Scan barcode
lizawall's review
on the one hand, i think adam is interesting as a pretty much straight-up allegory for the lowkey way that cis, straight, white masculine culture/ppl can casually and ignorantly appropriate non-dominant identities/cultures as means to end(s) in white supremacist hetero-patriarchal, without even realizing what they are doing or facing consequences, continuing to consider themselves innocent and well-meaning and functioning, like adam, as emotional and ethical children. honestly i think adam's wake up moment on encountering the actual death of a trans woman was kind of a fantasy in this read, like a wish that straight white male culture would wake up to their complicity in the violent material threat of transmisogyny. (notable tho that this breakthrough moment is about transmisogyny specifically and not transphobia in general, as i think has been mentioned elsewhere!)
but i care a lot about authorial intent, and when i first asked myself, why did ariel schrag write this book? i was frankly baffled and couldn't come up with an answer. after thinking about it a lot and reading a bunch of interviews, i have some ideas. first, i think she wanted to write about something personally important to her, queer nyc culture of the early aughts, in a marketable way. i mean, who am i to say, but imagining a cis white straight male protagaonist just grafted onto this queer narrative in order to sell it to a mainstream publisher really makes it make sense. and picture the book without adam in it -- that's the book i want to read tbh, and i can't help but believe that's the book schrag wanted to write (bc obvs i know her deep personal motivations and am not just projecting lol).
then there's another theory i just can't let go of: for some reason, i already had this theory that schrag was responsible for the max travesty of the l-word. and reading adam, i just pictured her feeling really hurt by all the community criticism of the framing of max, and then defensively conceiving adam as a fuck-you to anyone who cared about transmasculine representation. and then thinking about how well that personal vendetta could synergize with the marketing imperative... :-( (i doubt the book actually sold that well though?)
but i care a lot about authorial intent, and when i first asked myself, why did ariel schrag write this book? i was frankly baffled and couldn't come up with an answer. after thinking about it a lot and reading a bunch of interviews, i have some ideas. first, i think she wanted to write about something personally important to her, queer nyc culture of the early aughts, in a marketable way. i mean, who am i to say, but imagining a cis white straight male protagaonist just grafted onto this queer narrative in order to sell it to a mainstream publisher really makes it make sense. and picture the book without adam in it -- that's the book i want to read tbh, and i can't help but believe that's the book schrag wanted to write (bc obvs i know her deep personal motivations and am not just projecting lol).
then there's another theory i just can't let go of: for some reason, i already had this theory that schrag was responsible for the max travesty of the l-word. and reading adam, i just pictured her feeling really hurt by all the community criticism of the framing of max, and then defensively conceiving adam as a fuck-you to anyone who cared about transmasculine representation. and then thinking about how well that personal vendetta could synergize with the marketing imperative... :-( (i doubt the book actually sold that well though?)
cullan's review
1.0
i picked this up because i was curious about the controversy surrounding it after it was recommended to me by a friend years ago. i relate heavily to another reviewer who said they lost respect for themself for reading it as they went on.
i feel like this could have been, at least, an interesting exploration of the notion that trans people are somehow deceiptful just by being trans or not revealing their trans-ness up front, or maybe even an interrogation of bioessentialism, but it fails to actually explore or critique these ideas in any meaningful way.
i hated being stuck in adam’s limited, twisted, racist, misogynistic, transphobic, homophobic, antisemitic, ableist internal landscape for the entirety of the book, with an absolute barrage of gratuitous and heavy-handed sex scenes slapped in. it feels like schrag believes this is somehow a universally relatable POV. i found adam’s continuous scanning of the people around him for obvious “tells” to be extremely disturbing and upsetting. adam also doesn’t seem to grow in any significant way by the end, other than his minor revelation that gay and trans people are (gasp) normal people. he never faces any consequences for his actions. gillian doesn’t seem to be even remotely upset. this is not to say i believe every story needs a clean and clear redemption arc, but the outcome here is just not realistic.
schrag has said that this is meant to be “satirical and nuanced” but she doesn’t have the range to make it so. the thing is when you’re just regurgitating the dominant racist, transphobic, ableist etc values as someone who benefits from these systems of oppression, it’s not satire, it’s a direct mirror.
additionally, some of the writing was just plain bad. so much strange, disjointed queer theory 101 dialogue, needless use of the R-slur throughout (in a book published in the year of our lord 2014? seriously?), overuse of the word “ugly” to describe any butch or gender non-conforming women that happened to appear, and so many arbitrary descriptions of what characters wore or ate that added nothing to the plot or setting.
tl;dr: no
i feel like this could have been, at least, an interesting exploration of the notion that trans people are somehow deceiptful just by being trans or not revealing their trans-ness up front, or maybe even an interrogation of bioessentialism, but it fails to actually explore or critique these ideas in any meaningful way.
i hated being stuck in adam’s limited, twisted, racist, misogynistic, transphobic, homophobic, antisemitic, ableist internal landscape for the entirety of the book, with an absolute barrage of gratuitous and heavy-handed sex scenes slapped in. it feels like schrag believes this is somehow a universally relatable POV. i found adam’s continuous scanning of the people around him for obvious “tells” to be extremely disturbing and upsetting. adam also doesn’t seem to grow in any significant way by the end, other than his minor revelation that gay and trans people are (gasp) normal people. he never faces any consequences for his actions. gillian doesn’t seem to be even remotely upset. this is not to say i believe every story needs a clean and clear redemption arc, but the outcome here is just not realistic.
schrag has said that this is meant to be “satirical and nuanced” but she doesn’t have the range to make it so. the thing is when you’re just regurgitating the dominant racist, transphobic, ableist etc values as someone who benefits from these systems of oppression, it’s not satire, it’s a direct mirror.
additionally, some of the writing was just plain bad. so much strange, disjointed queer theory 101 dialogue, needless use of the R-slur throughout (in a book published in the year of our lord 2014? seriously?), overuse of the word “ugly” to describe any butch or gender non-conforming women that happened to appear, and so many arbitrary descriptions of what characters wore or ate that added nothing to the plot or setting.
tl;dr: no
smallrituals's review
there’s a difference between writing characters that are shitty people & writing a story about characters that just contains surprise transphobia and a truly staggering number of R-slurs
adambongobooks's review
3.0
Did I love the book? No. Did I enjoy it? Yes. It took me two days to read it, and I would say the character I enjoyed the most was Ethan. Adam got a bit whiny at times, Casey was annoying, and I even liked June a bit. I got bored sometimes throughout the book, but the thing I enjoyed the most was that Adam's character wasn't an ignorant 17 year old. He knew some people were attracted to the same sex, and he didn't question it at all. I felt as that was subtle, but very important as 2006 was slightly a different time than 2014. Overall, good book, just wasn't my favorite.
mesy_mark's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
What did I just listen to? Like how is this decent? How did this this get published? Adam fakes being trans to get a girl and has sex with that girl under false identities. Butch women are constantly called ugly as well as trans people. There is hair-splitting over identity by Adam with his sister who at one point said queer to id as but then said gay and it was getting Adam all in a twist. Overall this is just a transphobic and even racist book. LIke for example the group is pissed at their landman for being inadequate but keeps trashing his Jewish origin in regard to his badness.
If you have this book, kindly set it in the trash, its not worth the time.
If you have this book, kindly set it in the trash, its not worth the time.
stinamirabilis's review
1.0
This book, and therefore the author, is transphobic, lesbophobic, and also implicitly endorses corrective rape. This is a content warning.
- Trans men are not simply butch lesbians, and to imply that lesbians seek out relationships with or are willing to date trans men, or that a trans man would seek out relationships or be willing to date lesbians is both transphobic and lesbophobic. It contradicts the fact that trans men are just as much men as cis men are, and that lesbians are not interested in men in any form.
- Even if it were possible that a lesbian might date a trans man (which would be transphobic), having sex with anyone under false pretences is RAPE. This can occur by telling them you are a trans man when you are a cis man, or penetrating them with your penis when they believe you are using a strap-on, just as much as what others would consider more "traditional" forms of non-consensual sex, such as "stealthing" (telling someone you are using a condom when you are not), date rape / roofieing someone in order to have sex with them, etc. The author has explicitly claimed that all sex scenes in the book are consensual, meaning that she considers these situations to be consensual and not actually rape.
- Even if we pretend that the sex scenes described in the book aren't rape, the fact that the lesbian character later ends up with a cis man shows the idea that lesbians can be "cured". No, this is not the same as a lesbian later realising that she is bisexual!! She was raped by a cis man and as a direct result started dating other cis men. This implies that not only is corrective rape (more accurately described as homophobic rape, but this term is more well-known) actually acceptable, but that it "works". This is a deeply harmful message to send in a world where lesbians are already very vulnerable to rape by cis men, and trans people in general are subjected to extremely high levels of violence.
This book sends some extremely dangerous and harmful messages about trans men and lesbians, and it is absolutely despicable that it was written by a lesbian (and I, on behalf of all lesbians, hereby revoke her Dyke Card indefinitely). I implore you not to read this book, and to boycott the film. This is a bad representation of LGBT lives and experiences, which is harmful to both LGBT and non-LGBT youth who are exposed to it. The author is a genuinely terrible person who has denied and minimised the valid criticisms of this book by insisting that it's okay to write books about "uncomfortable themes", but there is a difference between confronting difficult issues and actively spreading harmful misinformation.
TLDR: this book is deeply offensive, and harmful to the LGBT community at large, but particularly trans men and lesbians, and the author should be deeply ashamed of it. Do not read, or watch the film. Tell your friends.
- Trans men are not simply butch lesbians, and to imply that lesbians seek out relationships with or are willing to date trans men, or that a trans man would seek out relationships or be willing to date lesbians is both transphobic and lesbophobic. It contradicts the fact that trans men are just as much men as cis men are, and that lesbians are not interested in men in any form.
- Even if it were possible that a lesbian might date a trans man (which would be transphobic), having sex with anyone under false pretences is RAPE. This can occur by telling them you are a trans man when you are a cis man, or penetrating them with your penis when they believe you are using a strap-on, just as much as what others would consider more "traditional" forms of non-consensual sex, such as "stealthing" (telling someone you are using a condom when you are not), date rape / roofieing someone in order to have sex with them, etc. The author has explicitly claimed that all sex scenes in the book are consensual, meaning that she considers these situations to be consensual and not actually rape.
- Even if we pretend that the sex scenes described in the book aren't rape, the fact that the lesbian character later ends up with a cis man shows the idea that lesbians can be "cured". No, this is not the same as a lesbian later realising that she is bisexual!! She was raped by a cis man and as a direct result started dating other cis men. This implies that not only is corrective rape (more accurately described as homophobic rape, but this term is more well-known) actually acceptable, but that it "works". This is a deeply harmful message to send in a world where lesbians are already very vulnerable to rape by cis men, and trans people in general are subjected to extremely high levels of violence.
This book sends some extremely dangerous and harmful messages about trans men and lesbians, and it is absolutely despicable that it was written by a lesbian (and I, on behalf of all lesbians, hereby revoke her Dyke Card indefinitely). I implore you not to read this book, and to boycott the film. This is a bad representation of LGBT lives and experiences, which is harmful to both LGBT and non-LGBT youth who are exposed to it. The author is a genuinely terrible person who has denied and minimised the valid criticisms of this book by insisting that it's okay to write books about "uncomfortable themes", but there is a difference between confronting difficult issues and actively spreading harmful misinformation.
TLDR: this book is deeply offensive, and harmful to the LGBT community at large, but particularly trans men and lesbians, and the author should be deeply ashamed of it. Do not read, or watch the film. Tell your friends.
ridgewaygirl's review
2.0
Adam is seventeen, lives in an affluent suburb of Berkeley, California and attends a private high school. He's also directionless, insecure and hanging onto inclusion in the popular group through the skin of his teeth. He's looking to escape all of that when he convinces his parents to let him stay for the summer with his college-age sister and her roommates in Brooklyn. His sister, Casey, is a lesbian and through her Adam meets a variety of lesbians and trans men. Adam is preoccupied with sex (he is seventeen, after all), but also dreams of romantic love, which he finds with a pretty red-haired girl.
Adam is a young adult novel, and Ariel Schrag is writing for older teenagers. I'm no longer the audience for this book, and had to set aside my irritation with the simplicity and repetition of the genre. In many ways, this reads like a Very Special Episode, but airing on late night HBO. Which is not to downplay the importance of a book about lesbian and transgender issues that is aimed at heterosexual teenagers. Schrag treats her characters like real people, so that just because a character is a trans man doesn't mean he can't also be an oblivious jerk. Adam, himself, is a complex guy, with his insecurities and concern that he look and behave in exactly the right way as well as the real affection he has for the girl he likes and his relationship with the sister he admires and worries about.
On the other hand, there were a few serious flaws in this novel. There's a secret Adam is keeping from his girlfriend, a secret which forms the central conflict in the book. Yet, at the last minute, Schrag pulls her punch here and makes that secret not a big deal, and that secret is revealed in a scene in which there is a question of consent that should have been treated as more than not a big deal, especially considering the personalities of the characters before that point. There were two fairly significant issues dropped into the novel towards the end that were there as far as I could see only to provide a bit of interest as the novel wrapped up, and a lot of lessons about gender issues that felt like they'd been copied directly from the author's research notes.
This isn't a novel without merit, but it's too flawed to be able to recommend it whole-heartedly. It will be interesting to see what Ariel Schrag writes next, as she shows potential and a willingness to dive into difficult issues.
Adam is a young adult novel, and Ariel Schrag is writing for older teenagers. I'm no longer the audience for this book, and had to set aside my irritation with the simplicity and repetition of the genre. In many ways, this reads like a Very Special Episode, but airing on late night HBO. Which is not to downplay the importance of a book about lesbian and transgender issues that is aimed at heterosexual teenagers. Schrag treats her characters like real people, so that just because a character is a trans man doesn't mean he can't also be an oblivious jerk. Adam, himself, is a complex guy, with his insecurities and concern that he look and behave in exactly the right way as well as the real affection he has for the girl he likes and his relationship with the sister he admires and worries about.
On the other hand, there were a few serious flaws in this novel. There's a secret Adam is keeping from his girlfriend, a secret which forms the central conflict in the book. Yet, at the last minute, Schrag pulls her punch here and makes that secret not a big deal, and that secret is revealed in a scene in which there is a question of consent that should have been treated as more than not a big deal, especially considering the personalities of the characters before that point. There were two fairly significant issues dropped into the novel towards the end that were there as far as I could see only to provide a bit of interest as the novel wrapped up, and a lot of lessons about gender issues that felt like they'd been copied directly from the author's research notes.
This isn't a novel without merit, but it's too flawed to be able to recommend it whole-heartedly. It will be interesting to see what Ariel Schrag writes next, as she shows potential and a willingness to dive into difficult issues.
littletaiko's review
2.0
This book is one of the nominees in the Tournament of Books which is the sole reason I even picked it up. I am not the target market for this book as I'm past the young adult/teen years, though really I'm not sure if this would really be something that teens should be reading. On the other hand, maybe being a teen has changed dramatically since my day. However, disclaimers out of the way, I couldn't help but enjoy parts of this book. Adam is a typical teenage boy which in this case means obsessing about girls and wanting to have sex for the first time. He ends up spending the summer with his sister who happens to be a lesbian and only has lesbian or transgendered friends. Adam learns quite a bit about what it means to be transgendered as many people assume that he is and he decides to use that to his benefit. There were times I could actually related to Adam, I remember the crazy teenage dreams that could occur after one small encounter. However, at times this book was more like an education tool as to how to have sex if you happen to be a lesbian or transgendered. Also, the ending kind of fell apart where the consequences that should have been realized weren't. Overall I'm glad I read it since it did open my eyes to a whole new world.
literary_faerie's review
2.0
So, yes, this book is lesbophobic, biphobic, transphobic, racist, anti-semitic, and probably a whole other slew of -ists and -phobics I’m forgetting about.
To be honest I’ve skimmed a lot of the reviews and a lot of people DNFd it before they got to the second half of the book. Not scolding or judging since the book is potentially pretty triggering and all of that but I think it’s pretty clear in the second half that Adam’s journey (from being homo/transphobic and weirdly racist) isn’t supposed to be glorified and he actually ends up being an ally and educating random people on the internet about gay issues and wants to major in biology to become a doctor for gay and trans people. So. It’s supposed to be a problematic teen’s journey to becoming a “decent” human being. That doesn’t rectify or justify any of the vitriol that the book contains but I do think it’s dishonest to pretend that Shrag didn’t have a (horrible executed) meaning to her book and that the narrative didn’t continuously punish Adam for being a racist trans/homophobe.
Anyways, beyond that, I thought the book was funny and that Adam was a charming main character. Yes, his casual biphobia and racism really ticked me off at times but he’s a funny narrator and his descriptions are lively and enjoyable.
I will say, though, that if Shrag really wanted us to believe that Adam was just some ignorant kid without any real world understanding and was never homophobic or transphobic w any ill intentions then she should’ve cut the parts where he maliciously calls several women “dykes” throughout the novel. It just doesn’t work to have him do that and then have the narrative pivot and try to imply that he’s just some dumb kid who’s trying his best. He obviously has a working understanding of power structures and homophobia if he calls people “dykes” and threatens to out his sister after a bad argument. Same thing with his racism. It doesn’t work to have him imply that Black lesbians are undesirable just BECAUSE they’re Black and then have us to believe that he’s actually nor racist and totally harmless. Adam was a complete dick throughout the novel but instead of owning up to her character’s flaws (which, I think, make him more believable and strengthens the impact of his growth at the end) Shrag backs away from accountability and tries to baby him. Which sucks.
The grossest part about the novel was the “rape” scene. “Rape” is in quotations because Gillian knew that Adam wasn’t trans during The Scene and was aware of what was happening. So I’m not sure why people are calling it a rape scene. I suspect it’s a case of people just running with whatever they’ve heard from other people. What was actually disgusting was Adam telling Gillian that he was actually 17 and her being okay with dating a child five years her junior. I don’t see anyone really discussing how Shrag has normalized pedophilia in her book and I’m shocked because it was so blatant.
I’ve also seen the claim that Shrag is implying that having sex w cis men and trans people “turn wlw straight” and I’m curious as to how anyone thought that? Like the book is problematic enough without people lying about its contents. Casey, Adam’s sister, dated several trans people throughout the novel and still identified as Lesbian and her current relationship (when the book ended) was with another cis Lesbian. Gillian, the girl Adam dared as a “trans man,” DID end up with a cis man at the end of the novel but she always identified as bisexual; the book repeatedly tells us this.
Anyways, I thought it was a pretty decent book to kill time with. I finished it in two sittings, it’s a short book and it reads quickly. It is definitely problematic and I have no idea why it’s being turned into a movie but I enjoyed meeting Adam and Casey.
To be honest I’ve skimmed a lot of the reviews and a lot of people DNFd it before they got to the second half of the book. Not scolding or judging since the book is potentially pretty triggering and all of that but I think it’s pretty clear in the second half that Adam’s journey (from being homo/transphobic and weirdly racist) isn’t supposed to be glorified and he actually ends up being an ally and educating random people on the internet about gay issues and wants to major in biology to become a doctor for gay and trans people. So. It’s supposed to be a problematic teen’s journey to becoming a “decent” human being. That doesn’t rectify or justify any of the vitriol that the book contains but I do think it’s dishonest to pretend that Shrag didn’t have a (horrible executed) meaning to her book and that the narrative didn’t continuously punish Adam for being a racist trans/homophobe.
Anyways, beyond that, I thought the book was funny and that Adam was a charming main character. Yes, his casual biphobia and racism really ticked me off at times but he’s a funny narrator and his descriptions are lively and enjoyable.
I will say, though, that if Shrag really wanted us to believe that Adam was just some ignorant kid without any real world understanding and was never homophobic or transphobic w any ill intentions then she should’ve cut the parts where he maliciously calls several women “dykes” throughout the novel. It just doesn’t work to have him do that and then have the narrative pivot and try to imply that he’s just some dumb kid who’s trying his best. He obviously has a working understanding of power structures and homophobia if he calls people “dykes” and threatens to out his sister after a bad argument. Same thing with his racism. It doesn’t work to have him imply that Black lesbians are undesirable just BECAUSE they’re Black and then have us to believe that he’s actually nor racist and totally harmless. Adam was a complete dick throughout the novel but instead of owning up to her character’s flaws (which, I think, make him more believable and strengthens the impact of his growth at the end) Shrag backs away from accountability and tries to baby him. Which sucks.
The grossest part about the novel was the “rape” scene. “Rape” is in quotations because Gillian knew that Adam wasn’t trans during The Scene and was aware of what was happening. So I’m not sure why people are calling it a rape scene. I suspect it’s a case of people just running with whatever they’ve heard from other people. What was actually disgusting was Adam telling Gillian that he was actually 17 and her being okay with dating a child five years her junior. I don’t see anyone really discussing how Shrag has normalized pedophilia in her book and I’m shocked because it was so blatant.
I’ve also seen the claim that Shrag is implying that having sex w cis men and trans people “turn wlw straight” and I’m curious as to how anyone thought that? Like the book is problematic enough without people lying about its contents. Casey, Adam’s sister, dated several trans people throughout the novel and still identified as Lesbian and her current relationship (when the book ended) was with another cis Lesbian. Gillian, the girl Adam dared as a “trans man,” DID end up with a cis man at the end of the novel but she always identified as bisexual; the book repeatedly tells us this.
Anyways, I thought it was a pretty decent book to kill time with. I finished it in two sittings, it’s a short book and it reads quickly. It is definitely problematic and I have no idea why it’s being turned into a movie but I enjoyed meeting Adam and Casey.
meghan111's review
1.0
I don't know if I can get through this without just hate reading, since there are some issues of consent and I've read two chapters and I hate being in this guy Adam's head so much, he's such a ... this is one of his thoughts:
"What the fuck was that retard bitch talking about?"
Adam, I don't like you.
Spoiler
and tricking a girl into having sex or a relationship with you is a dick move that apparently just happens in the story without much reprisal or reflection?"What the fuck was that retard bitch talking about?"
Adam, I don't like you.