Reviews and Comments

The book is about expansive indigenous understanding of gender, described through historical record, literature, and film. I learned about a lot of sources I hadn't heard of. The writing is a bit academic, which is likely what caused me to set the book aside for a while, but I did enjoy it and I'm so glad I picked it up again and finished it while vacationing recently.

finally brings the queer/punk/kink vibe that I'm sure J. M. Barrie would have wanted Peter Pan to have if he had thought of it

It's about being black and queer, it's about aesthetics and adornment as a kind of spirituality, it's about escape and creation/reinvention of oneself, it's about reclaiming history, it's weird and hard to describe.

Felt nearly perfect. The only thing I can find to fault is not having nearly enough descriptions of Mathilda's outfits. Mathilda must have a fabulous fashion sense and there's a part of me with a burning need to know what she is wearing at all times.

What writing! How can a book about grieving so be so much fun? How can the author make passages about buttplugs feel so poignant?

The book is not just about coping with grief. The book also beautifully paints a portrait of trans femme friendships and relationships.

The book is full of references to other media, many of them real and many of them fictional. It's worthwhile to follow the real references, the author has good taste.

A note on how to read the book. It's written in the form of an encyclopedia about a fictional TV show. Everyone I've talked to read the book in order. I didn't. I tried to go linearly at first, but only got as far as "B" and then chose a chaotic journey through the encyclopedia following references or just reading what looked good to me. I still saved "Z" for the end. I have no regrets about my choice, but I am told the book is also good to read in ABC order if that's your thing.

Gay rom-com. It's hilarious, it's queer, it's fat-positive, it's uplifting.

It's a long novel but it didn't feel like it was wasting words. It's a few stories told at once about different people living in different places at different times. One thing that links the stories is none of the main characters are satisfied with the hand they were dealt in life, and the stories explore how they deal with that. Some threads (Constantinople) engaged me sooner than others (Argos), but by the end I was interested in everything, and it all came together in a satisfying way.

There also was some queer representation in the novel, and I like that sort of thing.