We see through Amanda's eyes as she navigates life in a body that does not reflect who she really is inside. I liked them a lot while reading, but reviewing this, I’m sort of thinking of them as Religious Girl, The Gay One, and The One I Don’t Even Remember, which isn’t a good sign. And, just when I was getting bored of the romance aspect, the author seemed to know and brought the focus away from Grant for a bit. I’ll admit that this is a flawed book, and for a while after I started reading it I wasn’t overly enamored with it. Her clothes looked baggy; she must not have eaten since I was admitted, to have lost so much weight.

It normalizes trans experiences, which is a great thing, showing a girl who undergoes the medical procedures, finds accepting friends, gets a boyfriend, works things out with her parents, wins homecoming queen and lives happily ever after. Any images belonging to the author should be regarded in the same way as the previously mentioned written content and should not be used without permission. Not only did she come out of her surgery and medication looking 100% like a woman, but she also has the luxury of being an attractive woman. It's a super dark book but also a super hopeful book, which some of you may know is my specific favorite thing in literature.If I’d had the strength to be normal, I thought, or at least the strength to die, then everyone would have been happy. We pulled up in front of the Sartoris Dinner Car, an actual converted railroad car on a cinder-block foundation. The book’s largest success is that it makes the protagonist approachable, sympathetic, and likable without ever shying away from the fact that she is trans. I'd highly recommend it to literally anyone, especially if they're interested in a book about a trans person. Of course, those two are also straight white trans people, but their experiences are still worth reading about.

It's a fairly short book with short chapters which inevitably made the progression of the story feel very fast without deepening certain scenes. perhaps because I was so closely focused on the romance – but I didn’t feel that Amanda’s life would be all sparkly rainbows at the end (not that you did either of course) – just that she had reached a place where she was confident she could deal and that made it a good place to end the book. Okay, it isn't realistic in Tiley, as the endnotes says, and in my opinion,the note at the end is just as important as the book itself, but the story… it's a romance, it's A self discovery novel of self acceptance, it is in my opinion, a future gem for LGBT readers. With the help of her understanding and supportive parents, Amanda gets hormone therapy early enough to offset the effects of puberty.

It is possible that, given their ages, I didn’t hold on to the idea that they’d stay together forever.

I told ’em I was worried ’bout what you might do when you’re alone, since I can’t take any more time off work. I’m sorry, I just have to mention this one thing and it’s a bad joke but I couldn’t get it out of my mind this whole book. I’m still looking forward to reading more YA books that don’t feature a big honking dramatic romance, but hey, that’s not this book, and that’s OK.It’s a very optimistic and feel good ending to a book that easily could have instead ended in tragedy. He felt flat and unbelievable to me, which is a shame as his and Amanda's romance is a pretty major focus of the story.