Sunday 22 August 2021

Book Review: "The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice" by Shon Faye

Kindle:

Hardback:
⭐ out of 5

If you've read any of my other relatively recent book reviews, you'll know how I start each of them by saying they all start off with the full five stars and that I hope the book finishes with them all in place too.  This review is no different in that respect.

It's on the Political Science & Ideology section of Amazon, so I'm wondering if it's gonna be shoving politics down my throat... I seriously hope not, but I'm already weary of it.  Gonna still read with an open mind, but if the author concentrates more on politics than people who are transgender then I'll be knocking a star off straight away.

Also, I'm wondering if there's a new trend to only publish as eBooks and Hardcovers as opposed to paperbacks now, 'cos this is the second book I've started reading in the last 24 hours that hasn't got a paperback available.

That's all beside the point now though, just random thoughts is all lol

The book *has* been semi-political so far, but it hasn't turned me off reading it - yet!  The author has been very clever to get their opinions out there about politics without saying "this is the only opinion out there that's right... everything else is wrong" which is refreshing so far.

*Now* it's getting more political, which is frustrating, so I'm knocking off the first star after only 6%.  It's not saying that one party is right and the other is wrong, or anything like that, but it's focussing on political policies rather than people who are transgender which is frustrating.  If it doesn't change pretty soon then I'll be skipping ahead and knocking off another star because of that... I hope I don't have to, but I'm really not enjoying this book right now.

Yup, the author is now talking about Teresa May and comparing her to David Cameron and the author seems to be making it more about their political views than supporting people who are transgender and increasing the understanding of those who want to learn more about those who are transgender, so that's another star coming off and I'm skipping forward... I hope it's not a book that I feel the need to skip more than I read!

OK, I've skipped forward to 15% and I hope that the rest of the book is less political!

OK, so now it's talking about a documentary and the resultant bullying of children who identified as transgender, so I'm hoping that's the end of the political stuff now.  it's a pity that I've already had to get rid of two stars and I'm not even a quarter of the way through the book yet... maybe I had my expectations set too high to start with?

Basic grammar point that even a child knows - if someone is speaking and you're putting it into text, then you use speech marks "like this", right?  I've lost track of if it's a person speaking or the author because there are so few speechmarks used and it's getting on my nerves now.  That third star is looking very wobbly right now, unfortunately.

There are inverted comma's signalling speech now, so maybe the earlier bits just slipped through accidentally and can be put down to human error?  The third star is still wobbly, but it's clinging on by its finger tips right now, so still 3 stars.

19% of the way through and it's returned to being heavily political opinions again, so I'm skipping forward even further... I was really hoping that this wouldn't be like that, but the further I feel forced to skip forward, the more and more it's looking like it is.

I've skipped forward to 25% and I'm really not feeling too positive about this book any more... I'm a quarter of the way through and I've skipped so much of it 'cos it's so political that I'm really not thinking I'll get to the end before I give up unfortunately... that third star is looking incredibly close to dropping off and the author isn't doing theirself any favours.

I've skipped even further forward to 35% and that third star is finally coming off because I'm skipping more than I'm reading.  If it had been considerably less political and quite frankly dull then I would have been happy to keep ploughing on, but this really isn't the book I'd been hoping for in those first pages.  There's only one star left to lose and I'm not even half way through it yet, so things are looking pretty bleak unfortunately.

That's more like it!  I'm 36% of the way through and it's mentioned something political but focussed on the people who are transgender more... as long as the rest of the book carries on like this, it'll be a 2 star review instead of the five I was hoping for when I first started reading it.

I'm at 39% now and there has been very little about politics and has got my attention fully instead of feeling that I have to skip so much of it.


I've skipped forward again through sheer boredom, so that's the final star coming off at 43%.  It was OK in parts, it's just not what I was expecting and the sheer politicalness of it has turned me right off unfortunately.  It's been more like the author's political views than anything more than brief mentions of people who are transgender.

This book is a single star review after less than half way unfortunately.

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