cbr17bingo TBR
A while back, I texted a friend about a book I was going to read. It was out of my usual read because it was not a graphic novel, it was nonfiction and it was for physically and mentally adults. It was Paper Doll: Notes from a Late Bloomer by Dylan Mulvaney. My friend told me to let her know how it turned out.
My first comment was, “Well, it didn’t stink.” And I said that with love. I expected something preachy and “oh poor me, I was in Beergate and nobody understands a trans woman.” Instead you get her ins and outs and the good, the bad and the ugly. She is unapologetic for who she is and wrote this as if she is talking to her audience of followers on TikTok. There are diary entries and essay-like chapters. The diary entries are during the 365 days after she transitioned, and therefore they are about her days and situations that happened as she lived her first year as a woman. The essay-like chapters of what happened before or after the diary/TikTok parts and will alternate between them and the diary entries. Sometimes this can make things chunky, but works as well.
The tone is a twenty-something person who is coming of age multiple times. She must “come out” more than once (as gay male, then as nonbinary, as a trans woman) and to multiple people. Sometimes more than once during a transition of understanding who they are. And all the while she must deal with the love and hate she receives from friends, family, viewers and the conservative right. Mulvaney has her own voice and that is who she is. This is what you get. She will be a friend, lover, sister, daughter, activist and does it as a selfish, caring, unusual, partying, whoo-whoo girl. In other words, she is human. A human that likes to dance, party, have sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. She wants to wear bikinis, tuck comfortably, and not embarrass herself too much. She wants to hang with loved ones and be loved. She will learn of her privilege (from her more upper middle class upbringing and TikTok platform, not to mention she is white) and her disadvantages. There are subjects about spiritual drug use (or just out and out drug use depending on your thoughts on the subject), difficult situations and even tucking (To Tuck or Not to Tuck OR How to Pass or Not). There is a lot going on, but while there are deep thoughts and situations, overall the book can be a bit lighthearted.
I read this via a physical reader copy, though it is currently available. I had gotten in months before publication, I just hadn’t gotten around to reading it. Something always came up to stop me from reading even though I had hoped to be able to promote before it came out. At least now I can check on the photos and/or images now, as they were not available to be viewed in my reader copy. Where they were placed and any commentary does make them seem like they will help situate things together in a chapter/story/event.