by Jeff Garvin
330 pages
Okay, let's just say I have been waiting since October of last year to read this book. I picked up this book and one other (it's next on my list to add to the challenge) way back in October of 2016. Of course I had other things I wanted to read and then the new challenge came out and then suddenly I was waiting to the end to read these two because I had really high hopes for them both. Honestly, what first drew me to this book was the title. It just seemed like a concept I was interested in exploring.
The next thing I realized was that the topic was very important. This book is about a high school student named Riley. Riley identifies as gender-fluid. The book deals with Riley's daily episodes and how to manage the things that happen. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, gender-fluid refers to the idea of someone who identifies with both genders. One day they might wake up feeling more female and the next they might feel more male. I had only been exposed to the term once before and it was a character in another book, but that wasn't the main focus of the book. Symptoms of Being Human does an amazing job of explaining what the term means how really getting us into the mind and emotions of someone who is struggling to figure out where they belong.
One thing I found really interesting is that Garvin never identifies Riley as male or female. He never says "son" or "daughter" or anything like that. This really helped the reader when trying to get an understanding of what Riley is experiencing. Riley has just started a new school after a horrible bullying incident at the previous school. Additionally, Riley has spent time in a rehab hospital and started seeing a therapist. When the book opens, the only person who knows the truth about Riley is his therapist. She recommends that Riley begin an anonymous blog in order to share the things running through Riley's mind. Riley takes that to heart and begins writing. While it is difficult at first, Riley quickly finds it helpful and ultimately ends up helping thousands of others. Writing under the name Alix, Riley shares real life stories and is able to offer advice to internet readers.
The book explores the troubles with bullying at school, the stressful and scary idea of coming out, and even some criminal issues that Riley experiences. Ultimately, Riley is able to turn some negative situations into something positive by being an advocate for the rights of members of the LGBTQ community.
While this book did leave me with a couple of unanswered questions, and it wasn't the best writing ever, I definitely think it is something important for everyone to read. Can't we all learn to care about the person, not their gender identity? This books teaches acceptance and understanding. It encourages empathy and open-mindedness. If more people could practice more of this level of understanding, we could all work together and make this world a more accepting place.
4 stars