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A review by katykelly
Alex As Well by Alyssa Brugman
3.0
I couldn't help but compare this to Abigail Tartellin's Golden Boy as I was reading. Golden Boy follows an intersex teen who identifies as male. Alex As Well's narrator is an intersex teen who identifies as a girl. Though her parents have classed her as a boy on her birth certificate.
I didn't find this as moving or well-written as Golden Boy, I'll be honest. It's a topic that I applaud the author(s) for writing about. But Alex herself is not very likeable. Granted, her mum refuses to call her a girl. Is trying to force male hormones on her. But she's 14 and moves herself to a new school. She hires a lawyer. She gets a modelling job. Without their knowledge of permission.
The aspect that's meant to be the knockout one - male Alex talks to her in her head - didn't work for me. It didn't appear frequently enough to make an impact or really do much other than act as a contrary voice in head when it did appear.
I liked best the occasional blog post entries from Alex's mum, with other people's comments. It showed her (biased and unstable) side well, the comments ranging from the expected platitudes and sarcastic to the overly positive and realistic. Wanted more of these. Dad was underused though, only got a couple of scenes.
It's an interesting tale but there were holes - how could Alex even register at a new school without parental signatures? How come gender identity issues had never been picked up in the (surely she had some?) counselling?
Hated the ending too. Without a spoiler - would this be realistic for a 14 year old?
I might have liked it more if I hadn't read Taretellin's book first. But that for me is the powerful story of an intersex teenager.
I didn't find this as moving or well-written as Golden Boy, I'll be honest. It's a topic that I applaud the author(s) for writing about. But Alex herself is not very likeable. Granted, her mum refuses to call her a girl. Is trying to force male hormones on her. But she's 14 and moves herself to a new school. She hires a lawyer. She gets a modelling job. Without their knowledge of permission.
The aspect that's meant to be the knockout one - male Alex talks to her in her head - didn't work for me. It didn't appear frequently enough to make an impact or really do much other than act as a contrary voice in head when it did appear.
I liked best the occasional blog post entries from Alex's mum, with other people's comments. It showed her (biased and unstable) side well, the comments ranging from the expected platitudes and sarcastic to the overly positive and realistic. Wanted more of these. Dad was underused though, only got a couple of scenes.
It's an interesting tale but there were holes - how could Alex even register at a new school without parental signatures? How come gender identity issues had never been picked up in the (surely she had some?) counselling?
Hated the ending too. Without a spoiler - would this be realistic for a 14 year old?
I might have liked it more if I hadn't read Taretellin's book first. But that for me is the powerful story of an intersex teenager.