Symptoms of Being Human
by Jeff Garvin
i would describe this book as a large bag of groceries that someone has just dropped in the parking lot. the stunning and instantaneous transformation of the carton of eggs and the bottle of wine from food into mess, while the box of pasta is dented at the corner and the loaf of bread is just laying on the pavement ten feet away, plastic spattered with wine but good as new. a pang of sympathy for the person who's standing bemused in the middle of the it. and a touch of relief that this isn't your mess to clean up.
"uncanny valley" is another way to put it. some things Garvin does really, really well---the particular anxieties of having a blog and communicating with other people online jumped out at me. and then... every time there's an opportunity for Riley's parents to misgender them, they handle it like pros, which is necessary to further the gimmick of never specifying Riley's assigned gender. and the trans support group scenes were truly bizarre, getting it wrong on basically every level possible. they didn't even do a pronoun go-round at the top, for chrissake. (if you're curious about what trans support groups are really like, that scene in [b:Refuse|12685513|Refuse|Elliott DeLine|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1368425906l/12685513.SY75.jpg|15968782], also reprinted as a short story in [b:The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard|15713728|The Collection Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard|Tom Léger|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347857275l/15713728.SX50.jpg|21382135], is painfully on the nose.)
i cannot say i recommend this to anyone. but when someone has just dropped a large bag of groceries on concrete, sometimes you just want to stop and take it all in.