I’d heard good things about this book and was excited for it. I can say I enjoyed the novelty of it being aggressively trans. But, unfortunately, once that novelty wore off, I quickly grew very bored. 

The story did nothing for me, and I found the plot, characters, and writing clumsy and dull. The only character I found myself even marginally invested in was Beth. 

Also, with love and respect, I can only assume that white writers who are this bad at developing and describing Black, brown and/or Indigenous characters have never had a non-white friend in their lives.

Credit where credit’s due: This gets 1.5 stars for what little critical engagement it contains, and some of the historical and scientific context that I wasn’t already aware of (but that I deeply wish I’d sought elsewhere). 

That aside, free Congo, including from nonsense liberal saviour narratives such as this one.