I read this book in one sitting because it was perfect.

2014. Bleak, but beautiful stories of trans women trying to survive and find love. There’s an undertow of darkness that is impossible to escape, but you can swim with it instead of drowning, for a while anyway. ( )

A little too real for this enby. Would recommend especially to anyone who wants to learn something about the experiences of trans people, but not my jam.

Included in a blog post and resource list at https://booksbeyondbinaries.blog/2019/06/10/non-fiction-about-gender-and-trans-e... ( )

A lot of these stories made me feel some very specific emotions that I had forgotten about because it was around when i started transitioning or even years before that. I think it's pretty impressive to tap into those so efficiently, at least I was impressed, but I dont really enjoy being reminded of those feelings because so much of it was trauma LOL

I maybe shouldn't have read it all in one sitting bceause a lot of the stories were very samey, like they needn't have been broken up into short stories because they all seemed to be about the same person (though I went nuts over the fact that "Portland" and "Not Bleak" appear to take place in the same universe, easter egg). but no seriously not every trans person lives in the north, works in a bookshop, and is into bdsm...

a few of the stories rlly shone though. "Portland Oregon" definitely stood out from the rest becuz it was different but it was without a doubt my favorite, 5 stars for that one it was devastating. "not bleak" and "winning" were also very captivating. those are the 3 that I would revisit or recommend. ( )

The stories in this collection are a bit uneven, but I liked them more and more as I got further in. Many of them seem oddly dated by virtue of being set perhaps 10 years ago. The interrelated world, where the protagonist of one story shows up as a minor character or in the background of another story, gives a nice effect, although it was a little forced at points. ( )