Symptoms of Being Human audiobook

Sometimes, after turning page after page of a truly great book, you think, with total conviction: this book could change someone’s life. That’s how I felt more than once while reading SYMPTOMS OF BEING HUMAN. But not only that—I also had another thought. This book could save someone’s life. The protagonist in SYMPTOMS OF BEING HUMAN, Riley Cavanaugh, is gender fluid and identifies as both a boy and a girl, depending on the day. Some mornings, Riley wakes up and feels more girl; others, Riley’s compass is pointing toward boy. Although Riley’s parents don’t know the truth, Riley starts a blog anonymously, under the name “Alix,” to share what it’s like to be a gender fluid teenager. As Alix, Riley is open and honest and real, and begins to realize the number of gender fluid and LGBT people looking for someone who understands—but Riley is still waiting for the right time to come out in real life. To add to this, Riley has just transferred schools and struck up a friendship—and maybe more— with enigmatic Bec, who has secrets of her own. Riley’s voice is everything I could ever want in a YA narrator. Snarky, whip-smart, thoughtful, brave, and authentically teen. And I can honestly say that seeing the world through Riley’s eyes opened mine. I loved that Riley wasn’t perfect and at times, made the same judgments or assumptions about other people that people make about gender fluid or trans individuals. There are so many brilliant lines in this book, so many powerful truths. But this is my favorite one: “People are complicated. And messy. Seems too convenient that we’d all fit inside some multiple-choice question.”Nobody should be confined to identifying as male or female if that doesn’t match how they feel inside. Why do we need to know whether Riley is a boy or a girl? What does that label matter, and what does it mean, anyway? Being a boy or girl isn’t the body you were born with. It’s what is inside you, and if you’re gender fluid, it can be a spectrum that changes from day to day. As I read, I started thinking about all the people who don’t have access to the Internet, who may not have access to books like this, who don’t know the support is there, who might need it most. The violence and hatred toward gender fluid and LGBT individuals breaks my heart and makes me both overwhelmingly sad and completely enraged. I’m confident that this book—this smart, sensitive, wonderful, courageous book—will open up a dialogue that needs to be had, will open doors for people that were previously closed. I hope this book reaches every single person who needs it, teens and adults alike, because I think it has the power to change lives. And save them.

The world is a better place because this book exists. It will make readers more compassionate and empathetic. I can't think of a stronger endorsement than that.

Finalizando janeiro com uma leitura super rápida e gostosa, mas cheia de coisa polêmica e necessária.O livro aborda um tema bem complexo que começou a ser discutido por não muito tempo, que é a questão dos transgêneros que se identificam como pessoas de gênero fluido. O/A personagem principal se chama Riley e vamos ficar pra sempre sem saber se Riley nasceu menino ou menina. Depois de algumas páginas e uma boa reflexão (pq né, vamos ler e refletir sobre a vida real) a gente chega a conclusão que a mensagem do autor é essa. Não importa pra NINGUÉM se Riley tem pênis ou vagina, porque isso não afeta quem ela é.Por mais que eu tenha pessoas próximas (minha melhor amiga, oi) que se identificam como gender fluid, é sempre desafiador tentar enxergar o mundo além binarismo de gênero. Mas consegui, pelo menos no livro, e acho que é uma experiência que eu recomendo que todos tenham. Não é o suficiente pra mudar a cabeça, mas é um ótimo exercício.A única questão que me fez tirar 1 estrela, é que acho que alguns momentos, principalmente em diálogos, a escrita não parecia muito realista. Eu não conseguia ver aquilo acontecendo na prática. O final da história como um todo é interessante, mas a cena final é bem sessão da tarde. A tradução está show, exceto pelaa expressão "TÔ SÓ O PÓ DA RABIOLA" qqqqq. Quem for comprar em fevereiro, que é o lançamento no Brasil, pela Plataforma 21, vai encontrar um trabalho gráfico FODA e uma história muito fofa.

I really enjoyed this story - there are not many books out there with genderfluid main characters, and finding one that is also a great story is delightful.Riley is the teen child of a congressman, and they narrate this story of their life with a persuasive voice. (In fact the one criticism here would be that Riley is too talented with words to be a teenager, but in the pleasure of the story and the importance of the message, I was willing to see them as gifted, and eloquent, without damaging the image of them as teen, and vulnerable.) We never find out what Riley's assigned-at-birth gender was, and it's done naturally enough that it encourages us to accept Riley as moving around at the middle of the gender spectrum, one day, or one moment, more feminine, and at other times more masculine. Riley opens the book in the closet to everyone except their therapist, and presenting as agender (androgynous look) because it is the one way to keep their gender dysphoria from getting triggered too hard. But staying in the middle is a constant nagging irritation - when Riley identifies as more female, she would like to be able to wear lipstick and a dress. When he feels more masculine, he would prefer to dress that way. But moving past the ambiguous center in either direction opens the door for people to notice, and then to mock or question a swing the other way. Riley's not ready to deal with that.Riley's therapist has suggested two coping strategies. One, to write out their confusion and emotions and hopes and fears. The other to find a cause to work for, helping others, to move some of their focus off their own issues. Riley ends up combining both. First, they begin an online blog under the pseudonym Alix, where they finally put into words some of their feelings about their gender identity. Then, when a young trans girl posts a message asking for advice, Riley is pulled into the world of genderqueer support, of reactions, violence, opportunities and online community. It's not always an easy place to be.Riley is starting a new school, as the book opens, after leaving the hostile environment of private Catholic school. They meet a couple of apparently-friendly classmates, and some who are hostile just because they can't put Riley easily into a neat little box of "girl" or "boy". But as long as Riley isn't out with their fluidity, they're not getting a reaction to their true self. They have to both doubt whether new friends would still support them, and worry that casual comments and low-level bullying will escalate. And yet, every day of not coming out adds a bit more dysphoria, and anxiety, and compromise, to how they are living their life.I really liked that this book gave us a realistic, sympathetic, imperfect picture of a genderqueer teen. The secondary characters have a plausible range of reactions. The parents are nicely in the gray zone of loving but not understanding their child, and having comments and little moments that make Riley afraid of how they will react to the full truth. I really liked that Riley was in therapy, and had anxiety, and that the issues of gender dysphoria were not downplayed or made too melodramatic. The plot does hit a strong climax moment, but not one unusual for genderqueer teens, unfortunately. We humans have a strong streak of cruelty and rejection of those different from ourselves, and LGBTQ people, especially those on the gender spectrum, are far too often the targets. I'd love to hand this book to teens, and family, who are trying to understand what it means when we say gender is not binary, but a spectrum. Although there are minor flaws, sometimes it moves slowly or repeats important thoughts, and the moment of drama is perhaps strong and scary (although very subtly written) for younger teens who identify with Riley, this book is hopeful and positive and useful. The story is for the most part slower and low key - not a book to read specifically for the drama, but a book about a journey to understanding and accepting yourself, and others. A story about taking control of your own life. That you cannot change how some people react to you, but what you do with your response to that, in your own life, is your choice. And how much it matters to have support. Riley is eloquent and silent, brave and afraid, anxious and positive, and someone I'd like you all to meet.Trigger warnings for (view spoiler)[ sexual assault, physical bullying, suicide attempt, transphobic and homophobic slurs (hide spoiler)]

Este es un libro muy importante. Da voz y representación a algo que lo necesita muchísimo. Super recomendado!!

Thought this was book was really good! Funny, sharp, and readable. And the form fits the content. Garvin does a great job of hiding the protagonist's assigned-at-birth gender in a way that doesn't feel forced: that mechanism by itself does a lot to hold up a mirror to the reader's own preconceptions. Book was filled with warmth and understanding, I blew through it a morning. (I got an advanced reader copy of this book through an ARC tour for debut authors, but the copy carried no expectation or requirement that I review the book).

Wow, you guys. Just wow.I wanted to read this book because I wanted to know more about gender fluidity. So far, there are only two people I have come across in my whole life who I know are gender fluid, and if I am honest I didn’t know too much about what the two words meant. I could turn this review into a debate of whether or not gender fluidity is “real” or “right.” But right now I just want to review the book, so let’s discuss this one regardless of where you stand on those viewpoints. Because regardless of where you stand on those viewpoints, I still think you should read this one. Riley is a character who sometimes feels more like a boy, and other times feels more like a girl. Riley’s father is a political figure and sometimes that can be a little stressful on the family because they have to keep up appearances all the time. But what I found particularly clever about Riley is that we never actually get to know what their actual gender is. Which, I think, is a good thing seeing as the aim of this book is to try and get the reader to understand that you don’t have to settle for one.I was also pretty eager to try this book because of the fact that Riley has a blog that blows up and becomes more famous than they imagined. Being a blogger myself as well, I could relate to that element of things. And Riley’s blog posts, which we do get to see, were pretty interesting. They gave us a lot of insight into their character.The thing that especially made this book for me were the characters. We get to know Riley so well, especially as they struggle from anxiety and are going through this pretty heavy emotional period of time in this novel. But the secondary characters were fleshed out incredibly well too. There was Solo who was this big bundle of fun and protectiveness and Bec who was a tough but mysterious kind of girl. I liked those two especially and how good for Riley they were, although maybe not all the time. Even though some people can be good, we all make mistakes.Another important thing was how family had such a role in this one. Maybe not the biggest family ever since Riley is an only child, but a family all the same. Riley especially doesn’t want to ruin their father’s campaign, and wants to keep their mother happy, so you can understand the dilemma involving coming out as gender fluid. Riley’s parents are just trying to understand Riley most of the time, and you can see some of the family issues coming through, but some of the family love as well.Towards the end I couldn’t stop read. I won’t give you any spoilers as to what happens, but by the end of the book I was moved and wanting to cry and smile at the same time. Make of that what you will!Personally, I am (despite my previous claim) going to say that I didn’t agree with everything in this book. Despite that, everyone should still read it! Because whether you agree or not isn’t the point – this book can still teach you a little something about human decency and respect nonetheless.This review and more can be found on Olivia's Catastrophe: http://olivia-savannah.blogspot.nl/20...

Gah, YOU GUYS. THIS BOOK. I absolutely adored Riley's story. It's not an easy one, but it's real and messy and so, so needed. Riley is a gender fluid teen searching for bravery, for a place, for a cause. Riley navigates bullying and anxiety with such authenticity, I found myself breathless for half of this novel. Garvin crafts a story that speaks to the emotionally and physically violent treatment genderqueer and trans persons deal with on a daily basis. He calls attention to this with both a sensitivity of how difficult it is to speak up and come out, but also with an urgency to support that speaking up and coming out.

(book #5 in my pride month challenge) I can't blame you for trying to categorize me. It's human instinct. 4,5 stars!This was insanely good and informative. Despite me wanting to stay away from YA contemporaries for a bit, I wanted to read a book with a genderfluid character for research and I wanted it to be in our world because honestly I had Questions. So when someone recommended it to me I was ready to be a bit bored with the actual story but I decided I would go through with it even in the eventuality that I found the plot lacking or just "too typically YA", but it turned out to be a really good book even if you don't count its importance within the LGBT and more specifically the genderqueer community.I consider this to be a good genderfluid 101 book because it really explains what someone who is genderfluid goes through on a daily basis (I mean, I suppose not every experience is the same and some gf people might not relate to certain aspects of this book, but that's true for everyone). It might be a little too informative sometimes, but that's what I was looking for in order to understand it a bit more. The thing is, I am bored when important information (regarding LGBT+ issues etc) is given through dialogue in a YA because it never feels very organic. Like, that dialogue never feels like something that would happen that way IRL (at least not the way it happened in some of the last YA contemporaries I read). Here, however, almost everything regarding genderfluidity etc was tackled in the MC's, Riley, tumblr blog in the form of short blog posts. It's certainly an easy way out but it works and it was frankly what I wanted to read: I wanted big chunks of info that I could highlight on my kindle and find again easily. Something the book didn't talk about at all is pronouns though. I understand the wish of the author to keep Riley's assigned gender hidden because that's irrelevant to Riley's story. Riley has girl days and boy days (sometimes it's not even days but hours), but Riley never talks about what pronouns should be used for Riley (and this is showing in my review because I can only use Riley's name and it makes for fucked up sentences). I think it's incredible that the author managed to write a whole book without using pronouns for the MC (well it's written in first person obviously), but I would have still liked to see that conversation happen within the book. In any case everything written in here is important and (personally) useful for my research in case I ever want to write a genderfluid character myself (and I feel like I understand what my genderfluid mutuals go through much better now).The book wasn't only informative though, it followed an actual plot that was certainly typical of the YA genre but well done, but most of all it was a very character-driven story. It showed Riley as a flawed human being like we all are, and one of the things I liked the best was the hypocrisy that Riley shows when trying to categorize others, the same way they try to categorize Riley (meaning, asking themselves whether Riley is a boy or a girl as soon as they see Riley). That's what Riley does too, and it may not be about gender but about specific categories of people ("jocks" or whatever), without giving them a chance to show who they really are. There really is no solution about this within the book, but that's because there's no IRL solution either. Riley acknowledges that this is how our minds work and we can train them to be more open-minded about many things but the truth is we'll always have our stereotypes and try to put people inside metaphorical boxes. (this is not explicitly said but it's my interpretation of what went on in Riley's brain at some point in the book).Anyway. This book is important, it's not without its flaws but no book is. It's also a coming out story and the MC has anxiety (Riley is taking meds for it) so there's a lot of rep going on here, so I can't recommend it enough to anyone who wants to read more diverse.

Amei começar o ano com esse livro.A leitura é rápida e de fácil entendimento sobre um assunto que muitas pessoas ainda desconhecem e/ou sentem dificuldade em entender: gênero fluído.Esse foi o primeiro livro que li protagonizado por uma personagem que é gênero fluído e já quero ir atrás de outros títulos.

My punk band name: Book Broke Me and Put Me BackTogether Again.

I have to admit that I was both incredibly intrigued and a bit unsure of how I would feel about this book when I submitted my request to be a part of the blog tour for it. I read the summary and was immediately drawn to the premise of a gender-fluid teen struggling with knowing who they are but not being able to express it and still feel safe and secure in their life, not only at school, but at home too. The first thing you’re going to want to know about me is: Am I a boy, or am I a girl?I’m just going to be straight up honest here because from the very first page, I was trying to figure out what Riley’s birth gender was. It’s habit… it’s even discussed quite in depth in the story too, and I think it’s understandable to a certain point. But what Garvin does here is totally genius… he doesn’t make that a part of the story because how Riley was born isn’t important to who Riley is today. And who is Riley? Well, first and foremost Riley’s a teen struggling with the constraints people put on gender identification. Riley’s known the name … gender-fluid, for about a year, and fluctuates between feeling female some days to male others and even somewhere in between on other days. Riley is complex and layered and interesting and witty and snarky and just all the things that I really love in a main character and I think many of you will connect with Riley because of those reasons alone.Riley’s therapist suggests a journal of sorts to help sort out feelings and get thoughts on paper and out of Riley’s head… but Riley goes one step further and decides to set up an anonymous blog to share things that only Riley’s therapist knows. And it unexpectedly goes viral and it’s overwhelming … and a bit scary. Scary because Riley’s dad is up for re-election to congress and while Riley’s parents suspect something, they have no clue what is really going on, and if it were to get out before Riley can gather the courage to sit them down and have a discussion it could be bad. Despite that, Riley can’t stay away from the blog… sharing and supporting the people who have reached out has quickly become the cause his therapist suggest Riley find. But some anonymous comments have Riley on edge. I thought Garvin did a really amazing job with the relationships in this story. He certainly didn’t sugar coat the backlash someone gets for struggling with their gender identity but he also shows that there are people out there who understand, and even shows that if someone doesn’t quite understand it, they’re willing to learn and I hope that someday there will be more people willing to understand that who we are on the outside may not be who we feel we are on the inside. I also want to mention the friendships that Garvin has created among the characters. Sure Riley is our main character but the friends, Solo and Bec specifically, are a big part of this story too. It was amazing to see Riley finally find connections and learn to trust people with this secret and it was amazing to see these two people support Riley and not turn their backs because of it. I will say that I had figured out quite early who was the anonymous commenter to Riley’s blog, so that reveal for me wasn’t much of a mystery, but I liked that it added a bit of a twist to the story. Though I did feel like the resolution and who all was involved and why was a bit unfinished, especially Sierra’s involvement and story. I get that some people hate just to hate but she kept popping up in the story and in ways that I thought we’d get more of what was going on with her, as well as some growth in her character. This is such an important book though and I hope that people will read it with an open mind and learn from it. It touches on bullying and violence toward the queer community and it does it without being preachy or disrespectful and it’s incredibly eye-opening to learn some of the statistics. Despite the heavy feel to the story, this was actually a pretty quick read for me. I found that I was so invested in Riley’s story that I just didn’t want to put the book down until the I hit that last page, and even when I turned it, I still wanted to know what was next for Riley. If you’re looking for an emotional read about learning to love who you are both inside and out, a story about finding the people who love you for you, a story about empowering yourself and getting past the uncertainty of who you are and who you’re supposed to be, you’ll definitely want to check this book out. I’ll definitely be waiting for more from Jeff Garvin in the future!