Jeff Garvin

Riley Cavanaugh is a gender fluid teen struggling with the pressures of starting a new school, trying to decide how to/who to/when to come out, clinical anxiety, and being the child of a congressman whose re-election campaign puts his family in the spotlight. I loved this book. Riley is both snarky and funny, and following them while they make new friends, figure out how to talk to their family, and discover their voice (both on- and off-line) was wonderful. Garvin writes the whole book show more without ever identifying what gender Riley was assigned at birth or using any personal pronouns to refer to them. The narrative is in first person from Riley's point of view, so this is easier than it might sound at first, but even so, that Garvin does this almost seamlessly is no mean feat. That Riley's parents (to whom Riley is not out) never refer to them with any gendered language seems a bit odd at first, but it really didn't bother me much as I was reading. The only moments when I really saw the seams of this narrative decision was when Riley would talk about formal clothes their mom had picked out for them that they hated wearing because they were so gendered. It's very obvious here that the narrative is intentionally not telling the reader what kind of clothes they are (suit? dress?), but even then, since the narrative is from Riley's pov, it's easy to read this as information Riley simply doesn't choose to share. (And in presenting the clothes this way, it subtly emphasizes that it is okay that Riley doesn't share that information; that if Riley doesn't want others to know that about them, then it isn't our business.) And the effect of not knowing how Riley is seen by others (like their parents) is that the reader see's Riley as gender fluid instead as a human with x genitals who identifies as y. The reader has no choice but to read Riley as both instead of as one or the other. In addition to being a great YA story about all kinds of teenaged problems as well as gender identity, The Symptoms of Being Human is an excellent exploration of gender and why/whether/when it matters. Recommended. show less

Grades: 9-12
Literary Merit: Very Good
Characterization: Very Good
Highly recommended

Being the daughter of a traveling magician isn’t easy. For Ellie and her father, the Uncanny Dante, it means living out of an RV and making ends meet by playing birthday parties and weddings. Unfortunately, the pay isn’t great and there are no health insurance benefits to cover the meds that would help Ellie deal with bipolar II disorder and treat her father’s heart problems. This lifestyle also isn’t show more conducive to going to school, so Ellie struggles to complete classes online and has only one friend, Ripley, who she has never met in real life. Their lives haven’t always been so difficult. There was a time before Ellie’s mother died when the Uncanny Dante’s star had been on the rise, but then a failed illusion on a big stage brought it all crashing down. When they are evicted from their mobile home park for nonpayment of rent, it seems that things can’t get any worse, but then they are offered the opportunity of a lifetime: a televised appearance performing the infamous trick that the Uncanny Dante had failed to pull off years ago. If Ellie can convince her father to attempt it, they will have to travel from Indiana to Los Angeles via Las Vegas in less than a week’s time with almost no money, but if they are successful, it could mean redemption and the chance of having a normal life.

This was a unique coming-of-age story that dealt very directly with mental illness. Though she suffers from bipolar II, Ellie is extremely competent in her role as her father’s assistant: working the phones to get gigs, negotiating contracts, and even coming up with new tricks for him to perform. She is also a very likable character who becomes downright horrible when she is spiraling. The author, writing from his own experience, paints a vivid picture of what life is like for someone with bipolar II disorder, and he makes clear how perilous it can be to go off of medication. Ellie is aware of the negative impact she has on others when she is having an episode, but she is unable to stop it, and this makes it all the more heartbreaking. Meanwhile, her father is pale and exhausted, clearly suffering from his own lack of meds. He decides to refill Ellie’s prescription but lies to her about getting his own, a calculation that many parents in this country are forced to make but leads to disastrous consequences. The author is never heavy-handed but the critique of the American healthcare system is timely and necessary.

Garvin effectively creates a sense of place in the novel’s various settings, and the ups and (mostly) downs of life on the road are laid bare: spending the night parked in a Walmart parking lot, showering in dirty campground bathrooms, the constant search for free wifi. He also provides a window into the interesting world of magicians and stage magic. Though Ellie and her father have their issues, they have a loving relationship and he, along with the other secondary characters Liam and Ripley, feel fully realized. Overall, this is a unique and important book that deserves a spot in high school libraries and teen collections. Highly recommended. show less

I loved this book. The author does an outstanding job writing realistically about gender nonconformity, about coming out, and about anxiety and panic attacks. Riley suffers from severe anxiety related to gender dysphoria and being closeted in a situation where Riley's family is in the spotlight, having a father who is a politician running for re-election. Riley walks a tightrope of gender ambiguity, choosing to cultivate an androgynous exterior - a "neutral" shell - that the teen determines show more will be less-offensive and less-confusing to people. However, Riley doesn't feel non-binary and doesn't actually like this middle ground. Staying in the middle is just a form of survival. So that on days when Riley wakes up feeling like a girl they can wear chapstick and cross their legs at the knee, and when Riley wakes up feeling like it's a boy day, they can spread their legs and alter their walk, maybe put on a beanie to feel right in their skin. But their choice of clothing is intentionally neutral - a jeans and tee that would work for either gender. This actually confused people because many can't tell at first glance whether Riley is a girl or a boy. Riley knows they are neither, and both. But also knows that presenting as a boy one day and as a girl the next would be so much worse than leaving people to wonder. But being stuck in the middle, without really being able to settle into either gender, often leaves Riley riddled with anxiety and feeling panicked.

We really get into the mind of Riley. The other characters we know less about what they're thinking and feeling, and why. Riley is starting at public school for the first time, so we get the normal teenage torture of making new friends, navigating the high school social structure, but it is all magnified by Riley's at-home pressure of being part of a political family and trying to decide how, when, and whether to come out to parents all while dealing with daily, worsening anxiety due to hiding their gender identity. show less

As a scholar interested in the way that gender is represented within young adult books, I'm always on the look out for any book that breaks gender binaries, and this book definitely fit the bill. While browsing at Barnes and Noble one day (a frequent occasion for me), this book caught my eye because it featured a genderfluid protagonist, something that isn't seen often (if at all) in young adult literature. So I obviously had to read it to see if it was any good, right? Right.

Symptoms of show more Being Human follows the story of Riley, a genderfluid teenager who begins an anonymous blog at the prompting of their therapist, to help deal with anxiety. But the blog takes off in a way that Riley could have never imagined, quickly gaining hundreds of followers overnight, not all of them wishing Riley well. Someone at Riley's new school knows Riley's secret and is threatening to expose them; Riley must decide between shutting down a blog that has become a lifeline for others, or to risk everything and finally come out and take a stand in their ultra-conservative community.

So I loved this book. I absolutely loved it. I thought that Jeff Garvin did a fantastic job writing a realistic account of not only genderfluidity (from my own limited knowledge and perspective), but also realistically portrayed anxiety and panic attacks. Holistically, I think Garvin created a story that many different teens can relate to, one that might be important in showing them that they aren't alone, that others are experiencing the things that they do. Sometimes when authors deal with these kinds of issues it can feel fake or like the book is doing too much, but in this case, I think the elements that Garvin combined worked really well together, not only making the story accurate, but also engaging. I was rooting for Riley throughout the entire book, and I didn't wan to put the book down until I knew Riley's fate.

The other thing I really enjoyed about this book is that Riley is never assigned a gender identity besides genderfluid. There are perhaps a few instances where the reader might be able to deduce the gender that Riley was "assigned," but nothing in Garvin's language actually gives it away, and that's definitely not an easy thing to do. I've tried to write stories where the characters aren't gendered, and there are so many little things that you don't really think about being stereotypically assigned to one gender or another until someone else reads your story and points it out. I applaud Garvin for working to eliminate that within his book, and except for a few small (very, very small) scenes, for instance getting dressed for one of Riley's dad's fundraisers or the ending scene of the book, I think the book 100% sticks to Riley's identity. And I think that makes this book even more deserving of praise.

All in all, a great read that I would highly recommend, and one that I might just read again. show less