Parrotfish

Good read

This was an incredible little book. My only gripe with it, at all, was that sometimes the pacing was a bit sluggish, and too many details were crammed into scenes that seemed ancillary to the plot. But Grady, he's amazing. From the very beginning, you can sense that Grady is a brave soul. He has decided, in high school, to transition to male and defy what his principals (and several teachers), classmates, siblings, and family think about the situation. He puts himself through mental and physical agony, so he can be mentally at peace, and it is an incredible look into the brutal battle that transgender individuals are forced to face, whether they like it or not. Some stars of the show are Kita (the crush), Sebastian (who may be the cutest character I have ever read on the planet...seriously...I want him to be real so we can hang out/I can adopt him), and the PE teacher who goes to bat for Grady in a HUGE way. The end is beautifully written including an obvious message to the reader, "Sometimes it's hard to remember that by tomorrow or next week or at least next year, the stuff that seems so awful today might actually be funny. That what makes you miserable today will alter on in life be a good story to tell your friends. Why does that happen? I don't know. Things change. People change. We spend a long time trying to figure out how to act like ourselves, and then, if we're lucky, we finally figure out that being ourselves has nothing to do with acting" (287).

Although there are parts of the story that are a bit hard to believe, it's basically a good story of a young man who needs to follow his heart and become the person he knows he is. I have personal experience with a young transman who said this book was the catalyst in his own (successful) transition. Kudos to the author for the research on this subject, and for not being afraid to put it out there in hopes of openings hearts and minds.

This is overall an excellent read. It's engaging, well written, with actual humor. Characters are well developed and their behavior is true to life even when their actions are ugly. I was pleased to see a transition from female to male to augment the more common male to female plot. The roles of the parents are particularly well portrayed. They need time to cope with losing a daughter and gaining a son, and their behavior during this time is described realistically. Naturally everyone's experience is different, but at least this story isn't completely told through rose glasses.

this was a sweet story about a masculine identified transteen who talks frankly about his school friends, his family and making good friends. Nothing horrible happens to him so it,s sort of 'vanilla'. I think it's an easy read for any kid and families to enjoy as they get used to the oceanic shift that happens when kids transition.

I read this book for a college course and I really enjoyed it. It was very enlightening and gives good insight to the trials that a young adult might have in attempting to claim the gender they identify with.

This book is so realistic and makes you experience the feelings of a teenage girl making the switch to a teenage boy. It honestly captures what happens in reality. If you like realistic fiction, then you should definitely check this book out.

This was a really sweet read and that's probably why I didn't like it nearly as much as I was hoping to. This is the story of Angela as she takes the first steps to becoming a boy named Grady. While this change was met by Grady's friends and family with variations on shock, dismay, confusion, disgust, empathy, kindness, understanding and even apathy, the whole story just seemed to skim the surface of many of a transgender teen's issues. The first few chapters broke my heart as Grady deals with generally negative reactions of family, teachers, friends and kids at school. I braced myself expecting a tumultuous emotional journey towards acceptance but *spoiler* even though some fairly awful things almost happened, nothing bad actually did happen and the entire story wraps up all very neat and nicely with a cutesie happy-ever-after kind of feel to it *end spoiler* I just didn't buy the ending and the ease with which the resolution was reached. This book almost seemed to make light of transgender issues. Where was the psychologist or at very least a counselor? Why didn't Grady's parents take him to see a physician? Fairly standard practices for someone considering changing their gender. The parents seemed oddly detached; the bigger, darker issues at hand skirted if not brushed off altogether, and this frustrated me. To be honest, I was more interested in Danya, what made her such a spiteful bully, why was she so afraid of her parents? The more intriguing story seemed to lie with her and yet she's painted as a pretty one dimensional antagonist. The prose is pleasant and there are a few metaphors such as the titular parrotfish comparison that manage to inject a little more substance into this story. Even so, reading parrotfish felt a bit like eating a carrot-cake cupcake by starting with the frosting: everything was nice and sweet if slightly tangy, but I couldn't wait to get to the rich, nutty, spicy substance - sadly, all I got was frosting when what I really wanted was the cake.

A beautiful book about a trangender boy, a great representation of the trans community and of the difficulties of finding yourself.

This is a delightfully simple story with complex characters, who are humanly real. There are moments I laughed out loud, and on the overall I could relate to the circumstances of this utterly normal modern-day family. The main character, Grady a.k.a. Angela, is a likeable one, and one has to feel for her struggle. Easy read!

Excellent livre!! Je l'ai lu malheureusement trop vite, mais vraiment, l'histoire est prenante, le personnage principal est très crédible, il affronte les problèmes et se bat jusqu'au bout, vraiment, j'ai adoré !! Je conseille vivement cet ouvrage surtout aux jeunes hommes trans en quête de bonne représentation !

When I got the book I thought it would just be a nice read to pass the time if I get bored - I finished it in 4 hours as I couldn't put it down. Best book I've read, in my top 10

3.9 stars. Sweet. I liked reading about Grady’s friends, family, classmates, teachers, and his relationships with them. Sebastian was my favorite character—he’s so quirky, passionate about science, and very friendly too. I like how comfortable he is being who he is, so he isn’t that bothered when others mock him. Eve was more interesting than I expected. The rejections that Grady received when he came out, shocked me and made me cry. It really should not have been shocking, however, since this is a high school, so what do you expect? And I assume it took place around 2007 (when the book was published), which was ten years ago. Nevertheless, Grady’s experiences with his classmates and teachers made me feel very lucky in comparison—I’m studying in a very LGBT-friendly program, so all profs and students respect my trans identity. The reaction of Grady’s mom, though, resembles my own mother’s. In addition, I appreciated that a certain plotline did not go the way I thought it would. Grady expressed his worry about how and when to disclose his trans identity to a potential partner. In the past, I had believed that it would be difficult for a trans person to find dates, due to societal transphobia and biological essentialism. But nowadays, I think there are more open-minded and accepting people (even in the cis straight community), who understand that gender is not about what body parts you have. Nevertheless, the society still has a long way to go in respecting and understanding trans people. An interesting point brought up in the novel, is that people who bully others probably hate themselves. There may or may not be truth in this? I imagine that it’s much easier to be kind to others if you are happy with yourself. But of course, there are many people who hate themselves but are still kind to others. As well, narcissists (who have a grandiose sense of self), may mistreat others. Yet, there are arguments that narcissists are secretly insecure and filled with self-hatred, so I don’t know. Another topic that came up in Parrotfish is, why do many people shun those who are different from them? Especially if they don’t have much knowledge about that social group (e.g. trans people being relatively unknown to the wider society.) Some say that many fear and hate what they don’t understand. Well, on the flip side, if we ever come to the point where transgender identities became common knowledge taught in schools, will all cis people (or most of them) come to respect and accept trans folks? I believe that such a trans-informed society would be friendlier towards us for sure, but I pessimistically think that there will always be a-holes who hate people just for being different from them, so transphobia will never be completely gone. But even a 99% trans-friendly society would be great. Nevertheless, given how sexism is still pervasive after so many centuries, transphobia would probably need a ton of time to decrease to a more manageable amount. Yet, who knows? Maybe the society will give me a pleasant surprise. The only thing I didn’t like that much about Parrotfish, was that Grady’s narrative voice was so negative and sarcastic sometimes, that as a reader, I found it quite unpleasant. I understand why he’s bitter about many things, but there was just too much sarcasm, in my opinion. I especially didn’t like how denigrating Grady seemed when talking about his dad and Sebastian, who happen to be two of the most supportive people of his identity in the book! Regardless, I don’t dislike Grady as a person. All in all, an enjoyable read! Here’s to hoping that the society will be a lot more open-minded in a decade’s time from now!