there are so many fantastic things about and in this book.

i really love how honest and real the book is about the struggles of a transgender person.
how hard it is for the person themselves but also for the family, for friends and how some try to understand and be supportive while others just don’t understand that it’s not a phase, it’s not something you grow out of or change your mind about. that being transgender is not something that will change and suddenly the transgender person will want to go back to the gender they were born as simply because it’s the gender they were born as.

and i appreciated that in this book because i don’t think anyone can actually understand the huge struggles that a transgender person has internally.
we all take our bodies and how we look pretty much for granted and only keep seeing flaws that are almost petty.
the moments we all look out ourselves and see too much of something here or too little of something there.
we never look at our bodies and are thankful that we are comfortable with what we are seeing.
and that that’s actually not something everyone is capable of experiencing.

and i think that is exactly what this book is great about driving home: that transgender is more than just feeling!

and i think especially that is something most people still have to lean!
and books like this that talk openly about the struggles and hardships, share the bullying, the verbal and the actual physical beatings so many of not all transgender people have to go through is hard breaking but necessary to read!

i loved all the little details this book included not just from pony’s perspective but seeing his dad struggle badly and handling it all so very wrong, mentioning the struggles of finally being able to go through the the body modifications necessary to help the transgender person feel more at home and self in their own body and how extremely expensive it all is!

i think it was so well done how pony struggled with wanting to be normal, just be a boy and nothing else, and be out and proud because that’s not easy and he just wanted something to be easy.

to me it seemed this book handled the topic very well.

the rest of the book?
that could have been better.
the writing was okay but at some points felt a bit forced to try and sound young and i wish it would just have told the story instead of trying to imitate a teenagers voice.

i also think this book tried to do a bit too much.
we had this main boy with all his struggles of identity and sexuality that was questioned by so many and from so many sides.
everyone constantly seemed to have options about who or what pony should be doing or be. and on top of that we had pony’s own struggles with it all and how hard it was for him to try and be the man he wants to be but seeing a girl when he looks at himself.

but then we also have georgia’s struggles of trying to figure out how she fits into it and what she is if she likes pony. which was far but why also add the layers of her parents drama? and her cheerleader and friend drama?

and then add so many other lgbtq+ characters and their stories into the book with basically no other reason than to have them represented.

no don’t get me wrong!
i so think it s important to show that being gay is not a new thing, that older generations struggles with that as well and didn’t have it easy, and that even being “just” gay is not easy in today’s time either. that it still very much something that is either treated as a joke or as something disgusting depending on the person being ask.
which is horrible and i will never ever understood that at all. who cares for the preferences of another person? what does that have to do with you?
anyways....

what i want to say with that is that i found it a bit too much for a book. i understand why it’s all included because real life is like that too, but for me it felt as if it was only in the book because it’s normal to have someone be a grandparents age and be gay and someone in your school be gay and so it had to be on the book!
and that’s what bothered me. that it was so clearly pointed out in a “look there is more representation of the lgbtqa+ community in this book”

and while i am all for normalizing and including all non harmful sexual orientations in book and i am so happy to see it there is something as too much too.

and in book it’s not just the overall topic that has to be good.
there also has to be a good plot and great characters and hopefully great writing and not just an agenda to push a topic.

for me the rest of the book besides the transgender representation lacked.
the writing wasn’t great or anything special.
the characters lacked actual depth instead of mostly descriptive characteristics.
and while there clearly was a plot around the transgender identity and struggle the side plots weren’t done that well.

so all in all?
this is a great book to read to learn more about what a transgender person might struggle with and it also shows a huge amount of different reactions to coming out an dealing with the time after the coming out.

but if you are looking for more than that? not sure if this book will satisfy that.