"This surprising trans thriller asks: what torture would you inflict on a sexist, and what torture would you take on yourself for gender affirming care? "
‘He’s convinced someone at Saints is helping closeted trans women start new lives. [...] He needs to get into Saints. [...] If there’s one thing Stefan’s sure of, it’s that he’s not a boy.’
Ooh, this book really keeps you on your toes! I’d say it could be described as a trans YA thriller, part of the surge of trans body horror and revenge stories at the moment, but also has some playfulness in its tone which results in lines like: ‘Getting to see how the sausage is made – or unmade – is perhaps counterproductive when you are, in a sense, the sausage.’ From the blurb, what I expected to happen was that the main character, Stefan, would slowly realise that his old best friend had gone missing because they’d gone to a school for helping people transition – I suspected the thrills and twists to come from Stefan working this out, finding his old friend, and then needing to protect the identity of those women who had transitioned from their enemies. No! That’s only the first couple of chapters – after that, things get way more intense! An exploration of toxic masculinity, and the lengths some people might go to in the ‘battle of the sexes’. It asks: what torture would you go through for gender affirming healthcare? When does reforming men become punishing them? How could trying to make men understand the challenges of women go too far?
| Primary Genre | Thriller and Suspense |
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