Heatherjoy > Recent Status Updates

Still struggling through this one. Unrealistic dialogue and plot holes that feel contrived to force the story to go where the author wants. But the kicker right now is parents who take a couple of hours to conclude their kid-in-crisis is a homophobe, fail to listen to him or solicit any meaningful interaction and then wait a year to have a follow up conversation where they learn they’re mistaken.

Right now, this book is feeling really formulaic and the characters are pretty flat. There’s very little sense of anyone’s internal world (other than their worry) and not much stretching for anything that makes this more expansive than the basic story of gender dysphoria. I’m still hoping it gets better?

I’m far enough yet to even know if I’m going to like this book. But I can say that as the parent of a very bright, autistic child, I’ve never felt so seen in a piece of writing. Already, there are so many scenes I feel at a gut level, so many parenting decisions and emotions that “I’ve lived that moment.”

I don’t know if I’m going to make it through this one. I suspect Rohr isn’t for me. Finished the intro and while i buy the general premise of a second half of life, I’m not fond of his very platonic approach to human identity. I’m more of a constructionist myself - we become ourselves on the journey, not by rediscovering some self that we’ve been trying to get back to all along.

I can’t finish. I was really trying.