by Maia Kobabe
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There are frank discussions of bodies, of sexuality, and of sex. It’s in the Graphic Novel section of the bookstore.

It was Banned Books Week last week, and I figured why not see what all the buzz is about, and read the most banned book in America.

It’s Kobabe’s memoir of the evolution of eir gender. (Eir prefers the Spivak pronouns; I’m not entirely sure how to use them, so forgive me for any mistakes.) Kobabe recounts the dissonance eir felt between what society saw and what eir felt on the inside, and the process of making those two match up. It’s only one person’s story, which means it’s not representative of the journey of all non-binary people, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fascinating or worthwhile to read Kobabe’s story.

I get why people would be made uncomfortable by Kobabe’s book: eir are very open about not wanting to fit into the gender norms that society has decreed, and open about wanting a body that is different from the one eir was born with. But that said, just because it makes a reader uncomfortable, doesn’t mean it’s bad. It’s good to be challenged, to read the stories of people who have vastly different experiences than you, whether that be a different race, religion, or gender expression. I enjoyed learning about Kobabe’s journey to eir current gender expression, and I hope eir writes more. I will definitely read it!