Hello Readers!

I hope you enjoyed your President’s Day. I mainly worked on school and edits on my alpha read of The Ruins. It’s coming along really nicely if I do say so myself. My grad school course has a required reading for the class, so today I’m reviewing Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe.

It’s not lost on me that I’ve now done two memoir reads in a row. Believe me, it’s not my typical go-to, but I will definitely be switching to materials more suited to my tastes in the coming reviews.

This is another commonly banned book, so I couldn’t wait to try it out. On to the review!

Blurb

GoodReads

Amazon

***Brief disclosure***

I am an Amazon affiliate and earn a tiny commission for purchases made through the Amazon links in this post at no cost to you. It’s a great way to help me keep things running on my blog if you’re already intrigued enough to make a purchase. 

The Review

Growing up, it’s not lost on Maia that er family is unconventional. However, as e matures e finds that e struggles to fit the mold of er average female classmates. While they are sweet, bubbly, and babble over their next guy crush, these common traits don’t appeal to er.

Going forward, Maia ponders where er place in the world or what e should even call erself. Through experimentation, research, and some serious soul-searching, Maia learns what it is to be nonbinary and that when it comes to individuality, e is more unique than e could have ever imagined.

This coming of age graphic novel was very educational on the subject of being nonbinary. It is told in Maia’s distinct viewpoint and for reference the pronouns used are e/em/eir.

Maia’s story was unique, and this being my first read on a nonbinary protagonist, I learned so much throughout the novel. It was easy to relate to Maia as e grows older and continues to grapple with er sexual identity. Er surroundings and other external forces make er question how to be, how to exist in a space that isn’t completely defined. Through persistence and resiliency e carves out a place for erself, even if e doesn’t fully understand  erself yet.

The art was beautiful. It had a cartoonized but realistic look to it that I enjoyed. It kind of reminded me of the graphic novel Mooncakes minus the fantasy element.

Many of the observations focus on internal struggles within Maia’s mind, and the depth that we see there makes er character even more admirable. Maia is a capable, competent person with insurmountable odds to face inwardly. There is no roadmap to self-discovery, and this graphic novel punctuates that.

Overall, anyone wanting to better understand nonbinary individuals would benefit greatly from reading this novel, whether they are on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum or not.

That’s A Wrap!

Well that’s it for this graphic novel review. I hope you enjoyed it!

Have you read this graphic novel? Are there similar ones you’ve read that you simply have to gush about? Feel free to leave a comment. I’d love to start a conversation!

Have a great day!

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