +

Just speechless…

It made me smile, made me cry, made my heart ache & made me optimistic riding the emotional rollercoaster from the first word to the last about finding & forging the redemption & resilience, security, strength, promise & power of simple acceptance & real love.

This isn't an indictment against exclusionary, ignorant & intolerant ideals, but rather, an introduction to the experiences, emotions to exist.

SIMPLY OUTSTANDING!!!

[Ameliah Faith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ella is transgendered and new at school. Someone finds out there is a transgendered student and makes hateful comments. Jess overhears and says that she is the student. The girls end up being room mates This story deals with Ella's coming out to Jess and others, how people act toward Jess as they see her as transgendered, and a whole slew of other issues.

This book is complex. There is just no other way to say it. There are layers and layers to this story and I simply can not sum it up in a quick set of sentences. I am not going to try, my head will explode.

It is well written and technically sound. The story was good, it really was. It was worth the time it took to read it. It is interesting and Ms. Gold obviously knows the topics well. I read the book 3 days ago and I am still thinking about it. There is so much information in it. It is a story but it is also a teaching tool. It covers not only transgender issues but other issues such as new letters to the standard LGBT. I do not understand these new letters and do not know why they are needed but Ms Gold tries very hard to teach them in a very safe and friendly way and I think if I re-read this book a few more times I may actually get it, at least a bit, in spite of myself.

This IS an important book and even though I only read it because it was a book club book of the month, I am very glad I did read it. It opened my eyes to some things.

This is a transgender book