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Another stunner from Meredith Russo! I'm a big fan of If I Was Your Girl, so when I heard Russo was writing another book, I snapped up a copy from Barnes & Noble. I could talk about Birthday for ages, but I'll try to condense my thoughts down for a decent review, haha.
Birthday follows two teens who were born on the same day and whose families are irrevocably intertwined for it. Each chapter covers one birthday, going from thirteenth to eighteenth, and switches perspectives between our leads, Eric and Morgan. As the years pass, Morgan and Eric struggle with family, friends, and high school. Morgan has known she's a girl since she was thirteen, but lives in fear to ever tell anyone and desperately misses her mother, who died from cancer. Eric wants to be a good man and a son, but only toxic masculine role models surround him.
Speaking of masculinity, it is a major theme of the novel, which surprised me in the best of ways. With the precision of a surgeon, Russo cuts American masculinity open to show readers how toxic gender roles pass from generation to generation. If that wasn't enough, Russo intersects this phenomenon with class, showing how poverty and small town mentality can reinforce toxic gender concepts. Not being a man myself, I feel I learned a lot about what my male family members must have gone through.
Jumping from masculinity to femininity, Morgan's journey to become herself is absolutely gut-wrenching. Real and raw, this story feels like a possible pre-cursor to Amanda's in If I Was Your Girl. While Amanda has already come to terms with her gender, Morgan fights the loneliness, confusion, anger, and ravaged mental health that comes from being mis-gendered and unseen. Sometimes it was tough to get through Eric's POV sections: each time he uses he/him pronouns for Morgan feels like a violence.
Besides the master craft Russo puts into her themes, Birthday also boasts engaging and vivid the plot and characters. Also tears. I cried real tears and needed breaks between chapters. AHHH, just read this novel and let it destroy and mend you again. Read, read, read this book!!!!
Birthday follows two teens who were born on the same day and whose families are irrevocably intertwined for it. Each chapter covers one birthday, going from thirteenth to eighteenth, and switches perspectives between our leads, Eric and Morgan. As the years pass, Morgan and Eric struggle with family, friends, and high school. Morgan has known she's a girl since she was thirteen, but lives in fear to ever tell anyone and desperately misses her mother, who died from cancer. Eric wants to be a good man and a son, but only toxic masculine role models surround him.
Speaking of masculinity, it is a major theme of the novel, which surprised me in the best of ways. With the precision of a surgeon, Russo cuts American masculinity open to show readers how toxic gender roles pass from generation to generation. If that wasn't enough, Russo intersects this phenomenon with class, showing how poverty and small town mentality can reinforce toxic gender concepts. Not being a man myself, I feel I learned a lot about what my male family members must have gone through.
Jumping from masculinity to femininity, Morgan's journey to become herself is absolutely gut-wrenching. Real and raw, this story feels like a possible pre-cursor to Amanda's in If I Was Your Girl. While Amanda has already come to terms with her gender, Morgan fights the loneliness, confusion, anger, and ravaged mental health that comes from being mis-gendered and unseen. Sometimes it was tough to get through Eric's POV sections: each time he uses he/him pronouns for Morgan feels like a violence.
Besides the master craft Russo puts into her themes, Birthday also boasts engaging and vivid the plot and characters. Also tears. I cried real tears and needed breaks between chapters. AHHH, just read this novel and let it destroy and mend you again. Read, read, read this book!!!!