He walked to the front door in that clockwork way of his, hands in his pockets and elbows pointed at symmetrical angles. Amanda offers to go for a walk to talk things out and they go to the park and play catch just like her dad always wanted from her when she was younger and he wanted her to be the typical son. Amanda is transgender, and over the past few years she was bullied and then assaulted at her previous high school, subjected constantly to homophobic and transphobic language and actions.

However, despite its faults I felt like Meredith Russo’s novel ultimately turned out to be more rich and morally ambiguous than I’d originally expected. It’s a very optimistic and feel good ending to a book that easily could have instead ended in tragedy. I also liked the fact that Amanda’s dad wasn’t totally one-dimensional, although initially he seemed like a stereotype. It is perhaps the most visible, certainly the most hyped aspect of If I Was Your Girl, and it is indubitably and important one.I’d read two young adult books in the past with transgendered central characters ( Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger and Luna by Julie Anne Peters) but If I Was Your Girl is the first book I’ve ever read that is actually written by a trans author. Whereas I was all pepped up for Amanda to be her best self her dad was more reluctant, but the relationship development was really something special.

And even if a cis individual doesn’t believe that, equating transgender with gender confirmation surgery still reinforces this harmful notion. He felt flat and unbelievable to me, which is a shame as his and Amanda's romance is a pretty major focus of the story. After reading it, he tells her that he loves her so much that nothing could change his feelings about her. It makes me feel really immature and petty, like I can’t appreciate a story about a narrative different from my own. It seems… on the nose… regardless, the way kids tease you just kind of sticks around forever doesn’t it?

Her hands covered in flour folded on the table in front of her, too many biscuits in the oven because she was used to cooking for two. Any images belonging to the author should be regarded in the same way as the previously mentioned written content and should not be used without permission. Especially considering it's written by a trans author, the praise I've heard about it is definitely deserved. For all of its positive points, there were certainly parts of this book that annoyed me or threw up speedbumps as I read. Can we talk for a moment about this whole “Bee and Amanda don’t have to go to art class because the teacher was injured?

I really liked the way the book dealt with Amanda and Grant’s relationship and I thought the note the author ended on mostly felt realistic.In many ways, If I Was Your Girl is very much an issue novel, and I felt like the characters needed room to breathe instead of every single page focusing almost unrelentingly on Amanda’s gender identity. She quickly makes friends and even starts dating a guy, but how much of her past should she tell them? In her portrayal of Amanda’s move, Meredith Russo highlights how tense and guarded Amanda must be nearly 24 hours a day. Later in the evening, she is confronted in the bathroom by a drunk Bee who comes on to her aggressively. She declines any advance knowing that it would only cause trouble and that her dad would strongly disapprove.

If I Was Your Girl is an own voices novel centered around Amanda, a transgender girl growing up in a small American town. In some ways, Amanda is quite lucky: unlike her friend and trans mentor, Virginia, she has “won the genetic lottery when it comes to passing. There, Amanda’s dad assumes that it was Grant who hurt Amanda, and he storms away to Grant’s house to confront him. I really encourage everyone to listen to this story whether they be Trans, CIS, gay, straight, bi, pan or however they self identify. We turned into the sun so his eyes were hidden again, his jaw set in a way I didn’t know how to read.I fell in love with her immediately, because all she wanted to do was be herself, even though people around her were trying to paint her as the Manic Pixie Dream Girl or The Girl Next Door or Little Miss Perfect. And Side note, I think the authors note at the end is actually read bye Russo herself, so for that reason and the content with it's reassuring message and advice and knowledge, please, please listen. This isn’t a book where Amanda’s trans-ness is but one aspect of her character and the plot is about other things (although I like those too).