If I Was Your Girl
Vivienne reviews the youth novel If I Was Your Girl by transgender author Meredith Russo over at Bluestocking Blue:
Russo was raised in Tennessee, and sets the story in a district she is familiar with. I can’t help associating that region of the southern United States with God-fearin’, gun-totin’, Republican-votin’ good-ole-boys. To be a transgender child growing up in that environment would be, no doubt, exceptionally difficult, lonely and painful.
Amanda, our protagonist, is exposed to a series of very unpleasant events: parental rejection, violent beatings at school (where she is considered to be gay by the other students), and a failed suicide attempt. These events are described starkly (in a series of flashbacks), and the writing is powerful. I dare say they will resonate with young adults who feel different (for any reason), isolated and desperate. (…)So in summary, what can I say about the book? I cannot judge it as a piece of young adult fiction, since I have so little knowledge of that genre with which to compare it. I have a friend who writes romantic fiction for a living, and she tells me there is a remarkably strict pattern that her books are expected to follow. I hope the same is not true of young adult fiction, but I wouldn’t be surprised (only disappointed) to find that there is.
Overall, I think the story is compelling enough, and readable enough (certainly I didn’t get bored or struggle to finish it). I think some of the characters are a bit flat. I think that the story of Amanda’s life is told with enough sympathy and emotional resonance that transgender readers (like me) will find much to resonate with, and there is a reasonably positive ending to look forward to.