None of the Above by I. W. Gregorio

May 28, 2015     erinbook     Book review

None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio


Release Date: April 7, 2015
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
352 Pages
Received: Library Copy
Format: Hardcover


Rating:

4 Nuts

Description: A groundbreaking story about a teenage girl who discovers she was born intersex… and what happens when her secret is revealed to the entire school. Incredibly compelling and sensitively told, None of the Above is a thought-provoking novel that explores what it means to be a boy, a girl, or something in between.

What if everything you knew about yourself changed in an instant?

When Kristin Lattimer is voted homecoming queen, it seems like another piece of her ideal life has fallen into place. She’s a champion hurdler with a full scholarship to college and she’s madly in love with her boyfriend. In fact, she’s decided that she’s ready to take things to the next level with him.

But Kristin’s first time isn’t the perfect moment she’s planned—something is very wrong. A visit to the doctor reveals the truth: Kristin is intersex, which means that though she outwardly looks like a girl, she has male chromosomes, not to mention boy “parts.”

Dealing with her body is difficult enough, but when her diagnosis is leaked to the whole school, Kristin’s entire identity is thrown into question. As her world unravels, can she come to terms with her new self?

Review: This is what I want from contemporary fiction! I’ve gotten so tired of the cancer books and other issue stories on topics that have been beat into the ground. Not that they’re not important but there are so many issues that need to be addressed in today’s society. Give me books about gender identity, about sexual identity outside the norms (pansexuality, asexuality, and the like), about behavioral or learning disorders and the people who live with them! Let’s have conversation outside what may be comfortable and break misconceptions. That’s what this book does.

Besides the fact that I love that someone is tackling a topic like this I really enjoyed the book for its story. The main character is forced to take on a lot a once: her diagnosis, others’ perceptions, her own identity. Some people have called her reaction whiny but I call it real. Just think about how you would react if you felt the world and everything you knew about yourself was falling down around you. I’m sure you wouldn’t go for a rational reaction either.

The rest of the story is pretty straight forward. Boyfriend one is a douche nozzle who doesn’t understand/doesn’t want to understand what his girlfriend is tell him. Girl realizes guy she’s known forever is awesome and wants him to be boyfriend two. A lot of that is a bit like background noise to me because I was more interested in her inner feelings and how she handled that. Not that it was bad, but I knew douche nozzle was going to be a douche nozzle from moment one. No surprises here.

There’s a point in this book where you almost lose a little faith in humanity. So many people just refuse to understand and I can’t help but be pissed at their ignorance. Sorry, that’s just how I am. Bigotry of any sort is not ok and I just wanted to scoop up the MC and transplant her somewhere far away from those idiots. Ok, rant over.

I really enjoyed this book and I want more of this kind of contemporary. Maybe then I wouldn’t be so bore with it so often!

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