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tshepiso 's review for:
This Is How It Always Is
by Laurie Frankel
This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel was a spectacular book. It made me laugh it made me cry and it had more heart than any other book I’ve read in a long time.
Summary
This Is How It Always Is is a family drama following Rosie and Penn Adams-Walsh, the parents to 5 rambunctious children. We follow them as they discover their youngest son, Claude is transgender and the fallout of that revelation.
Review
The best aspect of this novel was the Adam-Walshes themselves. Frankel created such an entertaining and heartwarming family unit. While the story focuses on Claude Frankel never neglects to develop each member of the family in some capacity. The scenes of them together were almost always a laugh and they managed to feel like a real family I could see on the street.
Frankel’s writing style was a joy to read. There’s something about it that felt so comfortable and it just glowed off the page.
Summary
This Is How It Always Is is a family drama following Rosie and Penn Adams-Walsh, the parents to 5 rambunctious children. We follow them as they discover their youngest son, Claude is transgender and the fallout of that revelation.
Review
The best aspect of this novel was the Adam-Walshes themselves. Frankel created such an entertaining and heartwarming family unit. While the story focuses on Claude Frankel never neglects to develop each member of the family in some capacity. The scenes of them together were almost always a laugh and they managed to feel like a real family I could see on the street.
Frankel’s writing style was a joy to read. There’s something about it that felt so comfortable and it just glowed off the page.
Missionary position was, as far as she could tell, like vanilla ice cream: purported to be boring and chosen only by the passionless, unimaginative, exhausted people but really the best one.
Some may find Frankel’s writing style convoluted and wordy but I found it delightful and extremely funny.
In this book Frankel takes the less than expected route when discussing trans issues. Frankel doesn’t dive deep into gender dysphoria or transphobia in this book. They play a role in the story, as they would in any book focusing on trans issues, but Frankel chose to focus her story on the aspects of being and raising a trans child that I’d never seen explored. The entire debate had about the use of hormone blockers in pre-pubescent trans children was some thing I’d never even heard about before I picked up this book.
You could really tell that Frankel was drawing from her own experience as the mother of a trans child in this book. The conversations about doing what’s best for your children between Rosie and Penn felt so raw and real making this book transcend the average family drama and sneak its way into my heart.
This book was amazing. It warmed my heart until it melted and made me feel every emotion. We need more stories that fill us up with hope like This Is How Is How It Always Is did and I hope Laurie Frankel keeps writing us those stories.
CONTENT WARNING: MURDER OF A TRANS WOMAN
Content Warnings
Minor: Transphobia