Apr 10, 2015

Review: None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio

Title: None of the Above
Author: I.W. Gregorio
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: 4.28.2015
Pages: 352
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Issues
Series: N/A
Source: ARC from NYCC

Rating: 5 Stars

Summary (from Goodreads):
What if everything you knew about yourself changed in an instant? 

When Kristin Lattimer is voted homecoming queen, it seems like another piece of her ideal life has fallen into place. She’s a champion hurdler with a full scholarship to college and she’s madly in love with her boyfriend. In fact, she’s decided that she’s ready to take things to the next level with him.

But Kristin’s first time isn’t the perfect moment she’s planned—something is very wrong. A visit to the doctor reveals the truth: Kristin is intersex, which means that though she outwardly looks like a girl, she has male chromosomes, not to mention boy “parts.”

Dealing with her body is difficult enough, but when her diagnosis is leaked to the whole school, Kristin’s world completely unravels. With everything she thought she knew thrown into question, can she come to terms with her new self?

Review:
I’m ashamed to admit I almost wrote this book off before I ever touched it, mostly because I didn’t understand intersex and what it meant. Not until Steph, from Cuddlebuggery, set me straight on our way to NYCC14.

Steph: Awesome! NONE OF THE ABOVE will be available at the Harper booth if we ask for it!
Me: Huh? What book is that?
Steph *pulls up Goodreads*: This one.
Me: Oh, right. Yeah, not my thing.
Steph: Really?
Me: Yeah … I’m just not into transgender books or books about exploring sexuality. It’s not my thing.
Steph: But that’s not what this is about.
Me *frowns and grabs her phone to read the synopsis*: But she’s intersex.
Steph: Exactly. Not transgender.
Me: There’s a difference?

Cue Steph educating me and piquing my curiosity enough that I followed her to the HarperCollins booth and requested a copy to read for myself.

BEST. DECISION. EVER.

Kristin is a very average girl, maybe a little more popular than most of us were in high school, but a normal girl who is dealing with life and boys and sex. When she decides to take the plunge with her high school boyfriend, things don’t go as planned. So she visits the doctor and is told her diagnosis.

What I loved is I felt like I truly got to experience this journey with Kristin. I understand her shock and shame and confusion because I felt it, too. Having doctors explain to Kristin what her condition meant was like having doctors explaining it to me. Rarely have a learned so much in a novel without feeling preached to or like I just finished a text book.


This truly a book about journey and self-discovery and I.W. Gregorio handles is with delicate strength, showcasing the doubt and triumph with incredible grace. I hope this book finds a home in classrooms and libraries across the countries to educate people like Kristin’s classmates. And yes, people like me. 

4 comments:

  1. I think I had the same reaction that you did Hannah! Thank goodness for Steph ;)

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  2. I'm glad this book taught you something but also that you really enjoyed it. I scoff at people who scoff at people learning life lessons from fiction!

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  3. Don't you love when a friend steers you in the direction of a book that you wouldn't normally pick up but you wind up just loving? *sigh* Yay for reader friends.

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  4. Will be adding this to my TBR when it releases. I put it off as well but I`m trying to be more open.
    Ashley

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