A big-hearted account of one family’s trans story.
Brookes describes mothering young twins, one cis, one trans, in this debut memoir.
The author, a television journalist-turned-filmmaker, author, and activist, was thrilled when she learned she was pregnant with twin boys. Her complicated relationship with her own mentally ill mother had convinced her that girls would be way more trouble. Boys would be easy—or so she thought. Their individual personalities were apparent right from the beginning: “Jacob seemed soft and chill,” remembers Brookes. “Gideon looked like he was ready to battle the world. In retrospect, he probably was.” When, at the age of 8, Gideon informed Brookes and her husband, Mike, that he thought he might be “transister,” the author wasn’t surprised. Gideon had been gender non-conforming his entire life, playing with Barbies and requesting spa-themed birthday parties. Even before this confession, Brookes had attended meetings of a support group for the parents of LGBTQ children. She was fully prepared to be the best mother she could be for her daughter, who soon chose the name Gabriella, and resolved to ensure that she had as healthy and happy a childhood as possible. As the family moved into uncharted territory, however, growing pains proved unavoidable—particularly when it became apparent that the family member least willing to accept Gabriella’s gender was her twin brother, Jacob. Brookes is a skilled storyteller, fleshing out her family’s dynamic with the detailed prose of a novelist. Here the twins draw self-portraits on their bedroom wall: “Whereas Jacob had added a football to his portrait, Gideon had transformed his body entirely. Gone were his legs, and in their place was a huge green mermaid tail, with elaborate fins drawn in. Toward the top of the portrait, he had added a wavy mane of blond hair that offset his bright blue eyes.” There’s something universal in the author’s tireless attempts to do things right: she handles Gabriella’s coming out with the same maternal determination exhibited during earlier attempts to diagnose the children’s learning disorders and get them into the best day school. People from families of all stripes are bound to see something of themselves in this tale.
A big-hearted account of one family’s trans story.Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2023
ISBN: 9781647425210
Page Count: 264
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.
The former iCarly star reflects on her difficult childhood.
In her debut memoir, titled after her 2020 one-woman show, singer and actor McCurdy (b. 1992) reveals the raw details of what she describes as years of emotional abuse at the hands of her demanding, emotionally unstable stage mom, Debra. Born in Los Angeles, the author, along with three older brothers, grew up in a home controlled by her mother. When McCurdy was 3, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she initially survived, the disease’s recurrence would ultimately take her life when the author was 21. McCurdy candidly reconstructs those in-between years, showing how “my mom emotionally, mentally, and physically abused me in ways that will forever impact me.” Insistent on molding her only daughter into “Mommy’s little actress,” Debra shuffled her to auditions beginning at age 6. As she matured and starting booking acting gigs, McCurdy remained “desperate to impress Mom,” while Debra became increasingly obsessive about her daughter’s physical appearance. She tinted her daughter’s eyelashes, whitened her teeth, enforced a tightly monitored regimen of “calorie restriction,” and performed regular genital exams on her as a teenager. Eventually, the author grew understandably resentful and tried to distance herself from her mother. As a young celebrity, however, McCurdy became vulnerable to eating disorders, alcohol addiction, self-loathing, and unstable relationships. Throughout the book, she honestly portrays Debra’s cruel perfectionist personality and abusive behavior patterns, showing a woman who could get enraged by everything from crooked eyeliner to spilled milk. At the same time, McCurdy exhibits compassion for her deeply flawed mother. Late in the book, she shares a crushing secret her father revealed to her as an adult. While McCurdy didn’t emerge from her childhood unscathed, she’s managed to spin her harrowing experience into a sold-out stage act and achieve a form of catharsis that puts her mind, body, and acting career at peace.
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982185-82-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A concise personal and scholarly history that avoids academic jargon as it illuminates emotional truths.
The Harvard historian and Texas native demonstrates what the holiday means to her and to the rest of the nation.
Initially celebrated primarily by Black Texans, Juneteenth refers to June 19, 1865, when a Union general arrived in Galveston to proclaim the end of slavery with the defeat of the Confederacy. If only history were that simple. In her latest, Gordon-Reed, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and numerous other honors, describes how Whites raged and committed violence against celebratory Blacks as racism in Texas and across the country continued to spread through segregation, Jim Crow laws, and separate-but-equal rationalizations. As Gordon-Reed amply shows in this smooth combination of memoir, essay, and history, such racism is by no means a thing of the past, even as Juneteenth has come to be celebrated by all of Texas and throughout the U.S. The Galveston announcement, notes the author, came well after the Emancipation Proclamation but before the ratification of the 13th Amendment. Though Gordon-Reed writes fondly of her native state, especially the strong familial ties and sense of community, she acknowledges her challenges as a woman of color in a state where “the image of Texas has a gender and a race: “Texas is a White man.” The author astutely explores “what that means for everyone who lives in Texas and is not a White man.” With all of its diversity and geographic expanse, Texas also has a singular history—as part of Mexico, as its own republic from 1836 to 1846, and as a place that “has connections to people of African descent that go back centuries.” All of this provides context for the uniqueness of this historical moment, which Gordon-Reed explores with her characteristic rigor and insight.
A concise personal and scholarly history that avoids academic jargon as it illuminates emotional truths.Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-63149-883-1
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Liveright/Norton
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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