None of the Above audiobook

I tried to hold things together, but I could feel pieces of myself crumbling, turning to dust.“It’s not fair. I’m a girl.” My voice came out in a whisper. 2015 so far seems to be an excellent year for YA contemporary. I'm always the kind of person who finds myself attracted to books that promise breathtaking fantasy, magic, prophecies and fast-paced action, and yet so many of those books feel like carbon copies of older works lately. Contemporary has been kicking fantasy's ass with powerful and important tales that need to be told. All the Rage and Little Peach are two others that come to mind.Do you remember the controversy over Caster Semenya at the World Championships in 2009? Gender testing had found she had four times the normal amount of testosterone for a woman and "might be part-man". There were those who demanded that it was unfair to allow a woman with male parts to compete in female races. And there were those who were outraged at the way Caster was humiliated and paraded before the press when she was, in fact, a woman but has Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS).Well, this book is about a teenage girl called Kristin who has a full college scholarship, two best friends and a boyfriend who loves her. Until one night she tries to have sex with her boyfriend and something seems to be not quite right. A visit to the doctor reveals that she has AIS, will never get her period or have children, and has testicles inside her body. Having to come to terms with this would be hard enough, but when her secret is leaked to the whole school, she has to deal with all the bullying that follows.Will her friends still support her? Can her boyfriend still love someone who has male parts? It's hard not to become so caught up in this story and feel sorry for Kristin at every turn. Kids are so ignorant and quick to judge, and Kristin is finding that out at the hardest time of her life.The author doesn't miss this interesting opportunity to have a discussion about gender, identity and what it truly means to be either male or female. Is there any difference between men and women, beyond the way we treat them? It's an incredibly important book. Both informative and emotional, balanced between educating its readers and drawing them into the personal turmoil of Kristin's life.There have been a couple of contemporary YA books lately that have made me emotional, but I've managed to hold off on any actual crying right until the end... and then I read the author's note about their reasons for writing this particular story and the tears just start to come. Fantasy might be full of fast-paced nastiness that has your eyes glued to the page but, believe me, real life does too.Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr

You know how when you take a multiple choice exam and there’s a none of the above option, you’d assume that it’s a very easy question but in truth it’s actually one of the most difficult ones because you’ll have to consider the validity of each of the other choices before finally choosing the none of the above option (in the case that it is the right answer)? Well, that is what has become of Kristin’s life in this story when at 18, she belatedly discovers that her biological sexual category is technically “none of the above.” Kristin or Krissy, a smart, pretty and popular young woman after her first time to uhm you know, her first time…(Oh, jeez, please don’t make me say it) with her boyfriend Sam after their homecoming party, experienced severe pain and discomfort and decided to go visit the OB. That’s when she was diagnosed to have an AIS-DSD (Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome-Disorder of Sex Development) also called intersex or more commonly known as a case of hermaphrodite. She IS a girl born without a uterus and apparently with almost imperceptible male parts, those gonads or uh… testicle thingies. (Why can medical people say these things without being awkward?!) Even though nothing has changed about Krissy, people’s perception and ignorance about her physical condition however turned her life upside down. One moment she was homecoming queen, the next she’s bullied, laughed at and worse, easily rejected by her a-hole of a boyfriend whose head I gravely want to drown in the toilet bowl or maybe simply kick. The cruelty of the people at her school and even outside made me so furious and made me feel so protective of Krissi that I couldn’t stop reading to find out how she’ll survive this challenging phase of her life. This reminded me that our most difficult life experience would truly determine which people are genuine, kind and open-minded and these are the people we should stick to no matter what. I admire the author (who at the time she wrote the book was a fifth-year surgical resident and had an intersex patient) for feeling responsible in enlightening and educating readers not only about intersex but about gender sensitivity in general as well. I like how her writing flows easily through the genuine voice of an 18 year old teen going through the shock of her diagnosis and even though I feel like the resolution could use a little more elaboration, the story ended in an inspiring and assuring note. This story is very original. I haven’t read quite anything like this before. It is also very eye-opening and in my strong honest opinion, readers should read this and authors should write more books like this.

Ever heard of the term intersex? Before coming across this book, I already knew that there were people who outwardly looked like a true male/female, but had other parts, but I never really knew anything about this condition other than that. None of the Above opened my eyes to this concept, and I believe everyone should at least give this book a shot. It may be a heavy topic to center the book around, but it was important and meaningful.Kristin was such a realistic narrator. She questioned the universe for her condition, which I believe we would all do if we were in her shoes. But she always put up a brave face for her dad, and I really respected her for that. Sometimes she also dealt with her situation by making jokes out of it, which is what a lot of people do when they're faced with something they know they can't defeat. She was also passionate about running, and when they tried to stop her from what she loved doing most? Sure, she was disheartened and hurt as hell (who wouldn't be?), but in the end, she fought for her right to be a part of the women's team.“Love isn’t a choice. You fall for the person, not their chromosomes.”The relationships in this book were absolutely gorgeous. Kristin had the most supportive father who did everything in his power to try to cheer Kristin up and to show her that he still loves her despite her condition. He was an awkward sort of supportive and I found him to be really endearing.There was also a very tame romance presented in this book, and I appreciated that the author made it so that Kristin's condition was still the star of the book rather than the (super adorable) romance. But I'll talk about it since it was so cute. Darren was such a sweet love interest, and I loved how he was first Kristin's friend and supporter before they got together. You can never go wrong with this kind of romantic development.This book was proof that while there are people who will judge you for things that weren't your fault, there will still be a handful of people who will try to brighten your day. We may all fall down, but we'll get back up with the help of the people who love us.

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.

*4.5 stars*

None of the Above is one of those rare books that is not only important for its subject matter, but is a genuinely high quality entertaining book with a character I couldn't help but adore and root for. I fear that nothing I say can do it much justice, because it was just lovely, and necessary, and so incredibly well done.When we meet Krissy, things are going pretty great. She's doing great in sports and school, has a close group of friends, and a boyfriend who she is thrilled with. So thrilled, in fact, that she is thinking she's ready for some sexy time. But that's where things start to unwind for Krissy, because things don't really go as planned. I have to say, before moving on, that this was handled incredibly well. The author could have glossed over it, and then had Krissy end up at the gynecologist, but she didn't. And that is one of the things that makes this book so incredible: It is honest, and it is real.Of course, as we know by the synopsis, it turns out that Krissy is intersex, due to a condition that causes her to have male chromosomes, but a mainly female appearance. Her whole life she has identified as female, and her doctor assures her that she is female, because that is how she identifies. Between the doctor and her incredibly supportive father, Krissy is able to find a group of women with the same diagnosis.Krissy is obviously nervous about the aftermath of her diagnosis, and when word gets out around school, her greatest fears come to life. Most people in school are completely ignorant about what it all means, and are also very hateful toward Krissy. I won't lie, this is hard to read. The author does such a tremendous job connecting the reader to Krissy, that my heart was absolutely breaking for her as she was rejected by her jerk of a boyfriend, and all the people she had thought were her closest friends. And these aren't just rumors, or talking behind her back, etc. We're talking straight forward hate and nastiness, and it is so hard to swallow.Of course, as much as Krissy wants to go to her room and hide, she must eventually go on. There are so many questions brought up along the way, from whether she should be allowed to compete in sports as a female (and some really amazing examples of Olympians and high level athletes who've been through this), to how she will go about navigating her romantic life in the future.The thing about this story that absolutely gutted me was that I don't think there was a single bit of it that was exaggerated for the benefit of the story. I do think that a lot of people would act like Sam and the rest of the school did. I do think that opposing teams would try to get Krissy banned from competing. I do think that the aftermath would be incredibly psychologically damaging, because how could it not be when not only has your whole identity been uprooted, but a majority of the people who you thought were on your side simply are not?None of the Above manages to do several things with a ton of grace and class: It sheds a light on what being intersex actually entails. The author is a doctor, and it shows. But it also shows that she is a tremendously skilled author, because she is able to really define the condition in a way that absolutely everyone can understand. In a way that Krissy can understand. To be able to explain the condition from the point of view of the person who has it? That is pretty fantastic. It also really delves into how bullying can affect someone, not just an intersex person, but anyone perceived as "different". I find it so frustrating that this stuff still even happens, but sadly, it does. And while in this case, it is Krissy's intersex diagnosis that takes the brunt of the bullies, for so many young people, anything perceived as "not normal" can be fodder for bullies. Since we are getting an inside view of Krissy's thoughts, it's so very clear how hard the bullying is on her. It should make anyone stop and think about how they would behave toward someone who was going through a life changing event. There's a very uplifting message for anyone who has been through a traumatic experience: life will go on. Krissy's journey doesn't end with her diagnosis. She has choices to make, things about herself to uncover, lessons to learn. She finds people both inside and outside the intersex community who love her because she is Krissy, regardless of her DNA. Bottom Line: Read. This. Book. I cannot really say it enough. It's more than just a great story (though it is that indeed): it's the absolute epitome of what a book about diversity should entail.*Copy received for review*This review was originally posted on It Starts at Midnight

RTC..I really loved this book!!!!!Great intersex rep

Books like this are SO important. It raises awareness and that's important because not a lot of people in this book knew what being intersex meant and I think that's true in real life too. I didn't know what it meant until about 2 years ago (ish) when I watched a TV show called Faking It and I'm almost 22 now! People didn't just bully Kirsten because they were mean bullies, they bullied her because they didn't understand. She was called names like "man-whore", "faggot", "hermaphrodite" and "tranny". All of those labels were extremely hurtful to her because she was trying to come to term with things herself and she had to deal with bullying too. She considered herself to be a girl and yet there were people calling her a man. The book raises a lot of questions about what it means to call yourself a girl or a boy and what it means to be feminine or manly and I liked that. I really enjoyed reading this book. I liked Kirsten and the rest of the characters too. I liked the writing. Gregorio was really informed and I felt like she knew absolutely everything about intersex, surgeries etc. I liked the friendship dynamic and the family dynamic, they were sweet. This was a good book. I would recommend it to everyone and I would read another book by Gregorio in the future.

3.5 stars Informative and excellent in many ways, and well worth reading. I wish some of the emotional stuff and plot points were smoothed out a bit, but it's definitely a book I'd recommend.

Read this book, not BECAUSE you've never read anything like it, but because it's a beautiful, beautiful story that anyone and everyone will relate to--A story about finding out who we all are, beneath the surface.Just read it.

Maybe Shakespeare was preaching that it shouldn't matter if you were a man or a woman. But what if you were something in between ? One of my teacher used to say that there were three absolute truths in life: we have a mother and a father, we're a boy or a girl, and we're born and going to die.Although I hated him, and after a lot of time spent trying to prove him wrong, I realized he was right.It's terrifying, really, to know that you can only be sure of three things in your life. So what if you only had two ? What if you didn't know if you were a boy or a girl ?None of the above tells the story of Kristin, a teenager who finds out she is intersex. In the span of one second, her whole life has changed. The next day, the world was the same. Nothing about me had changed, really. Yet everything was different. None of the above is a truly wonderful read that, under the pretense of discussing intersex, talks about fenimism, feminity, gender indentity, self-awareness and acceptance.At the beginning of the novel, Kristin is lost. And who could blame her ? That was when I realized that life was a multiple-choice test with two answers: Male or Female. And I was None of the Above. What do you do when you don't fit in ? What do you do when you don't fully belong to a certain category ? What do you do when you're neither gay nor hetero, what do you do when you're neither black nor white, what do you do when you're neither female nor male ?We've all felt like this at least once. Felt like we didn't fit in anywhere. This is one of the reasons why None of the Above should be read by everybody. Not just to educate people on what intersex is, but because you might find a part of yourself in Kristin and her story.Little by little, she comes to realize that her chromosomes aren't what makes her a woman. Why aren't we real women- because we don't have uteruses? What about women who have hysterectomies? Or mastectomies? She comes to realize there's no real diffenrence between a girl and a boy. The biggest difference between boys and girls is how people treat them- what color parents think their children should wear, what kind of activities they sign their kids up in for kindergarten. She comes to realize it doesn't matter what people think. Screw that gender essentialism bullshit. Men have as much of a right to care about clothes as women. Girls can like sports and cars and guns too. So why does it even matter if you identify as a girl, a boy, or as neither ? Pre-reading: Guess who got an ARC ?

Actual rating: 4.5So fantastically informative and eye-opening. I just want to book-push this to everyone. I hope Ilene writes more wonderfully diverse books like this one. Full review tk.

I received a free copy to review via EdelweissWhen I saw None of the Above, I was excited because I had never heard of a book with an intersex protagonist, and therefore I feel that None of the Above has made a giant leap in the diverse books movement. When I read it, I found it was a moving, raw and emotionally driven novel that tries its very best to stay authentic and provide a relatable intersex character struggling with her identity. I knew very little about being intersex before starting this book and knew a lot more after finishing it. Whilst also being informative and discussing the prejudice of being intersex, it also discussing the psychological impact and decisions that come with a diagnosis. When Kristin discovers she's intersex, she feels that her whole world has fallen down around her as she struggles with her diagnosis and her identity, and when the whole school finds out Kristin, faces disgusting behaviour and prejudice from her classmates, and even her boyfriend. I thoroughly enjoyed Kristin as our protagonist and I loved watching her progress throughout the story. I.W. Gregorio handles the topic in a delicate and informative way, but also honestly and emotionally. It's a book that I cannot recommend enough.