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Gretchen's Reviews > Beast

Beast by Brie Spangler
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did not like it
bookshelves: gave-up-on, trans, ya

** spoiler alert ** I got a review copy/e-galley of this book and was so excited to read it! YA with trans characters is close to my heart, and we need more of it (and we need it to be good). Sadly, I had to drop this book about halfway through. The protagonist, a troubled teen boy with an anger problem, has spent half the book angry at the world, then in love with the first girl who was nice to him. He wasn't listening when she told him about herself when they met, so halfway through the book when someone points out that she's a trans girl, he flips out. He's cruel to her, smashes up his basement including the trains his father collected for him before he died of cancer when the protagonist was young. The anger and hurt at being 'lied to' by trans people is SUCH a toxic meme that centering the experience of a cis dude getting angry and violent about a trans person's identity, EVEN THOUGH the book is clearly intending on him learning a ~lesson~, is something I can't get behind. It's potentially damaging for trans kids to feel that they should expect this reaction and be patient/hope to ride it out if they experience it, and it validates a reaction that is dangerous to trans women. There are lots of YA books with trans protagonists out there that actually center their feelings and experience--try one of those instead of this one.
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Reading Progress

Finished Reading
June 22, 2016 – Shelved

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message 1: by Troubletail (new)

Troubletail It wouldn't be a much of a Beauty and the Beast retelling without some element of danger in the relationship (or at least the perception of danger). To have a Beast, after all, there has to be someone who can be perceived as beastly. It also wouldn't be much of a Beauty and the Beast retelling without someone's critique of the tropes around that element of danger... but I think I prefer when that commentary comes as part of the narrative.

Thanks for the heads up, Gretchen. There are times where I've stuck with a book because of the promise of character growth, but this one sounds like it might be a dealbreaker for me.


message 2: by Lara (new)

Lara What YA book could you recommend instead?


Rebekah Meredith Russo’s If I was Your Girl is great! Written by a trans woman and the POV of the book is trans


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