Girl Mans Up audiobook

Girl Mans UpM-E GirardYA contemporary fiction, own voices queer rep.Pen (don’t call her Penelope) Oliveira lives in a small Ontario town with her Old-World Portuguese parents and her big brother Johnny. As she heads into her junior year at St. Peter’s Catholic School, she’s got a lot more on her mind than just grades.Pen has always just wanted to be the kind of girl that she is – not a girly girl, not a guy, but a girl who likes girls, and who presents as what is sometimes called ‘butch,’ though this isn’t a term Pen herself uses. She prefers her hair short. She likes to wear her brother’s old clothes. She’s used to being mistaken for a boy and has learned to put up with crap from her less understanding peers (read: most of them). She hangs out with Colby, who has never made a big deal out of her sexuality and treats her with a measure of acceptance, but their relationship begins to fray as Colby continues to use Pen as his ‘scout’ for girls that he likes – making Pen vouch for him and lead those girls to Colby so he can use them and discard them. When Pen gets to know Olivia, one of Colby’s exes, and finds out just how badly Colby messed her up, Pen starts to question her loyalty to her old friend, no matter how much they like hanging out and playing video games together.Also complicating things: Pen’s crush on her super-hot classmate Blake, who is just coming out of a relationship with a guy in her rock band, but who seems to be into the idea of dating Pen. This could be Pen’s first real romance, but can she figured out how to make it work? Her parents don’t understand her. They want her to be a ‘nice girl’ who wears dresses and finds a good husband. Big brother Johnny is Pen’s constant defender and supporter, but he’s just gotten into a fight with Mom and Dad and gotten kicked out of the house, leaving Pen alone. Colby is getting more and more demanding about Pen’s loyalty, warning her not to get too involved with Blake, and definitely not to listen to Olivia telling stories about him. Girl Mans Up follows Pen through her junior year as she struggles to figure out how she can be who she wants to be, date who she wants to date, and be her own best advocate with her friends and family. This ‘slice of life’ novel is one of the most honest and open stories I’ve ever read. Pen pulls no punches (literally or figuratively) as she tries to navigate her life. She is upfront with herself and with the readers about how she feels and about not having all the answers. It’s impossible not to like her. She is both tough and tender, uncertain and self-aware. A lot of young readers will relate to her struggles. Some of my favorite quotes, to give you a sample of her voice:Thinking about her choices, and her friend Olivia’s: “It's okay to feel bad about how things went down, but it's not okay to drown in guilt and regret every day for having made decisions other people don't agree with. At some point, we all have to man up and decide to do what we have to do, despite the people around us who try to get in the way.” Thinking about how she wants to be with Blake: “I think maybe she could be my girlfriend. I don't want to be her girlfriend, though. But there's this part of me that totally knows I could be her boyfriend. I don't want her to think of me as a boy, or a boy substitute, though. I want to be a boyfriend who is a girl. I have no idea how to explain that stuff to anyone, let alone a girl I like. I just wish it was already all understood.” How it feels to be the only queer kid at a party:“There have to be at least thirty strangers in this house; it would be nice if oneor two of them were queer in some way. I’d take a super-flaming gay dude even. Justsomeone else to stand out a little with me. And if there was another queer personhere, then I could kind of assume the rest of these people aren’t jerks. But it’sjust me. It’s always just me.”Looking at herself in the mirror:“People should just be allowed to look in the mirror and see all kinds of possibilities.Everyone should be able to feel nice when they look in the mirror. They should atleast be able to see themselves reflected in there, even if they look all weird.In the mirror, I see myself standing there and I think I’m all right. I think there’sno other way I could look, or should look.”Penelope knows exactly who is she. Her journey of “manning up” is about learning how to be who she is in the world, to choose the right friends who have the right kind of loyalty, to be in love and deal with the flack she will get for it, to stand up to her family firmly and clearly when she needs to. I felt privileged to share Pen’s journey, and I especially appreciated her revelations about the nature of family. Not all of us get happily-ever-after reconciliations with our parents. Not all families are the ones we’re born into. This is a much-needed addition to YA literature, full of candor and humanity, and will make a lot of readers feel like they are not alone. I found this book thanks to the website http://queerbooksforteens.com.

Happy Pride Month y'all! Click the link to check out my favorite PRIDE booksThe Written ReviewIntroducing Pen - the antidote to all those cookie-cutter YA heroinesPen's not a girly-girl, she's not a tomboy, she wants to be one of the guys but she doesn't want to become a guy. Nobody around her can get that. Her parents focus only on how she's not a graceful, perfect little girl. Her brother, her best friend and only confidant, is being pushed out of the family for not fitting their parents ideals. High School Sucks. Figure 1: Pen - fierce, angry, with a killer haircut.Pen is wonderfully flawed character. She's a bit of a wimp when it comes to her friends but is all heart when it comes to her girlfriend (Blake). Figure 2: Blake - bold, blonde and flawless. The only thing I didn't quite like was that Blake was quintessentially perfect. I don't mind the pairing, only the perfection of it. I'm genuinely happy that Pen's life is at least going good in the love side of things...it just seems a little too ...perfect... What are the odds that the one girl that Pen has a crush on (only from a distance) secretly loves all the right things (videogames, playing in a band, etc) that makes her incredibly endearing and absolutely perfect for Pen? I know, I know but I like a little struggle in the relationship. A little give and a little take.The other issue I had was other than Pen, her brother and Blake, most of the other characters felt flat. For example, her parents repeated (literally) the same arguments from start to finish. They were frustrating to listen to and I could hardly stand them as soon as they came into a scene.Despite that, Pen was such a vibrant character that she outshone the problems and made this story one that I will truly treasure. I am so happy that I picked this one up! Audiobook Comments--Extremely well-read. A pleasure to listen to.YouTube | Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Snapchat @miranda_reads

4.5*This was so good. Such a raw, authentic story exploring gender identity through the life of a young Canadian (yay!) butch lesbian. Definitely would recommend!

4.5 starsGirl Mans Up, M-E Girard’s astonishingly honest book, might just be one of the best things that happened to YA fiction in a very, very long time. There have been books about gay, lesbian and trans teens, but I don’t think there are many, and certainly not this good, about genderqueer characters. Written with a light hand and breathtaking emotion, Girl Mans Up shows us how damaging traditional gender roles can be. Pen doesn’t quite meet the expectations of her traditional family or the teachers of her catholic school. She is a girl, but she is only comfortable with her hair short, her clothes loose and doing things that are traditionally viewed as “men’s work”. She doesn’t feel like a boy in girl’s skin, she is quite comfortable with who she is, but the people around her, her parents included, are making her life a lot harder than it needs to be. Then I realized I don’t have to be trans to still confuse people with the way I look. I had my hair then. Now, there’s nothing left that makes me a girl, except for the fact that I am one. The best thing about Pen is that she is quite comfortable in her own skin. She has no doubts about her identity, gender or otherwise. Her problems come from the discrepancy between who she is and how the society sees her. She doesn’t fit into any of the expected roles, therefore she needs to be cast out, changed or made to fit some stereotype, at least. During the course of this book, Pen deals with everything from whispers and gossip to outright bullying. She finds very little true acceptance for who she is, but she does find it in her brother Johnny, her girlfriend Blake and several new friends. Pen’s relationship with her older brother Johnny is a true thing of beauty. At one point, she calls him her friend, her brother, her parent, and he really is all those things. He is pure acceptance, the epitome of unconditional love with plenty of patience and a few flaws that merely make him more real. There is also a very healthy relationship between two girls that has a supporting role and changes things for Pen. Blake’s only dated boys before falling for Pen, but she is attracted to Pen exactly for who she is. Several friendships are born in this book and several others die in flames. All of them, as well as Pen’s thoughts om them, come across as genuine, realistic slices of teenage existence. I don’t want to be her girlfriend, though. But there’s this part of me that totally knows I could be her boyfriend. I don’t want her to think of me as a boy, or a boy substitute, though. I want to be a boyfriend who is a girl. I have no idea how to explain that stuff to anyone, let alone a girl I like. I just wish it was already understood. This book should be required reading in every high school, not only because of Pen’s gender identity and the society’s acceptance, but also because of the healthy lesbian relationship, wonderful friendships, and the example of a non-traditional, supportive family.

"People should just be allowed to look in the mirror and see all kinds of possibilities. Everyone should be able to feel nice when they look in the mirror. They should at least be able to see themselves reflected in there, even if they look all weird."--What I LikedPen. I absolutely loved Pen. I thought she was a well-written ad well-developed character. I loved her relationship with her friends and especially her relationship with her brother. She was an extremely relatable character for me and I’ll be expanding on that in the next paragraph.How relatable Pen was. I was able to relate to Pen quite a lot. I’m not Portuguese, and my parents were born here in Canada, but I do come from an Italian family. My grandparents immigrated to Canada from Italy. My grandparents would take care of my sister and I after school so we grew up in a pretty traditional European setting. Our family is pretty much just as large as Pen’s and although I’m 24 years old, I still get seated at the kids table during holiday get-togethers. No, I don’t wear men’s clothing all the time, but I would much rather wear a formal outfit that consists of pants rather than a skirt or dress. I’m definitely not on the same level as Pen, but I’ve never really felt comfortable as a stereotypical girly-girl type either. I’ve always enjoyed things that are darker in nature or maybe things that aren’t the “norm”. I grew up collecting Hot Wheels, watching Hockey and falling in love with the Fast & The Furious movies. Pen really spoke to me as a character and I was able to understand where she was coming from and the way that she was feeling.The writing style. Although I’m no longer in high school, and I haven’t been for about 7 years now, the writing style is perfect for that demographic. It was very casual and I can definitely see my teenage self speaking in the same way that Pen and her friends talk to one another. I think that M-E Girard perfectly captured the voice of the teenage demographic.—What I Didn’t LikeThe repetitive-ness. There were a few moments that felt a little repetitive. The multiple arguments between Pen and her parents felt a little too similar and there wasn’t really any benefit to them. The first one or two were okay because they set the tone in the relationship between Pen and her parents, but after a while it started to feel a little repetitive for me.Colby. He was just vile. He pissed me off so many times and I just could not stand him.Overall, I really enjoyed Girl Mans Up by M-E Girard. As you may have noticed, it was extremely relatable. I loved Pen and I loved her character development. I thought the writing style was fantastic. Girl Mans Up is a wonderful debut novel by M-E Girard and I’m super excited to see what she’ll be coming out with next!--Initial Post Reading Thoughts:A great coming of age story! I felt like I could relate with Pen on many levels while reading this novel. I love that it featured a young girl. I loved that it took place in Canada. There were just a lot of things that I loved and that I could relate to.

Pen Oliveira is a girl, no question about that. But she's always felt more comfortable hanging with boys, playing video games, wearing her brother's clothes, and dreaming about getting a girlfriend. Her brother and her friend Colby are cool with who she is. But her very traditional Portuguese-immigrant parents, especially her mom? Not so much. As she starts her Year 12 at a Catholic high school outside of Toronto, Pen finds herself facing a series of unexpected challenges ... and she's determined to man up enough to deal with all of them. Wow, wow, wow! I went into this novel expecting an "issue book" aimed at butch lesbian teens, but instead, I got one of the best contemporary novels I've ever read. I love this book, with all the love I have to give it. And I want to stalk M-E Girard and prostrate myself before her for having written this gem. If I ever get to meet her, it will be embarrassing fangirl city. I love, love, love that Pen knows exactly who she is through this entire story. She's used to being picked on, she's used to not quite belonging with either boys or girls, she's used to her mom wanting a girly daughter and finding the one she's got completely mystifying. Pen is fine with who she is, and just wants to be allowed to be herself, even though she hasn't quite learned the words to define that self, because she doesn't know anyone else like her. (The one quibble I have with this book is that it appears to be set now, but no one seems to have the internet, so Pen doesn't seem to have ever gone online to look for other girls/women like her.) So this book is remarkably angst-free. Pen is genuinely tough and thick-skinned. Her voice is great -- I strongly recommend looking at my updates below this review for a sample of how she expresses herself. Maybe this book spoke to me so strongly because, while I'm a cis-gendered, straight female, I'm also a jock and a tomboy, and I grew up in a house full of boys, so I felt very comfortable wearing Pen's butch skin while I was reading this. And I've certainly experienced some of the crap people are happy to dish out to non-conforming girls (and boys). But I hope other readers identify with her just as strongly, because she's an awesome character. Ah-hem. I did warn y'all about the fangirling, right? :-)The book's strongest aspect for me after Pen herself is its depiction of friendship. Pen finds herself forming a bond with Olivia, a new girl at school who had a brief thing with Colby during the summer. Olivia's got her own issues, which contribute to forcing Pen to look at Colby a little more critically. Pen also meets her own potential first girlfriend, Blake, and has to navigate how to be a boyfriend and a girlfriend at the same time. (And another thing I love about this book is that even though Pen has spent most of her life around boys, using terms like "pussy," "man up," "got balls," "grow a pair," etc., there is no female objectification of Blake. Zero.) All of these characters are really well-drawn. The dialogue feels authentic, never forced. Colby, in particular, practically deserves his own book, because yes, he's a real jerk, but at the same time, his insecurity about masculinity stands as a subtly done but brilliant contrast to Pen's confidence in her female manliness. The family thread is artful, as well. Pen's mother starts out seeming completely unsympathetic, and completely unwilling to accept the reality of who her daughter is. But by the end of the book, she's given just enough vulnerability to become real, and to let the reader see why she is the way she is. There's no magical transformation into a perfect family, but just a little crack that allows some optimism for Pen and her mother's future relationship. And Pen's brother? We should all be so lucky as to have a brother like him. He's another great character. All of these threads make a perfectly melded whole in the story. I loved every page of this book, and felt myself living it in my head when I wasn't actually reading. Pen's development through the story is slow and believable. She's a brave kid who won't look away from her own problems, no matter how painful they are, or anyone else's either. She's got her friends backs. She's stronger for it. And I think maybe I'm a little stronger, too, from reading this book and seeing her example. So, have I convinced you to read this yet? :-)

Penelope ‘Pen’ Olivera is a teenager attending a Catholic high school and not following gender norms. It’s not easy to live in a small community in Ontario, Canada with her Catholic parents, who are first-generation Portuguese immigrants, while navigating rejection, experiencing first love, finding loyal friends and trying to discover her own identity.This was a fantastic lesbian young adult audiobook, no wonder this novel got so many awards, it’s not only superbly written but it’s also a compelling and engaging story. I wish there were books like this when I was growing up but I’m sure that many teenagers will benefit from this book and feel that they are not alone in not conforming to gender stereotypes or just being different from the majority of people.Written in first person from the point of view of Pen, the book explores a few months of her life in which she is confronted with either accepting what her parents demand from her or find out who she really wants to be. What impressed me most is that the tone of the novel feels realistic, the characters authentic in their ages and their adolescent personalities, and the dialogues are very natural sounding. It’s funny how teenagers can handle in the same conversation deep meaningful life matters followed by completely trivial issues. The author got this perfectly.I listened to the audiobook narrated by Emma Galvin, my first experience with this narrator. Ms. Galvin has a youthful ideal voice for this YA novel but despite that, she manages to perform the adult characters acceptably. Her interpretation of feelings is excellent considering this is a very demanding novel especially with the overwhelming and fiery emotions typical of teenagers. I loved her performance of Pen’s mother and father with their heavy accents and exaggerated expressions. Coming from a loud Italian family myself, it feels totally authentic. I found that sometimes the girls’ voices were too similar but the result was compensated with a very good interpretation. Ms. Galvin brings this fantastic text to life outstandingly and I cannot recommend it more for those fans of the genre and even for readers/listeners who want to experience a great story. Included in the Scribd subscription, you’ll get 9 hours of enjoyment.Overall, a fantastic young adult audiobook recommended even for those who aren’t fans of the genre. 5+ stars for the story and 5 stars for the performance. Average, 5 stars.See all my reviews at www.lezreviewbooks.com

This book takes a place among my favorite YA LGBTQ books. There are books with more emotional impact or unique plot, but this one stands out with its realistic and relatable story of a butch lesbian girl figuring out how to live her life. Pen doesn't fit the expectations of her traditional parents and extended relatives. She likes to wear her brother's clothes, crops her hair short; she hangs out with guys and video gaming is a big part of her spare time. And yet she hates when people ask if she's trying to be a boy or assume she's transgender. She's a girl, who likes to present on the male end of the spectrum, and who wants to date other girls. Pen is like so many other girls out there, who have had a really hard time finding themselves in YA fiction. (I think, so often, YA is trying to show that LGBTQ teens are "just like other kids" that the stories shy away from the femme guy and the butch girl. This is welcome representation.)There isn't a big overarching plot here, although there are nods to issues of family rejection, sexual assault, teen pregnancy, bullying, etc. The resolutions are more low-key and realistic than dramatic, especially in the outcomes. Pen is cushioned from some of the worst possibilities by the love of her older brother. Johnny is her supporter and champion - the guy who will drive her somewhere important, protect and cover for her. The person to whom she is just "Pen" and perfect exactly the way she is. In this book, there are entitled teen guys who move through high school cushioned by their white, male superiority. There are the followers who see staying in these boys' orbit as better than going it alone. Friendships grow and split in the sometimes-confusing, tangled way common to high-school. And there's a tender, developing lesbian love story between a butch girl and a bi girl. Some people may wonder if Pen is somewhat genderqueer. At times, she seems to place herself not just in a butch space but with "the guys", but she also clearly rejects a male identity so we have to take her at her own word. She gets to define herself. And meeting her is a pleasure. Highly recommended, if you like slice of life and can stand not to see every villainy punished or good deed rewarded.

Out of all the LGBTQ+ fiction I've read, this is the one that comes closest to being representative of me and my experiences as a young adult (minus the family acceptance struggles), and I'm so sad it took me so long to getting around to reading it! Pen identifies fully as female, but she struggles with reconciling that identity and enjoying stereotypical "boy activities" and wanting to "look like a boy" (having short hair, baggy clothes that do not show off her frame, etc) and being the more masculine partner in her relationships. While of course it doesn't really matter and everyone should feel free to be who they are, I always found these aspects of my life difficult to explain to people, because I never at all identified with being or wanting to be male. This book explored these feelings gently yet head-on - being too much of a girl to be one of the guys, but too dudely to be one of the girls - struggling with that in-between. I am so grateful to have come across it!

Review originally posted on Mostly YA Lit:I was really excited to read Girl Mans Up by M.E. Girard because I’ve never read a novel with a gender-fluid character. I was fortunate enough to meet the author at an event at Harper Collins Canada a few weeks ago, and she’d given me the scoop: Pen is a girl who has no interest in being a boy. She happens to dress “masculine” and likes girls, but she’s not transgender. She’s okay in her body. It’s the people around her, including her parents and some of her friends, who are constantly putting the pressure on for Pen to “define” herself as a girl or boy. What’s interesting about this character is that she IS that okay with herself. There isn’t that much self-consciousness about her body, or about what she likes. Instead of feeling ashamed of who she is, right from the beginning, Pen owns her identity, her look, and her likes and dislikes. Her voice is distinctive, authentic, and unique in YA and M.E. Girard nails it. That's the best part of this book. The synopsis doesn't do justice to just how realistic it all feels - as a girl from an immigrant family who grew up in a community kind of like Pen's, I really understood her. While I never felt as gender-fluid as Pen might feel, I did have parents who had definite ideas of what a "girl" and a "boy" should look and act like.  While the book itself slowed down about two-thirds of the way through (it was long for a YA book), the characters sing, from Pen's brother and family to her newfound crush and friends. It's a strong debut, and I'll definitely be looking for Girard's next novel. 

Long story short: EVERYBODY needs to read this book. It is one of the most poignant (and riveting!) examinations of the concept and importance of self-identification (aka how you label, and/or choose NOT to label yourself) and knowing who YOU are despite everyone else's opinions. I seriously feel more settled in my own skin now that I've read it. Probably going to read it again.

(Four stars for its potential with an olderish teen audience, three stars for how much I personally enjoyed it.)Despite the plethora of queer YA these days, there was something that I didn’t even quite realize that was mostly missing in contemporary LGBTQ+ YA, let alone Canadian LGBTQ+ YA: stories about butch/genderqueer lesbians and their gender journeys. Girl Mans Up, by M-E Girard, delivers exactly that. In that way, it’s a new and necessary story, especially for a big publisher (HarperCollins) to be putting out in the height of fall book publishing frenzy. (The book officially came out September 6th). It’s exciting to see one of the big five publish this book—and by a Canadian author and set in Canada no less! Girl Mans Up is nothing but very real. Carefully and authentically, Girard is completely honest about all her characters’ ugly messiness and the intricacies of the sometimes shitty, dog-eat-dog world of high school. Girard nails the teenage perspective of main character Pen, even all of her flaws, limited knowledge, and bad decisions. This book really feels like it’s written by someone who intimately knows today’s teens. If you’re looking for a superheroine who always does the right thing and astutely assesses everything around her, Pen is not your protagonist. But if you’re looking for an achingly real young queer person trying to figure out how to be herself and interact meaningfully and respectfully with those around her—with plenty of mishaps on the way— Girl Mans Up is for you...See the rest of my review here.

This Canadian slice of teen life offers a portrayal I haven't seen much in YA: gender-fluidity. While there are a lot of good teen LGBTQ books and an increasing focus on making transgender and intersex characters more visible, Pen is harder to categorize. She's definitely a girl, but she doesn't at all feel "femme." She continually receives static from her traditional Portuguese family and from the usual window-lickers in her town about looking like a boy, and it's never been a secret that she's into girls. But she doesn't want to be a boy; she just wants to be herself.All of this is handled in the best way possible: as a backdrop to a very authentic story about friendship and romance. The book spends a lot of time on Pen trying to figure out her own identity, but the gender aspect is only part of a bigger question: who are my friends, and why? What does loyalty or respect really mean? Why am I spending so much time with this person, when I know he's a complete jerk? Is this girl really into me, or am I just imagining it? What do I do about the fact that my parents won't let me be who I really am?In short, a perfectly normal story about teenagers doing teenager things and trying to figure out how to be adults.The slang feels a little forced in places, mostly because I've moved past the point in my life where I can readily tell how teenagers actually talk anymore. Also, the family drama arc resolves itself in a very understated way, which feels authentic but also anticlimactic. Still, I was hooked on this story for all the right reasons.

2/22/17 So I've read this book twice in less than 6 months because I FREAKIN LOVE IT! (and also because it was chosen as the book for my book club). but honestly, i think this may be my favorite book of all time. I'm considering doing my first book-talk on my channel with this book, just so i can gush about it. Maybe even cry. I love Pen, Johnny, Blake, and Olivia so much. I want to be best friends with them. I can't WAIT to see what else M-E Girard is going to write. I'll buy whatever it is!9/17/16 I absolutely adored this book. Pen is a precious cinnamon roll. Blake is BAMF. Olivia is so kind and awesome. Johnny is brother goals like for real. I'm gonna try and form some coherent thoughts for a full review.

Really liked it, and felt it! Surprised how rare masculine girls are in YA...I applaud how the book deals with masculinity/ies. I loved how Pen is both not having any of that toxicity - and still falls prey to it. Her relationship with her brother is such a great one; and her GF the best. (I really want to punch a couple of characters, but welp.)I just want this on my shelf, okay?

I stumbled upon this book while searching for genderqueer representation in YA for my dissertation. It was a pleasure to read. There is a void in fiction for characters who do not adhere to the gender binary, and it was fantastic to find a character like Pen who treads the boundary between boy and girl. Additionally, it's great to see that that's not all the book talks about. It's also about culture, since Pen is from a Portuguese background, and what it's like to deal with parents who do not understand because of the disjuncture between their culture and western attitudes. It also touches on sibling relationships, romance, teen pregnancy, and ties it all together with a need for independence. I got so much more out of this book than I expected to. I would've loved it if Pen called herself genderqueer by the end, because I feel there's a difference between genderqueer and butch lesbian, but that's a small thing. The relationships between secondary characters could've been made a little stronger, just by spending more time on them, but again, that's minor. You still get a strong sense of who each of the characters are, and whether you should like them or not. Pen's relationship with Blake, a girl at school, is fantastic, with two of them bonding over video games, proving that video games aren't just for boys and not so girly girls. The whole thing with them is incredibly sweet, and it's a relief to have a bisexual female love interest who is not treated poorly by the lesbian character. There is none of the biphobic fear that Blake might go back to men from Pen, and you get a sense that the two are stable and in it for the long haul by the end of the novel. It's easier to pick holes in something than praise it, but there is not much bad I can say about this book. It was enjoyable, easy to read, and though I bought it on kindle, I'm considering grabbing a hard copy.

I am glad the word lesbian is used in this book. In both English and Portuguese :) But not often enough. It is a word that has been displaced by queer - and lesbians are *righteous*, not 'queer'.A refreshing modern YA escape.